Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

For the discussion of daily/weekly puzzles.
ronald
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by ronald »

Might I add that players including rodders, dickoon, erika, oenomel and afcwarren have been consistently improving and are posting increasingly competitive times leading to more danger for everyone!
PuzzleScot
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzleScot »

I lost to everyone that played last week. That was a first! I thought I must be getting early dementia, but no (hopefully!), Ronald is right - the noobs are getting the hang of this! Shows how effective regular practice is!
rodders
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by rodders »

Unsure if the ladder is continuing over the festive period, but if so, can I request Tuesday as a bye please?
dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

kiwijam 5 drsteve 1
ronaldx 9 oenomel 1
afcwarren 5 erika 4
rodders 8 puzzlemad 2
PuzzleScot 6 dickoon 4

Congratulations to our winners!

As there has not been consensus about whether to take a break this week, we shall play on. The next week's matches are

kiwijam - ronaldx
drsteve - afcwarren
oenomel - rodders
erika - PuzzleScot
puzzlemad - Dataman (welcome!)

Waiting list: detuned, dickoon

Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. (Roderick's request for a bye on Tuesday stands.) If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine; if you wish to drop out then just fade away down the ladder. New players are welcome and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
PuzzleScot
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzleScot »

Probably wrong thread...
Timer is definitely wrong on my puzzle #1 today - I looked at the instructions for it 1.5 hrs ago, but without any shadow of doubt, did not click start. based on time available, decided to just do #2 instead. So I'm inexplicably penalised by an hour (or more). Must remember not to even look at the instructions in future unless I'm ready to start. Hmm... glad it wasn't "important"...
kiwijam
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by kiwijam »

If you haven't started today's Pyramidenraetsel puzzle, and you have no good reason to waste many hours of your life other than for this ladder, please don't. It is mind-numbing, with thousands+ of options to consider. 85% of people are not solving it at all, including some very good puzzlers who have never previously failed any puzzles. Have a look at it tomorrow if you are curious... I suspect there'll be more discussion about this particular puzzle in the future.

PS @Alan, on page 7 of this thread there is a possible answer to your question from nickdeller and Berni: If you click Initialise, then browse away and go back, then your time is calculated from when you clicked Initialise. If you only clicked Anleitung then I agree it's harsh.
sknight
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by sknight »

Look on the bright side.
Anyone who has had trouble getting into the top 20% of solvers on the daily puzzles, and wants to be in the top 20% in the worst way...
just solve the pyramid puzzle and you'll be in the top 20%!
In the WORST way...

Also, the given information was skimpy enough that it was really easy to just jot it down and work on pencil and paper, which I found much nicer (er, less horrible).
kiwijam
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by kiwijam »

(to understand that post, sknight took over 12 hours to achieve his top 20% placing. Congratulations - I suppose ;) )
sknight
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by sknight »

Well, 8 of those 12 hours involved getting a good nights sleep. And a couple more involved watching a movie and ignoring the puzzle. Possibly about 1.5 hours of solving time in there though.

Basically went:
8 - 8:30 pm -- play around with puzzle, realize that I'm screwed but jot it down in case I want to work offline.
8:30 - 10:30 -- watch a movie
10:30 -- it occurs to me that Pascal's triangle mod 2 will give me nice constraints on parity. I work out the only possible arrangement of odds/evens that can work.
11:00 -- but also realize I'm too tired to actually do more than that. Go to bed
7:00 am -- realize that the pile-up of odds/evens in the 2nd and 3rd rows are a good break point for actual numbers, and work out basic possibilities in the shower.
8:00 - 9:00 am actually work out the solution over coffee. Miscopying a key number and getting a Fehl once, but recovering and solving.

Note: Fehls on this puzzle ended up counting for about 2.5 hours of solving time (!) so that 12 hour solving time was actually counted as more like 14.5. But was still nearly even points at the 4k level.
PuzzlerNickG
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzlerNickG »

I avoided the pyramid puzzle as soon as I saw that the solving list was short and the solving times long.

I'd like to have a look at it though. How do you access previous days' puzzles?
PuzzleScot
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzleScot »

PuzzlerNickG wrote:How do you access previous days' puzzles?
I think you just need to log out, then visit the UR page again.
However, the puzzle can be summarised (and I will remove this if Berni requests) as:
PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER_SHOW PRIME_BBCODE_SPOILER:
R1C1=5;R2C1=9;R3C3=3;R7C5=4;R8C4=3. All rows Grey.
detuned
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

sknight wrote:Look on the bright side.
Anyone who has had trouble getting into the top 20% of solvers on the daily puzzles, and wants to be in the top 20% in the worst way...
just solve the pyramid puzzle and you'll be in the top 20%!
In the WORST way...

Also, the given information was skimpy enough that it was really easy to just jot it down and work on pencil and paper, which I found much nicer (er, less horrible).
I think my experience with this matched yours quite a lot. I only realised the parity thing about an hour and 20 in (going by the comment on left on Bram de L's facebook), and was initially making some sort of headway with the puzzle. I started working from the bottom up, had a couple of combinations which made the bottom two rows work but couldn't quite get the top sorted out. At one point I thought I had it, did a quick check of all the mini triangles but had somehow missed a repeat in one of the middle rows - it probably makes sense as what I'd done in the app to mark parity was stick a 1 in for the odds, and a simply left the blanks even. After a while, I couldn't remember what I had done previously to get the bottom working and as I became increasingly tired trying to make it work I came to the conclusion that what I had before probably only needed very small tweaks to get the answer. Which it made it all the more frustrating when I couldn't remember what I'd done, and worse, was half convinced that I had done something I hadn't, and was repeatedly going wrong in exactly the same way.

All the while I think I had gotten through match of the day and gladiator on the telly, and was moving on to an episode or two of mad men just to have something in the background to keep me sane. Just as I was about to give up and get some sleep, I drew the puzzle out on some paper so I could have a go in the car the following day. As a parting shot I gave it one last go and got the answer out. Bloody typical.
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motris
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by motris »

I remember a past 9-tall Pyramid (probably the hardest level Advent puzzle in one of those old calendars) that had a few more clues, but still was an almost impossible "find the 9 at the bottom that work" challenge with all gray rows. I learned to use parity a bit on that puzzle after awhile of fiddling, but never enjoyed the experience.

I can't imagine this puzzle was any fun, but congratulations to those that persisted long enough to get rating points.
dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, including the Pyramid from Hades, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

kiwijam 7 ronaldx 3
drsteve 9 afcwarren 0
oenomel 5 rodders 3
erika 7 PuzzleScot 2
puzzlemad 6 Dataman 3

Congratulations to our winners!

The next week's matches are

kiwijam - drsteve
ronaldx - oenomel
afcwarren - erika
rodders - puzzlemad
PuzzleScot - detuned

Waiting list: dickoon, Dataman

Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine; if you wish to drop out then just fade away down the ladder. New players are welcome and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
PuzzleScot
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzleScot »

Chris, I hope it's not too late to request a bye for Friday. I have no guarantees of internet access. Pity, as it's a close match this week, and I'd like to beat Tom (for once!) on my own (normally pitiful) merits...

If anyone is wondering why the matches aren't showing highlighted on the summary page, it's because of the way MySQL and PHP count the weeks.
I'm counting this week's matches as week 1 2012, but the week is being counted somewhere as 2011 week 53. If you click 'Go' while on the default page, the matches will magically highlight. I had wondered what would happen at year turn. Now I know.
detuned
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

I didn't get a chance to do the puzzles on Monday as I was back late from the airport - and I've yet to do the magnets puzzle from today, so touch wood I can make up the deficit there 8-)
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dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

PuzzleScot wrote:Chris, I hope it's not too late to request a bye for Friday.
No problem at all!

There are a few different calendars that are based around 52 seven-day weeks per year, with something like 19% of years having a 53rd leap week instead...
dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

rodders - puzzlemad is going to extra time, and that ABC-Box does not look like a friendly extra time puzzle, I fear.
dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page and the "GO" button.

kiwijam 4 drsteve 6
ronaldx 6 oenomel 3 (and one score draw)
afcwarren 3 erika 7
rodders 6 puzzlemad 6 (rodders wins on total time, as "Any solution, no matter how slow, beats no solution for any particular puzzle")
PuzzleScot 5 detuned 3

Congratulations to our winners, especially to Steve for capturing the championship after quite a long run for James!

The next week's matches are

drsteve - ronaldx
kiwijam - erika
oenomel - rodders
afcwarren - PuzzleScot
puzzlemad - dickoon

Waiting list: Dataman, detuned

Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine; if you wish to drop out then just fade away down the ladder. New players are welcome and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
drsteve
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by drsteve »

dickoon wrote: Congratulations to our winners, especially to Steve for capturing the championship after quite a long run for James!
To be fair to James, he didn't do two of the puzzles - odd that he skipped a short one, but it was a tie on what we did. Not that I'm complaining, mind you...
kiwijam
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by kiwijam »

Well done Steve, you got some impressive times over the week (including a blistering laser time for your supposed worst puzzle-type) and deserve the top spot.
Amusingly I did the Kropki later on and got 1:11, identical to all of drsteve, rodders, and ronaldx.

As mentioned recently I am attempting to escape the croco-claws (as Chris aptly described it) this month, so will be skipping some puzzles (willpower permitting!).
drsteve
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by drsteve »

kiwijam wrote:Well done Steve, you got some impressive times over the week (including a blistering laser time for your supposed worst puzzle-type) and deserve the top spot.
Amusingly I did the Kropki later on and got 1:11, identical to all of drsteve, rodders, and ronaldx.

As mentioned recently I am attempting to escape the croco-claws (as Chris aptly described it) this month, so will be skipping some puzzles (willpower permitting!).
Ditto in terms of the skipping - anything with a shortest time of >5 mins, I probably won't bother with, due to time restraints.

As for Laser being my worst, I've had some rotten times on it, but I really like it and can do them very quickly... sometimes.
dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

drsteve 7 ronaldx 3
kiwijam 4 erika 6 (after extra time on Saturday)
oenomel 6 rodders 4
afcwarren 6 PuzzleScot 4
puzzlemad 4 dickoon 5

Congratulations to our winners!

The next week's matches are

drsteve - erika
ronaldx - oenomel
kiwijam - afcwarren
rodders - dickoon
PuzzleScot - Dataman

Waiting list: detuned, puzzlemad

Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine; if you wish to drop out then just fade away down the ladder. New players are welcome and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
detuned
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

would have won a match-up vs. anyone last week, and wasn't even on the ladder :roll:
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dickoon
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

drsteve 8 erika 1
ronaldx 6 oenomel 6 (oenomel wins on total time, as "Any solution, no matter how slow, beats no solution for any particular puzzle")
kiwijam 4 afcwarren 6
rodders 7 dickoon 3
PuzzleScot 8 Dataman 1

Congratulations to our winners!

The next week's matches are

drsteve - oenomel
erika - afcwarren
ronaldx - rodders
kiwijam - PuzzleScot
dickoon - detuned

Waiting list: puzzlemad, Dataman

Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine; if you wish to drop out then just fade away down the ladder. New players are welcome and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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