Board Game Arena

DrKarotte wrote: ↑20 September 2020, 17:43 If it would be some kind of app where you play against AI - ok, that would worth to observe. But here on BGA: Why should there be something in the code which causes the game to favor your opponents? It is strange to even think about that.

I think there are two reasons why people think that.

a) they underestimate the extent that luck plays in even fairly strategic games
b) they aren't quite as good as they think they are

edit: and reason number three

c) they don't notice the times that the dice are kind to them

I have downloaded the source as I am adding some options and variants.

On the developer site, it says this:

About random and randomness

A large number of board games rely on random, most often based on dice, cards shuffling, picking some item in a bag, and so on. This is very important to ensure a high level of randomness for each of these situations.

Here's are a list of techniques you should use in these situations, from the best to the worst.

Dice and bga_rand

bga_rand( min, max ) This is a BGA framework function that provides you a random number between "min" and "max" (inclusive), using the best available random method available on the system.

This is the preferred function you should use, because we are updating it when a better method is introduced.

As of now, bga_rand is based on the PHP function "random_int", which ensures a cryptographic level of randomness.

In particular, it is mandatory to use it for all dice throw (ie: games using other methods for dice throwing will be rejected by BGA during review).

...

I can confirm that the existing game uses the bga_rand function.

Just played the game as well. Compared to playing yahtzee in real life this is way diffrent. Definetly some shady things going on in the code

Randomness is a very interesting topic to study.

What seems a little bit counter-intuitive, but is absolutely true: It's just as likely to flip two heads in a row, as it is to flip a heads and then a tails.

This is just one simple example- but it shows how we tend to think that random should mean an even distribution of all possible outcomes. That's actually not what it means at all. In a way, it's kind of the opposite of what random means. Random means unpredictable.

If you're expecting to finally get a break after starting to have a losing streak, but your losing streak continues, then you didn't get what you were expecting -- you were surprised. That actually fits what random means a lot better than the idea of an even distribution of outcomes.

I admit it doesn't stop me from throwing an unwarranted hissy fit sometimes though.

So I guess the moral is, expect the unexpected.

Agreed. Rigged. A terrible game.

It's not just dice, I've found in carcassonne, the odds of the premium player just happening on the right tile at the right moment is beyond any coincidence I've found in FtF games. I'm firmly convinced that the site favours the paying players. Often it doesn't change the outcome of the game, but it happens too predictably to be random IMO.

Hey i have a question here about cheating in this game, one user i played against got a 6's yahtzee on its first and 2nd turns, and then a third one, not 6's, in the middle of the game. Igot one myself. Reason i think this could be a hacker is because he was always bragging about the next yahtzee he was going to get, and was close to another one many times during the game.

How can you tell if someone is cheating?

I do not think the game is intentionally rigged, but I do feel like the programming could be full of bugs.

BusterVA wrote: ↑09 December 2021, 23:32I have rolled 5 consecutive Yahtzee's in this game, all 6's, and all on the first roll of each turn. I am not sure what the statistical odds of this are, but I am guessing in the millions. Odds of doing it ocne is 1/7776. But then do do it 5 times in a row??

For any Yahtzee:
first roll doesn't matter (you can do six different yahtzee: 11111, 55555...). So probability to do one in one roll is 1/6^4=1/1296
Probability to do five in a row will be 6^20=3.65*10^15 way higher the upper bound of the 'impossible' (which is around 10^12).

But for only sixies it will be even worst: 6^25=2.84*10^19.
Do you have the link of the game(s) for the yahtzee on a row? If you didn't miss anything, there is something wrong for sure. But regulary, people remember wrongly what happen to them/exaggerate what happen, which can make calculation of probability completely false.

hahaha