[Kde-games-devel] KsirK and Jabber

[Matthew Woehlke]

Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Tuesday 16 September 2008, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>> I guess I don't get it. Either I don't understand why you couldn't do
>> that to a server also, or else I don't understand why the other clients
>> wouldn't either simply ignore an unexpected PRN request or else
>> interpret it as a breach of protocol.
> 
> there's a difference, or at least should be with a PRNG, between knowing the 
> entropy (seed) and knowing the current value.
> 
> with a central server you only know the current value, the next value should 
> be statistically random.

Right. But the distributed seed system is supposed to make the next 
*seed* random, so, while you know the seed for the current turn, you 
don't know it (and hence, don't know what random values will be 
generated) for the /next/ turn. And you wouldn't know it for the current 
turn until /after/ you've committed to a course of action.

So I still don't get it; maybe I'm failing to explain my idea clearly?

My envisioned flow is something like:

- Commit to a course of action
- Tell all clients what you are doing this turn
- Clients send back a partial seed
- Use the combined seed to determine the outcome of the action
- Throw that seed away

...but because the seeds come from their own PRNG's, which are only 
known to the clients generating the seed, no client knows what the next 
seed will be (assuming the PRNG generating the seed is robust), and thus 
you can't predict the outcome.

-- 
Matthew
There's no place like ~. -- Unknown