July 2018 – DJKouza.com

I’m not sure what kind of RNG Bungie is using for their Public Event spawns, but it certainly is NOT straight random. There has to be other modifiers at play in what event spawns. I’m not sure why you would not want public events to be totally random, but apparently Bungie doesn’t like full RNG.

I’ve written a quick PowerShell script to pull 96 public events randomly. When the events possible are a 3:1 ratio the results are 3:1.

I wanted to add some more complexity so I made the “groups” of events random themselves. As expected this made the results less random, but still I found the results to be within and expected set.

Code:


<# Powershell script by @DJKouza https://twitch.tv/djkouza 2018/07/28 #>

Write-Host "A better RNG than Bungies...."

Function runRNJesus()
    {
    $event=""
    #Pick the grouping to use (we are setting up 4 groups that can be randomly chosen for the event options  
    $random=Get-Random -Maximum 5 -Minimum 1
    Switch($random)
        {
        1 {$group=$group1}
        2 {$group=$group2}
        3 {$group=$group3}
        4 {$group=$group4}
        }
#STATIC GROUP TEST (ie.  what I would really expect)
#$group=@("taken","cabal","taken","taken")
#END STATIC GROUP TEST        
    #Pick which event to spawn
    $random2=Get-Random -Maximum 5 -Minimum 1
    Switch($random2)
        {
        1 {$event=$group.get(0)}
        2 {$event=$group.get(1)}
        3 {$event=$group.get(2)}
        4 {$event=$group.get(3)}
        }
    
        
    Return $event
    }

##Init Variables
$totalcount=0
$avg=0
$cabalCount=0
$cabalStreak=1
$MaxCabalStreak=0
$takenCount=0
$takeStreak=1
$maxTakenStreak=0
$eventCount=0
$group1=@("cabal","taken","cabal","taken")
$group2=@("taken","cabal","taken","taken")
$group3=@("cabal","taken","taken","cabal")
$group4=@("taken","cabal","taken","taken")

#Run loop for event picking (96 = 1 day @ 4/hour)
While($totalcount -lt 96)
    {
    $currEvent = runRNJesus
       
        if($eventCount -ne 12)
            {
            $eventCount++
            Write-Host -NoNewline "$currEvent  |  "
            }
        else
            {
            Write-Host "$currEvent  |  "
            $eventCount=0
            }
        


    Switch($currEvent)
        {
        cabal {
                $cabalCount++
                $takenStreak=1
                if($prevEvent -eq $currEvent)
                    {
                    $cabalStreak++
                    if($cabalStreak -gt $MaxCabalStreak)
                        {
                        $MaxCabalStreak = $cabalStreak
                        }
                    }
                $prevEvent=$currEvent
                }
        taken {
                $takenCount++
                $cabalStreak=1
                if($prevEvent -eq $currEvent)
                    {
                    $takenStreak++
                    if($takenStreak -gt $MaxTakenStreak)
                        {
                        $MaxTakenStreak = $takenStreak
                        }
                    }
                $prevEvent=$currEvent
                }
        }

    $totalcount++

    }
$cabalPercent=$cabalCount/$totalcount*100
$takenPercent=$takenCount/$totalcount*100
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Taken: Max Streak $MaxTakenStreak  |  Total $takenCount  |  Percent $takenPercent"
Write-Host "Cabal: Max Streak $MaxCabalStreak  |  Total $cabalCount  |  Percent $cabalPercent"

So the first round of the Whisper of the Worm quest is over, and my thoughts are mixed. First, you have a cool new gun that everyone wants. Second, you have RNG teamed with a pretty grueling mission.

Event Spawn Rate:

Here is the problem for me. Having the mission availability be tied to RNG is just a bad idea. (I know it’s the same server wide so “everyone” has the same chance) Basically, you need to sit on IO and continuously check your map for the “right” public events to spawn. Sure you can run around and do some missions etc, but for all intents, you are stuck just “chilling” and waiting. The spawn rates were ranging from decent to abysmal at times. This is not the definition of a fun “grind” this is just a waste of time and not really viable for people who want to do other things.

Event Difficulty:

I think the event difficulty level isn’t too bad. I’m not a fan of the long drawn out jumping puzzle part though. Basically if you aren’t able to traverse the jumping puzzle quick enough as a team you are never going to finish the event. The final “boss” room is a bit over kill. There really aren’t many places to stand where you can stay alive for more than a few seconds.

Overall thoughts:

The time and effort for this event don’t really equate to the reward. Not so much the difficulty but the frustration level of it being a limited spawn. This makes it difficult to run with the same group more than 1-2 times unless you are all “Hardcore gamers” or get lucky with a few back to back spawns. Bungie has missed the mark in my opinion with this event. Hopefully when Forsaken comes out we’ll see more events, and time locked is ok, but making the spawns that random is really just frustrating to the player who doesn’t want to spend all day on a game.

Month: July 2018

@Bungie RNG is totally broken

Whisper of the Worm – Is this a whisper of things to come?