Fri 17 Mar 2017 12:13:22 AM UTC, original submission:
Hello,
I only started playing at all seriously fairly recently but I find there are a few odd things about the higher levels of gnubg. If I use the gnubg dice then once the cube comes into play gnubg makes best possible rolls and I get worst possible. Not consistently but at a few key moments. I learned to play fairly recently and there is some comparison to playing with someone at a higher lever, but then...
I started using downloaded dice. I didn't get the above behaviour, but gnubg would make some odd moves, hit often, and close the board instantly when necessary. Hmm, way more like playing against a superior player. And I admit gnubg is better than I am, or, at least, able to point out better moves that I missed if I leave the tutor on.
Then I went and got a set of dice and, reluctantly, rolled for myself and gnubg. I haven't lost since I started rolling the dice. And I haven't cheated. And the games sort of feel like normal games.
I was getting to the point that I wouldn't play normal moves because at doubling time gnubg would hit any blots I had, regardless of the probabilities and close the board pretty much instantly. With manual dice I could play normally and get hit sometimes but not every time.
I suppose I can see some point to this at expert level, making the point that there may be freak doubles or other oddities because such items are constant if gnubg controls the dice, but in my case it has degraded my game. I stopped making correct decisions because I was accustomed to gnubg making consistent ridiculous rolls.
I hope that gnubg will go on a winning streak with manual dice as it will restore my faith. I know that streaks happen, as I had a winning streak against my teacher that was purely and obviously due to the dice.
I suppose more than a bug report I have a question: on the higher levels is part of the difficulty imposed by the dice? Subjectively I would say "yes, obviously" but I haven't analyzed the code yet, and I know the normal response is "you just play badly." I would agree completely except for the very, very notable differences between gnu dice, downloaded dice, and manual dice. It feels like a completely different game with different dice sources.
Thank you,
Junkgoof
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