tbhp wrote: ↑29 April 2026, 21:17
BarnardsStar wrote: ↑29 April 2026, 06:14
nik592 wrote: ↑29 April 2026, 02:09
whatever coding someone thinks might be being implemented to favour someone other than them.
As a software developer, this is the part that really speaks to me. For some games like poker or yahtzee, it is at least somewhat plausible the game could be rigged. For most games, forget it. In most games, the level of analysis needed to actually rig the game for somebody or against somebody else is just… well, it’s a lot.
Well it depends. It would be pretty simple to code if you simply focused on the last turn of each player. The system already is programmed to be able to calculate each player's score, so it would be as simple as a code that says "roll, if the returned resources make the wrong player win, then roll again", so it would keep rolling until it benefits the player it wants to win.
Of course, this only works for the cases where a game is close and the last rolls are decisive. But if you have the goal of advantaging certain players, you don't need a code that makes it happen for every game, you just need to have it happen often enough that those particular players will feel a more positive experience on average.
If the returned resources make the wrong player win? It's not just a matter of if a player has a bird in their hand that eats two worms, and the dice roll two worms, well, that's that. What if it's not that player's turn (or are you saying that it will only roll favourably on their specific turn)? Sometimes you get a lucky break that someone else rolls the dice, and leaves the two worms you need in the tray for your next turn. What if you're only able to draw one food, not two? What if you're on the level where you can draw one food and an extra if you discard a card? Is the system working out if you have a card spare, or if it would make logical sense to toss Card B just to play Card A? What if you're not planning to play Card A? What if Card A isn't actually worth playing against Card B, which is worth fewer points, but counts toward round-end goals/hidden objectives? What if you have an action before you can play Card A that requires you to discard or tuck a card - and doing so with Card A makes the most strategic sense? What you're describing would have such a minimal effect that I doubt anyone (either the player being favoured, or their opponent) would notice.
In addition, people usually say that "premium" players get rigged advantage. What if all players at a table are premium? Yes, I realise they can decide by something else, but doing so adds another level of complexity to the code. The more complexity, the more risk of bugs. At minimum, there's probably a half dozen lines of code for even the most BASIC rigging you could do (that would likely be largely pointless and almost indistinguishable from true randomness). That's still more complicated than saying, "var roll = rng(1,6);" or something. And what benefit is there to a volunteer dev to do this?
