Weighted probabilities

[usevalue]

I would like it if each island-generator had a double which determined its probability of being generated, relative to other generators' probabilities. An example, assuming the weight is given before biome lists:

island-generators:
  - ...IslandGeneratorAlpha 1.0 rockybiomes ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
  - ...IslandGeneratorAlpha 1.2 forestedbiomes ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
  - ...EmptyIslandGenerator 4.0

As you can see, I've been experimenting with adding large numbers of empty islands. Combined with narrow border oceans, this leads to nice-looking archipelagos and island chains separated by large bodies of water. As far as I'm aware, the only way to accomplish this currently is to add multiple entries.

[hoqhuuep]

Great suggestion! I agree this would be a very good addition!

[usevalue]

Easiest way I can think of:

• Add the probabilty at the end, rather than the beginning, so that you don't need to adjust code for reading biomes; just check the length of the arguments to see if it's X or X+1. If X, prob = 1; if X+1, prob = args[X].
• Only allow integer values. Then you can simply while(x=0; x<prob; x++) { add item to list}.

It's not terribly elegant. If one were working with extremely large probabilities, there would be costs to memory and search time. But given the nature of the program, I can't imagine these demands would be terribly taxing to the server.

[usevalue]

There may be more straightforward ways of doing this, but this way requires changes to only one class, and doesn't require changing the classes of any of your objects. You're more versed in your own code than I am; I assume a more streamlined solution is available, but I spent about 2 hours the other night reading through the code to wrap my head around it.