The secret dice rolls of XCOM: Enemy Within. How Firaxis fudge the numbers

[Smartlord]

[QUOTE=thisispain;42551054]is it possible for software to generate a true random number?[/QUOTE]
From what I've read before it's not possible unless you measure external phenomena as the basis of your randomness

As opposed to pseudo-random number generators which apparently have this issue:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]A "random number generator" based solely on deterministic computation cannot be regarded as a "true" random number generator in the purest sense of the word, since their output is inherently predictable if all seed values are known. In practice however they are sufficient for most tasks. [/QUOTE]

[Im Crimson]

[QUOTE=thisispain;42551054]is it possible for software to generate a true random number?[/QUOTE]

Not really, because computers are deterministic. You need to introduce some external factor, such as data collected based on the resonance between two crystals or radioactive decay. Time of day and mouse movements are frequently used to seed for random generators (which works pretty well) but those have inherit patterns, making them predictable (I.E not random at all).

[Pardalis]

I find it kind of shitty not how the game has a built-in crutch and streak breaker, but how it doesn't ever tell you anything about it. As in, your fourth shot, the one that you "won't miss", probably doesn't get a 100% chance onscreen, or anything. GM magic BS.

On the other hand it'd be pretty funny if they set your savescum-enabled game to remember previous turns, so the game could berate you whenever you successfully save scummed. [I]"You got him! That only took you five tries..."[/I]

[editline]17th October 2013[/editline]

[QUOTE=Im Crimson;42551333]Not really, because computers are deterministic. You need to introduce some external factor, such as data collected based on the resonance between two crystals or radioactive decay.[/QUOTE]
Couldn't you just have the computer hook up to a server that's connected to some sort of true RNG? It wouldn't affect gameplay but it'd be a nice gimmick to write about.

[Im Crimson]

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;42542779]
I just wish the game wasn't so fucking buggy. Original xcom didn't have issues of aliens shooting through solid objects.[/QUOTE]

But then again, the original XCOM had a metric fuck-load of other bugs. It just so happened that most of them worked to the aliens disadvantage, or could be exploited in your favor.

[Robbobin]

I really want to play EW with ironman on, but I've had two too many bad experiences with glitches. Both of my best ironman runs ended with sectopods glitching into the middle of my troops and wiping them out. Apparently this glitch has been fixed in EW so maybe I'll man up and give it another go. I just don't think I've ever been so angry at a game as I was when it happened. :(

[FunnyGamer]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;42551347]
Couldn't you just have the computer hook up to a server that's connected to some sort of true RNG? It wouldn't affect gameplay but it'd be a nice gimmick to write about.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_random_number_generator[/url]
They have the hardware for it, and it's already in use. The only problem is that it's very slow, so they usually have a randomly-determined seed which is then run through a PRNG. This isn't the case for [url=random.org]random.org[/url], since its lifetime average bitrate is so low.

[Im Crimson]

[QUOTE=latin_geek;42551347]
Couldn't you just have the computer hook up to a server that's connected to some sort of true RNG? It wouldn't affect gameplay but it'd be a nice gimmick to write about.[/QUOTE]

You can, but pseudo-random is good enough for most applications. The difference between random and a well-implemented pseudo-random makes no real difference to the end-user, just cryptologists and statisticians.