[Bbradley62]

I don't honestly know how the GIB seed number works (for simulations), but... would there be any downside to setting the seed numbers the same for all GIBs playing in MBC, similar to how they're all set the same in tournaments? Maybe have it change once a day, or every 28 hours so that the same people don't frequently see the transition? Would this somehow involve extra programming or extra cost?

[Antrax]

I apologize in advance if you have sufficient background and I misunderstood your question.
Basically what you do with a seed number is calculate some value from it, and derive the next seed. In BBO's case, that means the seed magically grows into a simulated hand, and the next seed in line, iteratively.

So, your proposal would just have no effect. In tournaments each bot is seeded with the same seed (my guess is per hand, since the number of simulated hands might depend on the auction), so they stay synchronized, so to speak.
In MBC, bots play different amounts of hands, and advanced and basic bots use a different amount of simulations. So, it would not MBC bots to be more consistent. In fact, it's quite possible this is already the case, since for non-cryptographic applications you can just seed using the current time.

[barmar]

The number of hands is irrelevant, because we restart the GIB program for each hand. There's nothing carried over from one hand to the next.

IBut Antrax's other point is correct. MBC has a mix of different bots. Some tables use advanced bots, some use basic bots, and some are running the download version where the bot is running on the user's PC. So there's already variation from the type of bot, it's not that big a deal that there's also some randomness within each type.