ODD MAN OUT GAME BY RICHARD CEASER

Actually that is not the end of the game. There is always going to be a winner. If you go OVER 99, then it starts you back at 0, but that doesen't end it. The game generally lasts considerably longer then one 'round'. It took me about 4 passes before getting it, and it was the AI that hit 99 for me. This is why when you get close to 100, you have to carefully plan your rolls. If you know you need 4 more points to reach 99, then you are going to want an EVEN EVEN. EE's come after the e/e,o/o, so if one of your opponents rolls the o/o after an e/e, and you are within 2 turns (or one of the opponents skips) then you can choose to use that roll. Of that roll, you have a 1/3 chance of each dice hitting 2, or a 1/9 chance of hitting total. on the other hand if you were not trailing a person which caused the dice to be loaded, and its a completely random roll, you have a 1/36 chance of hitting. Quite a bit different. There are some that are even easier to hit. Lets say you are 8 away from 99. you can get 6-2, 4-4, 2-6, (and 5-3, 3-5, but we will not count those as it makes it harder not easier). in this case, you have a 1/3 chance of hitting the 8 with an all-even roll.


Hopefully this makes sense. And yes, this is a relatively "simple" game, but it has quite a bit of what is called "emergent strategy" in it. I am also a card player (I used to tour the WPT circuit). Anyways, I am about to go to bed, so if you do not get a further response from me tonight that would be why.


Richard
Hmm, actually you might really be on to something that actually even adds to the complexity. Realize there is not 1 count, but 4 different counts (at the beginning at least). These are usually different. Sometimes by a whole lot, sometimes by little to none. I was a bit
worried about the +90 not happening frequently enough, or all at once. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that as the game progresses, people can "stall" at 90 or so to try to get people out with joker rolls. This is a fabulous idea.

I explained some concepts of the strategy in depth to you in the previous email. I just realized I did miss a few points though.


Gameplay passes clockwise around the playing field. Any person can pass or roll. If the roll is going to be special (evens, odds, etc) then you can effectively pass that off to your opponent, who can choose to take it or pass as well. You will see messages pop up saying "CPU 1 PASS/ROLL" or similar messages. this is what they chose to do that turn. On the side is the previous dice that have been rolled, by keeping track of this you can guess whether the next roll will be completely random, or a 1-3-5/2-4-6 combo. Believe me, this helps considerably because it cuts the number of possible sums you can add exponentially.