Fun
I am giving this 5 stars, even though there seems to be a bug with the stats page. After winning, the stats showed 100% loss, along with other issues on the stats page.
Functionally, worked great
Generally very good, but a few negatives
What I like about it most is that this the ONLY version of electronic Senet that doesn’t automatically alternate players after each throw, but gives additional throws on 1, 4, 5 as is correct. Nice!
What I *don’t* like is that for some inexplicable reason, pieces move on the second row of squares from left to right (!), instead of from right to left preserving the S-shaped path of piece movement as is traditional. Why??? What is the logic in that? (That’s why the one reviewer thought his piece moved ahead ten spaces, because pieces on the second row now start at the left side).
And smaller issues—
—> pieces should be safe from attack on the last three squares
—> pieces should be safe from attack on the square 25 (nefer).
—> pieces which fall into the water square should emerge in square 15, the one marked with an ankh.
—> the constant “jiggle” of the throw sticks is visually REALLY annoying.
It’s still a good game, but it used to be much better; I hope that one day it can be as good as it once was, especially with the correct movement path.
V2.2.2 Broke the game
Rules are wrong and no 2 player
Response from developer
Thank you so much for your review. Senet Deluxe accommodates several rule sets, start positions and more based on current academic understanding of the game. If you are aware of a set not included, we would definitely like to know about it. Contact us directly via our email address listed here or simply use the suggestions link in the app itself.
Programmed to cheat
Response from developer
Thanks so much for your review. That is frustrating of course, but we are unable to reproduce either behavior described at this time. Please consider sharing those logs.
It cheats
Response from developer
Hi there and thanks for your review. Devs are finally allowed to answer, so here goes. There is no bias. All players use the same random number generator. Then there are several difficulty settings and one can switch sides even, but results will even out eventually. The algo at its base assigns the same value to all possible moves it can make. Then it picks a random one. It could still beat an opponent just with that, mind you, because luck of the dice plays such a big role in the game. In the higher difficulty settings, however, the algo will prefer moves that constrict its opponent so that they lose turns at throwing sticks as they can't move. That is the basic math of Senet – the more often you get to toss the sticks – the better your chances at winning. The program evaluates boards several moves ahead in this fashion – counting basically. There is a bit more to it as there are also opening and endgame considerations. But still, these methods are easy and more effective than trying to sway a random generator one way or the other. Let's also not forget that Senet is a predecessor of modern turn-based games. One-move turns as in chess, checkers are a later abstraction. In Senet you usually get 2-3 throws to reposition your armies once it is your turn. That is the rule – if one throws anything other than 2 or 3 one gets to go again. Games have been known to be rigged of course, but there really is no upside to it and we wouldn't think of it. Thanks again for taking the time to review Senet Deluxe.
Fun & Well Done
Great game
Response from developer
Thanks so much for your review. A second player option would be a great addition. Specifically for larger devices. We will be looking into it.
