4 ms·

Mathematics of Civilization V

136 points by jmstfv 10y ago

gwern 10y ago
Not as awesome as http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Personality_value http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Personality_value or especially https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Population_dynamics https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Population_dynamics IMO.
- derblitzmann 10y ago
  I love reading about the interesting guts of popular games. Thanks for sharing! Also, Pokemon has a number of other interesting equations, specifically the capture formula.
  - tradersam 10y ago
    I've always been curious about how the capture formula works. Especially since 100+ hours of my childhood has been focused strictly on trying over and over again to catch specific Pokémon.
- ralfd 10y ago
  Wait what? I don't get the latter link about some anime. It is a manga/anime about magical girls, who eat witches, but when they grow up they become themselves witches??
  - gwern 10y ago
    Yes, thus perpetuating the cycle. _Madoka_ is a bit dark that way. (I'd suggest reading the WP entry on it, but it's a bit spoilery, and Madoka is widely considered one of the best anime of the past decade even for people uninterested in magical girl anime, so you might want to give it a shot without reading plot summaries.)
omnibrain 10y ago
And then there is the EVE Online "weapon tracking formula" figured out by players. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Turret_Damage http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Turret_Damage Supposedly the Devs referred to this when they had to make adjustments.
lutusp 10y ago
IMHO the author of this article needs to find out about MathJax (free BTW) -- it would have spared him those laborious math-related graphic image insertions as well as their contrast with the page background, and look better besides. MathJax example page: http://arachnoid.com/NormalDistribution http://arachnoid.com/NormalDistribution
- stymaar 10y ago
  Mathjax is indeed a great tool, but I don't think one can add a custom JavaScript library to a wikia page because it would be a massive XSS vulnerability.
  - lutusp 10y ago
    > ... it would be a massive XSS vulnerability. Yes, if the MathJax library were to be accessed remotely. This issue is finessed by having a local copy of the library. Since it's free, many sites host it locally (including mine). But others including Reddit, which IMHO really needs this library also, won't host it, I think on the basis that it isn't used by enough people to justify linking it on every page. So there are definitely arguments against. Ideally it would be a selectable option on a page-by-page basis.
    - andreareina 10y ago
      Is there an option for lazy loading? i.e., a lightwieght script that looks for delimited text and pulls in the rest of the library if needed?
      - lutusp 10y ago
        > Is there an option for lazy loading? I believe Apache can run user-defined scripts to perform this sort of thing -- in this case, look at a page's content and decide how to proceed. But high-volume sites don't like such things because it dramatically slows page loading.
        10y ago

136 points by jmstfv 10y ago

gwern 10y ago

Not as awesome as http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Personality_value http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Personality_value or especially https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Population_dynamics https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Population_dynamics IMO.

derblitzmann 10y ago
I love reading about the interesting guts of popular games. Thanks for sharing! Also, Pokemon has a number of other interesting equations, specifically the capture formula.
- tradersam 10y ago
  I've always been curious about how the capture formula works. Especially since 100+ hours of my childhood has been focused strictly on trying over and over again to catch specific Pokémon.
ralfd 10y ago
Wait what? I don't get the latter link about some anime. It is a manga/anime about magical girls, who eat witches, but when they grow up they become themselves witches??
- gwern 10y ago
  Yes, thus perpetuating the cycle. _Madoka_ is a bit dark that way. (I'd suggest reading the WP entry on it, but it's a bit spoilery, and Madoka is widely considered one of the best anime of the past decade even for people uninterested in magical girl anime, so you might want to give it a shot without reading plot summaries.)

omnibrain 10y ago

And then there is the EVE Online "weapon tracking formula" figured out by players. http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Turret_Damage http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Turret_Damage Supposedly the Devs referred to this when they had to make adjustments.

lutusp 10y ago

IMHO the author of this article needs to find out about MathJax (free BTW) -- it would have spared him those laborious math-related graphic image insertions as well as their contrast with the page background, and look better besides. MathJax example page: http://arachnoid.com/NormalDistribution http://arachnoid.com/NormalDistribution

stymaar 10y ago
Mathjax is indeed a great tool, but I don't think one can add a custom JavaScript library to a wikia page because it would be a massive XSS vulnerability.
- lutusp 10y ago
  > ... it would be a massive XSS vulnerability. Yes, if the MathJax library were to be accessed remotely. This issue is finessed by having a local copy of the library. Since it's free, many sites host it locally (including mine). But others including Reddit, which IMHO really needs this library also, won't host it, I think on the basis that it isn't used by enough people to justify linking it on every page. So there are definitely arguments against. Ideally it would be a selectable option on a page-by-page basis.
  - andreareina 10y ago
    Is there an option for lazy loading? i.e., a lightwieght script that looks for delimited text and pulls in the rest of the library if needed?
    - lutusp 10y ago
      > Is there an option for lazy loading? I believe Apache can run user-defined scripts to perform this sort of thing -- in this case, look at a page's content and decide how to proceed. But high-volume sites don't like such things because it dramatically slows page loading.
      - 10y ago