Re: How about docs on gnubg's n et engine? (it cheats!) {wa: Re: [Bug-gnubg] Searching for "BKG— A Program that Plays Backgammon"

[Albert Silver]

> As a side kvetch: Iws looking on gnubg's site for refs to the internal NNP
> engine, did not see them.
>
> Is this only in the code, or is there a white paper somewere I was too blind
> to see?

http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/pepe/ngb/index.html

Be sure to change the Concise option (bottom left) to Full

> By the way, the engine (more correctly, the learn-ed net) us much more
> clever than you may think:
>
> It has succesfully "hidden" the several ways it "misleads" players into
> traps, including "cheating"***:
>
>    It plays the _players_ as much as it plays the _game_.  It uses the
> players "tells":
>
>        game strategy shifts based on conistently flawed playing.

Could you give an example where it plays a different move from the
best one it found, so that it played against a flaw in the player's
game?


>              Second kvetch: Am I incorrect in assuminhg that the net is not
> locked during successive plays?
>                   That it learns in the current match as well?

No, it doesn't learn during the match, so your assumption is correct.


>                  (There is an outside posibility i Have a viral trap
> catching the dice throws covertly)

Allow me to quote from my tutorial:

"By far, the most common complaint seen about all backgammon software,
weak or strong, is that it must be cheating to get so lucky. Most of
these complaints stem from a lack of understanding of probabilities,
and how skillful play will affect luck or the possibility of lucky
rolls.

(...)

Probabilities are what rule supreme in backgammon. As there is indeed
an uncontrollable luck factor, one cannot guarantee a victory or loss
no matter how stacked up the chances are. So, good backgammon strategy
is designed to maximize the good rolls for the playing side, and
minimize the good rolls for the other side. In other words, after the
best play, there will be less good rolls for the other side. If the
other side doesn't realize what is happening, then it will seem like a
never-ending streak of bad luck. It's not; it's the consequence of
good playing."

Peace,

Albert