about all the calculation formulas...

[snmjk20]

Whenever I look at the formulas for damage calculation for spells and abilities, there always have been a variable "d" and I can't seem to find out what it means.... What is it?

[Tiber]

You mean like 1d(foo)? It means dice. 1d4 means one dice with 4 sides, so it will give a random number between 1 and 4. 2d4 means 2 dice with 4 sides, so it will return 2-8.

Edit: also note that numbers do not have equal probability. With 2d6, for instance, 7 is the most likely result, because there are the most dice combinations that add up to it, whereas you can only get 12 if both dice are sixes.

[snmjk20]

so it works just like those board game thingys where you roll a dice for damage calculations....
Thanks Tiber!

[Grimm]

Edit: also note that numbers do not have equal probability. With 2d6, for instance, 7 is the most likely result, because there are the most dice combinations that add up to it, whereas you can only get 12 if both dice are sixes.

That's the way real dice work but do Crawl dice throws produce bell curves?

[galehar]

Edit: also note that numbers do not have equal probability. With 2d6, for instance, 7 is the most likely result, because there are the most dice combinations that add up to it, whereas you can only get 12 if both dice are sixes.

That's the way real dice work but do Crawl dice throws produce bell curves?

Of course they do. The laws of probability are the same for the RNG and for dices.

[Grimm]

So the Crawl RNG is, for a 3d6 throw, "throwing" three "six sided dice", and not generating a number at random from the range 3-18?

[galehar]

So the Crawl RNG is, for a 3d6 throw, "throwing" three "six sided dice", and not generating a number at random from the range 3-18?

Both are possible. random2(n) returns a number between 0 and n - 1. We can use (random2(16) + 3) or roll_dice(3, 6). We can also use random2avg(6, 3) for the averaged result of rolling 1d6 3 times.

[Confidence Interval]

So the Crawl RNG is, for a 3d6 throw, "throwing" three "six sided dice", and not generating a number at random from the range 3-18?

Both are possible. random2(n) returns a number between 0 and n - 1. We can use (random2(16) + 3) or roll_dice(3, 6). We can also use random2avg(6, 3) for the averaged result of rolling 1d6 3 times.

Which does Crawl do - the equally distributed former or the normally distributed latter? Or do both occur?

[galehar]

Both.

[Confidence Interval]

Both.

What determines which it is? Is there a rule, or does it just depend on who implemented the randomization?

The main difference between 1d18 and 3d6 relates to tolerance for extreme values. (Admittedly they're not too extreme here: the difference between, e.g., 100d10 and 1d1000 would be much more marked.)

[njvack]

What determines which it is? Is there a rule, or does it just depend on who implemented the randomization?

The main difference between 1d18 and 3d6 relates to tolerance for extreme values. (Admittedly they're not too extreme here: the difference between, e.g., 100d10 and 1d1000 would be much more marked.)

The devs decide if they want 100d10 or 1d1000 in a particular case with game balance in mind.

[galehar]

Both.

What determines which it is? Is there a rule, or does it just depend on who implemented the randomization?

It depends on the formula. The difference is very important, so it doesn't depend on who did it or in what mood he was. It really depends on what is the intended effect of the randomization.