Triple Dollars w/Mystery Reel Action PAR sheet data are wrong

[StatFreak]

I was just looking at PAR sheet SS8189 for the Triple Dollars with Mystery Reel Action and the pay combo/total payout listing is complete crap. How did they get away with this? The information is about as useful as a one legged man at a butt kicking contest. They only list the combinations of direct symbol hits.

If you take the "Total Coins Paid" (1017542) from the bottom of that listing, it would come out to a payback of only 6.1%. The so called "mystery" nudges aren't mysteries in the PAR sheet: specific virtual stop outcomes always behave the same way -- so why didn't they make a proper pay table that shows the true number of combinations for each outcome? As a simple example, the TD (jackpot) symbol is listed as having 2, 2, 1  = 4 combinations, when in fact, it has 6, 6, 3, = 108 combinations. There are exactly one up and one down nudges for each of the TD symbols, as listed in the virtual stop table in the PAR. That table, the physical reel layout, and the GT payback and coins out listed at the top of the file are the only valid pieces of information in the file.

A casino would have no use for the PAR as it is written. If someone wanted to know the true number of combinations for each payout and how much it contributed to the total out, they would have to do all of the math themselves using the virtual stop table as their source. Shame on IGT.

I've included a copy for people to check out for themselves.

[rickhunter]

You're right!!! 

I've never noticed that before.

[StatFreak]

You're right!!! 

I've never noticed that before.

I've never looked at it closely, either. I opened it up because we were discussing the game in the other thread, and something didn't look quite right to me. A closer examination revealed the flaw. It's in every DD MRA PAR that I have. They do list the number of over and under nudges in the listing that adds up all of the stops, but I'm not sure of what use that is to anyone, since the "value" or true symbol for each of the nudge positions is different depending on which symbol it nudges to.

IGT usually lists the number of virtual stops for each unique nudge on a separate line in the short table at the top that adds up the stops, and they add all of the stops that end up with a particular outcome into the "straight" combination in the payout listing. They usually list the correct total number of virtual stops that produce a particular symbol for each of the three reels in the "# PER REEL" column and then subtract any duplicate combinations from the total in the "HITS" column. (Subtraction usually is needed when wild symbols are included or in any-bar pays.)

This Black Cherry PAR sheet (SS6171) is an example of how it's usually done. Notice how the 2-Bar payout is listed as 2J, to cover every symbol that could end up being used as a 2-Bar. The listing at the bottom of the page describes the symbols that are included in 2J: O2,U2,2B,BS,SJ. They correctly list 17 symbols on the first and second reels and 6 on the third, which includes all of the nudges as well as the wild symbols. The total of 1707 under "HITS" correctly subtracts the 27 combinations of three wild symbols (17*17*6 = 1734 - 27 = 1707).