I’d say that any dev should read that. (These videos talk too much for things you can read in 5-10 minutes or less :x)
Including Unreal Engine’s devs because their engine also uses srand() / rand(). Including a lot of other games that uses srand() / rand().
Not to say we don’t actually have server side to say they use for sure srand() / rand(), altho I think they do :x
But also remembering you:
When ToS development actually started? I find online that the game was first revealed by 2011, right?
Random header for C++ was added on the C++0x version before back in 2009 ish I think?
Considering their engine is actually older, C++0x was too new back then and was created probably years after initial ToS development took place.
You can actually google for rand() alternatives by dates before 31, Dec 2009.
You’ll notice the lack of information and alternatives and how rand() was the pretty much the only thing you find, especially if on C/C++.
You could pick either:
- Stay with well known C++98/C++03 features.
- Try C++0x that was still unfinished and not supported by many compilers and too new and could have things changed during your game development. And as well could have compiler bugs or features not implemented in some, the compilers were mostly experimental by when it was launched.
What would you pick as a game developer?
Any game developed by the same date as ToS or before would use rand() IMHO. Unless it was mostly indie or small-medium sized games.
Regardless of the changes, things need to change in the future though. Maybe it’s actually already on their to-do list.