Is there a benefit to Legacy Randomization?

[roydivision]

Hi. So, I do LOTS of Stardew runs on Switch and try new things all the time. Legacy Randomization doesn’t really make sense to me and I was hoping someone could explain it, or at least verify that it can improve gameplay. Anything helps.

 

[Nonak]

Pre 1.6 randomness wasn't truly random and could be predicted. The most commonly used was clay farming where if you know the pattern you can make a ton of money early by getting clay on the beach and selling it to Robin. Apparently you could also exploit crab pots and predict mushroom floors, but I learned about that 2 minutes ago, so you'd need someone else to actually explain it.
Now that simply doesn't work. Clay doesn't spawn in a hidden pattern that shifts a tile every time you till the ground, its an actual random drop. Turning on legacy randomization brings the old system back. Useful if you're planning a speedrun or something similar. Otherwise not much reason to use it for what I know.

 

[roydivision]

Pre 1.6 randomness wasn't truly random and could be predicted. The most commonly used was clay farming where if you know the pattern you can make a ton of money early by getting clay on the beach and selling it to Robin. Apparently you could also exploit crab pots and predict mushroom floors, but I learned about that 2 minutes ago, so you'd need someone else to actually explain it.
Now that simply doesn't work. Clay doesn't spawn in a hidden pattern that shifts a tile every time you till the ground, its an actual random drop. Turning on legacy randomization brings the old system back. Useful if you're planning a speedrun or something similar. Otherwise not much reason to use it for what I know.

Thanks. Super helpful. I kinda speedrun, but my goal is a little different, and I am on Switch. This helps.

 

[MogBeoulve]

I believe the predictors and patterns were developed for PC and might not work for Switch, anyway.

 

[OrdinaryBoy]

As far as I know (probably the only thing that I know), the old randomization has something to do with pattern repetition. As mentioned by Nonak there, the pre 1.6 randomization used a different type of randomization. I know a thing or two about programming, and there's actually no such thing as true randomization. Every randomization used a seed to generate randomness. Even "the most random" randomization still use a seed, so it's basically still predictable, but the 1.6 version onwards used a harder-to-predict (probably can't be predicted) randomization.

Sorry for my bad English.