1stly.. thx for your time in explaining this Rusty (albeit in several threads lol) it is highly appreciated
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2ndly..Sorry for slightly derailing your thread P.A.
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3rdly..... And the $64,000 question, are these cycles of all possible combinations assessed via individual play (which is pretty much how it seems to me) or as a result of how much an individual slot is played per casino?.
This is pokeraddicts thread but I'm sure he doesn't mind.
I will give you an answer here but if you want to know more you can always PM me.
When I say based on a complete cycle or total combinations I am referring to how many possible permutations (outcomes) there are on the slot.
So if a slot has 10 stop positions for each reel (10 symbols) and has 5 reels the total combinations possible are 10x10x10x10x10 = 100,000 different possible combinations.
Of course most slots have many more stop positions on each reel and the possible outcomes are in the millions.
To get the theoretical RTP from our 100,000 combination slot we would add up all the wins as we cycled through each and every combination.
We do this simply by stepping through the array (5 reels,10 stop positions) so array 1,1,1,1,1 would be our first spin with the stop position at 1 on each reel.
We then go onto the next position 1,1,1,1,2 until the 5th reel gets to ten then it would reset to one and the fourth reel would be incremented one so that our 11th step through the array would be 1,1,1,2,1.
We then increment the 5th reel up to ten again and repeat.
Think of it like a mileometer in your car ticking over.
After a complete cycle we know the total bet would of been 100,000 coins because we are looking at one line at a time and there are 100,000 spins (steps through the array)
So if our total was 95,000 coins the slot would have a theoretical RTP of 95%
The reason it is referred to as theoretical RTP is because when we introduce the RNG a player in 100,000 spins at 1 line would obviously not hit all 100,000 combinations once each - but if he did his return would be 95%
There is a real art to designing a slot that plays well - especially if you throw out probability tables and weighting algorithms.