Yeah, I'm a computer scientist and mathematician and, so, am far better at big, complex formula than arithmetic .. that's what calculators are for
My points:
- there are several ways which can arrive at the same result,
- there are ways which can arrive at intermediate results, and
- no matter what method is actually implemented .. and this is the important thought .. it levels the playing field a bit more.
(Cross thread random thought .. which sorta goes to leveling the playing fields .. elsewhere there is discussion thread about "starter lotteries" .. Charm read some of it to me last night .. which I suggest should be more properly classified as "paint-job lotteries" in those threads. I've spent a LOT of time thinking on alternatives and modifications which would level those playing fields. To date I've found no workable solutions. I have one which is half-a-solution to the starter-lotto problem but the computational complexity is (sorry about this) O(N^M); so it won't work in any real implementation. The paint-job lotto problem, though, is a different problem, and might not be solvable with a mathematical solution. The best suggestion I've seen .. and this goes back decades in online gaming development .. is to consider "balance" .. whatever that means since that is mostly a psychological solution rather than mathematical. And "balance" is why I'm saying all this .. Saga's suggestion definitely appears to enhance "balance" .. both mathematically and psychologically.)
