How do you make slot math more volatile
October 30th, 2017 at 3:39:59 PM
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I understand slot machine math on a good basic level, but how do game designers make games more volatile?
What kind of tricks do they use?
I assume stacking symbols can help
What kind of tricks do they use?
I assume stacking symbols can help
October 30th, 2017 at 5:30:39 PM
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Firstly, I'm not an expert in this field.. this is just my observation..
One of the WMS slots you can find in casinos is Great Eagle Returns (3 rows, 5 columns). There are lots of videos on YouTube of people playing it, if you're interested.
The game has 50 lines, but what i found interesting after playing it for a while, is that on most games with that many lines... you will at least have lines running through all possible combinations of the symbols on the first three reels (covering 27 of the 50 lines). This one doesn't... it goes through fewer than all combinations with varying combinations on the last two reels.
So what happens then is that getting a winning combination is harder, because you are limited in spots on the first three reels, but if you can get more than three on a row (using the symbols in columns 4 and 5), you essentially win on multiple lines.
Fewer wins, higher wins when you get them... more variance.
Hope that makes sense.
One of the WMS slots you can find in casinos is Great Eagle Returns (3 rows, 5 columns). There are lots of videos on YouTube of people playing it, if you're interested.
The game has 50 lines, but what i found interesting after playing it for a while, is that on most games with that many lines... you will at least have lines running through all possible combinations of the symbols on the first three reels (covering 27 of the 50 lines). This one doesn't... it goes through fewer than all combinations with varying combinations on the last two reels.
So what happens then is that getting a winning combination is harder, because you are limited in spots on the first three reels, but if you can get more than three on a row (using the symbols in columns 4 and 5), you essentially win on multiple lines.
Fewer wins, higher wins when you get them... more variance.
Hope that makes sense.
October 30th, 2017 at 6:25:59 PM
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I'm not an expert in this field either, but ultimately the basics comes down to:
How likely are you to win? When you win, do you win a lot or a little? Is a game bonus round heavy or are there very frequent but small bonus rounds?
There are games like stinkin' rich that have a bunch of different symbols, making it harder to get a 3-of-a-kind through 5-of-a-kind. But when you do get them, they pay a lot.
Or a game like Cleopatra II, where when you get into the bonus round, each spin increases the pay multiplier by 1. So on spin #5, you have a 5x multiplier and on spin #9 you have a 9x multiplier. Triggering the bonus round and re-triggering the bonus round is pretty tough in Cleo II, but if/when you do, it (tends to) pay quite a bit.
How likely are you to win? When you win, do you win a lot or a little? Is a game bonus round heavy or are there very frequent but small bonus rounds?
There are games like stinkin' rich that have a bunch of different symbols, making it harder to get a 3-of-a-kind through 5-of-a-kind. But when you do get them, they pay a lot.
Or a game like Cleopatra II, where when you get into the bonus round, each spin increases the pay multiplier by 1. So on spin #5, you have a 5x multiplier and on spin #9 you have a 9x multiplier. Triggering the bonus round and re-triggering the bonus round is pretty tough in Cleo II, but if/when you do, it (tends to) pay quite a bit.
