@shifty:
What kind of “program” are you writing? What equation/algorithm are you using?
It’s written in BlitzMax. The source below should (hopefully :)) not be too hard to understand - if you have questions, feel free to ask:
' Compares 2nd ed. A&A tech dev cost/rate with Anniv. ed. A&A
' 20 turns to test; record turn number that a total of 2 breakthroughs were achieved. Test 1 & 2 rolls/turn.
' If two breakthroughs aren't achieved, "turn 0" is recorded (ignored for graphing & turn average)
' (When going for two breakthroughs, two aren't achieved in about 2% for both 2nd and Anniv.)
Strict
Local breakthroughs, totalCost, turn, totalTurns
Local answer[21], prefix$, graph$
Local breakthroughLimit = 2
For Local rolls = 1 To 2 ' actual rolls for 2nd Ed, Researchers for Anniv.
Print;Print; Print rolls + " Tech Roll(s)/Researcher(s) per Turn:"
Print; Print "2nd Edition"
totalCost = 0
totalTurns = 0
For Local c = 0 To 20
answer[c] = 0
Next
For Local test = 1 To 100000 ' a hundred thousand tests for accuracy
breakthroughs = 0
turn = 0
While breakthroughs < breakthroughLimit And turn <= 20
turn :+ 1
totalCost :+ rolls * 5 ' each roll costs 5 IPCs
For Local c = 1 To rolls
If Rand(6) = 6 Then breakthroughs :+ 1
Next
Wend
totalTurns :+ turn
If turn > 20 Then
answer[0] :+ 1
Else
answer[turn] :+ 1
EndIf
Next
' display results
For Local c = 1 To 20
graph = ""
' divide results by 1000 so each asterisk represents one percent
For Local cc = 1 To Int(answer[c]/1000.0 + .5)
graph :+"*"
Next
If c < 10 Then prefix = " " Else prefix ="" ' extra space for single digits
Print prefix + c + " " + graph
Next
Print "Avg turn = " + totalTurns / 100000.0
Print "Avg cost = " + totalCost / 100000.0
Print; Print "Anniversary Edition"
totalCost = 0
totalTurns = 0
For Local c = 0 To 20
answer[c] = 0
Next
Local researchers ' researchers accumulate from turn to turn
For Local test = 1 To 100000
researchers = 0
breakthroughs = 0
turn = 0
While breakthroughs < breakthroughLimit And turn <= 20
turn :+ 1
totalCost :+ rolls * 5 ' each researcher costs 5 IPCs
researchers :+ 1 * rolls ' accumulate 1 researcher per "roll"
Local success
For Local c = 1 To researchers
If Rand(6) = 6 Then success = True ' only one regardless of # of sixes rolled
Next
If success Then
researchers = 0 ' eliminate accumulated researchers when successful
breakthroughs :+ 1
EndIf
Wend
totalTurns :+ turn
If turn > 20 Then
answer[0] :+ 1
Else
answer[turn] :+ 1
EndIf
Next
' display results
For Local c = 1 To 20
graph = ""
' divide results by 1000 so each asterisk represents one percent
For Local cc = 1 To Int(answer[c]/1000.0 + .5)
graph :+"*"
Next
If c < 10 Then prefix = " " Else prefix ="" ' extra space for single digits
Print prefix + c + " " + graph
Next
Print "Avg turn = " + totalTurns / 100000.0
Print "Avg cost = " + totalCost / 100000.0
Next
I release it into the public domain (modify it as desired/convert it to the language of your choice). breakthroughLimit is initially set for 2, which generated the first set of graphs in this thread (I hand-rounded the accuracy to a single decimal place when copy/pasting results in the thread). Setting it to 1 (i.e. stopping after getting one breakthrough) produced the second set above. I also made another, slightly tweaked version to generate the “only buy Researchers on turn 1” version for wodan46.
