Problems with the Frozen Flame's Area of Eect from Silver

Resistance
Arbitrary Renaissance

September 29, 2016

Abstract

Because ction writing and storytelling is a largely imagination-based endeavor, it's uncommon for authors
to nd themselves endulged in the application of mathematical models for their stories. However, this is never
a guarantee, and instances may arise where the necessity for precise world building prompts analytical methods
through applied math and physics. Though the details are often hidden from the eyes of the reader in the nal
product, the nuanced mathematics can still be shared and studied whenever it is present.
In this paper, we will analyze the the Frozen Flame in Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Silver Resistance by
ScytheRider. We will study the various models that can be used to represent its area of eect and we will then
we will utilize those models to develop a reliable method for determining the location of the Frozen Flame for
any point in Euclidean space. (Here's hoping it's not trapped in a Mystery Dungeon).

Models

The Frozen Flame exhibits protective properties.

protect it from rock-type attacks.

If a re-type Pokmon is close enough to it, the Flame will

1 This information alone raises several important questions: what is the radius of

eect? Are there diminishing returns with increased distance from the Flame? If so, what is the divergence of our
protection function? To what extent does the Flame protect re-types from rocks?
There are two main models for the area of eect with the Frozen Flame that we'll study in this paper, which we'll
call the piecewise constant model and the rational model. The piecewise constant model will assume that
proximity to the Flame is irrelevant, and that the amount of protection is constant throughout the entire radius
of eect. It will also assume that the level of protection that the Flame provides is either 100% or 0% (depending
on whether or not you're in the area of eect). The rational model will assume diminishing returns with increased
proxinity, or that the further you are from the Flame, the less protected you'll be.

1.1

The Piecewise Constant Model

Because of its simplicity and lack of computational rigor, the piecewise constant model is a common model for area
of eect modules in the video game industry. Let us rst dene a function

: R3 R+

that takes in your position

in 3-Dimensional Euclidean Space and determines the amount that the Flame will protect you. We call the function

because it is the Greek letter for P (for protection). WLOG , let us center the Frozen Flame at the origin. In

this model,

will be a piecewise function, dened as follows:

(
(x, y, z) =

p
100
x2 + y 2 + z 2 k
p
.
0
x2 + y 2 + z 2 > k

To put it in words, the amount that the Flame protects you will be

meters of the Frozen Flame, and

1 It

100 (measured as a percentage) if you are within

(x, y, z) is a cartesian coordinate, the formula

if you are any further. Since

also protects re-types from other attacks that are super-eective against them, but for the sake of this paper, we'll only consider

its impact on rock-type moves.

2 Without

loss of generality

the origin. To illustrate this more clearly, we can dene the

x2 + y 2 + z 2 is the distance from the point

function in spherical coordinates more concisely:

for the Pythagorean Theorem in 3-Dimensional space tells us that

to

(
100 k
() =
0
>k
hx, y, zi is khx, y, zik3 . In standard notation, spherical coordinates contain
where is the angle between hx, y, zi and hx, y, 0i, and is the angle between
hx, y, zi and h0, 0, zi. Since and are irrelevant in this model, however, they are ignored.
To cap o this model, we must answer the question: what is k ? The Piecewise Constant Model is the one that

where, given some position vector

two other input variables:

and

ScytheRider formally adopted for the story, and he answers this question in a journal for chapter 69:
If I make it too small, then Tallie will have to get hit by rocks tens of thousands of times to fully cover
the area. If I make it too big, it begs some strange questions about why Pokmon all over the division
aren't constantly protected by all the AoE items in storage. There is a possibility that these AoE globes
are just

that rare,

but if that's the case, the resistance divisions and especially Kecleon are the most

likely parties in Ambera to have them in their possession. Or the Master, maybe. Another option is to
assume that items in storage (at least the "ocial" types of storage like Kecleon's vault) suppress AoE
enchantments.
Tentatively, I've decided that the Frozen Flame's AoE has a diameter of about 150 meters. For visual
reference, the length of an (American) football eld is about 90 meters.
Actually, football elds aren't that big.

stadiums

Football

Does that seem pretty big?

are big, and the fact that you often see

football elds from the bird's eye view doesn't help with intuition, but a normal person can run the
length of a football eld in well under a minute. [1]
Thus,

1.2

k=

150
2

= 75

and we have our piecewise constant model.

The Rational Model

Although the piecewise constant model is more easy to understand, it's also counter-intuitive to the way elds of
intensity work in the real world. An object that emits a eld from a given point follows the

Inverse Square Law,

which states that quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that physical
quantity. This is because surface area dilutes with increasing distance. Given an increase in distance, the increase
in surface area will be proportional to the square of the distance increase, and the emitted radiation gets spread
out accordingly. If we were to model our

function in this form, then we'd have the equation

() =
where

is some scaling constant. Since this is a rational function, we will refer to this as the rational model.

Determining the value of

will require a lot of handwaving. First of all, we can no longer assume that

It will scale continuously with

an orb with a radius of about

then

(0.1) = 100,

is binary.

and so will contain an uncountably innite number of possible values.

Can we still assume that the maximum value of

100,

n
2

0.1

is

100?

Well, let's try it. Assuming that the Frozen Flame is

4 and that the most protection you can receive from it is

meters (about 4 inches)

since you can't reasonably go inside of the orb. Thus, we have

(0.1) = 100

n
= 100
(0.1)2
n = 1.

Thus,

() = 1/2 .

However, this is completely unstable, since at

= 10, () = 0.01,

and it gets smaller and

smaller with greater distance. This would mean that a reasonable area of eect for the Flame would be very small,
and that anything beyond

3 This notation
4 As I have not

10

meters would have basically no protection under it.

refers to the norm of the vector, and it simply means the length of the vector.
read all of Silver Resistance, this is a crude approximation that may be o.

So instead of assuming that the maximum value of

is an

excess value,

than

and cannot be dierentiated from a

100, let us assume that any value of greater than 100

value of 100. We will also assume that any value less

is

is negligent, meaning that it is so weak that Tallie cannot notice it. These assumptions don't matter in the

modeling of the area of eect, but they will serve an important purpose later on down the road. We will make the
same assumption as in the piecewise constant model, and claim that the signicant area of eect remains a radius
of

75

meters. We'll assume that a

signicant value is anything greater than 10, giving us the solution:

(75) = 10
n
= 10
752
n = 56250

and thus we have our rational model.

2
In

Locating the Frozen Flame

Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Silver Resistance, the Frozen Flame got lost in a city.

we can limit the boundary area to the footprint of Iron Townabout

10

Its location is unknown, but

km . Using Tallie as a means of testing

various points, we can eectively determine the location of the Frozen Flame assuming accurate modeling and
reliable tests. This process will take two steps: determining an area of eect by sweeping through the town and
nding the precise location once that area is determined.

2.1

Narrowing Down the Location to a Radius

2

We begin with a footprint of Iron Town. Assuming that it is a perfect square with an area of 10 km , then the side
lengths along the perimeter will be

10

kilometers each, and the diagonals will be

20

each:

Figure 1: Footprint of Iron Town

The most eective way to cover the whole area in the least amount of tests is presented in the method below. Note
that we want to minimize the number of tests because testing involves delivering pain to the test subject and it
takes time.

Method

The problem of covering the whole area with the least amount of tests is equivalent to the problem of

covering the whole area with the least amount of overlap. Unfortunately, one test will cover a circle with a certain
radius, and because circles don't tesselate, some overlap will be necessary. In other words, we'll need to do two
sweeps through the whole city at least. And as it turns out, two sweeps is all we'll need.
We begin our rst sweep by making tangent circles along the diagonal, starting rst with the circle whose circumfrence touches the corner of the square:

Figure 2: Note the bottom leftmost circle

Let

c1

and

c2

be the total number of tests performed for in the piecewise model and the rational model, respectively.

Since the test radius for the piecewise constant model is

75 meters (or, the diameter is 0.15 kilometers), the number

of circles along the diagonal of this square will be

&

20
0.15

Here,

dxe

'
= 30.

is the ceiling function on x, or the smallest integer greater than

x.

In the rational model, the test

radius can actually be larger, since there's a higher area of noticeable protection. To nd this radius, we solve for

() = 1. Since () = 56250
2 , it follows that

56250
2 56250 meters, or 500 kilometers. Hence,
this square will be

the maximum radius

c1

is equal to

56250.

Thus, the diameter is

for the rational model, the number of circles along the diagonal of

&

We will later show with these numbers that

and

'

20

56250
500

c2

= 10.

are the squares of the number of circles along the diagonals

for each respective model.

The next step of this method involves creating a square lattice of tangent circles along the diagonals.

This will

complete the rst sweep:

Figure 3: Lattice of the rst sweep

Now all we have to do is ll in the gaps. Take any four adjacent circles whose centers form a square and perform a
test at the center of that square. Continue doing this until no more gaps remain:

Figure 4: Location of tests after second sweep.

Note the center points of each circle. They form a grid pattern that coincides with the main diagonal. Through the
image of Fig. 4 alone, it should be obvious that the total number of points inside the circle is equal to the square
of the number of points along the diagonal. Hence,

Addendum

will compare

c1 = 302 = 900

and

c2 = 102 = 100.

You might be wondering why the tangent circles must lie on the diagonal. To demonstrate this, we

c1

if we instead lay the tangent line of circles along the edge of the square.

Laying down the circles in this manner will yield the following conguration:

Figure 5: Dierent orientation of the circles

It's not entirely obvious that this is less compact than what we had before, but there are a few hints present that
should raise some alarms. For one, there's a lot more overow at the edge. Note that we cannot shift the whole
lattice to the right or upwards because we'd be missing out on some unchecked area at the edges, between the
circles. So that area must be there. Worse yet, the area on the upper and righthand edges will be just as bad or
(more likely) worse than on this side.
Just to convince ourselves, let us actually count the number of circles that are present in this structure. Assuming
the piecewise constant model, the number of circles along the horizontal will be

&
1+

10 0.15
2
0.15
5

'
= 22

as will the numbee of circles along the vertical for the rst sweep.

The

at the beginning of the formula is to

account for the circle in the corner. This circle, however, removes the length of half of the diameter of the circle

0.15
2 from the numerator. The number
of circles for the second sweep in the horizontal and vertical directions will either be 21 or 22. If it's 21, then the
2
2
total number of circles will be 22 + 21 = 925, which is, indeed greater than the number of tests performed in our
from the total length of the segment of the square. Hence why we subtract

original method.

2.2

Triangulation of the Frozen Flame

Now that we've found a region with the method described above, it's time to precisely locate the Frozen Flame.
This is where it really starts to matter if we adopt the piecewise constant model or the rational model. The cases
are so dierent, that I'll be splitting them up into separate subsections.

2.2.1

Piecewise constant model

Unfortunately for Tallie, in this model, she's going to need to get hit with a rock a countably innite number of
times to precisely locate the Frozen Flame. Fortunately for Tallie, there's a such thing as good enough in this
model.
Tallie got hit with a rock at the point

P1

in the following gure. To her surprise, she felt nothing. Thus, she knows

that the Frozen Flame is nearby. More precisely, she knows it falls within the region bounded by the red circle in
the following gure:

Figure 6: Step 0 in locating the Flame

P2 . Someone will then

180 in the other direction

The rst step is to have Tallie pick some point at the edge of the red circle, which we'll call
throw a rock at her. Either the rock hurts or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then take the point
on the edge of the circle and call

that P2

instead. Either way,

P2

will be out of the boundary of the Frozen Flame:

Figure 7: Step 1 in locating the Flame

The third step is to recursively take midpoints along the line segment, narrowing down the boundary to as close as
you want. To illustrate this, we do the next two steps of the cycle:
Take the midpoint of

P1

and

P2

and call it

If it is, then the boundary is between

P2

P3 . Test P3 to
P3 . If it is,

and

see if it's within the bounds of the Frozen Flame or not.

then the boundary is between

line segment on which the boundary lies and take the midpoint of it, labelling it

P4 .

P1

and

P3 .

Consider the

Continue in the same fasion

until you are suciently close to the boundary:

Figure 8: Illustration of the next 2 points. We know that the boundary is between

Label the nal point in this process

B1 .

Now, pick a new point

Q1

B2

and

P1 Q1

using the midpoint

and do similarly for a third point along the Flame's boundary,

P3 .

along the circumfrence of the big red circle

(make sure it's outside the bounds of the Flame) and nd the Flame's boundary along
method described above. Label it

P6

B3 :

Figure 9: Final step in locating the Flame

The circumcenter to triangle

B1 B2 B3

will be the location of the Frozen Flame.

(As a note, other points can be used to nd points along the boundary of the the Frozen Flame's eect.

For

example, rather than turning 180 degrees for step 1 if the chosen point is within the bounds of the Frozen Flame,
you can dene point

2.2.2

P3

as the point such that

P2

is the midpoint of

P1 P3

and proceed from there.)

Rational Model

The rational model is a bit more involved for nding the center, however it will require fewer tests.
triangulation, which can't be done with a non-continuous model like the piecewise constant.

It utilizes

We have the same

initial gure, with some slight variations.

()
100 where Tallie is standing) or Tallie felt less than 100.
1 (100) = 562.5 24 meters in any direction, and test again. If she felt

5
a 100 again, then have her turn around 180 and walk 48 meters. She should feel between 1 and 100 . Say she
feels some level of power p at this point P1 . Then that means we can limit limit the location of the Frozen Flame
q
1
down to the perimeter of the circle centered at P1 with a radius of
(p) = 56250
p . Find two more points P2
and P3 for which is between 1 and 100 and draw the appropriate circles around them. These three circles should
Either Tallie felt a

If she felt a

100,

100

on the protection scale (i.e.

then have Tallie walk

intersect at a common point. That common point is the location of the Frozen Flame:

Figure 10: And done.

5 I'm

actually not certain about this. I'm not particularly in the mood to do the math to verify this. If it turns out not to be the

case, then nd some more creative ways to get to a point where Tallie feels between 1 and 100. I'm sure you can do it.

References
[1] ScytheRider.

"Chapter

69

Math."

DeviantArt.

N.p.,

<http://www.deviantart.com/journal/Chapter-69-Math-637182325>.

29

Sept.

2016.

Web.