so when i was running CI and Genesis Moeder (yeah the runs with wrong dino count) i discovered something weird during the many hours of spawn grinding.

sometimes i could get the same spawn points in a short amount of time (like 3-5 times the exact same useless spawn that forces you to instantly restart the run, but also the really good ones which you want to have).

after around 15min it changed to another set of spawns, which resulted in a spawn grind of 30min with not a single usefull spawn.

since i had some times the good spawns in a row i also realized that these runs (especially at the beginning) are not identical but feel the same as the other ones (same dinos in an area)

so i tried the same on valguero and scorched earth, on scorched earth i was able to get the same spawn point multiple times and the run felt the same until i fked it up (same kind of dinos in gatekeeper cave at the same positions, not exactly the same position but the same area), on valguero i was able to get deinonychus eggs to spawn at the same area (exactly the same nest position), the run felt different but i also used slomo for day 4 so i think that changed the feeling.

here is what i think, if you start a new map, the game uses the current date and time for spawn point and dinos in an area.

how ever im far away from fully understanding how it works, so any information would be appreciated.

so when it comes to coding "random" generators are not truly random. They pump out the same results after a while. Most programmers get around this by tying either 2 or more random number generators together (having them multiply giving a higher number possible out come or it being set up as if it is a coordinate system), or by the date. I'm not 100% sure which it is or could be.

i know in c the random function takes a seed and the only constantly changing seed is the date

thats what i already know, the question is what kind of rng does ark use. if we know that maybe we can manipulate the rng in the game more precisely

Its either date or some coordinate system. We could probably test it by setting the dates on a pc to a specific time and date and seeing what spawns each time.

yeah but then you would also need to macro everything until you spawned

not really. You could just set your pc to an older date. Should work

wouldnt help cause you need to spawn at the exact same time to get comparable results.

I need to make some tests.

You absolutely can get the exact same time as long as the run the test the same. Set your time to however long it takes for you to load in at that time.

well like to the millisecond?

dont think its that easy since your loading time isn't always the same especially if milliseconds have an effect on your spawn