Board Game Arena, Catan, virtual dice and randomness - a short trial

[Stroom]

tl;dr: Another person does not understand probabilities and whines on RNG.

Just... stop it already. Catan is a random game and the dice would hardly ever end up in a good-enough bell curve over ~70 rolls.

[Mathew5000]

tl;dr: Another person does not understand probabilities and whines on RNG.

Just... stop it already. Catan is a random game and the dice would hardly ever end up in a good-enough bell curve over ~70 rolls.

Based on everything he wrote in this thread, Muntzer clearly has a better understanding of probability than you do, Stroom. His conclusion was wrong only because of BGA's confusing way of presenting the tabulation of rolls after each game.

[SluggerBaloney]

Deleted

[Jellby]

Because both methods generate pseudo random numbers based on different inputs, computer generated pseudo random results FEEL very different than human generated pseudo random results.

Here we disagree. They are different, yes, but if they are any decent (any non-trivial RNG and non-loaded die), they must feel the same, because humans cannot "feel" randomness. Any difference in "feeling" is due to the different speed, interface, and perhaps expectations.

[Stroom]

If the system is set up so that the game requests a dice roll from a central server, then the random numbers would be shared between all games. So, the random number you actually get, is received quite randomly as you can't predict which way the requests are coming in.

Still, the RNG is pretty OK. You just don't like that the RNG is not as you expect it to be... which is the point of RNG in the first place.

[bagofnails]

(Also posted in the other thread.)

I have read this thread, and went on BGA to play a quick game. It is not BGA's version that I am done with, it is Catan in General. Three player game, the first twenty or so moves we are all fairly equal, on 3,4and 5 points. Then I have an extended string of bad luck on the dice. I stand still on five points and both players overtake me, to the point where the person who was on three points is now on nine points and I am fully blocked in, unable to expand in any direction. I did nothing wrong, and my game is effectively over. I had a sort of similar instance of this in real life a few weeks ago, but with an opposite result for myself. I think my position was ok, but the die were just terrible for me early in the game. The dice even out a bit after a time and I claw my way back to aybe being on five points versus seven and nine for mny opponents. Then the dice just fall for me pretty much every turn, and I win the game. The person who was on nine points just stood still for twenty minutes, not being able to do anything at all.

May as well play snakes and ladders.

[Jellby]

(Also posted in the other thread.)

Don't.