Dice game simulator kotlin - loops

Question

I'm writing a code where I am versing the computer. A player throws a six-sided die and scores as many points as the total shown on the die providing the die doesn’t roll a 1.
The player may continue rolling and accumulating points (but risk rolling a 1) or end his turn.
If the player rolls a 1 his turn is over, he loses all points he accumulated that turn, and he passes the die
to the next player.
If the player ends without throwing a 1, the turn total is then added to the player's grand total.
Play passes from player to player until a winner is determined.
We are playing against the computer. The computer will roll the die using this rule:
A random number between 1 and 2 is CALCULATED. IF the number is a 1, the computer will roll. IF the number is a 2 it will stop rolling and give the dice back to the player. This loops until the calculated random number is a 2.
If a 1 is rolled, the turn is over and the computer loses all points from that turn.
The sum of all the rolls of the dice during this turn are added to computer's grand total
The human player can choose from a menu whether to roll again or "hold" and allow the computer to have a turn.
The issue is when I press hold (2) to pass it to the computer (ai) or when I roll a 1 it does nothing. the program stops. I am trying to git the program to only stop if all conditions are met can someone please help this is what I have so far.
var player = 0
var turntotal = 0
var computerpoints = 0
var grandtotal = 0
var roll = (1..6).random()
var ai = (1..2).random()
println("1. Roll Dice")
println("2. Hold and pass to computer")
println("3. Quit")
println()
println("Please select a menu Item")
player = readLine()!!.toInt()
while (turntotal < 50 && computerpoints < 50 && player != 3)
if (player == 1) {
roll = (1..6).random()
println("You rolled a $roll")
turntotal += roll
println("Turn total: $turntotal")
println("***********************************")
println("* Grand Total - You: $turntotal Computer:$computerpoints *")
println("***********************************")
while (roll != 1) {
println("1. Roll Again")
println("2. Hold")
player = readLine()!!.toInt()
if (player == 2) break
roll = (1..6).random()
println("You rolled a $roll")
turntotal += roll
println("Turn total: $turntotal")
println("***********************************")
println("* Grand Total - You: $turntotal Computer:$computerpoints *")
println("***********************************")
}
if (roll == 1) {
turntotal = 0
println("You rolled a $roll")
println("You lose all your turn points and turn ")
println("***********************************")
println("* Grand Total - You: $turntotal Computer:$computerpoints *")
println("***********************************")
println()
println("Computer's turn to roll")
while ( ai != 1)
roll = (1..2).random()
if (roll == 1)
roll =(1..6).random()
println("Computer decides to roll: $roll")
computerpoints += roll
println("Computer's points: $computerpoints")
println("***********************************")
println("* Grand Total - You: $turntotal Computer:$computerpoints *")
println("***********************************")
if (roll== 1)
computerpoints = 0
println("Computer rolled a $roll")
println("Computer's points is $computerpoints")
println("***********************************")
println("* Grand Total - You: $turntotal Computer:$computerpoints *")
println("***********************************")
if (roll == 2 )
println("1. Roll Dice")
println("2. Hold and pass to computer")
println("3. Quit")
println()
println("Please select a menu Item")
player = readLine()!!.toInt()
}
}
}

Answer 1

That formatting's hard to read (it's hard to see how the ifs and whiles are nested without the indentation and the missing braces) but you're not actually handling the user pressing 2 anywhere, except breaking out of one of the while loops.
Since your whole game loop is in this outer while:
player = readLine()!!.toInt()
...
while (turntotal < 50 && computerpoints < 50 && player != 3) {
// stuff for this turn
}
you need to read the player's choice inside that loop, right? Right now it looks like your loop only does something if player == 1 (everything looks like it's supposed to be inside that if block) but if they entered 2 last turn, then player is still 2, so the while runs forever.
You could do something like this:
// inside your main turn loop
// player turn
val playerBust = false
do {
val playerChoice = showMenu()
// handle the user choosing to roll
if (playerChoice == 1) {
val result = roll()
if (result == 1) playerBust = true
}
} while (!playerBust && playerChoice != 2) // keep going until they bust or hold
By using do/while the loop always runs at least once, so you can show your menu in there, and then check if they get another go in the while check at the end. By not relying on any old player state, each turn starts "fresh" and you can set playerBust to false, read in their first choice and go from there. And you can do the same for the computer turn!
Also I simplified it by using functions like showMenu() (returns the option the player chose) and roll() (rolls the die and returns the result). It's up to you if you want to implement functions like that, but it can really clean up the repeated code and make it simpler to reason about. The computer can call roll() too, right? Same for printing out the results - you can put all that formatting in a separate function, so your game loop is shorter and just contains the core logic. Smaller blocks of code are easier to work with!