Sneaky algorithm

---

@etamni103 wrote:

 (but it would be possible without being overly complicated, using a simple weighting algorithm). 

---

The "simple weighting algorithm" would become far less simple when you have to read the user's mind. How do you know the user is looking for a couch, or merely the lumber needed to build one? How do you know the user is looking for a table that he needs, and not a lock or a dozer part because he's more interested in expanding at the moment than building? Or do you just weight everything you think the user could possibly need? I currently have eight sets of building requirements in my city, with between 3 and 6 item requirements each.  A "simple weighting algorithm" would have to weight each of those items, as well as the components used to make them, plus dozer parts and storage parts.  That's probably close to everything available in HQ, making the weighting meaningless and the algorithm nothing more than a waste of CPU cycles.

I suppose you're right in that it would be possible with a simple weighting algorithm, as long as nowhere in the requirements is it stated that such an algorithm actually also be particularly effective. 🙂

In reality, I'm sure nothing is happening.  No algorithm, and I'd be willing to bet that the item requirements are equally distributed.  It's human nature to try to find patterns where none exist. Earlier I needed three couches to upgrade a building. But I was planning on building them, not buying them. Couches were all over the HQ. So I needed them and there was also plenty of supply.  Right now I have absolutely ZERO need for cheese.  But I haven't seen a single cheese all morning.  Or beef for that matter. Or several other things I'm not looking for. So I don't need them at all, and yet they're still hard to find. There are always a couple of building upgrades that I need to do that require wood, plastic, or metal from the factory.  Yet, I can find all of these things easily in HQ because people love to sell the easy stuff.  There are plenty of examples where the pattern doesn't hold, but most people aren't paying attention to those times, because they're only noticing when things don't go their way. 🙂

Point is, most people can't find what they need right away, and they assume a causal relationship; "I need it and can't find it, therefore it's hard to find because I need it." Those people don't bother to notice that they also can't find things they DON'T need, or that they sometimes CAN find what they DO need. There is no causal relationship, it's a coincidence.  

Or maybe there's a rogue dev on the team that just wants to watch the world burn, cleverly obfuscating his cheese-hoarding algorithm so that it passes peer review, giggling to himself in the darkness of his corner cubicle.... 😕mileywink: