I'm willing to bet that the "random" return destination for equally numbered / white and purple pikmin is actually a modulus function that cycles the onions in order, but currently have no way to prove this. If I were a Pikmin developer though, that's how I'd do it. While I find another copy of Pikmin 2 for myself (the first one got scratched up when I moved and I haven't had a reason to get another for awhile), take a look at this -> http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Modulus.html - VivixCore (talk • contribs)
- Fairly sure it was tested quite well and something like that would have been obvious. I don't remember trying it myself, though. GP 07:17, 1 September 2012 (EDT)
- Yeah, it was written on the old page that it was cycled via modulus, but nope. It's really random. It's simple to test it, and I did it when I wrote the article, both in (PAL GC) Pikmin and (PAL GC) Pikmin 2. Just have 1 Purple grab onto something and then calling it back and issuing it over and over. The color the Purple chooses seems to be completely random.
- If it were a modulus based on the number of times it was grabbed, it should be like: "grab, red, release, grab, yellow, release, grab, blue, release" over and over. If it were a modulus based on the number of "neutral" Pikmin carrying it, it should be like: "a Pikmin grabs, red, another grabs, yellow, another, blue" over and over. And yeah, neither proved out to be true. (Same things apply when there's a tie in Pikmin, not just for "neutral" Pikmin in Pikmin 2.) And now that we're discussing it, I personally feel like the Pikmin-number based one would be a horrible idea. If you only had 1 Purple with you and no other Pikmin, you'd be forced to pick the Red onion. But the "number-of-grabs" one would really be the best solution. Why they chose random is a bit of a mystery.— {EspyoT} 08:19, 1 September 2012 (EDT)
Speed research
I tried researching how the carrying speeds work in Pikmin 2. Long story short: I can't reach any equation that defines all scenarios. But I did reach some other conclusions. Because getting the Pikmin to cooperate is so hard sometimes, and because I was quickly finding out that it'll be impossible to find a pattern this way, I just skipped some cases entirely.
Notes
- I used Dolphin and its builtin frame counter to measure times. So, I didn't really measure speeds as much as I did trip times.
- Timing starts when the carrying numbers change to the destination color with the correct number of carriers.
- Timing ends when the carrying numbers turn gray at the Onion.
- I used the 10-pellet at the landing site of the Valley of Repose, and the Blue Onion as the target, since it's the one farthest away from the pellet (longer times = less margin for errors)
- I'm assuming Blues are just as fast as Reds and Yellows, naturally.
Blue Pikmin
- 10 leaves
- 786 frames
- 20 leaves
- 568 frames
- 10 flowers
- 569 frames
- 11 flowers
- 539 frames
- 12 flowers
- 512 frames
- 13 flowers
- 488 frames
- 14 flowers
- 466 frames
- 15 flowers
- 446 frames
- 16 flowers
- 428 frames
- 17 flowers
- 410 frames
- 18 flowers
- 395 frames
- 19 flowers
- 380 frames
- 20 flowers
- 367 frames
- 10 spicy leaves
- 569 frames
- 20 spicy leaves
- 367 frames
- 10 spicy flowers
- 569 frames
- 20 spicy flowers
- 367 frames
Purples
- 1 flower
- 1164 frames
- 2 flowers
- 1066 frames
- 10 flowers
- 641 frames
- 20 flowers
- 426 frames
- 1 leaf
- 1232 frames
- 10 leaves
- 927 frames
- 1 spicy leaf
- 1158 frames
- 10 spicy leaves
- 638 frames
Whites
- 10 leaves
- 444 frames
- 20 leaves
- 271 frames
- 10 flowers
- 366 frames
- 11 flowers
- 343 frames
- 12 flowers
- 322 frames
- 13 flowers
- 303 frames
- 14 flowers
- 287 frames
- 15 flowers
- 272 frames
- 16 flowers
- 259 frames
- 17 flowers
- 247 frames
- 18 flowers
- 236 frames
- 19 flowers
- 226 frames
- 20 flowers
- 216 frames
- 10 spicy leaves
- 366 frames
- 20 spicy leaves
- 216 frames
- 10 spicy flowers
- 366 frames
- 20 spicy flowers
- 216 frames
Mixed
- 1 flower Purple + 1 flower Blue
- 1078 frames
- 5 flower Blues + 5 flower Whites
- 446 frames
- 9 flower Whites + 1 flower Blue
- 380 frames
- 9 flower Blues + 1 flower White
- 539 frames
Special case
- 1 Purple leaf with the "capacity" setting set to 0 in the in-game files (theoretically, the "base" speed)
- 1282 frames
Conclusions
- Ultra-spicy spray basically makes the Pikmin act as if it is a flower. Meaning that if you spray a group of flower Pikmin, it will not affect their carrying speed.
- Flower Pikmin are not twice as fast as leaf Pikmin. Exactly how fast they are depends on the Pikmin type.
- Blue flowers are 1.3838 times faster than leaves.
- Purple flowers are 1.09193 times faster than leaves.
- White flowers are 1.21311 times faster than leaves.
- Twice the number of Pikmin does not mean twice as fast a trip. Exactly how fast they are depends on the Pikmin type.
- Twice the number of Blues are 1.3838 times faster
- Twice the number of Purples are 1.09193 times faster
- Twice the number of Whites are 1.63838 times faster
- In addition...
- 10 times the number of Purples are 1.81591 times faster
- 20 times the number of Purples are 2.73239 times faster