Awesome aliens. My system is slightly different, but I'll come back to that as functionally the maths works out the same.
This is the value you had for "drawing a single alien over two draws".
I'm not totally sure why you'd need the second value, as a first draw 'success' (by which I take it you'd find a 'Green') doesn't affect the overall outcome.
Right, I'm glad that you and I get to the same number but it interests me that the way you've done it describes clearly what the result means. In this case, the chances of getting at least one alien (but maybe two) at a particular point is 37.8%.
The thing I'm having trouble with is figuring out what is meant by the second number...
That said, the value of 37.8% is good enough for what I'm needing. I'm looking at the odds of anything spawning, in a given turn, at a particular spawn point. Here's why...
Mission: Hack the ship's computer.
Phase 1: Marines move through the ship, fighting off aliens, to get to the command centre. When they start the hack, begin phase 2.
Phase 2: Marines are attacked in heavy waves while hacking. When the hack completes, begin phase 3.
Phase 3: Marines evacuate through a nearby door they've opened by hacking.
In phase 1, aliens appear at any of 4 spawn points (1-4), but points 2 and 3 are ones they prefer. Thus, the spawn deck contains 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 (6 cards).
In phase 2, aliens stop appearing at points 1 and 4, slow down in 2 and 3, but now spawn at 5, 6 and 7. New distribution of 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7 (12 cards).
In phase 3, the manic spawn at points 6 and 7 dies down but aliens are still coming from all over. Distribution of 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7 (10 cards).
What I want to know is for a given spawn point across the phases, how does its usage potential change. I assess this based on the likelihood of at least a single alien spawning at that point. Clearly, in the examples above, there are fluctuations. The interesting thing is that the fluctations aren't as wild as they at first feel.