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To: python-list@python.org
From: Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Getting a seeded value from a list
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:31:43 -0500
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On Sun, 18 Nov 2012 19:00:57 -0800, Graham Fielding
<frednotbob@hotmail.ca> declaimed the following in
gmane.comp.python.general:

> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hello!  Clueless noob again! :) This time around, I'm trying to figure out the random.seed() function -- specifically, I'd like to retrieve the seeded values from a list (which I've called levelSeed), and use them in a random-dungeon generator.  The numbers are generating and storing properly, but I can't find any examples online that aren't specific to a particular purpose (such as mathematics, arrays, and the like). Would I use 'getstate' when the dungeon is generated, or is there another method that would be better suited to the task? 		 	   		  

	The "seed" sets the initial state of the generator. After setting
the state, you just use regular random number generation to retrieve
values.

	Are you generating the entire level on entry, or as each room is
"opened" (if, "as opened", you have the complication that going down a
level and back up will result in different random numbers vs going
straight to the room).

	Generating on entry only needs the seed for the initial generation
point (as mentioned, first time you could use the system clock and save
the value).

	getstate() is likely mostly usable when you need to interrupt the
execution of the program and need to continue the random sequence from
where it left off -- but don't need to restore prior values (in your
case, prior rooms). That is: say a weather simulation... You only need
to save the current "weather matrix" (for each point: temp, wind-speed,
wind-direction [where a "point" may be lat/long/altitude]) AND the
current state of the random number generation. Tomorrow, you just load
the saved state [one instance in time] and reseed the generator.

	But for a dungeon -- you may be best served by generating the entire
level (all rooms, doors, static encounters [traps, treasure]) when
entering the level, and saving the entire dungeon (after all, after a
treasure is collected, it shouldn't re-appear the next time you start
that same level -- if you only save the starting seed, then all
encounters will also be regenerated). In this scenario, where you save
the entire dungeon, you don't even need to worry about the seed --
you'll never really want to recreate the same dungeon for another party
[unless running a competition in which case you seed every computer the
same so every participant is running the identical dungeon].
-- 
	Wulfraed                 Dennis Lee Bieber         AF6VN
        wlfraed@ix.netcom.com    HTTP://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/