Help me MATH!

ID:181654
 
Dec 23 2009, 9:20 am
I've never really liked math. It's interesting because I do a ton of it designing games, and notably doing RPGs. In fact, if I ever establish a career with a real game development company (instead of just making my own), I will probably end up having a specialization in balancing systems which is very mathy.

But that's all plain and simple math, for the most part... barely above college algebra with some factoring and all that. I never pursued higher math courses in college (they weren't necessary for the chosen degree).

Maybe somebody who knows something about this can help me out.

So I have two sets of numbers:

81 = 8.1
256 = 6.4
480 = 4.8
900 = 4.2
2500 = 3.5
X = Y


I want an equation that can basically solve Y, no matter what I feed in. Is there some kind of magical tool or solution I can use to come up with this equation, with a given set of inputs? I currently do these things by trial and error, and it takes uh, a lot of trial. It seems like this is something that COULD be programatically generated, and seems like some kind of automagical tool or technique might already be out there that I can use.

Hell, it could just be some general purpose college math that I never took.

Any thoughts?


~Polatrite~
Dec 23 2009, 10:03 am
Polatrite wrote:

81 = 8.1
256 = 6.4
480 = 4.8
900 = 4.2
2500 = 3.5
X = Y


I assume that what you mean is
f(81)   = 8.1
f(256)  = 6.4
f(480)  = 4.8
f(900)  = 4.2
f(2500) = 3.5
f(X)    = Y


If that's the case, I've made you a graph that might help (or might not).

Dec 23 2009, 10:12 am
In response to Ryan P
Hey, thanks for the quick response. Raven01 and I just hashed this out in Chatters (first time Chatters has actually been USEFUL for programming help in the last month).

Since your graph is identical to my graph, I may post the steps to create that graph as well as some of the applications for this technique in an article sometime.

The topic is logistic regression. It can be used to generate experience curves, stat level-up curves, and all kinds of other handy fun stuff.


~Polatrite~