by Macnair » Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:02 pm
So instead of a random value between 1 and, say, 40, we'll get a random value between [a random value between 1 and 40] and 40?
The current effect, over many casts, is that you get an average focus of 20 (well, 20.5, but let's round off the fraction).
The proposed effect, over many casts, is that you get an average floor of 20, and therefore a focus between 20 and 40, averaging to 30 (again, rounding off fractions).
There are a lot of computations involved in doing that, as you point out.
Wouldn't the same effect come about, though, with a single line of code:
Focus_of_the_moment = Random (FOCUS/2, FOCUS)
If Unmei is correct about what they are working on, what they want to implement would have the virtue (?) of occasionally generating a negligible focus (1%); my suggested method doesn't have that.
Perhaps they want the game to include the occasional annoyance factor of your focus sometimes being very low. Still, the cost of building in that mild irritation is that you have to do all that computation and cross-checking. I am not sure all that extra trouble is worth it, since the overall effect established by thousands of casts comes out the same as my simple method.