Yeah i know rand as a random number generator sucks. It really, really does but i'm not looking for true random numbers just something give's me something appears random. Have this rather convulated code.

for (int i=0; i<5; i++)
{
   AI.ptype= agents.agentPersonality();
}

which leads to

int agent::agentPersonality() {

	personalityType=emote.eStates();

	happiness=emote.emotionPass.happiness;
	sadness=emote.emotionPass.sadness;
	anger=emote.emotionPass.anger;
	fear=emote.emotionPass.fear;
	surprise=emote.emotionPass.surprise;
	disgust=emote.emotionPass.disgust; 
	
	return personalityType;
	
}

when then leads to

int emotions::eStates() {

	switch (Type.MBTI())
	{
		case 1: //ISTJ
			emotionPass.happiness=0.05;
			emotionPass.sadness=0.04;
			emotionPass.anger=0.05;
			emotionPass.fear=0.04;
			emotionPass.surprise=0.02;
			emotionPass.disgust=0.03;
			return Type.MBTI();
			break;
.
.
.

and finally from there to here

int personality::MBTI() {


	srand ( time(NULL) );


	EI = rand()%2;
	SN = rand()%2;
	TF = rand()%2;
	JP = rand()%2;

<code that creats type here>

return type;

So as we see it's jumps from one class to the next and at the end gives me the exact same number for for loops. I tried incresing the time but it's still rather poor. I'm looking for anything that'll just give me 5 "random" numbers, don't care about true random, and preferably I'd rather not use some kind of sleep function. Any help would be appreciated ^^

...

I'm an idiot.

your a Legend.

Thanks.

Yep. :)


More specifically, srand seeds the random generator. Every time you seed with the same value, you get the same sequence of "random" numbers.

So if you call srand before every time you call rand, you're restarting the sequence before you read a number from it.

Now, if you seed with a different number every time this might be tolerable (it's still a bad idea, for all sorts of reasons, but it might give you somewhat random-looking numbers out still).

But time() usually has a resolution of 1 second. Which means that for an entire second, every call to time() returns the same, which means you seed the random generator with the same value every iteration for an entire second.

You're "supposed" to seed it once, and then just call rand() from that point on.

Only call srand again if you need to "reset" the sequence (for example if you want to play back a recording of the last 5 minutes, you might seed with the same value used 5 minutes ago, so you "replay" the same sequence of pseudorandom numbers.

Any "decent" random number generators out there that isn't a whole program in itself?
i.e. less that 10 lines of code :p