Universe not so random after all?

To be honest I am not sure how random I thought it was going to be. I guess completely random lol. I suppose I thought Terraria was more random then it was now looking back at it.

 

I'll agree with others that I don't see the issue here. Have you seen how large the numbers for the X and Y coordinates go? If you just use the button to go to a random system, chances are that nobody has, or ever will, get to that exact random system, and everything in it is yours to discover on your own. Having everyone use a different universe seed would enforce this for every single player sure, but if you ignore what other players are doing, you can have your fresh, unique-to-you random planets by using that option.

On the other hand, the current system where a given set of coordinates will always result in the same system with the same planets allows for players to collaborate with each other outside of a specific multiplayer server. Or it could allow you to say "Hey, I was playing single player and came across this huge Avian tomb at coordinates XXXXXX YYYYYYY, lets check it out together on the server later!" This sort of interaction would not be a possibility if you enforced having every player and server use different random generation seeds for the universe as a whole.

In other words, changing the system to be random for everyone would enforce one currently possible playstyle, while locking out another possible playstyle, so it isn't a good idea.

 

If server owners want to use a different seed for their planets, I already explained how in a previous post.

 

Right but they keyword is "want." IF a server wants to play things that way, they have the option to do so, but it's not something that's forced on every player and server like the OP seemed to expect/want.

 

That's a very good point.

 

I don't know why some people in this thread are giving you false information, but the planets are random.
The two coordinates, as well as their sector, acts as a 3-part seed table. In other words, planets are generated using a combination of three seeds.
This is as random as similar procedurally generated games such as Minecraft and Terraria are.
Think of the star map as a visual representation of the outcome of every possible seed combination.

 

'Swhat I'm sayin'.

People need to study more CS. RNGs aren't really as random as the name might suggest. Never were.

 

You're confusing random generation with procedural generation. The planets are all procedurally generated with the X,Y coordinates and sector as the generation seed. With this system, plugging the same seed into the generator will get you the same result (Alpha Umbraxion II a having a gun merchant for example).

As long as the generation seeds are presented randomly (ie: using the random button here, or more generally using something like the current time in seconds since January 1 1970 as the generation seed), then the results are effectively random. But since you have a method to replicate the results of the generation, it is not truly random.

 

I don't think this matters. Not when there are 10,000,000,000,000 planets.

 

He's not confusing anything. That's how a seeded RNG works. They're the same thing.

 

Thanks for pointing to the celestial.config.

 

What s/he said. Every possible seed is represented on the map, the planets you travel are actually the seeds that you choose to generate maps with.

In Terraria/Minecraft terms, where you are able to enter your own seed number, here all is represented on the map for you. It's like running 4-5 Terraria servers at the same time, and jumping between them with one character.

 

I think you may be missing how a seed works man. You are thinking like in minecraft how you type a seed and a world is generated? Well in this the seed is the coordinates of the planet. I could give you the seed to a minecraft world and write a walkthrough too, because assuming we play the same version, typing the same seed will always create the same world. Your complaint is kinda mislead really. I understand though, I had the same concern until I understood that its basically like minecraft except with lots of worlds, each generated by the seed or coordinate. No difference.

 

I like to use a couple phone numbers as my home planet seed. Easy to remember and can be switch around to get a new planet whilst maintaining memorization.

 

Yeah your right I didn't realize how it actually worked. Honestly before I had just made an assumption of how it worked and built it into an expectation.

Though my friends on my server also believed that as well but all is well as the developers exposed the ability to change that seed value in the celestial.config.

Also, I agree with the title being more than misleading its out of context as well because of my own misunderstanding. But, with the ability to change that value then there really is no problem since my friends can play from a different value.

Honestly though, it isn't an issue as I mentioned at first mentioned it was really just an unreal expectation compounded with not understanding how similar games worked to begin with that most people won't care about.

 

I thought the same thing as the OP. Reading through this thread, I have a better understanding of how it all works, though. Given this, I would propose an option for universe creation as well as character creation, like Terraria. This way, people could define their own seed values in an easy interface in the game.

 

would be nice if you could shuffle seeds I suppose. With all the possibilities though, I dont see a specific need.

 

I can't say I agree with the OP's sentiment at all. If you want to find a new world, just go to a planet that no one has visited before. That's what exploration is!

The coordinate system doesn't take anything away from exploration, and it adds a whole new possibility to the game. Has anyone here ever played Noctis? It was a space exploration game where you could visit randomly generated planets and leave exploration notes for other travellers, let them know what the planet was like and what interesting features you discovered. It was a really good system, and made you actually feel like a space explorer, not just some wandering space vagrant.

If anything, I think the game would benefit from an in-game exploration database.

 

There is no such thing as "random generation" unless you get into quantum mechanics and use sub-atomic particles to generate them. This video explains it well. Every "pseudo-random number" is simply procedurally generated. I never actually said the planets were random. My exact words were:

I was implying that none of the three games generate truly random worlds.

 

I don't think anyone here assumes you did imply that,. In fact the importance of making a distinction between a true random number and a computer generated one is completely pointless to the discussion going on in this thread, and equally as unimportant to people being able to make a distinction between the two when this game generates such a large number of worlds. Get off it.

Back on topic. I, "personally" do not see why it would be difficult to allow people to input their own seed for single player mode only. That way, planet b at coordinates xxx.yyy would have it's seed hashed against the master seed at the time of world generation. I also, don't see anything wrong with requesting such a feature and all the vitriol and smart-ass comments here are uncalled for, though completely expected from most of you.