Screw you, random chance!

[PureChaos]

I'm generally a calm person and it takes a lot to annoy me but there's one thing in games that REALLY pisses me off, random chance. I'll give some examples:

I had Pokemon Blue all those years ago but it broke a few months ago so I bought LeafGreen. One of the causes of annoyance is is the Nature of a pokemon. There are 25 natures and each one will increase a stat by 10% and decrease a stat by 10%. In order to put that to my advantage I look at what moves my pokemon will have and then try to catch one with the best Nature, like Hypno has all special attacks so i get one that is Modest which increases special attack by 10% and decreases attack by 10%. seeing as he has no physical attacks, it doesn't matter that he has decreased attack. HOWEVER, which Nature a pokemon has is down to random chance so there is a 1/25 chance that the caught Hypno will be Modest. BUT, because the game hates me I get all other natures, some of the i've had 4 times, with no Modest. I'm currently trying to get a Modest Vulpix, it has a 20% appearance rate BUT I can have 10+ battles without seeing a Vulpix, then when I catch it I haveget bitched about with the Nature and it usually takes AGES. sure, I could just catch one and whatever Nature it has I just go with but I'd rather have the boost where it is needed.

The other example is when i was playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, there was a weapon i wanted that was the rare drop from an enemy. Given the drop rate of the item and the number of the enemy fought in the quest, it would take an average of 35 runs to get the weapon. 50+ runs later and it STILL hasn't dropped. other rare items dropped 3 or 4 times but the one i actually wanted? NO! i ended up trading with someone to get the weapon. i don't mind having to do a few more runs than the average but when you do LOADS more runs and still nothing? the game's taking the piss.

TL;DR, when something I want is achieved through random chance it will take longer than it should do because games hate me.

Anyone else have that happen?

 

[Zantos]

Well statistically there's a finite probability that some possibilities will not appear in reasonable time, that probability getting smaller and smaller each time you re-roll/flip/run a random number generator.

I've heard a lot of debates over putting into a program a force occurrence, where unlikely possibilities are forced to occur (the people that name these things are geniuses) after a given time or number of flips. It doesn't get used in the sort of things we were debating because it messes up your standard statistical distributions, but that's the sort of thing that you wouldn't be that bothered about if you incorporated it into a video game. Yeah, if they don't already use it, force occurrence could solve this issue, that'd be good.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Ever try farming for Pure Bladestone in Demon's Souls?

Fuck that shit. Spent more than 3 hours and not a single one dropped.

 

[joe-h2o]

The Baron's Dreadsteed in WoW owns this thread.

People were solo-farming the Stratholme instance to get it (1% drop rate) for months, with many tales of woe on the forums.

 

[SarcasmoPope]

The Baron's Dreadsteed in WoW owns this thread.

People were solo-farming the Stratholme instance to get it (1% drop rate) for months, with many tales of woe on the forums.

got it first time lol.

 

[1-up]

Yeah, WoW probably wins for RNG junk-kicks. I remember trying to get a pet fox to drop from a mob shortly after Cat came out. After picking away at it off and on for a few days I sat down one Saturday morning and vowed I wouldn't move until I got one to drop. After spending four hours neglecting my wife, children, and chores to get the stupid pet I gave up, realized how I spent my Saturday morning, and cancelled my WoW account.

 

[omicron1]

The RNG (random number god) hates you.
You have not done enough to appease his wrath. Not that this is easy, since the actions which please him are chosen at random each cycle. Your only hope is to banish him as far from you as possible; do not invoke him unless you have no choice. For he is a fickle god, and a soft answer like as not will invite his wrath upon ye.

 

[krazykidd]

I'm generally a calm person and it takes a lot to annoy me but there's one thing in games that REALLY pisses me off, random chance. I'll give some examples:

I had Pokemon Blue all those years ago but it broke a few months ago so I bought LeafGreen. One of the causes of annoyance is is the Nature of a pokemon. There are 25 natures and each one will increase a stat by 10% and decrease a stat by 10%. In order to put that to my advantage I look at what moves my pokemon will have and then try to catch one with the best Nature, like Hypno has all special attacks so i get one that is Modest which increases special attack by 10% and decreases attack by 10%. seeing as he has no physical attacks, it doesn't matter that he has decreased attack. HOWEVER, which Nature a pokemon has is down to random chance so there is a 1/25 chance that the caught Hypno will be Modest. BUT, because the game hates me I get all other natures, some of the i've had 4 times, with no Modest. I'm currently trying to get a Modest Vulpix, it has a 20% appearance rate BUT I can have 10+ battles without seeing a Vulpix, then when I catch it I haveget bitched about with the Nature and it usually takes AGES. sure, I could just catch one and whatever Nature it has I just go with but I'd rather have the boost where it is needed.

The other example is when i was playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, there was a weapon i wanted that was the rare drop from an enemy. Given the drop rate of the item and the number of the enemy fought in the quest, it would take an average of 35 runs to get the weapon. 50+ runs later and it STILL hasn't dropped. other rare items dropped 3 or 4 times but the one i actually wanted? NO! i ended up trading with someone to get the weapon. i don't mind having to do a few more runs than the average but when you do LOADS more runs and still nothing? the game's taking the piss.

TL;DR, when something I want is achieved through random chance it will take longer than it should do because games hate me.

Anyone else have that happen?

Okay ,'let me impart some pokemon breeder knowledge , if you mate a pokemon with a ditto at the day care , the pokemon will almost always have the same nature as the ditto . So if you have a modest ditto and a jolly drowzee , when the egg hatches more often than not it will hatch as a modest drowzee .

Whats tedious is actually catching the ditto nature you do want , but once yOu do , youcan get almost any pokemon ( thats breedable ) to have any nature you want .

Breeder knowledge number two , ditto counts as the female . So what i said above applies to the female versions of pokemon . Say you have a jolly female pigey and you mate it with a male serious pidgey , the egg when it hatches is most likely to be jolly .

Now if you want to know more. Let's talk about IV . The IV (0-31 ) is based on the characteristic . Say i want my gengar to have a special attack IV of 30-31 , i would want his characteristic to be mischivous ( this means that his highest IV is in sp attack ) . How would i go along breeding a pokemon and having his characteristic being mischivous? Same thing as with nature ( remember the pokemon that hatchs keeps the females nature) but with the male. What this means is , if i have a female modest abra that is quick to anger and i mate her with a adamant male abra that is mischivous , the chances that the egt hatches into a modest abra this is michivous is VERY high . This would mean your new abra has a 10% boost to sp atk , a 10% reduction in attack , and has an IV of 30-31 in sp attack. Meaning you are well on your way to have the highest possible sp atk on your abra ( and eventually alakazam ).

I won't get into EV training because that has less to do with actuall breeding .

Have fun hopes this helps, if you have any questions let me know.

 

[Lieju]

Okay ,'let me impart some pokemon breeder knowledge , if you mate a pokemon with a ditto at the day care , the pokemon will almost always have the same nature as the ditto . So if you have a modest ditto and a jolly drowzee , when the egg hatches more often than not it will hatch as a modest drowzee .

Doesn't it need to hold Everstone for that to work?

 

[VoidWanderer]

As a player of pen and paper role-playing games, I can say (and my entire role-playing group agree) that my dice hate me when I am in combat. If I need to roll more than say 8 on a 20 sided dice, I nearly jump for joy when I roll higher than 4.

When I am running the game, my dice seem to appreciate me more. Kind of annoying as I want to get out of the DM chair.

 

[Vegosiux]

The only thing that infuriates me about random chance is that so many people think it has something to do with skill.

"You're such a noob, it's easy, I won the lottery on my first try!" That really makes my pressure skyrocket.

 

[Double A]

This is one of the reasons why I gave up on breeding and IV. It's too damn random. It also takes too much time and is a tad too complicated.

The cherry of irony in this Shirley Temple of issues was that I got the Pokerus in Platinum before I challenged the first gym.

 

[Magnus]

TL;DR, when something I want is achieved through random chance it will take longer than it should do because games hate me.

You're not the only one.

An example:
The Ice Cream van in GTA3 has a very small chance of spawning in traffic (less than 1% chance, and it spawns nowhere else).
Did it spawn for me? No. - NO MATTER HOW MUCH I DROVE AROUND.

Another example:
The Firelance weapon in Fallout 3 only spawns in a random encounter. Random encounters have a very small chance of triggering as you explore around.
Did it spawn for me? No. - NO MATTER HOW MUCH I EXPLORED AROUND.

So, yeah, when it comes to random chance, games seem to hate me too.

Having 6+ lucks helps in triggering the Firelance event.

 

[Berenzen]

Even if it has a 3% occurrence rate, doesn't mean that you are guaranteed to get it in 33 tries. This is because the chance is reset every time you make an attempt.

The formula is c=(1-o)^n, where c is your chance rate of a failed attempt, o is your occurrence percentage divided by 100, and n is the amount of attempts to get it.

so if you're looking for a modest vulpix with a 20% occurrence rate, you have a 0.8% (.2*0.04) chance of seeing it.

Therefore, if you face 100 battles

c=(1-0.008)^100, you still have a chance of 0.4479/ 44.79% of non-occurrence. Meaning in 100 tries, you have a 55.21% chance of seeing a modest vulpix. So going through 100 battles will not be unheard of when you decide to min/max for a better vulpix.

 

[demoman_chaos]

Ever try farming for Pure Bladestone in Demon's Souls?

Fuck that shit. Spent more than 3 hours and not a single one dropped.

Only 2 enemies drop it, and one of those only appear in Pure Black and is a MAJOR ************ to take down. The dual katana skele hidden behind the wall in 4-2, and a Black Phantom version of that mother fucker who will almost certainly kill you in one hit and has massive amounts of health.

The Firelance weapon in Fallout 3 only spawns in a random encounter. Random encounters have a very small chance of triggering as you explore around.
Did it spawn for me? No. - NO MATTER HOW MUCH I EXPLORED AROUND.

So, yeah, when it comes to random chance, games seem to hate me too.

So I'm not the only one who never got that. Even worse is that if it does happen, odds are good it will land in a spot you cannot access without the powerful magic of the almighty ~ key (which is only on PC sadly).

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

For your particular case, you don't really need to focus on nature unless you're playing competitively. Having beneficial natures are always good, but it's not necessary. Detrimental natures, however, can really hurt.

You want a Vulpix, right? I, personally, would be fine with any nature except for Adamant, Impish, Jolly or Careful, as they decrease Sp. Attack. While I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid a Lonely, Brave or Naughty Vulpix, the Attack increase isn't something that I'd particularly want.

OT: I detest enemies with instant death attacks. The thing that I dislike most in the Persona games is the fact that enemies get Hama and Mudo skills. It wouldn't be so bad if your party members wouldn't eat up your Homunculi when they're hit with one, or if it wasn't an instant game over if the main character dies. The same goes for the final boss of Final Fantasy XIII, another game where you lose if your main character dies. Sure, you can try to avoid it with an accessory, but there's still a chance of it killing you instantly. You can't believe how many times I've died like that.

Then there's Valkyria Chronicles where, at first, you have to save scum in order to win. At the beginning of the game, your characters' hit chance is so low that it's ridiculous. Many of the shots that you miss will likely end up getting someone killed. And it will happen ALL OF THE TIME.