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Level on Extreme Gammon

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03-27-2012 , 10:46 PM

Mariogs379

adept

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1,067

Hey guys,

Just got Extreme Gammon and have started playing. I'm trying to chart my progress but am a little confused about player levels. It looks like there's an "Elo Rating" and then a "Match Level" rating. Any idea what these mean?

I saw in a different thread that people were talking about "ER's of less than 3.5" being world class, etc.

Thanks in advance for the help,
Mariogs

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03-28-2012 , 12:58 AM

Taper_Mike

adept

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,030

Nice buy! You will have long hours of enjoyment, and probably will become a much stronger player.

If you do not already have it, you might want to download GNU Backgammon as well. It is completely free, and, although most experts believe XG to be the stronger bot, GnuBg is still world class, and offers several features that XG does not have.

FWIW, I usually play with XG in Tutor Mode.

Choose Players -> Create profile..., and create a player named Student. I use another profile named Taper_Mike when I play without Tutor Mode.
Click File -> New -> Unlimited games to start a new money-games session. On the Players tab, set Student to be the bottom player. Then click OK. (For an intermediate like me, cash games are the most productive way to study.)
Press function key F3 to enter Tutor Mode.
Play a few games.
When you are finished, choose Analyze -> Session..., and click OK to calculate your Performance Rating (PR). Answer Yes when you are asked whether you want to save the results to the player profile.
Choose File -> Save to save the session.

The PR is explained in XG’s help system. Choose Help -> Index -> Performance. You will find a short explanation of both ELO and PR.

Hope this helps!

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03-28-2012 , 01:37 AM

Aaron W.

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 30,132

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taper_Mike

If you do not already have it, you might want to download GNU Backgammon as well. It is completely free, and, although most experts believe XG to be the stronger bot, GnuBg is still world class, and offers several features that XG does not have.

What does GNU do that XG doesn't?

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03-28-2012 , 02:28 AM

Mariogs379

adept

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1,067

Thanks @Taper_Mike. When XG measures how bad your blunders are in terms of equity, it'll say something like "awful blunder, -.308 equity". Does this mean that this move has decreased my probability of winning by .308% compared to optimal play? Can't imagine it's 30.8%...

Sorry for the basic questions, been playing around on XG and trying to get a bit better, heh.

3 games, PR of 44...think Mr. Magriel and I have some chatting to do...

Last edited by Mariogs379; 03-28-2012 at 02:53 AM.

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03-28-2012 , 02:59 AM

mute

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,815

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mariogs379

If you are playing a moneygame -0.3 basically means your mistake will cost you 0.3 points*the value of the cube.

If you are playing to a fixed match length these numbers can be more difficult to explain, but it basically gives a value that is comparable to how big a mistake it would be in a moneygame (but factoring in the score). You can rightclick on the analysis and choose "show as matchwinning chances" to see how many % the error is.

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03-28-2012 , 03:11 AM

mute

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,815

I should mention one more thing. I can't remember if the bar thingy with the colors is still the default setting, if it is you can also change this by right clicking in the analysis box and choose "display winning% as values". Then you can more clearly see the difference in games won/lost and gammons won/lost.

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03-28-2012 , 03:43 AM

miran

newbie

Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron W.

What does GNU do that XG doesn't?

Temperature map for more than one selected move so it is easier to compare responses to different moves.

Asymmetrical match equity tables, so you can see how 50 or 100 Elo difference in playing strength changes doubling decisions.

Number of return hits, so you can easily check if your calculations are right.

Possibility to select different playing strength for cube and checker play, when playing against computer player.

Three levels of errors (doubtful, bad, very bad), XG has only two (error, blunder)

Much more options to customize your board appearance.

Better (bigger) full-screen mode.

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03-28-2012 , 02:26 PM

Mariogs379

adept

Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 1,067

So Mike, when I look at my player profile it says that I've played 11 games...but this is what it said yesterday and I've played games since. Any idea how to get it so I can just play games under my name and have it incorporate these games into my rating?

Thanks again for the help,
Ben

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03-28-2012 , 04:06 PM

Taper_Mike

adept

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,030

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron W.

What does GNU do that XG doesn't?

That’s a fair question. Miran has already done a good job with this, so I’ll name just a few others.

GnuBg has a command-line version that can be driven by scripts and batch files. Jeremy Bagaii, for instance, has a batch file that will return the cube action for a given position at every score in a seven-point match, and display the output in an formatted table.
GnuBg allows you to stochastically estimate the effective pip count (EPC) even in positions where there is still contact. It runs a one-sided simulation that ignores the opponent’s checkers. See Analyze -> Race Theory -> One-Sided Rollout/Database.
The HTML board diagrams that GnuBg creates do not have player/score/pip count data on the side. That makes it much easier to clip them out GnuBg’s output, and use them in an HTML document. I do this often my posts at BgOnline.org. It is especially convenient for those times when I need to display two boards side-by-side. See, for example, my analysis of xxP-43Z-32.

Last edited by Taper_Mike; 03-28-2012 at 04:17 PM.

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03-28-2012 , 04:15 PM

#10

Taper_Mike

adept

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 1,030

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mariogs379

All I know is that you can choose the player profile (i.e, the player) whenever you start a new match or session. It is important at the end, to choose Analyze -> Session..., so that you can add the new session to your player profile. That is the time at which the new session is added to the accumulated data in your profile.

Good luck, and please let us know what you learn.

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