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[Farmerbob]

We're just dealing with the naming stuff actually!  We will do inherited surnames from a parent, and maybe even a framework for inheriting given names (aka Henry III etc) for the aristocrats. 

We're running into interesting things right now where, while the framework isn't actually official, we'll run into people with the same surname and try to figure out if they're married or siblings, and it adds a lot to the game. 

Need to help push along the neat ways for people to envision their own stories when you have the chance

People should also be able to inherit names from injuries.  "Lefty", "Gimpy", "Three Toe", "One Eye", etc.  Of course, using those names to the faces of the people could generate very wide ranges of responses, depending on the injured one, now long they have been injured, who caused the injury, the friendship level, the social ladder level disparity, etc, etc.  This could also lead to people using disparaging names about people, and having the grapevine eventually reach the person who is being talked badly about?

As for envisioning their own stories, do you mean as a review after Quaggaroth wins?

If the data isn't terribly complex, it could be fun to be able to choose to watch the life of any character from arrival to death (or departure if that is possible)  Basically show everything from the eyes of one character.  This would allow community game players to see what their namesake characters have been doing.

[EagleV]

If the data isn't terribly complex, it could be fun to be able to choose to watch the life of any character from arrival to death (or departure if that is possible)  Basically show everything from the eyes of one character.  This would allow community game players to see what their namesake characters have been doing.

If I recall correctly, they mentioned game states in one of their blog posts, and how a certain game state should always evolve the same way (ie, the random seed is saved with the game). So the problem would boil down to sending your friend an early save game (perhaps autosave at game start) as well as a list of user inputs from that moment on, and a single character reference to lock the camra on. Which might be within the realm of possibility. Pretty please?

[Farmerbob]

No random number generation?  Interesting.  Though I suppose with a large enough seed, and a sufficiently accurate  algorithm to manipulate it, you could generate pseudorandom numbers by manipulating the seed based on timestamps of player activity.

[10ebbor10]

Random number generation doesn't exist, IIRC. I mean, every computer based random system is a sufficiently advanced algorithm which generates pseudorandom numbers.

[Graknorke]

Random number generation doesn't exist, IIRC. I mean, every computer based random system is a sufficiently advanced algorithm which generates pseudorandom numbers.

>2014
>Not using the RNG from the source code of the universe

[Farmerbob]

Random number generation doesn't exist, IIRC. I mean, every computer based random system is a sufficiently advanced algorithm which generates pseudorandom numbers.

True.  But there are "better" random number generators.  Ones which actually approach randomness.  I'm reading Cryptonomicon right now, and the method used to generate the absurd 4096 bit crypto key popped into my head.

[EagleV]

Or you could require an internet connection and connect to random.org, which uses atmospheric noise. Anyway, I think I was wrong, I've found a mention of how the same game state with the same seed should always give the same effect, and that that is less trivial than you'd think, but they never actually mention saving the seed. Sorry about that.

[HideousBeing]

It helps them to have a seed-based pseudo-random number generator. Esp on the networking side of things.

Watching this thread cause you guys are awesome!

[Citizen Daniel]

Sorry for the delay here guys, been really, really busy!

The game works off of a pseudo-random number generator, as you guys suspected.  No one will ever get the same playthrough unless they somehow set the seed number to exactly the same thing, which honestly wouldn't be fun.  Rest assured that if you do the same set of actions in a second game, the entire game will diverge basically instantly.

We need pseudo random numbers for multiplayer, because otherwise there's not enough bandwidth to send it all across the network.  There ARE true random number generators, but most of them are made with hacked smoke detectors.  I thought random.org used the Americium from a smoke detector, but maybe they've moved on to weirder sources of noise?  Either way, there is no functional difference to the player, and this way we don't have to mail you radioactive substances if you buy the game.

As far as "better or worse", it really boils down to people detecting patterns where they don't exist.  True random numbers actually seem "clumpy" to a human brain, so we have to use sophisticated methods to make our not-random numbers more spread out.  I think the one we're using right now is a Mersenne twister, which is very common.

Tried to write a blog post today about chairs, but it was awful, so David talked about meat for a while.  The newsletter contained a record of a strange twitter conversation, and we're all in need of sleep.  Send sleep.

[lordcooper]

Two and a half sleeps are on the way.

[PTTG??]

I'll give you three quarters of a sleep for a twitter post about chairs.

[Karkov]

"Each of seven lucky children will receive a golden ticket to the sausage factory where they will be sprayed with blood and meet with horrible grinder accidents." 
Now in a theater near you.  I worry for your combined sanity's over time, sleep seems to be a rather precious commodity over there.

I'm curious if we're actually going to have meat/fleshmines in certain biomes, that'd be quite an interesting biome.  No trees, rocks, or inorganic material of any sort, just meat that is slowly going bad (maybe you could get some really strong preservatives and make houses out of it).

[Farmerbob]

Either way, there is no functional difference to the player, and this way we don't have to mail you radioactive substances if you buy the game.

Yes.  Yes, you belong on these forums.  I think this settles it.

[Aqizzar]

...it’d be silly to put all of that in one file so I didn’t have to have four frickin’ tabs open, one on one half of each screen across two monitors, to sort out what in the name of Quag’garoth is going on when my bloody work crew won’t make bloody stone bricks out of the rhyolite I painstakingly mined from a devolving oreNode. That’d be too easy. It must be hard. Difficulty is pain and Art is Pain.

I get a special feeling when I see top tier pro game designers suffering from the same kinds of quandries the newbies deal with.  For some reason, it's nice to know that it really doesn't ever get any easier.

[Pnx]

I'm glad to see the Dev's haven't failed to deliver on the game's "Sweeney Todd Experience".
I find myself wondering if it's going to be possible to have a sustainable migrant meat industry. It seems like if all your migrants are dying from mysterious meat factory accidents they'll be less inclined to come to your colony. But maybe there will be enough ways to draw them in to keep it going?

It'd be more than fun than you can shake a can of "Whispering Dunes Mystery Meat" at.