[RESOLVED] Twist on my old thread...

DETerrell

In my old thread found here I posed a problem that involved using mt_rand().

Well, that problem was solved, but when we executed it, the torch function fired way too often, so I changed the one line of code to read

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*0.2;

This now gives us the outcomes we want with one exception. Anyone who is below level 5 will not get the torch to fire at all. I ran the test on over 1 million tries and came up empty.

I think what is happening is that the $torchPercent is truncating the value rather than rounding it or using it as is. So, my question is two fold. First is, can I force either the mt_rand() or rand() to return either a float or a double and second, do you think that would make that function work better or is there an easier way to deal with this issue?

I have googled all over for trying to get either mt_rand or rand to return floats or doubles but I have found nothing on the subject that is of any use.

As always, your help and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

NogDog

Would it make sense to set a minimum value of 1 (or whatever you'd prefer) for the percent?

$torchPercent = max(1, $torchlevel * 0.2);

Weedpacket

DETerrell wrote:
I have googled all over for trying to get either mt_rand or rand to return floats or doubles but I have found nothing on the subject that is of any use.

mt_rand()/mt_getrandmax()

is a double uniformly distributed in the interval [0,1].

DETerrell

Weedpacket;10896787 wrote:
mt_rand()/mt_getrandmax()
is a double uniformly distributed in the interval [0,1].

Let me see if I have this right.

If I change the one code to read

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*0.002;

And then make the other line of code read

$torchWorks=mt_rand(0,1);

Then when I do the comparison

if ($torchWorks<=$torchPercent)
{
...
}

it will even give level 1 players a chance at the torch firing for them AND it will be a smaller chance than those who are at level 15?

Weedpacket

DETerrell wrote:
$torchWorks=mt_rand(0,1);

$torchWorks would be 0 50% of the time and 1 the other 50% of the time.

In the first case, the test in the if statement would always succeed for any nonnegative $torchPercent and hence $torchLevel, and in the latter case it would succeed whenever $torchlevel was at least 500. Otherwise it would always fail.

DETerrell

Sorry for the late response but I was out of town for the holiday. Weedpacket, what would you suggest as a way to handle this situation? Currently, I need to find some way of handling this because I need to change the multiplier as it is still firing too often and allowing for too many wins. The thing is, if I lower it any more as it stands now, it will raise the lower end up too much and new players will not see the effects of the torch until they can buy into much higher levels.

What if I make the code as follows:

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*2;

and

$torchWorks=mt_rand(1,1000);

Then would it work like I want or is there still something wrong with the logic at this point?

DETerrell

Here is what I did that worked for this problem:

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*15;

and then down in the function I changed the code to read as follows:

$torchWorks=mt_rand(1,10000);

What this does is sets each level to receive a 0.15% chance of firing on each number. This then allows for all levels to have a chance to fire rather than those after level 4 as was the case with the original code. It also decreases the number of times it fires in the higher levels while still giving them some advantage over not having it at all. This means that the game players are still not winning a ton each time but are winning something with the help of the torch in very rare instances.