weird experience to report

[ismael.]

I guess everyone knows about levels, or more specifically, two levels in a row, being sometimes generated with exactly the same layout - the most notorious example being 13-14 (noticed most often due to being visited most frequently by most players i guess), but sometimes it happens also in caves (9-10(-11)) and elsewhere (3-4, cats).

But then what happened just a few hours ago to me (and never before AFAIR).

I was having another nice little hell/caves + hell/hell stroll with my st(u/a)ffed arty mage. Lvl 12: vortex lords + cave vipers. Nothing extraordinary to report. Lvl 13: vortex lords again and snakes being fire drakes this time. A ring drop near the stairs downwards, then a blue full plate from a regular vortex. An id trip due to full inventory, and it revealed...a saintly plate of sorcery (75+127%+19). Woohoo - what a gift for my rogue who has been basically doing nothing for years serving as an equipment hanger.

But then - stairs to 14, a few reconnaisance screens, and - well you guessed it, vortex lords AND fire drakes again. And the more I was advancing through the level, the more I was getting an eerie feeling: this level is EXACTLY the same as 13 (well except Gorefeast at least) INCLUDING treasure and monsters - after i got a ring drop near the stairs downwards, there was mute anticipation. Well - blue full plate from the same regular monster in the same location, the same basic ac -75. ID, and, you guessed it again, the SAME saintly full plate of sorcery (no I did not check it by having them both drop on ground :-)) but they ARE exactly the same to both diablosaver (same id) and diablostash (you already own...).

Conclusion: BOTH monsters (AND drops) + lvl layout being EXACTLY the same in two levels in a row, except the boss naturally and the town stairs in 13 (though i do not remember what type of ring near the stairs it was as i sold and forgot about the first one immediately, nothing special).

In my experience sometimes two identical magical (even unique) items can be generated in the same level - or in two levels in a row, but afair this never happened combined with identical layout, monsters and drop locations.

Makes me wonder about how really the game content is generated at the game start / seeding peculiarities.

Comments and explanations welcome.

And, oh, I got an awesome plate of sorcery 60+150%+17 to dispose of.

[[vL]Kp]

Others have written at length about the generation, but the gist is that there is a master seed derived from the start time of the game, and all the other random data derives from that seed in one way or another. The Diablo RNG tends to be biased toward certain number ranges anyway, so given the right starting seed, it can end up looping very quickly. I can elaborate if you want more details.