Few people understand the math and statistics nowadays. This is a crucial cornerstone for Monopoly, or any other game involving chance. There are people who still believe the sum of 2 Dice is a random number between 2 and 12 – which cannot be further from the reality: 7 and 8 are almost 6 times more likely to get than 2 and 12.

Playing with 3 opponents and relying on a Dice roll alone to win is a very poor experience for beginners. There is only 25% chance to get best rolls in a given game, and 75% for one, two, or all opponents being luckier than the player. Bad player always ‘feel’ rather than calculate. Being the luckiest only 25% of times ‘feels’ unfair – such players want cheats to ensure they get lucky more often. They jump from one Monopoly clone to another, leaving the same bad reviews everywhere, demanding something no one can give. What they need instead – is education and willingness to accept their mistakes in order to learn. Monopoly is a game purely based on skill – luck plays little to no part in it.

Probability in dice rolls

The goal of Quadropoly project is to train AI. Manipulating the Dice in player’s favour (doing it in favour of AI makes no sense and would serve no reason) would make the logs from such games useless. At this point, AI knows and actively uses about 350 tactics, whereas average pre-Quadropoly human player knows 3 and prefers to use 1 or 2. Instead of trading with every player every single turn, many people just keep rolling the Dice, missing out on all trading opportunities, do not manage free cash at all and losing even to extremely penalized AI levels such as Tradie or Entrepreneur. To train good AI, it is not enough to hope for Monopoly World Champions to join the program. Quadropoly allows everyone to learn from the most patient teacher – AI Advice. Using this feature every player can extend their trading strategies, learn how to trade effectively with everyone on EVERY turn, learn to spend all extra cash on improvements EVERY turn, leaving enough to pay for possible landing on the next 12 squares only, and, in time, contribute to AI improvement by winning with 3 Champions 40% games or more. If a complete newbie is going to follow every AI Advice suggestion every turn, he or she will definitely be in top 50% of players on each AI level and unlock all levels for Free. Yet still many people do not realize the value of this feature, turning it off, and having performance way lower than most players, complaining that it is impossible to be in top 50%.

AI advice

AI advice, as well as any AI player, does not know your trading partner is AI or a human, and does not know the level of the opponent. First 4 AI levels are massively penalized and every AI trade suggestion against them could be improved even further by asking more cash or giving less of your own. Due to their penalties, first 4 AI levels could accept a very unprofitable deal for them, and at the same time, decline a good trade. Due to these penalties as well as the fact they “forget” most trades and building opportunities (to emulate a very beginner player who does the same), a good player easily wins 100% of games on first 3 AI levels, and at least 95% on level 4 (Entrepreneur). Leaderboards only have data for games played in the last 5 days and good players tend to move up to the next AI level rather than staying on easiest 4. Still there are plenty of people with 100% winrate on first levels, despite the fact they are being removed from the list as soon as they stop playing on that AI level.

AI tactics

One of most common beginners mistakes is attempting to withhold a set from their opponents. This will only work with first 2 AI levels because they are not allowed to trade with each other, but it will give the player a very bad habit. The goal of a good player is to trade with everybody, preferably in the same turn. Trade cards for cards with some cash (never trade just cash for a card, especially last card in a set), and try to improve the deal a few times before accepting it. Ideally, player should give every single AI a set in the same turn, get the set himself as well, but make sure none of his opponents have enough money to build their sets up to a dangerous level. Player, on the other hand, should have enough cash to build his set up to hotels. If every trade offered is a good deal for both partners, one who does more trades always wins – or at least massively improves his chances. In a simplified math terms, let’s assume 4 players have 25% to win before the trades. If Player 1 trades with all 3 opponents, and even gives 10% more than takes, each trade would increase his chance by 9% and his opponent’s chance by 10%. Having done 3 trades, his chances are up by 27%, and each opponent is up by 10% only. If we scale it back to 100% total, instead of all having 25% it would be Player 1 with 33%, and everyone else with 22% – i.e. after a single round of trades Player 1 is 50% more likely to win than any of his opponents.

Roll Your Own Dice

For players who want extra reassurance while learning, Roll Your Own Dice feature have been implemented. It is enabled in Pro Settings on New Game screen, accessible from NEW GAME OFFLINE button in main Menu. It allows to use any external Dice generator, or throw a real Dice and just enter the sides in game. It helps to reassure that AI actions, and, as a result, their win-rate does not change when they switch to external Dice. For those who want to cheat – they are welcome to as long as it helps their learning. Games with External Dice are even scored for Student and Beginner levels for leaderboards, since it is impossible to lose on those levels anyway. External Dice + AI Advice can really help everyone to learn main tactics, understand what and why AI is doing, optimize their actions to improve their own chances to win and learn how to trade every single turn with every opponent until victory is all but assured.

Win the game!

Do not let your prejudice to hold you back from learning, it has never been easier. Quadropoly needs you, let’s build the best AI for Monopoly together!