Challenging Problem

Unity Engine
1

Hi guys, I have a very challenging problem I would love some help with! I code in C#

If a players chance of winning is increased based on their level.

The Players Names are stored in List Player. The Player level is List Chances. If Amy is level 7 and George is level 9, Cindy is level 4, Dave is level 2, Emily is level 5, Frank is 17.

The Game randomly shows a winner based of the new chances a player has to win, Frank should win.

Here is my example code:
{
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

public class DrawSetUpPetLevel : MonoBehaviour
{
private string winner;
List Player;
List Chances;
List PlayerChances;

public void Start()
{
for (int j = 0; j < Player.Capacity; j++)
{
// PlayerChances = Player + Chances;
}
}
public void whoWon()
{
// winner = Random.PlayerChances;
Debug.Log(winner);
}
}
}

I would love the help! This might not be possible… How do I store the data to make it work? The data is collected from the client and sent to the server when a player clicks a UI button.

2

First, always use code tags Using code tags properly - Unity Engine - Unity Discussions
Second, generally better not to include polls unless they are really necessary.

Third, I honestly don’t know what you are really asking. Can a winner be chosen from a list with a higher chance of winning based on level? Yes, there isn’t anything really challenging there other then maybe creating the proper algorithm to choose the player. I would suggest you make either a strut or class so you can relate player with their level and maybe percent chance to win (basically just to associate the data together better).

3

In addition to +1ing everything that @Brathnann said, it sounds like what you want is, essentially, that if Bob has 2 chances to win and Alice has 3 chances to win, you want an algorithm that will randomly choose Bob 40% of the time and Alice 60% of the time. Is that correct?

Here is an algorithm to do this. It’s not the most efficient algorithm, but it’s the most easily understood:

List<PlayerClass> players; //to be populated elsewhere. Assumes .name is string and .chances is int
PlayerClass RandomlyPickWinner() {
int totalChances = 0;
//first, what's our total?
for (int p=0;p<players.Length;p++) {
totalChances += players[p].chances;
}
//next, choose a number
int chosenNumber = Random.Range(0, totalChances);
//finally, run through the players, adding their chances, until our running total is higher than our random number
int thisPlayerHigh = 0;
for (int p=0;p<players.Length;p++) {
thisPlayerHigh += players[p].chances;
if (thisPlayerHigh > chosenNumber) {
return players[p];
}
}
return null; //if I wrote this algorithm correctly, the only way we ever get here is if the list is empty
}
4

Here’s a somewhat recent post in which we all discuss weighted random selection:

In which I even link to an even older thread also about it:

In which I actually go into detail about the concept of the algorithm.

And of course my fully fleshed out version is found in here as ‘PickRandom’ with memory optimizations added:

5

I didnt test it but i am 99% sure that this should do it.

Edit: just realized that @StarManta gave prettry mutch the same answer.
Edit2: @lordofduct in your answer you use only 1 random value thats good but dont your
prioritize “players” that come first in the list or am i missing some thing ?

        List<int> chanceList = new List<int>();
        float total = 0;
        int winner = 0;

        foreach(int value in chanceList)
            total += value;

        float leaderPoints = 0.0f;

        foreach(int value in chanceList)
        {
            float points = Random.Range(0.0f,(float)value / total);
            if(points > leaderPoints)
            {
                leaderPoints = points;
                winner = value;
            }
        }
        //Debug.Log(playerList[winner]);