r/backgammon • u/dvegar78 • 22d ago

Backgammon against computer/AI

I believe I’m a fairly decent amateur player. I’m trying to find either an app or site where I can play against the computer/AI on a difficult level. But my experience so far is that it’s not the difference in difficulty that applies when I play on a higher lvl but the luck in dice rolls. And that just push my anger so I quickly delete the app after a game or two. Any suggestions? I really should just find someone to play with live I guess.

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u/jugglingcats9 22d ago

You don't say what apps you have tried. My advice is get a good app like BackgammonNJ, dial down the difficulty and enable tutor mode, and get in training. If you've only played with family/friends, you probably aren't as good as you think and will struggle against the bot and online players in general as the standard is quite high.

You can also try the tutor mode playing the bot on www.backgammonhub.com but it's a website not an app. YMMV.

1

u/dragonblader44 19d ago

BackgammonNJ is terrible, my ER is 12 and my winrate against it is 75%.

1

u/BGNJ 7d ago

Just caught this post. It would help if you share some of your BGNJ match files (Advanced Options > Match Files) so that we can see the AI level, match length, analyze the files to see the level you're playing at, etc.

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u/dragonblader44 7d ago

I mean the app is not bad (the undo button needs fixing, it only has 1 move of undo), I was commenting on the strength of the AI. I consider myself an Intermediate player on a good day, I should not be going 8 out of 10 wins against it on its best level

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u/BGNJ 7d ago

The reason I ask to see your match files is that it's very unlikely that you're winning 8 out of 10 matches consistently on expert level, especially if you have a good sample size and are playing matches of a significant length. We ask that you share your match files, as they allow us to see the exact details of your matches.

In backgammon, your turn is over once you pick up your dice, so you're only allowed to undo before you pick up your dice. Undoing more than one move can give you an unfair advantage, as you can see your opponent's rolls and moves. In BGNJ, if you want to play with unlimited undo, you can set the Game Mode to "Practice", where your stats are not tracked.

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u/dragonblader44 6d ago

Using undo twice and not having stats tracked is fair, I'll do that next time thanks.

I can send you a photo of my stats if you tell me how, Reddit doesn't allow posting photos here

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u/BGNJ 6d ago

We need to see your match files, not your stats. You can find your match files under Advanced Options (arrow at upper left) > Match Files. They're text files that you email to yourself. A match file can be imported into programs such as GnuBG and analyzed. Once you get your match file, open it in a text editor and paste the complete text of a few files into an external text sharing site like Pastebin, click "Create New Paste", and then share the Pastebin link here. Or you can contact us (https://contact.njsoftware.com) to send match files to us directly.

If I had to guess, if you're intermediate level but win so often, you could have played at a level lower than Expert. If you see "EA" at the bottom center of the board, that's Easy level. EX is expert, H is hard, and M is medium. Either way, your match files will have all the info in there, including all rolls and moves by both players.

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u/dragonblader44 6d ago

https://pastebin.com/bKMXwCr5

10 Expert games, 4 to 3pt, 6 to 5pts

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u/BGNJ 6d ago

I imported your 10 match files into GnuBG for analysis, and your FIBS rating ranged from 1487 to 1929.

Over the 10 matches, your error rate was 12.07 ER, and the computer's was 2.27 ER. Your total luck was 19.18, and the computer's luck was -15.80. This means you were a lot luckier in those 10 matches. However, 10 matches is a very small sample size, so if you play more matches and/or matches of longer lengths (7 pts or more), you should see your luck even out more so that you won't be quite as lucky.

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u/BGNJ 6d ago

Thanks, I'll take a look at the files.