Replicating combat results

[SevenSpirits]

In pbem63, The Black Sword and I have recently discovered that you can make the same moves in a PBEM turn and get different combat results.

After some testing, we discovered that the factor causing the discrepancy was whether or not you have the "Quick Attack" option checked. (This is not a game setting, it's a personal setting.) Therefore, if you are needing to replay a turn, or if two of you are trying to both play through a turn in sync, you should make sure that there is no discrepancy in the Quick Attack setting, between the two instances of the turn being played.

In our game, we realized this quickly and flipped a coin for which timeline to keep. I recommend the same solution if you accidentally find yourself in the same position. And of course, it can't hurt to confirm that results are the same as you go so you catch the issue quickly!

[Lord Parkin]

Huh, you're right... works in single player too. Looks like it doesn't change the seed for the first battle after the setting is changed, but from the second battle onwards the combat results are different. Amazing that there are still little oddities like this hiding undiscovered nearly 10 years after release.

[TheHumanHydra]

Huh, it surprises me that the seed could be the same between two different computers in the first place (for playing the turn in sync). Thanks for the information, though!

[Mardoc]

That's surreal; I would have thought quick attack only touched the interface, not the core game code.

[SevenSpirits]

Huh, you're right... works in single player too. Looks like it doesn't change the seed for the first battle after the setting is changed, but from the second battle onwards the combat results are different. Amazing that there are still little oddities like this hiding undiscovered nearly 10 years after release.

Yeah. It seems like after calculating the results of the battle, it uses the same random number generator to determine some part of the animation.

(By the way, I really wish the animation would just reflect the actual rounds of combat that occur.)

[Lord Parkin]

Yeah. It seems like after calculating the results of the battle, it uses the same random number generator to determine some part of the animation.

That's what it seems like, yeah. And I'd heavily suspect that if it were the other way around - if RNG determined part of the animation first, then the combat result second - then this bug would have been picked up on and squashed 10 years ago. It's the fact that the first round of combat gives an identical result after the setting is changed which is particularly insidious.

(Though I guess the basic combat result - victory/defeat - is needed to determine the ending of the animation.)

(By the way, I really wish the animation would just reflect the actual rounds of combat that occur.)

Yeah, I don't know why it doesn't just do that. Maybe it took too long to display in certain situations or something. Mind you I've had the animations turned off for years, so I never notice anymore.

[Kristian95]

regarding combat animations, I seem to recall they were made to be as suspenseful regarding the result as possible... i.e. theatrics.

[Hesmyrr]

regarding combat animations, I seem to recall they were made to be as suspenseful regarding the result as possible... i.e. theatrics.

If so, it's ironic that having set combat animations instead made result even easier to predict half-way.

[Sian]

By prodding the game a bit, I've discovered another way to tweak the combat results ...

if you're in multiple wars, and starts the turn with a request for peace from one of the combatants, the RNG takes one step forward if you accept the peace ...

[El Grillo]

Hopefully this doesn't end up like Fire Emblem where using the pathfinder or some other interface option burns RNs :D