Hirelings We Want to Make Firelings

bellanca6561n

They thank us for employing them - I'm one of those crazies who reads their messages occasionally - but there's no firing these folks when then send our provisioners twice a day deliveries of beverage ingredients. And the reason I use the plural of provisoner is because many of us have made more than one max level cook due to the hireling system....or, in my case, after being driven mad by long runs of getting nothing but hops and grapes from my hireling.

When I told Andala of her new role she greeted it much the way she regards me in general....with typical Dunmer barely suppressed contempt.

She took to it though and became my second cook though I'm careful to be clear that she's not cooking FOR ME.

But when she too was getting nothing but beverage ingredients I had to complain. I used the option to attach a screenshot, showing Andala's rather fierce displeasure at what her hireling delivered.

A GM paged me immediately, eager to soothe her nerves and we joked about the issue in email. There are some wonderful community folks in this game.

The Serious Issue Under it All

Unfortunately the matter had to turn serious. The system was not considered bugged. It was working as designed, which brings us to the point and the very issue of random distribution of resources in online games. This is both a technical problem and a problem of human factors specific to this medium where people are sharing an environment and conducting trade within it.

The Not So Random Random Number Generator

I don't know what they're using in this game for their random interval reward generation. But we do know what MOST GAMES use.

It's a fair guess that they may not be verifying the distribution of their random number generator. Some distributions are far more "random" than others. Most all software systems actually use a pseudo random number generator, which is just a long repeating sequence of numbers. The sequence is generated as part of a mathematical operation involving primes and remainders. If the primes aren't chosen carefully and vetted, the "random" sequence is anything but.

However, you should stay away from random number generators. Just track the number of times a particular reward is presented, with more common rewards presented more often than less common ones. But make sure the less common ones are always presented at an appropriate interval, otherwise the incentive for doing/using/performing something is soon lost, especially if someone else is getting all the good "random" rolls and you aren't.

But the Real Reason You Don't "Do" Random

The most compelling reason to stay away from random systems is a core human factor. People don't handle random well. If human beings could easily perceive random events as truly random, there would be no such thing as religion.

In online games you have to be very careful about what you leave to chance.

poodlemasterb16_ESO

You want to cheat the RNG? I fear for your future, it is a harsh ghod.

Actually RNGs are pretty good in any well designed game. There are several ways to seed uncertainty, and a lot use random noise generated by drivers etc. That's how Linux does /dev/random and it is pretty random.

Disclaimer: I have 28 tomatoes.

Ashtaris

I'm starting to get a nice stockpile of tomatoes myself. Now if I could only find just one stupid purple recipe that actually used them!

EDIT: Now that I'm a VR6 and now on to Cadwell's Gold, I've found a few of the purple recipes, including the Consummate Honey Brittle. Same for the wife. So either they fixed the bug making purple recipe drops extremely rare, or it's based on character progression.

bellanca6561n

Still getting runs of the same things from Hirelings which leads me to believe this RNG is not among those you've known and admired, Poodle. But it may not be the RNG itself. We haven't seen under the hood nor should we really.

Unfortunately, Ash, nearly ALL my best recipes use them *frowns*

But I'm running out of quests, have been unable to view this as a multiplayer game, and will likely be taking a break until an expansion comes along with new lands and new stand-alone quests for the Pact. Tried the VR thing but that felt like fighting for the Brits in WWI and then be told you were fighting for the Austrians. Couldn't get my heart into it.

But I had a lot of fun, Dunmer ladies are gorgeous in an unattainable, pouty way, and I imagine this game will be worth revisiting in the future.

ShadowscaleSithis

I also get way to many beverage ingredients. Usually go 2 or 3 days with just getting those and my hireling is 3/3. In the off chance I get food stuff it is usually grapes of some sort.

HellRazeD

I had 42 days straight of nothing but 2 hops and 4 hallertau hops from my provisioning hireling. I gave up.

bellanca6561n

sjo76149rwb17_ESO wrote: »

I had 42 days straight of nothing but 2 hops and 4 hallertau hops from my provisioning hireling. I gave up.

Indeed, there is something broken here alas and I too have reclaimed the skill points of my privisioner hirelings to use for other things. For every tomato I'd get, there would be weeks of beverage ingredients. I found this such an annoyance that I began to dread the hireling mail.

I don't logon to dread things....no...I logon to watch my Dunmer gals, in their Dark Seducer costumes, fight things while looking gorgeous doing it....bless 'em...

When the game embraces the notion of food and drink, rather than food OR drink, then perhaps I will hire a hireling for my cooks again.

Rune_Relic

I'm at v1...just give me a *** racial motif....just one .please....I'm begging ya.
I'll give you my pet monkey or something...maybe even sexual favours.

majinstef

All farming should be done by you not your hireling.....never got one, never got sad

springbound

I fired my provisioning hirelings and put the points elsewhere.