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FIX - THE - DICE

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FIX - THE - DICE

Postby Murphalot on Sat Mar 05, 2022 5:16 am

...or, -this being the 1st time I've been able to spare $$$ for a quarterly PREMIUMship since joining in 2007 - i'm deadbeating.
17 days of Premium now, my dice stats in 4/5 of my games played w/majority adversaries are in the RED: both for battles and rolls. Double digits half the time. Began playing a 'Quest for the BLUE Stars' auto-tourney. the drops were a disadvantage and the dice have scheistered any chance of recovery.

"Enemy attacks me with 9 vs. 8= enemy only loses 2, i lose all 8."
"I fight enemy with 9 vs. 8= enemy keeps 6 standing(loses 2), I lose 7." :?:

"oh look! ...i can clinch the balance of this here game by popping that stack of 14. lemme just plop 34 armies down here, ahhh yes, good. Ok lets do this...."
*loses 32, kills 11 ; enemy has 3 armies standing* .... :?:
Yeah.


Somebody here has access to correct the this shit. FIX THE F**KING DICE, and the algorithm that has plagued this once bustling hub of enjoyment, turning it into a shadow of its former self.

I was all excited like a little kid to finally get my own PREMIUM membership 2.5 weeks ago. and drafted a big post on how to make my time of use for volunteering, making fixes, testing out maps. Joining tons of tourneys. made dozens of games, sending invites, updating friend list, purged foe list, and was close to buying CC credits to do giveaways and learn to host a tourney.

F u c k t h a t


This mess changes now. Tell us how we can help whoever the person is that has access to write code for the dice. Everyone talks about it because we all know its' true.


...and it IS the main reason we went from +25,000 monthly actives, down to a ghost town.
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ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Murphalot on Fri Mar 18, 2022 7:44 pm

Your worthless, shitty, RIGGED, clumsy, unbalanced, game enjoyment-destroying, DICE algorithm.

Who are the ADMIN's; OWNER's of this website that for +10-11 years, have stood by scratching their heads while THOUSANDS of members have abandoned CC.... ?
Who do I speak to in order to get this message through?

- it is NOT occasional verbal abuse
- it is not biased truces/alliances
- it is not personal matters unbeknownst to any others
- it is not collective change of internet gameplay dynamics, and enhanced tech desires
.....that are the primary cause of declining traffic.

it is the DICE, ruining game after game after game after game after game. And ruining Tourny after Tourny after Tourny after Tourny...

Your efforts to diversify game dynamics within the website are commendable, as is your enthusiasm and passion for keeping this ship running. Most operations and features of CC are tip-top. Your FAILURE to acknowledge the algorithm as the main reason of disinterest and dissuasion, continues to be the main problem you refuse to solve.

Why.......?
Why won't you amend & correct the changes made to the DICE algorithms in 2011/2012?
Have you been 'locked-out' of the access codes to be able to do this?
Did you forget how to rectify this nonsensical algorithm?
Is a former Admin holding access to the DICE, hostage?
.....maybe you are afraid to make any corrections because doing so would be the admission that for more than a f**king decade, thousands of members have been screwed over by a problem you previously denied was even an issue, when you could have just fixed it?

I am on day 32 of a quarterly membership. My first ever. I will NOT be returning unless you fix the DICE, and prove that you have done so.
the MAJORITY of my adversaries in Tournaments, and more than 50% of the games I play, admit in the chat, that they find they are receiving unexplainable luck and that my games and enjoyment of them - are being tarnished.
This is not blamable on my 'skill'.
EVERYBODY KNOWS THERE IS A PROBLEM.

Please, can a person of high authority on this domain, address the severity of this issue, and the reason as to WHY you have refused to correct the unfair DICE roll program that has caused +20,000 ppl to vanish from this site since 2010.

....unless you prefer to keep hands in pockets, stay silent + point fingers at me for 'overacting' because 'maybe it happens to everyone', and claim to remain oblivious that it is a problem.

would be a shame if my membership was about to expire and I found myself in +25 tournies and +100 games. would be a shame.
Another digit added to the members of years past... another digit that could have been supported, and recognized as having a legitimate concern - that was dismissed.
I write this because i want to know how I can HELP!! I want to be able to enjoy these games without hitting a 10-stack of enemy armies with 50, just to lose 48-8.
This shit needs to end, or your website will continue to wither away. Tell us all why you:
A) are unable to fix this problem
B) are unwittingly supporting the destructive algorithm
C) are choosing to ignore our pleas for a fix for +10 years

.....do you need the assistance of a hacker/coder to fix this problem? Or are you actively supporting this ongoing horseshit? because it ain't working.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Nut Shot Scott on Fri Mar 18, 2022 9:53 pm

I personally really enjoyed the 3-30 I rolled the other day. 8-48 sounds pretty fun too.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Extreme Ways on Sat Mar 19, 2022 2:06 pm

Vast amount of new recruits that leave have likely not rolled more than 10 dice.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jfm10 on Sat Mar 19, 2022 3:04 pm

Not knowing to refresh the page is my opinion for most new people not staying.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Shannon Apple on Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:02 pm

I joined this site in 2009 and back then, there were threads like this "hurr durr, the dice are broken." I've had games where the dice screwed me over, but so what? Shit happens.

IT IS A GAME OF LUCK, and strategy, but it's 50% luck and the more people realise that the happier they'll be. A really good player can sometimes offset bad luck with good strategy and still win a game, but sometimes, there's no coming back from a slew of terrible rolls. Do you really expect the rolls to go your way every time you sit around a table and play a physical board game. I remember playing games as simple as Ludo and couldn't feckin roll a 6 to get onto the board, when everyone else is running away with it. Were the dice broken? I mean, they were being thrown out of a container. It's just shitty luck. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Are you happy when that 10 stack of yours knocks down a 28? I bet you are. But it doesn't happen that often. At least I don't see it happening often enough to make me rage.

The important thing in this game is if the dice go against you, know when to stop attacking.

1v1 games are more about luck than any other type. If you have two players who are equally skilled at the game facing off against each other, that's going to get decided by dice.

I'm not saying the dice are perfect, but we all get the same deal, so I don't see the issue.

Literally every Risk game I've come across online have people complaining about the dice. I've played some of them purely out of curiosity, same deal. You have dice streaks.

It's not the dice that is losing us players. Unfortunately youngsters like shiny things, and CC looks like the internet did when I was a teen myself in 00s. They want it to look more like candy crush or something, except with tanks. :P
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby 2dimes on Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:13 pm

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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Sat Mar 19, 2022 9:36 pm

Shannon Apple wrote:I joined this site in 2009 and back then, there were threads like this "hurr durr, the dice are broken." I've had games where the dice screwed me over, but so what? Shit happens.

IT IS A GAME OF LUCK, and strategy, but it's 50% luck and the more people realise that the happier they'll be. A really good player can sometimes offset bad luck with good strategy and still win a game, but sometimes, there's no coming back from a slew of terrible rolls. Do you really expect the rolls to go your way every time you sit around a table and play a physical board game. I remember playing games as simple as Ludo and couldn't feckin roll a 6 to get onto the board, when everyone else is running away with it. Were the dice broken? I mean, they were being thrown out of a container. It's just shitty luck. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Are you happy when that 10 stack of yours knocks down a 28? I bet you are. But it doesn't happen that often. At least I don't see it happening often enough to make me rage.

The important thing in this game is if the dice go against you, know when to stop attacking.

1v1 games are more about luck than any other type. If you have two players who are equally skilled at the game facing off against each other, that's going to get decided by dice.

I'm not saying the dice are perfect, but we all get the same deal, so I don't see the issue.

Literally every Risk game I've come across online have people complaining about the dice. I've played some of them purely out of curiosity, same deal. You have dice streaks.

It's not the dice that is losing us players. Unfortunately youngsters like shiny things, and CC looks like the internet did when I was a teen myself in 00s. They want it to look more like candy crush or something, except with tanks. :P


Well said, Shannon.

People need to realize that LUCK is a huge factor in this game. If you don't want luck, good or bad, then go play chess.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Evil Semp on Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:49 am

jusplay4fun wrote:
Shannon Apple wrote:I joined this site in 2009 and back then, there were threads like this "hurr durr, the dice are broken." I've had games where the dice screwed me over, but so what? Shit happens.

IT IS A GAME OF LUCK, and strategy, but it's 50% luck and the more people realise that the happier they'll be. A really good player can sometimes offset bad luck with good strategy and still win a game, but sometimes, there's no coming back from a slew of terrible rolls. Do you really expect the rolls to go your way every time you sit around a table and play a physical board game. I remember playing games as simple as Ludo and couldn't feckin roll a 6 to get onto the board, when everyone else is running away with it. Were the dice broken? I mean, they were being thrown out of a container. It's just shitty luck. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Are you happy when that 10 stack of yours knocks down a 28? I bet you are. But it doesn't happen that often. At least I don't see it happening often enough to make me rage.

The important thing in this game is if the dice go against you, know when to stop attacking.

1v1 games are more about luck than any other type. If you have two players who are equally skilled at the game facing off against each other, that's going to get decided by dice.

I'm not saying the dice are perfect, but we all get the same deal, so I don't see the issue.

Literally every Risk game I've come across online have people complaining about the dice. I've played some of them purely out of curiosity, same deal. You have dice streaks.

It's not the dice that is losing us players. Unfortunately youngsters like shiny things, and CC looks like the internet did when I was a teen myself in 00s. They want it to look more like candy crush or something, except with tanks. :P


Well said, Shannon.

People need to realize that LUCK is a huge factor in this game. If you don't want luck, good or bad, then go play chess.


I also think one of the problems is people don't see when they are attacked they don't see that their defense defeated 30 with a 10 stack. How many times do you go to play your turn and you have 1 territory left with only 1 troop? You see the chat where someone complains that their dice quit on them. We do get good dice we just don't see it all the time.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Sun Mar 20, 2022 1:45 pm

In one of the other 500 threads complaining about dice, I said that most persons credit their GREAT Strategy for a win. They also blame their loss on bad dice (and/or bad luck); their strategy cannot be the reason for their LOSS.

They forget when good dice helps give them a win.

Also, losses, especially painful losses, are more likely remembered as compared to a good win.

So, basically, I agree with Evil Semp, regarding those who forget about Good Dice.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby degaston on Mon Mar 21, 2022 2:08 am

Shannon Apple wrote:I joined this site in 2009 and back then, there were threads like this "hurr durr, the dice are broken." I've had games where the dice screwed me over, but so what? Shit happens.

IT IS A GAME OF LUCK, and strategy, but it's 50% luck and the more people realise that the happier they'll be. A really good player can sometimes offset bad luck with good strategy and still win a game, but sometimes, there's no coming back from a slew of terrible rolls. Do you really expect the rolls to go your way every time you sit around a table and play a physical board game. I remember playing games as simple as Ludo and couldn't feckin roll a 6 to get onto the board, when everyone else is running away with it. Were the dice broken? I mean, they were being thrown out of a container. It's just shitty luck. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Are you happy when that 10 stack of yours knocks down a 28? I bet you are. But it doesn't happen that often. At least I don't see it happening often enough to make me rage.

The important thing in this game is if the dice go against you, know when to stop attacking.

1v1 games are more about luck than any other type. If you have two players who are equally skilled at the game facing off against each other, that's going to get decided by dice.

I'm not saying the dice are perfect, but we all get the same deal, so I don't see the issue.

Literally every Risk game I've come across online have people complaining about the dice. I've played some of them purely out of curiosity, same deal. You have dice streaks.

It's not the dice that is losing us players. Unfortunately youngsters like shiny things, and CC looks like the internet did when I was a teen myself in 00s. They want it to look more like candy crush or something, except with tanks. :P


In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Mon Mar 21, 2022 3:40 am

degaston wrote:
Shannon Apple wrote:I joined this site in 2009 and back then, there were threads like this "hurr durr, the dice are broken." I've had games where the dice screwed me over, but so what? Shit happens.

IT IS A GAME OF LUCK, and strategy, but it's 50% luck and the more people realise that the happier they'll be. A really good player can sometimes offset bad luck with good strategy and still win a game, but sometimes, there's no coming back from a slew of terrible rolls. Do you really expect the rolls to go your way every time you sit around a table and play a physical board game. I remember playing games as simple as Ludo and couldn't feckin roll a 6 to get onto the board, when everyone else is running away with it. Were the dice broken? I mean, they were being thrown out of a container. It's just shitty luck. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Are you happy when that 10 stack of yours knocks down a 28? I bet you are. But it doesn't happen that often. At least I don't see it happening often enough to make me rage.

The important thing in this game is if the dice go against you, know when to stop attacking.

1v1 games are more about luck than any other type. If you have two players who are equally skilled at the game facing off against each other, that's going to get decided by dice.

I'm not saying the dice are perfect, but we all get the same deal, so I don't see the issue.

Literally every Risk game I've come across online have people complaining about the dice. I've played some of them purely out of curiosity, same deal. You have dice streaks.

It's not the dice that is losing us players. Unfortunately youngsters like shiny things, and CC looks like the internet did when I was a teen myself in 00s. They want it to look more like candy crush or something, except with tanks. :P


In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.


In this current thread, I see no conclusive, definitive, and cogent proof. The opening post does not rise to that level of proof. In the thread you linked (and that was not clear and is rather ambiguous; I realized the link existed after I started my initial response) there are six pages. Do you want to offer the specific proof or specific post that you claim? I am not going to read all six pages to find what you call "it was proven." In the meantime, the arguments that Shannon and I offer are still valid. You did not offer any refutation of our points and thus they remain relevant, valid, and factual. One streak, no matter its length or odds cites, does not offer any real proof, imo.

Note that complaints about dice are the #1 complaint on CC. That is NO surprise to me, having read this "stuff" for several years now. In the off-topic thread, the #1 post is likely about trolls. Those are my claims.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby degaston on Mon Mar 21, 2022 10:20 am

jusplay4fun wrote:In this current thread, I see no conclusive, definitive, and cogent proof. The opening post does not rise to that level of proof. In the thread you linked (and that was not clear and is rather ambiguous; I realized the link existed after I started my initial response) there are six pages. Do you want to offer the specific proof or specific post that you claim? I am not going to read all six pages to find what you call "it was proven." In the meantime, the arguments that Shannon and I offer are still valid. You did not offer any refutation of our points and thus they remain relevant, valid, and factual. One streak, no matter its length or odds cites, does not offer any real proof, imo.

Note that complaints about dice are the #1 complaint on CC. That is NO surprise to me, having read this "stuff" for several years now. In the off-topic thread, the #1 post is likely about trolls. Those are my claims.


In this post, the then-owner of the site explains how the dice are generated.
The method is: back in 2010, a set of 50,000 dice rolls were generated by random.org. These values are used sequentially every time an attack is made, and when the end of the list is reached, it goes back to the beginning.

The problem with this is that when you re-use the same set of random numbers over and over again, it destroys the randomness. The most obvious way is that for any particular set of random numbers 1-6, it is unlikely that each of those numbers will occur exactly the same number of times. This was discovered in the thread I linked to. In this post, I showed that there was a bias for and against various numbers.
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And then showed that there was no way for this to occur with true random numbers.

This was admitted by an admin:
Metsfanmax wrote:
Agent 86 wrote:It still continues, so random.org has a serious problem..nothing random about these dice.

The dice weren't random, but as has been expressed earlier in this thread, it is not the fault of random.org.

My understanding is that they "fixed" it by adjusting the list to make sure that all of the numbers occur about equally.

But that doesn't fix the underlying problem which is that this system distorts the mathematical probability for every outcome.
For example, rolling seven 6's in a row should occur once out of 279,936 attempts. But with only 50,000 numbers in the data file, that sequence either appears, or it doesn't. If it appears once in the data, then it will be seen by a player five times more often than it should. If it is not in the data, then the player will never see it happen. Neither case is correct, and it can never be correct with the system being used. And though I don't think that this has much of an effect on the game, I can't really know for sure without seeing the data and the algorithm.

Having a flawed dice generation system means there is no effective response to those who say there is a problem, and shows that management does not care. (but I've known that for quite a while)
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby IcePack on Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:15 pm

AFAIK the new owner has stated the dice do not continue to use the 50,000 number you are referencing at all. Its been a few years, so I dont remember the exact statement / explanation but its been changed off that for awhile now and has been confirmed by the owner (that they dont use the thing you're linking to)
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Shannon Apple on Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:00 pm

degaston wrote:it is not random


You see this part? It's never going to be "random" per say. People have created some very sophisticated and expensive AIs in recent years that can simulate true randomness, but then is it really true randomness when it's following a random pattern of sorts? They learn from randomness in nature, like static noise and so on.

But, the random number generators that we are used to, it's just a computer picking a number. It's never going to be exactly the same as throwing a dice from a plastic cup.

degaston wrote:In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.


And from what I understood from speaking to someone on the team a few years ago that some restrictions were removed from the dice that make them as random as they can possibly be. I'm not sure what was meant by that personally, since I don't know how the site works "under the hood."

Oh, by the way, Metsfanmax was never an admin, he was a moderator. ;)
Last edited by Shannon Apple on Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:02 pm

Strike TWO..!
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Dukasaur on Tue Mar 22, 2022 5:36 am

IcePack wrote:AFAIK the new owner has stated the dice do not continue to use the 50,000 number you are referencing at all. Its been a few years, so I dont remember the exact statement / explanation but its been changed off that for awhile now and has been confirmed by the owner (that they dont use the thing you're linking to)

He did say that's no longer the system used, but refuses to say what replaced it. For all we know, the "adjusted" set that degaston is describing is exactly what is being done.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby IcePack on Tue Mar 22, 2022 7:16 am

Dukasaur wrote:
IcePack wrote:AFAIK the new owner has stated the dice do not continue to use the 50,000 number you are referencing at all. Its been a few years, so I dont remember the exact statement / explanation but its been changed off that for awhile now and has been confirmed by the owner (that they dont use the thing you're linking to)

He did say that's no longer the system used, but refuses to say what replaced it. For all we know, the "adjusted" set that degaston is describing is exactly what is being done.


Thanks for the clarity it’s been awhile since I dealt with it. But I thought he straight up confirmed at some point it’s not the 50k number at all anymore
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby degaston on Tue Mar 22, 2022 7:04 pm

Shannon Apple wrote:
degaston wrote:it is not random


You see this part? It's never going to be "random" per say. People have created some very sophisticated and expensive AIs in recent years that can simulate true randomness, but then is it really true randomness when it's following a random pattern of sorts? They learn from randomness in nature, like static noise and so on.

But, the random number generators that we are used to, it's just a computer picking a number. It's never going to be exactly the same as throwing a dice from a plastic cup.

degaston wrote:In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.


And from what I understood from speaking to someone on the team a few years ago that some restrictions were removed from the dice that make them as random as they can possibly be. I'm not sure what was meant by that personally, since I don't know how the site works "under the hood."

Oh, by the way, Metsfanmax was never an admin, he was a moderator. ;)


I thought I might be mislabeling Mets, but in any case, he was the closest thing to a site representative in the thread.

I know the difference between pseudorandom and true random, and I don't think this site needs true random or even cryptographically secure pseudorandom, but it should have a much much longer cycle length than 50,000. That's great if they've changed the method, but it shouldn't need to be a secret. If it's a good RNG, there shouldn't be any need for "restrictions" on the dice or trying to make them "as random as possible" (whatever the hell that means.)

Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:10 pm

degaston wrote:
Shannon Apple wrote:
degaston wrote:it is not random


You see this part? It's never going to be "random" per say. People have created some very sophisticated and expensive AIs in recent years that can simulate true randomness, but then is it really true randomness when it's following a random pattern of sorts? They learn from randomness in nature, like static noise and so on.

But, the random number generators that we are used to, it's just a computer picking a number. It's never going to be exactly the same as throwing a dice from a plastic cup.

degaston wrote:In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.


And from what I understood from speaking to someone on the team a few years ago that some restrictions were removed from the dice that make them as random as they can possibly be. I'm not sure what was meant by that personally, since I don't know how the site works "under the hood."

Oh, by the way, Metsfanmax was never an admin, he was a moderator. ;)


I thought I might be mislabeling Mets, but in any case, he was the closest thing to a site representative in the thread.

I know the difference between pseudorandom and true random, and I don't think this site needs true random or even cryptographically secure pseudorandom, but it should have a much much longer cycle length than 50,000. That's great if they've changed the method, but it shouldn't need to be a secret. If it's a good RNG, there shouldn't be any need for "restrictions" on the dice or trying to make them "as random as possible" (whatever the hell that means.)

Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.


Did you ever try the Dice and Dice Battles Tabs, under Medals and Stats, on your screen at Central Command. DO they provide what you want or suggested above? I know I check there when my dice seem to go badly against me, which is quite often, it seems to me.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby Dukasaur on Wed Mar 23, 2022 7:42 pm

jusplay4fun wrote:
degaston wrote:
Shannon Apple wrote:
degaston wrote:it is not random


You see this part? It's never going to be "random" per say. People have created some very sophisticated and expensive AIs in recent years that can simulate true randomness, but then is it really true randomness when it's following a random pattern of sorts? They learn from randomness in nature, like static noise and so on.

But, the random number generators that we are used to, it's just a computer picking a number. It's never going to be exactly the same as throwing a dice from a plastic cup.

degaston wrote:In this thread, it was proven that there was a problem with dice generation. As far as I know, all they did in response was tweak the table of dice numbers so that the symptom is no longer apparent. The system being used is worse than any pseudo-random generator out there. And while I don't believe it is biased for or against any player, it is not random, and therefore it is impossible to say exactly what effect it has on people's games.


And from what I understood from speaking to someone on the team a few years ago that some restrictions were removed from the dice that make them as random as they can possibly be. I'm not sure what was meant by that personally, since I don't know how the site works "under the hood."

Oh, by the way, Metsfanmax was never an admin, he was a moderator. ;)


I thought I might be mislabeling Mets, but in any case, he was the closest thing to a site representative in the thread.

I know the difference between pseudorandom and true random, and I don't think this site needs true random or even cryptographically secure pseudorandom, but it should have a much much longer cycle length than 50,000. That's great if they've changed the method, but it shouldn't need to be a secret. If it's a good RNG, there shouldn't be any need for "restrictions" on the dice or trying to make them "as random as possible" (whatever the hell that means.)

Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.


Did you ever try the Dice and Dice Battles Tabs, under Medals and Stats, on your screen at Central Command. DO they provide what you want or suggested above? I know I check there when my dice seem to go badly against me, which is quite often, it seems to me.

Of course he checks it. What do you think he used to compile the data in his 2013 study?

Did you even read it?

Just in case you haven't, here's the link again: https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=194323&start=75#p4304873

The fact is that after 2013 the system was changed to adjust for the problems that degas found there. The dice file was changed so it was no longer biased against 1s as it had been until 2013. However, removing bias is not the same as restoring randomness.

A sequence 1,1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,3,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,5,6,6,6,6,6 is not biased. It contains an equal number of each die side so that your Dice Stats will not show any bias. However, it is clearly not random, and will result in much more frequent streaks than a random set would. This is what degas has been warning us about.

I admit that I, at first, did not realize what he was saying from 2015 on. But he was the one who proved the pre-2013 dice bias, so I felt I had to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I kept reading his articles until I understood. The 2013 changes made the dice "more fair" in that they included an equal chance of every die roll. The bias WAS successfully removed. This is still not satisfactory. The fix was probably done by adding extra numbers to the file so that there was equal percentage of each. But that meant that there are huge areas of the file where certain numbers repeat, and although truly random sets are streaky, ours is vastly more streaky than a true random file.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Wed Mar 23, 2022 8:11 pm

I did not join CC until June 2013, so why would I read a post when I did not even know the Forum existed? Why would I care to read that far back? And, based on recent responses, it is OLD news now, so why bother?

That seems to be "water over the dam" now. JUS SAYING......

and if he, degaston, KNOWS, why does he even mention:
Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby degaston on Wed Mar 23, 2022 10:04 pm

jusplay4fun wrote:
degaston wrote:Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.


Did you ever try the Dice and Dice Battles Tabs, under Medals and Stats, on your screen at Central Command. DO they provide what you want or suggested above? I know I check there when my dice seem to go badly against me, which is quite often, it seems to me.

Yes, I'm aware of those, but they're not that useful.
(I just noticed that my dice stats appear to have been reset fairly recently. I wonder when and why that happened.)

It would be more useful if there was a way to download or get emailed a table of all your dice rolls on both offense and defense for some period of time. If anyone says that the dice are unfair, they could be told to show the analysis of their data to prove it or shut up.

jusplay4fun wrote:I did not join CC until June 2013, so why would I read a post when I did not even know the Forum existed? Why would I care to read that far back? And, based on recent responses, it is OLD news now, so why bother?

Gee, I don't know... Maybe because you're posting in a thread about dice problems, and you might like to learn something about how a problem was exposed in the past, and... Oh, forget it.

jusplay4fun wrote:That seems to be "water over the dam" now. JUS SAYING......

Yes, a couple of people have said that they heard from the owner that it's been changed... To what, exactly? Who knows - It's a secret - But I'm sure everything's fine. I mean, it's not like they could have switched from one flawed system to another, right?
Maybe it really is fine, but then why not let people know what it is?

jusplay4fun wrote:and if he, degaston, KNOWS, why does he even mention:
Providing a way for people to get a history of their dice rolls would also be a way to shut up the complainers, but I know that's not going to happen.

The site was already on the decline when you joined, but within about a year of that, almost all new development on the site stopped. This was especially noticeable with regard to mapmaking, where before, new game modes and mapmaking features had been coming out somewhat regularly, that all stopped. Soon the foundry dried up, and now there hasn't been a new map completed in over three years.
There used to be an active suggestions forum, and occasionally they were actually implemented. Now, when was the last time a change of any significance was made?

So yeah, I KNOW that nothing is going to be done to change the dice stats because:
  1. There's no money in it
  2. The owner shows no sign of caring about improving the site, and
  3. Even if he did care, improving the dice stats wouldn't even be on the top of my list for things to do.
But that doesn't mean I can't mention changes that I would like to see.
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Re: ANSWER: the sole reason for CC decline

Postby jusplay4fun on Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:53 am

Yes, I am aware that some dice algorithm or method has changed. IF you read more of the MANY threads complaining about dice, you would see that I have been rather consistent in my point of view. Most are JUST complaints about the current streak or pattern of dice the writer is going through at that moment. They fail to look a from a wider and larger perspective. Every now and then, someone posts something that is a bit more insightful or even helpful. Nut Shot Scott has the last such post, as I recall.

The exact nature of what occurred in the past is not a huge concern of mine; as I already said (twice in this thread, as I recall) that the past is "water over the dam." What can I do about it? Does that change my basic premise? (Nothing and NO, to be very lucid here.)

Yes, understanding the past MAY be helpful, but I do not see any of your key points as helpful. As I have posted a while back (and again, on several occasions), the decline of THIS site is not an issue unique to CC. Consider TV viewing as a comparison. Look too at Facebook or any other site you want to mention. Nearly all show decline, if they were significant at one time. I am aware of the decline of CC and Mookie mentioned this to me some 5-7 years ago as I became aware of this Forum and started to think about the relevant issues here.

There are MANY other options; there are many MORE places to play Risk or a variation of this great game. To blame the Dice ONLY is very myopic. I disagree with both degaston and the murphalot on the basic premise of this thread (in its title). The fact that there are many other options available is the BIGGEST reason for the decline of CC and therefore DICE is NOT THE SOLE reason. QED
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