Who programmed the dice?

[Gulchen]

I probably would've remained thinking this was fine, but as far as I can tell, BGA has silenced the
user who created this thread, via a non-exist report from the day after that user created this thread:

Go to ​ https://boardgamearena.com/player?id=90599461 , ​ click on ​ Reports: , ​ and try viewing any of what comes up.


BGA has not replied to my thread about this,
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34527
and that thread is now off the front page.

(If that thread were still on the front page, I would've waited a week before making this post.)

[Mathew5000]

I probably would've remained thinking this was fine, but as far as I can tell, BGA has silenced the
user who created this thread, via a non-exist report from the day after that user created this thread:

So your conclusion is what, that the owners of BGA had a meeting and said "oh no, after all this time our secret has been discovered! Hammi35 blew the lid off our conspiracy to program loaded dice by putting more 6's than usual in a few games. What should we do about it? Erase the thread where Hammi35 mentioned this? No, how about we leave the thread as is but limit the player's access to the site."

[Gulchen]

No: ​ ​ ​ Assuming that happened for the reason I was implying
(It could be that the limitations included being unable to post in the forums, but were not imposed due to this thread.)
, ​ I'd imagine that

the meeting would've been general guidelines for the dice issue, rather than specific to Hammi35
and
the dice issue would be due to ​ ​ ​ the RNG is buried in or intertwined with lots of other code, and BGA
doesn't know to fix it without breaking other things ​ , ​ ​ ​ rather than ​ ​ ​ BGA desires that it remains as-is

.

[cowboy_dan]

It could be that reports aren’t meant to be viewable by just anyone (though why the link is viewable is odd). Have you read reports on other members? This user was found guilty on five separate reports, between May and December. It doesn’t seem like a one-off thing.

[Gulchen]

I have not seen a ​ Reports: ​ item for any other user.

[wanderbee]

I am entirely convinced that the dice are not truly random. There are just too many situations that occur that statistically near impossible.

One example. Nearly every time I roll a 7 and rob someone, that person almost always then rolls a 7 immediately, robs me, and then no 7s for ages. This occurs so frequently that it is mind boggling.

Very often I experience games where no, or next to no, 8s are rolled. Happens incredibly often.

I also see runs, constantly, of good numbers for a single player resulting in that player (and yes sometimes me) winning with a shutout - 10-2-2. The numbers rolled are not always statistically common, but sometimes. Like a ton of 11's, or a ton of 3's. Just one after another. This happens often! So often that it can't really be explained as the dice are random and it happens.

I have seen MANY runs of the same number for like, 6+ rolls in a row. Yes it happens in real life, but the frequency of it happening in Catan is just excessive - beyond believable as being random.

Not saying the dice are "rigged" but I do believe that the random algo being used is heavily flawed.

I agree. I am entirely convinced it is based on gameplay. I played a few games where after someone is robbed, that number always rolls next. Even though one of the developers said they use a common random dice code and that it’s truly random, it’s really hard to believe. I think I’ll probably refrain from playing Catan online again. I rather play in person now.

[BusterVA]

The truth is, random numbers generated by computers is literally impossible. Computers follow rules. The same is in generating random numbers. They require a seed - replicate the seed and you get the same number over and over for instance.

They can be made to appear random, but true randomness is impossible for a computer.

[ErikLevin]

The truth is, random numbers generated by computers is literally impossible. Computers follow rules. The same is in generating random numbers. They require a seed - replicate the seed and you get the same number over and over for instance.

They can be made to appear random, but true randomness is impossible for a computer.

This is irrelevant to the issue at hand. The seed is environmental noise; not replicable or predictable.
There is an FAQ entry about this. https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... ing_random
This is the function used: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.random-int.php This function is cryptographically secure.

People think CSPRNGs are safe enough to create the tokens used to access your bank account with your life savings, but not good enough to roll dice in a game of Catan...

[rubee3n]

Too bad and false...