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|[[Image:rat_rocket.gif]] || Rocket Rat || Some call it cheating, others call it amusement. The rat doesn't have to survive. || 648/1649 || 28 Apr 2010 | |[[Image:rat_rocket.gif]] || Rocket Rat || Some call it cheating, others call it amusement. The rat doesn't have to survive. || 648/1649 || 28 Apr 2010 | ||
|- | |- | ||
| − | ||[[Image:rat_blue.gif]] || Zorg Junior || Watch out for the blur of blue as this rat races past. || 532/ | + | ||[[Image:rat_blue.gif]] || Zorg Junior || Watch out for the blur of blue as this rat races past. || 532/1594 || 29 Apr 2011 |
|- | |- | ||
| − | |[[Image:rat_robo.gif]] || Robo-Rat || The product of years of wasted time, the remote control rat. || | + | |[[Image:rat_robo.gif]] || Robo-Rat || The product of years of wasted time, the remote control rat. || 509/1603 || 29 Apr 2011 |
|- | |- | ||
| − | |[[Image:rat_brown.gif]] || Where He Go || A fast rat on the race course, the problem is catching it after. || 425/ | + | |[[Image:rat_brown.gif]] || Where He Go || A fast rat on the race course, the problem is catching it after. || 425/1624 || 29 Apr 2011 |
|- | |- | ||
| − | |[[Image:rat_brown.gif]] || Road Kill || He may only have 3 legs, but he sure can hop like a kangaroo. || | + | |[[Image:rat_brown.gif]] || Road Kill || He may only have 3 legs, but he sure can hop like a kangaroo. || 337/1638 || 29 Apr 2011 |
|- | |- | ||
|[[Image:rat_yellow.gif]] || Old Sparky || Magnetically charged this rat glows yellow with electricity. || 248/1636|| 27 Apr 2011 | |[[Image:rat_yellow.gif]] || Old Sparky || Magnetically charged this rat glows yellow with electricity. || 248/1636|| 27 Apr 2011 | ||
|- | |- | ||
| − | |[[Image:rat_black.gif]] || Hamster in Disguise || Speed and agility are good descriptive words. But not for this rodent. || 147 / 1640 || | + | |[[Image:rat_black.gif]] || Hamster in Disguise || Speed and agility are good descriptive words. But not for this rodent. || 147/1640 || 29 Apr 2011 |
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 10:43, 29 April 2011
Contents
Hive Casino
The casino is one of the fun places to visit in the hive. Whatever happens, you will always have a chance at winning/losing tokens. You get 50/75/100 (Depends on whether you have a Silver or Gold Card) free tokens daily so it's always worth a shot. Remember, if you already have 50 tokens or more, you do not get any more the next day.
The casino consists of:
- Top 10 Tokens List
- Token Exchange
- Slot Machines
- Black Jack
- High/Low Cards
- Rat Racing
- Hive Lottery
- Casino Shop
Casino : Token Exchange
Here you can trade 15 credits for 1 token (10 credits for subscribers). It's costly, but if you're nearing the amount of tokens you need for a specific item then it may come in handy. You can purchase anywhere from 5 to 500 tokens at once.
In the past, tokens cost 25c for non-subscribers and 20c for subscriber. The prices were reduced on the 6th of August 2009, due to a suggestion in the forums.
Player rankings and accomplishments
Top 10 Most Tokens
Here you can view the account names of the current Top 10 players with the most tokens and the amount of tokens they currently have.
You can also view The Casino Bank Account which tells you how many tokens the casino has made this week, and how much profit they have made over the entire span of The Casino's existence.
Most Tokens Earned Top 10
The Hall Of Records in in Sector 1 displays the players who earned the most tokens during the preceding week. Those who make it to the top 10 receive a badge and a banner. Additionally, those who do so may get an achievement if they have not already. (see below)
Achievements
As of the 26th of August 2010, it is also possible to get achievement points by gambling at the casino. Additional rewards include banners and clothing.
Slot Machines
This game was originally just a time passer for those with tokens to waste since it was virtually impossible to gain any worthwhile profit. However, since October 2010, the rate of return has been greatly increased so that it is now possible, with a little luck and strategy, to gain a significant profit. Nonetheless, the casino would still turn a profit on average even if players used the perfect strategy (as with all the other games).
It costs 6 tokens to play one round, and you get up to two turns to try and get three of the same picture. The Slot Machine has four different possibilities of symbols you can roll:
| Symbol | Chance* | Payouts (three matching) | |
| per wheel | match all three | ||
 |
4/10* | 6.4%—24.832% (depending on hold strategy) |
9 tokens (1:2) |
 |
3/10 | 2.7%—12.339% | 18 tokens (2:1) |
 |
2/10 | 0.8%—4.256% | 36 tokens (5:1) |
 |
1/10 | 0.1%—0.613% | 180 tokens (29:1) |
| * Note: The above are approximations based on the stated probabilities. The exact odds as programmed are 40/101, 30/101, 20/101, and 11/101. | |||
Old slot payouts
Originally, the slots cost 3 tokens per round (historical payouts are shown in the table below). At some point, Zorg doubled both the payouts and the costs to play; while doing nothing to improve the poor rate of return, the change did "end player's misery" faster by making them run out of tokens twice as quickly.
For several more years, the slots' rate of return remained so low that it would be illegal in almost every (if not every) real-world jurisdiction. As found by CodeHydro in October 2010, the typical player could expect to receive only ~40 percent of their tokens spent on average; even the statistically optimal strategy would return only 55 percent (and those who held only on 7s would get only average 28% in returns!). On October 21, Zorg increased the payouts to numbers based upon CodeHydro's suggestions (which would have given an optimal return of exactly 90 percent though Zorg tweaked them to be multiples of each other, slightly reducing the optimal payout to 88%).
On November 9, Zorg reduced the payouts. While the previous payouts were independently confirmed—by Zorg, CodeHydro, and Tibos using both empirical and mathematical methods—to give a casino edge of 11-12.1% over the player, Zorg could not figure out why players, especially Arryn and Tibos, were winning thousands of tokens from the slots on a daily basis. The payout reduction update is among the least popular updates to date.
| Slot Machines Dates | Cost per Play |
Payouts by Type | Optimal Return Ratio | |||||
| 3 x |
3 x |
3 x |
3 x |
Actual* | Theoretical* | |||
| Creation — 2008? | 3t | 10t (7:3) | 8t (5:3) | 6t (1:1) | 4t (1:3) | 0.71179 | 0.55400 | |
| 2008? — Oct. 21, 2010 | 6t | 20t (7:3) | 16t (5:3) | 12t (1:1) | 8t (1:3) | 0.71179 | 0.55400 | |
| Oct. 21, 2010 — Nov. 9, 2010 | 6t | 180t (29:1) | 36t (5:1) | 18t (2:1) | 9t (1:2) | 1.26163 | 0.87978 | |
| Nov. 9, 2010 — Nov. 11, 2010 | 6t | 140t (67:3) | 28t (11:3) | 14t (4:3) | 9t (1:2) | 1.04356 | 0.74913 | |
| Nov. 11, 2010 — present | 6t | 180t (29:1) | 36t (5:1) | 18t (2:1) | 9t (1:2) | 0.90371 | 0.87978 | |
| * "Theoretical" payouts are as would be expected from the documentation, while "Actual" are calculated from the exact mechanics. | ||||||||
Forgotten mechanic
Two days after the payout decrease, Zorg figured out that the problem was due to an undocumented mechanic in the slots. Unlike conventional slot machines, Zorg had originally made it impossible for the same symbol to appear in the same column twice when the column was not held—figuring that players would want a different symbol if they did not hold it. As such, this greatly increased the chances of matching three symbols on the second round beyond what would have been expected if the second roll were completely random.
For example, with a roll of , one would may expect that holding the two apples would pay more than holding the seven; after all, it would appear that there is a 40 percent chance to roll one more apple versus a mere 1 percent chance to roll two additional sevens with the stated odds (0.4 x 8 = 3.6 > 0.1 x 0.1 x 180 = 1.8). However, from October 21, 2010 until the mechanic was removed, it would have been better, paradoxically, to hold the seven above the two apples; since the mechanic would prevent the apples from appearing again on the re-roll upon holding the seven, the odds of rolling a seven in each column was 1/6 rather than the expected 1/10.
After re-discovering the mechanic, Zorg reverted the payout back and simply removed the mechanic.
Black Jack
Black jack is the most popular game in the Hive Casino—not surprisingly as it has the best average returns of the three playable casino activities. It can be a good way to gain fast tokens, but alas, it is a good way of losing them too.
In the game, the goal is to get the highest card value possible without going over 21 ("bust") in order to beat the dealer's hand. Assuming the player has not already busted by getting higher than 21, the dealer will always hit if his hand is below 17 and always stand when it is higher. When the dealer has exactly 17, he will stand if the value of his hand is hard and hit if soft. (A soft hand is when an Ace—worth either 1 or 11—may be counted as 11 without busting.)
Bets may range from 5 to 150 tokens a hand, and the payout ratios are as follow:
- 1:1 - On a Win
- 3:2 - On Natural Black Jack (150% X your bet)
The dealer's sole advantage comes from the requirement that the player must go first (since the dealer can't bust if the player already has). Nonetheless, it is fairly easy to achieve a better return on black jack than on either the slots machines or higher and lower. Even with a strategy as simple as "copy the dealer" (hit on soft 17) would yield an average return of 94.5 percent. More advanced strategies have an average return above 98 percent by doubling when the odds are favorable and standing with a hand below 17 in some situations—options that are unavailable to the dealer. (Were splitting allowed, it would be possible to get just under 100%, but alas the dealer does not give us that option).
 |
Full rules and quirks
The Hive Casino's black jack has certain—possibly unexpected—quirks that differentiate it from blackjack that may be played elsewhere. Some of these rule variations help the player, while others favor the dealer.
Rules that favor the player:
|
Rules that favor the house:
|
In the past, the dealer would still draw cards even as the player got blackjack, allowing him to push with a regular 21. After much complaint regarding unfairness, the dealer now always stands on when the player has a blackjack and so would only push with a blackjack of his own.
High/Low Cards
Higher or Lower, often referred to as High/Low, has historically been the second most used form of gambling in the hive (though this may have changed after the slot machine payout increase in October 2010). Due to its high betting limit, this game has the highest potential single-win payout of the three casino's interactive games—three times higher than doubling with the max bet for black jack and over five times higher than matching three 7s on the slots. It also has the lowest average rate of return as it requires four correct guesses in a row as to whether the next card will be higher or lower than the last card drawn. Fortunately, it counts as a correct guess to draw a card of equal value.
You may bet anywhere from 5 to 600 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:
- 3:2 - On a Win
When guessing properly, one may expect to win just over once per three games. With the current 3:2 payout, the average rate of return while card counting comes out to 84.54 percent of tokens spent. Because of the low average rate of return, the game is generally only played with higher bets since streaks of luck may best defy the law of averages when fewer hands are dealt. Additionally, betting an odd number of tokens will cheat the player of 0.5 tokens per win since the 3:2 payout always rounds down.
Historically, the payout used to be 2:1 until it was reduced to the current ratio. The former payout actually made it possible to attain 101.5 percent in average returns, meaning the casino would lose tokens on average if players guessed properly. Years after the payout had been reduced, the game description still said incorrectly that one could "win double your bet" until ticketed by CodeHydro. The 2:1 payout was available for at least a couple of years.
Rat Racing
Every day at 9am and 9pm, the race is run. The rat which has won is announced in a system message on side chat. If you were not online for the Side Chat message, you will know if you won depending on your tokens, and will be able to check how much you won exactly via the Player news link on the main page. If you place a bet before midnight then you cannot change it. It lists which rat last won the race, how many people won tokens on the last race, and how many times each rat has won.
You can bet anywhere from 1 to 200 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:
- Rat 1 - 1:1
- Rat 2 - 2:1
- Rat 3 - 3:1
- Rat 4 - 4:1
There are seven different types of rats to bet on:
| Image | Name | Description | Stats | |
| Wins | Recorded | |||
 |
Nippon | Not a rat, more PaulTech's pet mouse and he is faster than any rat in the hive. | ? | ? |
 |
Rocket Rat | Some call it cheating, others call it amusement. The rat doesn't have to survive. | 648/1649 | 28 Apr 2010 |
 |
Zorg Junior | Watch out for the blur of blue as this rat races past. | 532/1594 | 29 Apr 2011 |
 |
Robo-Rat | The product of years of wasted time, the remote control rat. | 509/1603 | 29 Apr 2011 |
 |
Where He Go | A fast rat on the race course, the problem is catching it after. | 425/1624 | 29 Apr 2011 |
| |
Road Kill | He may only have 3 legs, but he sure can hop like a kangaroo. | 337/1638 | 29 Apr 2011 |
 |
Old Sparky | Magnetically charged this rat glows yellow with electricity. | 248/1636 | 27 Apr 2011 |
 |
Hamster in Disguise | Speed and agility are good descriptive words. But not for this rodent. | 147/1640 | 29 Apr 2011 |
Hive Lottery
|
The lottery costs two tokens to buy a ticket and when you buy a ticket there are four different numbers to choose from that all range from 0 to 9. Each week there is a different amount of tokens available to be won based on how many players have bought a ticket since the last pot was won. The winner is drawn on Wednesdays and Sundays at 3:00pm server time.