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Thank you for restating the obvious.jusplay4fun wrote:I am tired of talk about DICE. This topic has been beaten beyond DEAD.
I did a search in this Forum:
Search found 975 matches: dice
on 39 pages in this Forum alone.
It has to be the #1 complaint about Risk and on CC.
This game is called RISK (in the original board version in the USA) partly because of the element of chance (i.e., DICE and LUCK, Card, Drop, and a few other smaller variables) in the game. If you want to play without the element of LUCK, play Chess.
I have READ so many dice complaints in the past few years and am frankly gotten bored with all such complaints. I therefore ignored for a while THIS one for that reason.HerrHitzfeld wrote:Thank you for restating the obvious.jusplay4fun wrote:I am tired of talk about DICE. This topic has been beaten beyond DEAD.
I did a search in this Forum:
Search found 975 matches: dice
on 39 pages in this Forum alone.
It has to be the #1 complaint about Risk and on CC.
This game is called RISK (in the original board version in the USA) partly because of the element of chance (i.e., DICE and LUCK, Card, Drop, and a few other smaller variables) in the game. If you want to play without the element of LUCK, play Chess.
Does anyone have anything new or insightful to add?
This is an open conversation. Not a complaint forum.


HerrHitzfeld wrote:Thank you for restating the obvious.jusplay4fun wrote:I am tired of talk about DICE. This topic has been beaten beyond DEAD.
I did a search in this Forum:
Search found 975 matches: dice
on 39 pages in this Forum alone.
It has to be the #1 complaint about Risk and on CC.
This game is called RISK (in the original board version in the USA) partly because of the element of chance (i.e., DICE and LUCK, Card, Drop, and a few other smaller variables) in the game. If you want to play without the element of LUCK, play Chess.
Does anyone have anything new or insightful to add?
This is an open conversation. Not a complaint forum.
THIS one was not (intended) for complaining. In fact, more complaints and contemptuous replies have come from people who haven't offered anything to the discussion. I took it for granted that complaints about the dice have been beaten to death. I had no intention of making this thread into more of that. What I did intend for was to open discussion on why the dice get so many complaints. Why is it such a hot topic? Is it the algorithm? Does it represent true randomness? Is it human behavior? Is it because CC is so competitive? Would it be different if we weren't playing for ranks? Is it because the games are played over days or weeks instead of all at once as in real life? All these questions and more I was hoping to discuss. And a few people did offer some personal insight on these topics, which I appreciated. But you chose to interject despite not wanting to hear anything more on the topic. To be more negative than positive is an inherent trait of humans. Which is why it's hard to have a neutral discussion on a "controversial" topic.jusplay4fun wrote:I have READ so many dice complaints in the past few years and am frankly gotten bored with all such complaints. I therefore ignored for a while THIS one for that reason.
That may be true. However, I wanted to make a new thread (with a poll) where I could actively converse with people and at least try to lead the discussion to where I want it to go. And perhaps additional insights will be offered here in the future.jusplay4fun wrote:I have already offered my insights on many of the other threads in this Forum. I have re-read most of what is here in this one. I see no additional insights that have not been offered elsewhere.
Correct.jusplay4fun wrote:I will offer something that JUS occurred to me a few minutes ago. If one plays enough games, one will LIKELY see some of the "wild swings" and other rather improbable dice outcomes that many complain about. Playing lots of games of anything and one will see "Crazy" and improbable situations. The same for growing vegetables or raising animals (from birth). One will see deformities in living things that most of us do not encounter in "normal" views of such phenomenon.
Correct.jusplay4fun wrote:I will restate here for YOUR benefit what I said several places and that (I think it was Duk who said it HERE) we remember those dice scenarios that cause us to LOSE a key game. We remember that BAD dice that make us lose ONE, or a few games. We forget and/or do not even realize the games where good dice FOR US allow us to WIN. Losses HURT lots and MORE than most wins. We thus remember those painful losses for a long time and that VIEW obscures reality.
I can't imagine anybody would keep track of their dice stats other than just what they can recall from memory.jusplay4fun wrote:I will add that I do notice often where I lose 12v2 or similar unlikely scenarios. I do not keep track of those dice stats. When I do check dice stats, after a bad round, it rarely goes above minus 10% for me.
This is just a game. If a game provokes you with such strong negative emotions then you probably shouldn't play that game. I posted here to have a casual conversation about the dice. Nobody has to participate if they don't want to.jusplay4fun wrote:I tend to be one in life (real and here) that would rather MOVE ON and not dwell on failures of the past. I have made enough mistakes in life; dwelling on them will JUS bring me down. I do not need more negative news and painful memories; I already have plenty.
The reality of LUCK behind the dice is something that nobody can fully comprehend. Although, now that you mention it, that would be another good topic for discussion.jusplay4fun wrote:I doubt that you, in this thread, will get information that will give you great insight to accept the reality and the odds of DICE.
It probably is the #1 complaint. But again, you misunderstood the purpose of this thread.jusplay4fun wrote:btw: I searched "LUCK" in this same Forum and found only 9 such posts soon after I did the "DICE" search. THUS, as I already stated, dice is the #1 complaint about CC.

I wasn't trying to suggest that you were making irrational statements. I assumed you figured I was here to complain and nothing more and so I elaborated on my thought process for you. Something I probably should have done in my OP. To clarify further, I'm not hoping to achieve anything. I don't care about the dice. There's nothing I or anyone else can do to change what they are or what they do so complaining about them is a waste of breath. I ask, to put it very simply, because I'm a curious person. I think a lot and I like to know what other people think as well. If you noticed, I also commentedjusplay4fun wrote:I do not think that I am making statements that are irrational; I merely point out that I have engaged in several such discussions before and the complainers merely want to complain more.
I believe that Duk and I have offered insights on this topic, here and elsewhere. Have you gained insights from me or us? Or am I wasting my time?
Have you gained any insights from anyone at all? If so, I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.
I am not sure what you hope to achieve, other than perhaps a bit more of an understanding of the dice algorithm used on CC? IDK. Even if you do, does that allow you to "beat the odds"? I doubt that will happen. I read somewhere in my looking that someone made some comparisons to other games of chance, such as Blackjack. It is rare to beat the odds and the few who do eventually lose more than they gain, if they play long enough. And games of chance, like many things in life, can become addictive.
The one other idea (or insight) I will add that auto roll will allow a REALLY bad sequence of dice to to be played. If I roll my 3 (and hopefully will I rarely roll fewer) dice each turn, I can stop the SLIDE before I hit a really bad streak.
Have I experienced BAD DICE? SURE I have. Does that cause me to complain to my teammates? Of course. Do I whine about bad dice publicly? Hopefully not often. (BUT I will here.) Do I have good streaks and bad streaks of dice and luck? Sure. Do I get too emotional? NO, I JUSplay4Fun.
andHerrHitzfeld wrote:I'm sure an entire thread could be dedicated to just talking about what maps and settings make for the most strategy dependent and least luck dependent games.
So these kinds of things interest me. I've asked other people the same questions in private and gotten a different answer almost every time. So why not ask publicly in the forum and get some sort of general consensus? Well, to be honest, I didn't really want to ask because I don't like chatting in public forums. I really just wanted to put my poll out there and see the results. (Which, by the way, are turning out pretty much the way I expected them too.) My OP was only a filler so I could ask my poll question. Which is why I didn't lay my thoughts out at the start and why I am doing so now. I also realize that these questions can be obscure, hard to answer and easily misunderstood if not elaborated upon.HerrHitzfeld wrote:The reality of LUCK behind the dice is something that nobody can fully comprehend. Although, now that you mention it, that would be another good topic for discussion.

It was my mistake for not laying out the purpose I had for this thread. I edited some of my earlier posts to add my expanded thoughts on the things I said. So hopefully that will bring additional clarification.jusplay4fun wrote:Yes, I do appreciate your thoughtful responses. I failed to acknowledge that before; my apologies.
Most of the threads about dice are complaints and/or suggestions on how the poster feels the Dice can be "Fixed." I think I spent a good deal of time and some thought on the matter last summer, so my immediate reaction was: "OKAY, another thread to complain about dice." I appreciate what you are attempting, which apparently is a thoughtful discussion of the dice as they are "present" (by whatever program or algorithm is used here on CC). I am certainly not an expert on such things. I hope I present a rational way of viewing "Bad Dice."
Thanks. As I said, when I first saw this thread, I assumed (mistakenly) that this was another "Complaints about Dice" thread. I think there were a few of those posted, but most were not the usual (to put it succinctly) "Dice Suck"..!HerrHitzfeld wrote:It was my mistake for not laying out the purpose I had for this thread. I edited some of my earlier posts to add my expanded thoughts on the things I said. So hopefully that will bring additional clarification.jusplay4fun wrote:Yes, I do appreciate your thoughtful responses. I failed to acknowledge that before; my apologies.
Most of the threads about dice are complaints and/or suggestions on how the poster feels the Dice can be "Fixed." I think I spent a good deal of time and some thought on the matter last summer, so my immediate reaction was: "OKAY, another thread to complain about dice." I appreciate what you are attempting, which apparently is a thoughtful discussion of the dice as they are "present" (by whatever program or algorithm is used here on CC). I am certainly not an expert on such things. I hope I present a rational way of viewing "Bad Dice."
Also, I did go through and read some of the posts you made last year. You made some very good points. I especially liked the analogy you made about a ball being balanced at the top of a hill to represent the fragility of the first few rounds in a game and how both luck and strategy determine which way the ball is going to start rolling.

No worries. To be fair, my posts were rather ambiguous. Sorry about that.jusplay4fun wrote:Thanks. As I said, when I first saw this thread, I assumed (mistakenly) that this was another "Complaints about Dice" thread. I think there were a few of those posted, but most were not the usual (to put it succinctly) "Dice Suck"..!
A good thing to do in a place like this where any amount of ambiguity can so quickly and easily cause confusion or miscommunications. A lesson learned for myself.jusplay4fun wrote:I do put thought in most or many of my posts. I often edit some after thinking more about my points and arguments soon after I post.
I agree.jusplay4fun wrote:And I like simple analogies. Yes, they over-simplify things; however, I think they tend to be lucid and cogent.

So is that part of the problem some people have with the dice? Do they go into games with false expectations about dice luck simply out of ignorance? And if those expectations don't pan out the way they had expected, might they perceive the random number generator to be faulty or rigged? May be. As I said, I'm no expert.Dukasaur wrote:To the average player, it [true randomness] doesn't feel random. Most people "feel" that the dice should be balanced: if you get some really bad rolls, you are due for some really good rolls soon. Truly random sequences have long streaks of "more of the same".
I partially agree with you here. I don't think that there are too many luck variables or no way to mitigate them. I think CC is evenly split between luck and strategy. However, I do agree that a lot of games are over in the first few rounds of dice and to a lesser extent drop luck. Let me explain at least one reason why I think this is by sharing a small life story with you. I started playing Parker Brothers 1980 version of Risk when I was a kid. It was handed down to me from my older brothers. I immediately took a liking to it. I got as many of my friends and family to play it with me as I could, as often as I could. In 2011, with years of Risk experience now under my belt, I joined CC. I immediately took a liking to it as well. But in those early days that I was on this site, I kept feeling like it was much more difficult than the real life game. And I was even playing the most basic map and settings that you can play here. Five players, Classic map, escalating, chained, no fog. I thought I was already a pretty good Risk player, but it took quite some time before I felt that I was up to par with the average CC player. Which is the point I want to make here. The people that play on this website are probably some of the best Risk players in the world. I can't imagine anybody that plays here would have anyone they know IRL that could out-strategize them in a game of Risk. Unless of course they play on this site as well. But what I'm saying is, this website is extremely competitive. When you surround yourself with people who are just as good at a game as you are, people who literally have their strategy down to a science, the game, in a very broad and oversimplified sense, becomes a giant stalemate. Let me explain further with another example from my life. About a year ago, I started teaching a friend how to play Risk. For a while we had a lot of fun. I won most of the games simply because I was way better than he was but that didn't matter. We were both fighting to conquer the world and it was enjoyable for both of us. But the more we played, the more I taught him and the better he got, our enjoyment of the game began to decrease until it was no fun anymore and we stopped playing. Why? Because our skill levels began to equalize. It got to the point where we could barely get through two rounds before one of us raised the white flag. We could see that early on who was going to win and it just became pointless to play it out. And I think it's kind of a similar situation on CC. When everybody is so good, and when everybody plays a perfect strategy every time, there's nothing left to decide a game except luck. Which I think raises our awareness to the luck factor and hence also our awareness of bad luck which we tend to remember more both because we're human and that's what humans do and also because we know that we did everything else right. Now obviously this is a gross oversimplification, there are so many more factors at play here, especially on CC where we have much more complicated maps and settings. But I think in really luck dependent games, like a 1v1 on a small map, this will ring true for many players. So to summarize, CC is NOT primarily a dice luck game. It is just as much strategy as it is luck. It may just seem like it's primarily a dice luck game because we're all such good players. There's just as many strategic variables to the game as there are luck variables. In the regular game of Risk there may not be a way to mitigate the luck factor, but with all that CC has to offer, there are lots of ways to mitigate luck if that's what you want in your games.Nucker wrote:There are far too many luck variables and no way to mitigate them.
So basically CC is a game of dice luck primarily. A LOT of games are over in the first two rounds of dice and drop luck.
I think that's true. But I've never been able to think of a way to play Risk without any luck factor in it that still sounded fun. Luck is an integral park of Risk. Does it get upsetting sometimes? Yes! But I'd rather play a game of Risk that was fun and had wild swings of luck in it rather than to play a boring game of Risk that that didn't have a luck factor. Because ultimately, to have fun is what we're here to do.Nucker wrote:Wining by dice luck is as unsatisfactory for strategy lovers as losing due to dice luck.
Perhaps you're right. Maybe I do have some gamblers blood in me. If that's the case, I accept it. I'm definitely not one to stay in to the bitter boring end. As for adding a no dice option, I'm not campaigning for or against that. I am simply here to come to a greater understanding of the game as it currently is. Specifically an understanding of what makes the dice such a provocative topic.Nucker wrote:Thanks for the replies people, it is appreciated.
HerrHitzfeld, you may be right about CC having the best players in the world, but given the insistence on things like fog settings, I am not so sure.
Saying something like an even balance of luck and strategy is not actually commentary about strategy but rather falls squarely into luck. Genuine strategy needs only a small element of luck to break the stalemates you speak of.
Thank you for sharing your story, for some reason the players here all have the same theme about getting boring because of the absence of luck. These are gamblers thoughts not those of serious strategy players.
Serious players are in it till the bitter boring end and love it. Before anyone opens everlasting stacking games scenario, there are plenty of ways to deal with this.
Even implying that great players need luck to break stalemates, ie win the game, is ludicrous.
I appreciate that you are here to have the thrill or disappointment of rolling the dice. I have no issue with that. But I don’t understand why the good people of CC keep using diversionary arguments to stop players like me who don’t need or want dice outcomes. It can be an option. Also saying there is a balance of luck and strategy that can only determined by luck after everything has been explored is admitting to it being a luck game and a huge overstatement of human ability. Here chess and AI are proof of this. Humans have not even come close to being able to unravel a competitive puzzle. I think that we need to understand this before we go hurtling to future unknown outcomes as if we have been there. We have not, particularly CC.
Once again you refer to traditional Risk play arguments while while approving many elements that have been added.
CC is no longer the traditional game. Please stop believing it is and drop the “this is why we play” factor.
Personally I get no joy from the dice and play in spite of them. If I enjoyed gambling like throwing dice then I would be on a gambling site (to counter the chess argument)
The glimmer of hope for me is that a seed may have been planted that this should not be do we dice or not but rather that options are available, explore them.
We have the beta site. Why don’t we use it?
Do you mean humans cannot solve a competitive puzzle? If so, I strong disagree. To improve one's play at Chess, one can solve chess puzzles. People solve crossword puzzles and sudoku puzzles everyday. There is a world Puzzle Championship. Do you need more examples? OR did I miss what you meant here?Nucker wrote:
Humans have not even come close to being able to unravel a competitive puzzle.


So maybe a better understanding of statistics and randomness would clear up some of these false perceptions and expectations and also give us a more objective mindset when we do encounter truly unusual streaks and outcomes.jusplay4fun wrote:(B) FURTHUR: It seems to me that most complaints about dice involve what are:
1) truly or perceived to be UNUSUAL streaks and outcomes (e.g., losing 12 troops to the enemy loss of 2), OR
2) Dice results that defy our expectation of what "FAIR" and truly "Random" dice should be like.
Perhaps. That may help SOME.HerrHitzfeld wrote:So maybe a better understanding of statistics and randomness would clear up some of these false perceptions and expectations and also give us a more objective mindset when we do encounter truly unusual streaks and outcomes.jusplay4fun wrote:(B) FURTHUR: It seems to me that most complaints about dice involve what are:
1) truly or perceived to be UNUSUAL streaks and outcomes (e.g., losing 12 troops to the enemy loss of 2), OR
2) Dice results that defy our expectation of what "FAIR" and truly "Random" dice should be like.

Agreed.jusplay4fun wrote:Perhaps. That may help SOME.HerrHitzfeld wrote:So maybe a better understanding of statistics and randomness would clear up some of these false perceptions and expectations and also give us a more objective mindset when we do encounter truly unusual streaks and outcomes.jusplay4fun wrote:(B) FURTHUR: It seems to me that most complaints about dice involve what are:
1) truly or perceived to be UNUSUAL streaks and outcomes (e.g., losing 12 troops to the enemy loss of 2), OR
2) Dice results that defy our expectation of what "FAIR" and truly "Random" dice should be like.
But I contend that no matter what the explanation or dice algorithm used, there will STILL be a huge number of complaints about Bad Dice that causes games to be lost, despite brilliant strategy.
I will add that soon after I type that I rarely see bad streaks that are unusual, I then go minus 60% on defense in ONE game. I lost, if there was any doubt. Teaches me AGAIN NOT TO BRAG.