• (disco)

    Do the dice have to have a positive integer number of sides?

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    Do the dice have to have a positive integer number of sides?

    hmm.... there's a thought....

    dynamically sided dice!

  • (disco) in reply to accalia

    Better still: fractal dice!

    (Roll dem Mandelbones!)

  • (disco) in reply to dkf

    Like always, the Lucky Deuce was vague about their requirements. I'd be curious to see the results for dice with nonintegral numbers of sides. What are the stats on two 5.5 sided dice?

  • (disco) in reply to Remy

    what about dice with negative numbers of sides?

  • (disco) in reply to accalia

    Also an interesting thought- but wouldn't a -6 sided die behave more or less like a 6 sided die? If you don't think it would, I'd be curious to see the results.

  • (disco) in reply to Remy
    Remy:
    Also an interesting thought- but wouldn't a -6 sided die behave more or less like a 6 sided die? If you don't think it would, I'd be curious to see the results.

    it would, except when adding it up!

    changes the aggregate probabilities

    roll 2d6+1d-6+1 still gives you the correct range of possible outcomes but with drastically shifted probabilities

    @yamikuronue, i really should steal Hermes's parse code for @Sockbot to play this game....

  • (disco) in reply to accalia
    accalia:
    what about dice with negative numbers of sides?
    What about dice with an imaginary number of sides?
  • (disco) in reply to accalia

    @‍accalia has summoned me, and so I appear.

    <!-- SockBot/2.10.2 (Bewitching Burlap; owner:accalia; user:sockbot) 2015-08-26T12:32:21.885Z -->
  • (disco) in reply to sockbot

    OI! you are NOT supposed to play here! this is a restricted category!

    grumble mutter

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK

    If you use imaginary numbers of sides, I'd want to see the probability distributions mapped out on the complex plane.

  • (disco) in reply to Remy
    Remy:
    complex plane
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/RSAF_Typhoon_at_Malta_-_Gordon_Zammit.jpg/320px-RSAF_Typhoon_at_Malta_-_Gordon_Zammit.jpg

    Oh, wait, you meant the mathematical concept...

  • (disco)

    There's some nasty implied edge case games in the requirements

    Craps on 1d6: You can never come out as outcomes are most common to come out Craps on 2d6+1d8 (http://anydice.com/program/3599) or 3d6(http://anydice.com/program/1): You have 2 highest probabilities excluding those from come out calculations Craps on 1d6 + 1d8 (http://anydice.com/program/1c83): You have 3 highest probabilities excluding from come out Craps on 2d2 (http://anydice.com/program/75c): You can never come out as all potential cases are either lowball or highball)

  • (disco) in reply to Hasteur

    If I understood the requirements correctly all dice should have the same amount of sides. So 5d5 or 1d6 or 3d7, but no 3d5 + 2d6.

  • (disco) in reply to Michael_Mahn

    I don't see that restriction in the requirements and I'd be suprised if the evaluators don't try some of these nasty tricks.

    QA tester walks into a bar, Orders a beer, Orders a beer, Orders 2 beers, Orders -1 beer, Orders bear beers, Orders 部落格 beers, Orders 💔 beers, Orders التّحول beers, (Infidel) Orders Z̮̞̠͙͔ͅḀ̗̞͈̻̗Ḷ͙͎̯̹̞͓G̻O̭̗̮, Orders 1;DROP TABLE users beers, Etc.

  • (disco) in reply to Hasteur

    It says: "Here is what your program needs to do: given a number of dice and a number of sides, it needs to determine the following information"

    So I assumed it takes only two numbers as parameters.

    But I think that the requirements are intentionally very vague to reflect real world software development as good as possible. :wink:

  • (disco) in reply to Michael_Mahn

    And if you had read higher you would have seen these gems by Remy

    Like always, the Lucky Deuce was vague about their requirements. I'd be curious to see the results for dice with nonintegral numbers of sides. What are the stats on two 5.5 sided dice?
    Also an interesting thought- but wouldn't a -6 sided die behave more or less like a 6 sided die? If you don't think it would, I'd be curious to see the results.

    This suggested in my mind that we have to engineer for the extended case as Remy is a writer for the site and may have tipped his hand in some of the use cases.

  • (disco) in reply to Hasteur

    According to Google translate, التّحول means converting, while infidel is كافر.

  • (disco) in reply to jfox

    I was making a joke at someone in a arabic country ordering a beer (as it's forbidden)

  • (disco) in reply to Hasteur

    And I was being pedantic about it, but it did not turn out as funny as your joke was.

  • (disco)

    "“Craps,” they say, “is of only having 12 possible outcomes."

    12? I only counted 11.

    I read a book by Mike Moorcock once, in which there was a scene in which someone awoke with an urgent need to urinate. I continued following the fortunes of this geezer for quite a few chapters more, and never did he actually get the chance to do something about it. It was most uncomfortable reading.

    At least when something similar happened in Illuminatus! the author gave Joe Malik the opportunity to use a trash can.

  • (disco) in reply to Michael_Mahn
    Michael_Mahn:
    It says: "Here is what your program needs to do: given a number of dice and a number of sides, it needs to determine the following information"

    So I assumed it takes only two numbers as parameters.

    So 2 dice, 6 sides could be any of:

    2d6 1d2 + 1d4 2d3 1d1 + 1d5

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla

    How does 1d1 work? Isn't that just 1?

  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood
    Matt_Westwood:
    12? I only counted 11.

    If it's craps, I suspect that the real outcome is consistently “give your money to the house”.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf

    what really happens is, the first time you play, the shooter gets on a hot steak, you win a bunch of money, everyone is celebrating, and it's a great rush. then you spend hours at the table losing money just waiting for the next rush...

  • (disco) in reply to NedFodder
    NedFodder:
    the first time you play, the shooter gets on a hot steak, you win a bunch of money

    The only time I ever played — with someone else's money, mind you — I lost it all virtually instantly. At that point, I switched from thinking about the game to analysing the payout chances, and decided that the best thing I could do was to give my chips back to my host and never ever play again. Saves time and worry.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    If it's crapsany kind of casino gambling, I suspect that the real outcome is consistently “give your money to the house”.

    FTFY.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    Damn. That like happened so fast it was almost before I hit the reply button.

  • (disco)

    Seems like much more of an optimization problem than a "cheat", unless I missed something.

  • (disco)

    This week’s winner is also a previous week’s runner up- Jonathan previously won the first Bruce Said So award, for his use of comments.

    No, he actually won the "Bruce Says So" award. Big difference!

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    That like happened so fast it was almost before I hit the reply button.

    With all the race conditions over here, I wouldn't rule that possibility out.

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat
    PleegWat:
    How does 1d1 work? Isn't that just 1?

    I'd imagine so.

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla

    We could ask SockBot, but I don't think he has a dice module at the moment. Plus he won't answer in here anyway; ignored category.

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla
    boomzilla:
    I'd imagine so.

    yes, but randomly so.

    RaceProUK:
    We could ask SockBot, but I don't think he has a dice module at the moment.
    havent gotten around to upgrading that module. got bigger bugs right now.
    RaceProUK:
    Plus he won't answer in here anyway; ignored category.
    Unless I ask, that's one of the bugs i need to fix.
  • (disco) in reply to accalia
    accalia:
    yes, but randomly so.

    True. Should we note that the requirements didn't say that for an n-sided die the values must be 1, 2,..n? I suppose we should.

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla

    So I can't use my die with the numbers 1, √2, φ, e, π, and ∞?

  • (disco) in reply to RaceProUK

    I can't see anything in the requirements that say you can't. So long as you can make the game make sense.

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla

    Can I have a d6 with the numbers 3,3,3,3,4,4?

  • (disco) in reply to boomzilla

    hmmm......

    /me invisions a craps game involving non-transitive dice

Leave a comment on “A Fever on a Crappy Day”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

« Return to Article