croco-puzzle

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kiwijam
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by kiwijam »

Well done Alan for your promotion today. :)
detuned wrote:(although I'd have had a pretty sweet rundweg time yesterday if I'd resized my applet so that it was possible to spot having extra loop segments messing things up. Twice.)
I opened that puzzle, and the first thing I did was close it and waste 1 minute maximizing the window size. Was quite pleased with my final time though. But a lot of people complained to Berni that they couldn't see it, and he has excluded it from the ratings. You may also notice that the default size of the applets (when not logged in) has been increased too.
detuned wrote:Still, it's nice to have been pretty consistent over single puzzles for the last couple of months. If someone has the secret to translate that over to longer competitions do let me know ;)
Step 1: learn how the puzzles work.
Step 2: get faster and faster, which you've done.
Step 3: now's the hard bit, any skills you learn (mouse/keyboard entry, or +/- grid saving, or lucky guessing) to get better croco times are probably going to be bad habits when it comes to paper solving. I think that's why some of the top names don't croco any more.
detuned
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by detuned »

computer vs paper has always been an interesting debate, and in particular with sudoku. But I don't think my problem is with computer gimmicks, it really is down to consistency. On one-off puzzles on types which favour me, I think I can give anyone in the world a good match up, on paper or online. But stick a few together in a round and I always seem to have a lapse sooner or later. Take the recent LMI masyu contest. I was well capable of breaking up the Japanese dominance there and taking a top 5-10 finish, but just got bogged down on two or three of the puzzles. When I have a whole round of good puzzles, rather than a couple here and there, then I might start shooting up leader-boards!

I might get there in the end with sudoku, but I don't have the time or willpower to perfect a training regimen for a WPC - rather than identify strengths or weaknesses I just like to play one-off puzzles as and when they crop up, and slowly try to adapt to types which are less familiar to me. If I ever manage to crack top 50 at the WPC then I'll think that's a great achievement. Come to think of it, I've been shooting at (and missing :roll: ) a top 10-20 for a WSC in recent years too.

When I've spoken to them, I'm always in awe of the preparation of the likes of Thomas and Palmer put in. Most of the other top guys are seemingly ever-present at the vaguest sniff of a puzzle on the internet, and more. Come to think of it, I was pretty impressed by the work you put in for Kraljevica :) The only guys at the top who genuinely seem to pull things off without breaking too much sweat are Wei-Hwa (who really is a genius!) and Jan M of Poland.
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PuzzleScot
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by PuzzleScot »

http://www.croco-puzzle.com/

"Wegen umfangreichen Wartungsarbeiten ist die CrocoPuzzle-Seite im Juli abgeschaltet. Wir bitten dies zu entschuldigen."

translates to:

"Due to extensive maintenance the CrocoPuzzle page is switched off for July. We apologize for this."

:(
detuned
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by detuned »

sounds quite drastic - I wonder what Berni has planned?
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berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

detuned wrote:sounds quite drastic - I wonder what Berni has planned?
Oh, I don't plan anything special. I just need some time for maintainance and it's much easier to do, when the site is offline.
detuned
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by detuned »

and croco is back :)
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dickoon
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by dickoon »

Another UK promotion to celebrate: welcome, apollo1001, to the land of the Single Figure Kyus!
apollo1001
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by apollo1001 »

Thanks Chris - I hadn't noticed this one approaching as my overall rating has pretty much flat-lined since the downtime so was pleasantly surprised to get the email this morning. I'm hoping I can get down to 7 for Christmas... ;)
dickoon
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by dickoon »

Two in two days, in part so it doesn't look like I'm only shouting for my teammates: erika is up, or down, to 4th kyu. Impressive!
detuned
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by detuned »

It certainly looks as if you can't go down once you've managed to achieve a certain rank!
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furudo.erika
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by furudo.erika »

Thanks Chris. I'm afraid it is more averages catching up than any recent rating progress. Was a nice surprise to get the email but 3kyu could take a while at this rate.
berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

At 1st of october 2003 CrocoPuzzle was founded. At the eve of the 10 years jubilee, that is now, the salad bar is opened. We wish you bon appetite! (To understand the joke one probably needs to know that As-easy-puzzles in german are called Buchstabensalate, what literally translates to "letter salads".)
PuzzlerNickG
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by PuzzlerNickG »

So, I somehow got second prize in last week's Preisrätsel which is a 6-month subscription to Denksel.

I think Denksel gets sent by email as a monthly pdf. Does anyone know if I have to do anything to claim the prize, or does it happen automatically?
berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

PuzzlerNickG wrote:So, I somehow got second prize in last week's Preisrätsel which is a 6-month subscription to Denksel.

I think Denksel gets sent by email as a monthly pdf. Does anyone know if I have to do anything to claim the prize, or does it happen automatically?
You don't need to do anything. The Denksels will be send to you via email. The first issue should be send to you this week (probably at wednesday, but I cannot tell for sure.)
PuzzleScot
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by PuzzleScot »

Big change over at Croco, explained on the LMD forum (in German) (http://forum.logic-masters.de/showthrea ... 8#pid21208 by Berni)

Translated (with help from Google translate).
So, the new U-Raetsel stands before you. From 1 November, there are a number of innovations. The most important thing is that now almost (*) all puzzles will be handmade (by Silke and me). One may think that it is certainly quite a lot of effort to create 365 puzzles by hand. So there will be only one puzzle per day now. But there is still a #1 and #2 U-Raetsel. The puzzles of the first surprise mystery everything remains the same : These are puzzles types for which there is an applet and therefore can be easily solved in that applet.

Really new is the 2nd U-Raetsel : there is from November puzzle for which there is no applet. The puzzles can be downloaded as a PDF file to print and solve. Alternatively, the new scribble tool can be used. Anyway you approach : At the end you have to type in a solution code. If this is incorrect, a syntax check is still performed to determine if there is a mistake or not. For example, if someone in a standard Sudoku, in which the solution code is a row of 9 digits, and one types 10 digits instead of the required 9, then that does not count as a failed attempt. It is also planned that will be displayed when typing the code.

New, and this now affects all U-Raetsels, is that from 1 November you are given a full week to solve the puzzles. Then it becomes possible to release an archive version. Also new are the series. This is a set of puzzles that somehow belong together . There is a total score, which is calculated from the performance in the individual puzzles to this series.

And finally, a note on the conversion : During the night of 31 October to 1 November nothing is changed, this only happens on the morning of 1 November by hand .
The first U-Raetsel can be solved quite normal before switching on that day but breits [??]. ( If one waits, one has the advantage that you know who created the U-Raetsel and to which series it belongs. But I suspect that this is not all to great advantage.)
There will not be a 2nd U-Raetsel on this day. Before converting this puzzle will spit out an error message. When the first 2nd U-Raetsel will appear is still unclear. This is due to the fact that this programming is not finished yet and I can not be sure how long I will need for it yet . Once I 'm done, but there will be three days of testing puzzles that will not be counted . (In the first days after the conversion, no new ratings will be calculated, as more time is needed for the puzzles.)

( *) If we should fail to create the new puzzles in a timely manner, we can revert to a another series of computer generated puzzles. That should be better than no U-Raetsels.
Berni, if I've completely mistranslated anything, can you correct it please? Thanks.
berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

PuzzleScot wrote: Berni, if I've completely mistranslated anything, can you correct it please? Thanks.
Look correct. Funny to see "surprise mystery" as the translation of "Ü-Rätsel". ;) If you run into any questions, of course you can ask them here. I'll try to answer them as soon as possible.
drsteve
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by drsteve »

Looks like I'm being dim - where is the downloadable puzzle? Or is that bit not working yet?
berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

drsteve wrote:Looks like I'm being dim - where is the downloadable puzzle? Or is that bit not working yet?
Still under construction. If I manage to finish programming today, then there will be a Ü2 for testing purpose tomorrow.
drsteve
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by drsteve »

berni wrote:
drsteve wrote:Looks like I'm being dim - where is the downloadable puzzle? Or is that bit not working yet?
Still under construction. If I manage to finish programming today, then there will be a Ü2 for testing purpose tomorrow.
Thanks, Berni.

The first three puzzles were great, by the way. Just the right level of challenge.
sknight
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by sknight »

There's something funny going on with the scoreboard and its handling of Fehlversuch penalties.
The FV penalties don't seem to be incorporated in the actual standings (so for example we have someone currently listed as 3rd on the Snake with a time of 3:47 but also with one Fehlversuch), but they do seem to be accounted for in the little delta-score numbers in parentheses (that same score is at a -5 on the day, which presumably is based on the penalized score, not the 3rd-place ranking).
berni
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by berni »

sknight wrote:There's something funny going on with the scoreboard and its handling of Fehlversuch penalties.
The FV penalties don't seem to be incorporated in the actual standings (so for example we have someone currently listed as 3rd on the Snake with a time of 3:47 but also with one Fehlversuch), but they do seem to be accounted for in the little delta-score numbers in parentheses (that same score is at a -5 on the day, which presumably is based on the penalized score, not the 3rd-place ranking).
I changed the handling of those penalties: They do not show up in the time anymore. The numbers in parantheses give the expected change in the rating, where almost nothing changed. The only change is, that the numbers are twice as high as before, because the number of puzzles is halved and I feel it useful, that the rating reaches ones level after about one year - else it would take two years.
david mcneill
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by david mcneill »

I don't understand what is going on at Croco-puzzle. Could somebody please explain it. On the one occasion I tried to print out and solve a puzzle, the puzzle-type was new and had not featured as a Preisratsel. The instructions were only available in German and I wasn't clear what to enter as the solution code. Today there seems to be no U-ratsel 1. Is this the case every day? Some days there seems to be a printable U-ratsel 1 and some days a printable U-ratsel 2. I think I will wait until I understand things a bit better.
david mcneill
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by david mcneill »

I just had another look and I think I didn't read the previous messages properly. One puzzle every day. U-ratsel 1 is completed online or U-ratsel 2 is printable. Clear enough then. Sorry for panic.
PuzzleScot
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by PuzzleScot »

Congrats to James - Winner of 1 year's Denksel subscription on the weekly prize puzzle!
detuned
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Re: croco-puzzle

Post by detuned »

Our agonising 13-11 defeat to the Serbs also made the Liga news! A couple of our games made the Wiedergabe (or match of the day), a tied hitori as well as my first #1 (against all the usual suspects!) for the killer. 8-) There were only a couple of seconds in the doppleblock as well.

Still, I think 7th on the team highscores must be a record for us - just a shame we were up against a team who were 4th :(
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