Am I the only one who finds the fact that the AI of some pretty popular board games just flat out cheats by manipulating dice rolls to be utterly incomprehensible and inexcusable? The whole reason I even WANT to play board games on my phone is so that I don't have to play them in real life, where people usually cheat in one way or another (especially in Monopoly!). Now, I'm not a huge board game fanatic, but I have Monopoly and Catan, and both seem to manipulate dice rolls to the AI's advantage and it's quite frankly really annoying. Is there no way to make the dice rolls truly random, and instead code different AI behaviors for difficulty (for example, by valuing trades differently, being more/less aggressive with certain strategies, etc)? Am I alone on this? It really makes me just not want to play the games and sorry I wasted the money on them. Any other games that manipulate dice rolls in the AI's favor to avoid?
Well, I really don't see any other way of simulating "difficulty" with the idiotic AI besides giving them unbelievable dice rolls.
Risk on the Macintosh was notorious for this. This sort of thing isn't exclusive to board games. It's a cheap way to introduce more difficulty without having to create smarter AI.
I wouldn't call it "cheap"; it's more "lazy". AI is hard to program, and the easiest way to add a degree of intelligence is to give the computer a slight advantage with an extremely basic AI.
Well I mean I understand that its a method to make the game more difficult, but Monopoly [not Here & Now] is just annoyingly rigged. Like seriously, I land on all the AI's property and it always avoids mine barely and picks up the cards etc. Idk, just annoying.
Uhhh..I couldn't even tell you, I haven't played it in a long time because that problem put me off of the game. Does the difficulty have something to do with it?
Oh well yea, but I don't think I was playing on Hard. I was probably on Easy just cause..well just because its easier
Yea thats what is so dumb about it..I play on Easy because I want a fun casual experience, but instead its just too annoying. I mean seriously, it just 'happens' to land on all the good property, have enough money to build hotels, and then I land on one and BAM. I'm screwed. I went through some reviews awhile ago, and a lot of people complained about the same thing, so at least its not just me
coding randomness (which is always some algorithm emulating randomness, since real randomness isn't a thing that can be done by a CPU) generally requires some kind of tweaks. For example, I can remember Apple having to make the randomness in iTunes actually "less random" in order to make it look "more random" (for example, excluding multiple choices on a row by the same musician and such). not sure if it has anything to do with the discussion, just adding some considerations on the topic.
I'm not even sure how I would program AI in monopoly. I always thought of that as a game of chance, not skill. How many times did you play before you concluded this? There's no cheating in any of our board games like battleship or connect4. If anyone wants a promo code, just pm me and let me know how the AI is. I modeled the connect4 AI after the way I play.
I played at least 6 games..it doesn't sound like many, but more than enough to confirm my suspicions.
I have found that I am ALWAYS at a disadvantage playing games that rely on the dice. Backgammon is the biggest offender - has been since the beginning of that game on the computer/handhelds. I am a pretty good backgammon player and can get my opponent into some sticky situations. However as an example - having my home board full - with say an open 5 pip - 3 opponent pieces on the bar - voila the AI rolls double 5's. Sure that can be "chance" but it just happens SO SO much that I have abandoned the chance idea and look at it as just one more handicap I have to face. Sure makes playing human opponents easier! I absolutely love backgammon so I play it no matter what - but tend to stay away from the traditional Monopoly/Game of Life/insert dice rolling game here games just to avoid the possible frustration. Its nice to hear that you have randomized the rolls so I might just have to break my self made rule. And no matter the level of difficulty, dice rolling is random no matter how you look at it! I think (to keep the backgammon example), I expect in playing at different levels that the AI will know to make a block, play the back game, keep an anchor, etc, instead of whoa look at the skill of rolling constant doubles!
