Originally Posted by Niara
For people's consideration while discussing the dice in this game, I'll return this test that was discussed some time ago, which I cannot now find the thread for any more...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tdyBoQNS_vwEGZGBgFRQex7b-Ma8S6P7zvEMK5wh9n4/edit?usp=sharing

This test was taken shortly before the introduction of the loaded dice 'fix', and illustrates that the RNG Larian is using is not a very good one, in light of being the basis for a game based around the use of a random rolling mechanic for the majority of its important systems.

Rather than fix this problem ,they implemented a hack shortcut to 'load' the dice in the players favour whenever their poorly functioning RNG moves into one of its quite predictable downswings. This doesn't fix the problem and it comes at the cost of the game back-handedly calling the player a cheater, and demeaning them for choosing to have it turned on.


(Edit: to explain the document, the left hand columns are a series 200 consecutive rolls taken under as near to stable conditions as could be achieved, in a series of different roll-based video games. The upper chart on the right shows the various averages and means of each game's results, while the graphs then show a plotting of each game's consecutive rolls; BG3 is at the top, and shows a substantial flaw compared to all of the others.)

What problem? the BG3 chart looks completely fine with this 200 roll example. It almost hits the perfect average. Each group of 5 (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, and 16-20) are all near 50 rolls. This comparison doesn't highlight any problems with BG3s RNG.

Here is the problem. People think experienced randomness means you should get similar highs and low. This is true is large large samples. True randomness doesn't favor any one number over another. You rolling a 5 has no impact over what you will roll next. True randomness does not care about streaks or patterns. Any change to remove streaks is dice manipulation. In fact, we would expect streakiness in a truly random number generator.

We feel the low rolls hard in BG3 because 5e has much lower success rates in general compared to proper built characters in prior editions. Bonuses and stat stacking is much harder in 5e compared to basic DCs and ACs.

At this point, there isn't any concrete evidence pointing to their dice system is flawed. The real question is whether true randomness is something we as players really want in our video games. This very experience will always happen with true randomness.

Last edited by JiruoVX; 19/05/21 06:28 PM.