Store Randomness (or lack, thereof)

[killter]

So... something I've noticed is that for any given game, I tend to see large amounts of 'similiar' items, especially in stores.

For example, one game I'll see 'spiritwalker's belts' in all the stores (various qualities). Or in another game, every shop is loaded up with Shields of Harmony. In the next game, it'll be other stuff.

Are these dominant item types intentional? I'd have thought stores would have completely randomized stock... though I can make an argument for 'item set type' generation as well.

If it isn't intentional, then something's not getting reset in the rng during stock generation, because at this point it's clearly 'themed' every game.

[kyuubee]

true randomness is streaky

a simple example, if you throw a coin 4 times, you may get a plenty of different combinations (14 if i'm not wrong) and only two of those (heads-tails-heads-tails and tails-heads-tails-heads) will not have a single streak

[HousePet]

The level requirements on egos causes some duplication as well.

[killter]

true randomness is streaky

a simple example, if you throw a coin 4 times, you may get a plenty of different combinations (14 if i'm not wrong) and only two of those (heads-tails-heads-tails and tails-heads-tails-heads) will not have a single streak

I used to code a lot, so I do understand 'true randomness' (or, what counts for it).

That said, at this point I'd bet dollars to donuts this is not randomly generated 'streakiness'.

I see these (major) streaks in every single game, where, for example, there will be a pile "Spiritwalker's Leather Belt of [Random]" in every single store. Or it'll be some other item, with a single descriptor switched out. For example, in my current game I'm looking at the armor store in Derth. There are 6 pieces of armor that are "Spiked Iron Mail Armour of [Random Element] Resistance" and all of the massive armor is 'Radiant'. In the bowshop, all the bows are "mage-hunter elm bows of [Random Element]".

My last game had 95% of the shields being "Shield of Harmony". This current game has mostly "Bladed Helms". This isn't a 'maybe sometimes' sort of streak, but something visible in every game I can remember.

I know it's easy to see patterns in random, but at this point i've tested this out over many games before posting this -- because while it's easy to dismiss it as streaks, that 'easy dismissal' also makes it easy to skip/miss a minor loop bug in store stock generation where some variable isn't being (re)set properly in all cases.