

Show HN: An MMO twist on Battleship where you bet Bitcoins - luweilu
https://battlebase.co

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v2vz
@luweilu can you list the payout table/probabilities? Just curious if there's
a consistent house edge, or if it decreases as more bombs go off? Any plans to
add an "invest" feature like just-dice had?

Edit: Example of how "invest" worked on that site: "You can invest some of
your balance with the site for other players to bet against. This both
increases the maximum bets on the site, and you keep any profits made. You
also 'keep' any losses...Let's break it down: Suppose the total bankroll is
currently made of 90 BTC from a single investor, and you invest a further 10
BTC. You will have 10% of the new 'current bankroll', and the first investor's
share will drop from 100% to 90%. Each bet that a player makes is played
against the current bankroll. As players win and lose, your investment grows
or shrinks by 10% of the overall house profit. When you withdraw your
investment you get 10% of the current bankroll. You may withdraw your
investment at any time. Other players' investments will affect the percentage
of the current bankroll that your investment represents. If a 3rd investor
then invests another 100 BTC, bringing the total bankroll to 200 BTC, the
first investor's percentage drop from 90% to 45%, your percentage drops from
10% to 5%, and the new investor's percentage is 50%. Then if a player loses 20
BTC to the site, everyone's investment grows in proportion. Your 10 BTC
investment is now 5% of the new bankroll (220 BTC) ie. 11 BTC...The site
currently charges a 10% commission on net investment profits...Commission is
charged when profits are divested, or at midnight (UTC) on Sunday each week,
whichever happens sooner"

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jimmyfalcon
Interesting idea of "provably fair" (not sure if it's original), but you could
probably elaborate more on that in the How It Works section.

As I understand it, a sha256 digest is generated from a pre-generated hit
sequence. But it's not 100% clear how average players can benefit from that
information.

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nnx
This "provably fair" concept is quite common in the Bitcoin gaming world.

Not sure who was the first, probably
[https://satoshidice.com](https://satoshidice.com)

Bitino.com has a nice page explaining the concept, including an example
validation script in Python [http://bitino.com/provably-fair-
gaming/](http://bitino.com/provably-fair-gaming/)

~~~
desdiv
I like to point out that this is only fair in the game theory sense of the
word, not the economic sense of the word. There is nothing stopping the
operator from waiting until the pot is large enough and then announcing:
"Oops, crackers comprised my system and stole all the bitcoins. Sorry, guys.
My bad."

In other words, every time you play you're losing to the house, even though
the mathematical analysis doesn't show it.

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javert
I don't think this is right. I assume the odds favor the house anyway. They
can make money without scamming anyone.

I assume the game is "fair" in that they decide where to bomb before you place
your battleship, and that can be proven.

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asciimo
Is this technically legal in the United States? The domain is registered at
Alpine Domains, Inc., in Australia.

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Sambdala
It's probably more likely to be technically legal in the US than Australia.

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broodbucket
What makes you think that? The only thing blocking its legality is gambling,
right? Gambling is extremely widespread in Australia whereas my understanding
is that there are very few US states where it's legal.

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Cub3
Widespread maybe, but highly regulated, for online gambling like this you need
a licence and to follow a large amount of guidelines (anti money laundering
etc.)

So, no, I would say this is illegal under AU law

Source: I used to work for an online gambling site in AU

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broodbucket
It's Bitcoin, though, which pushes it into another grey area.

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rcamera
It crashed my Firefox a few times, randomly, apparently. I managed to play a
few rounds, but for no apparent reason it just crashed without any error being
displayed. On FF 33 on Linux.

EDIT: it stopped crashing when I disabled sounds and other people's ships.

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adambratt
I didn't realize when I was supposed to place my boats at first.

You should have it say "Place your Boats Now" while it counts down during the
first phase. I thought I was supposed to wait until the game starts

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v2vz
Cool concept. Worked a few times before it froze in "game ended". According to
the chat, looks like it stopped for everybody.

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v2vz
Curious to know the post-mortem after its fixed. Out of bitcoin? Divide by
zero? Too many players? :)

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luweilu
Too many players, fixed now.

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M00n_Sl47r
This is actually pretty cool. Crashed my FF once, but otherwise good concept.

EDIT: Works /flawlessly/ with google chrome.

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Cub3
I don't think it's working any more...

Games seem to be stuck "in progress"

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luweilu
Sorry about that. Fixed now.

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robertcorey
Really cool! I'd like to see a landing screen with a brief explanation.

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lflux
The explosion sound is way too loud, my eardrums hate you now.

