Probability Weighting of Lighting Strike by Grid

Patrick Heney shared this feedback 3 years ago
Submitted

Currently a lighting strike will be randomly selected between multiple grids, with equal probability of each item being struck, e.g., a 6x6 rover will be struck in the hull 1/7 of the time, as will each of it's 6 wheels. From a player's perspective, this means "wheels" are struck 6/7 times, and the cabin only 1/7. This feels weird.

The can be corrected by weighting the probability by the grid count. So a 6x6 rover with a 50 block body would be hit in the hull 50 / 56 times, and each wheel would be hit 1 / 56 times. From the player's perspective a "wheel" hit is much less likely than a "body" hit, and it feels more natural.

This also means that a 200 block rover is much more likely to be hit than a 30 block rover sitting next to it. As it currently is, it's 50/50 either way.

The weights should further be adjusted by the block size of the grids. Large should probably use a factor of 5, and small grids would use 1. So a 30 block large-grid base next to a 50 block small-grid rover would be 150/200 to hit the base, and 50/200 to hit the rover.

The block-count weight should probably be capped (perhaps around 1000), as after that, the difference between a 1000 block base and a 10,000 block base (as far as attracting lighting goes) probably isn't that significant, because they are both massive.

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