croco-puzzle

[ronaldx]

I commented that anqu's behaviour is weird - because why cheat blatantly only some of the time but perform well below par the rest of the time? This is pretty unsubtle. As you say, the Doppelstar result could be put down to an incredibly lucky guess but then the Magic Labyrinth, I think not.

More subtle cheaters would be harder to detect - but I am less worried about these. Somebody with a personality that makes them likely to put effort into subtle cheating is (at least in my mind) more likely to be interested in the puzzles and less likely to bother with cheating. Over time, I think we would still see subtle cheating bear out.

[Calavera]

More subtle cheaters would be harder to detect - but I am less worried about these. Somebody with a personality that makes them likely to put effort into subtle cheating is (at least in my mind) more likely to be interested in the puzzles and less likely to bother with cheating. Over time, I think we would still see subtle cheating bear out.

That's my hope and opinion, too. There already were some cheaters of the obvious type in the past who simply got deleted and I know of at least one of them to return as a normal user to the site (ranking somewhere in the lower kyus). I'm guessing these cheaters just can't believe some of the other times and are thus convinced to join the rest in cheating. When they are in fact singled out it often helps them to reconsider. That this time it's happening while berni is away is a little bit unfortunate as the reaction will come with delay but still I'm optimistic.

Btw: My guess is that anqu and ufo are the same person who has at least one more account. But we'll see once berni returns.

[sf2l]

Hi Motris
have you been playing for long? Could not see any motris in the rank list but I have a suspect about another nickname which could be yours.
sf

[Calavera]

Hi Motris
have you been playing for long? Could not see any motris in the rank list but I have a suspect about another nickname which could be yours.
sf

Maybe have a look at his blog to find out his semi-secret identity .

[sf2l]

I plead guilty of not having visited Motris' blog for a while.(In December I had a very tough month and for the Xmas Holidays I have virtually no internet connection)
but my guess was correct.

[motris]

Hi Motris
have you been playing for long? Could not see any motris in the rank list but I have a suspect about another nickname which could be yours.
sf

About two months. After our talks at the WPC I figured I'd experiment with the site since we'd discussed the puzzle ranking system for a little bit. I wanted a sort of hidden identity, but within ~two weeks I was identified on the LogicMasters.de forum because any new player who performs that well is most likely someone known in the puzzle community or a cheater and 'mars' had come up for discussion at the German Sudoku Championship.

I do thank you though for encouraging me to play there. The surprise puzzle is ok, but some of the other content (like the most recent Easter gift) are absolutely phenomenal, and worth solving German language challenges to break further into.

[sf2l]

Yes I have read your blog now. Guilty as charged.

I have started a couple of times to put down some concepts as we agreed but never managed to finish. Will be easier now that you know croco from inside.

will post on your blog soon

Stefano

[motris]

As you say, the Doppelstar result could be put down to an incredibly lucky guess but then the Magic Labyrinth, I think not.

On one occasion, such a thing could be put down to a guess, but getting lucky on a puzzle is more sensible if a person is showing adequate skills because you do not just guess the entire answer. You apply some logical steps, then make the lucky guess, then continue with logic to the finish. So very very fast, and then average on the other puzzle, could be reasonable. But being both top and last speaks less to luck and more to either an error in the applet times or, more likely, to cheating.

[detuned]

it might be a thing with the applet times you know. For a long while, flash was really messing me around and slowing down the timer on things like nikoli and fed by anything from 2x-10x. Which obviously led to some ridiculous times, although the effect of everything slowing down was that the applet was really jerky and hard to solve with.

Mind you, I've never had any problems with the java based thing at croco...

[motris]

it might be a thing with the applet times you know. For a long while, flash was really messing me around and slowing down the timer on things like nikoli and fed by anything from 2x-10x. Which obviously led to some ridiculous times, although the effect of everything slowing down was that the applet was really jerky and hard to solve with.

Mind you, I've never had any problems with the java based thing at croco...

I've certainly seen a gain of 3-5 seconds over clock time on a Nikoli puzzle, but never too much more or less. My sense from how Berni has set up the applets is that having both internal time, as well as external server time, offers a good check for if one number is very unreasonable relative to the other. So clocking 50s but having 5 minutes between server pings might well be caught.

[Calavera]

As posted in the German forum: The cheater was deleted and the ranking will be adjusted tommorrow morning.

[dickoon]

Triple glory for the UK contingent today! We have our second 19 kyu, upgrading their cream-coloured belt to a vanilla-coloured one, and a Happy Beltday to DavidMcN who leaves the ranks of the, er, unranked. As do I! It only took me about three and a half months; it only took David about half as long, but that's because he's identifiably at least twice as good at solving puzzles as me

[PuzzleScot]

Well done Chris (et al)!
It's going to get interesting after 9-12 months, when we reach our plateaux - where will that be?? Aiming for 1st dan myself.
Clarification - are players penalised for not starting a puzzle, or missing days?

[Calavera]

Clarification - are players penalised for not starting a puzzle, or missing days?

Neither. The only "penalty" would be that it takes longer until you reach your optimum. Also other players might look a little bit sceptically if you always skip the same type of puzzles. I'd say if you solve just for fun skipping puzzle types you dislike is fine. If you are out for competition and want to compare yourself with others I'd say it's fairer to try each kind of puzzle...

Btw: It might take longer than 9-12 months until you reach a plateaux as there certainly is a training effect.


Calavera (quite content today)

PS: Congrats for the new ranks!

[sf2l]

Triple glory for the UK contingent today! We have our second 19 kyu, upgrading their cream-coloured belt to a vanilla-coloured one, and a Happy Beltday to DavidMcN who leaves the ranks of the, er, unranked. As do I! It only took me about three and a half months; it only took David about half as long, but that's because he's identifiably at least twice as good at solving puzzles as me

Noted that. congrats everybody
Stefano

[dickoon]

Here is the news.

BONG! Another triple upgrade day for the UK.

BONG! detuned and rodders get on the board. Well done, gents!

BONG! The UK gets its third 19 kyu.

BONG! ronaldx overtakes paulredman at the top of the nominal UK croco-puzzle rankings.

Hooray! I'm Trevor McDoughnut.

[rodders]

Thanks Chris - good update!

It's taken a while to get there and a pretty poor performance today to celebrate it (note to self - don't start a puzzle 20 minutes before a meeting just because the top solvers only took 2 minutes)! Still, onwards and upwards from here ....

[david mcneill]

Just can't compete with Tom's speed on certain puzzles. Hope you stay top for today's Hashi. I would have been faster if I had a better keystroke system. I currently click on the mouse 4 times to get a double vertical link. I realise that W places a single horizontal link, E places a double horizontal link, S places a single vertical link and D places a double vertical link. But I find these rather counter-intuitive and think I prefer my rubbish technique. Maybe I should use the mouse for moving around and horizontal links and the S key for vertical links.

I love the D command in the Domino puzzles but I haven't found any other useful commands yet. In yesterday's Doppelblock puzzle, I ran into problems. I marked a few blocks and placed a circle in quite a few cells which I knew had to contain a number. Then progress stalled. I switched to the blue colour and tried out what looked like a good bet. It turned out to be correct, but I now had a mixture of black and blue circles and had to keep switching between the black and blue settings. I also couldn't see the blue numbers properly. Is there a way of turning blue guesses black once the guess is proved correct? I lost a lot of time on this. Moral of the story is probably not to guess.

David.

[Calavera]

Is there a way of turning blue guesses black once the guess is proved correct? I lost a lot of time on this. Moral of the story is probably not to guess.

Yes, there is. Select the color which you want to change into another one and click on the "Färben"-button beside the color into which you want to change it.

[PuzzleScot]

Phenomenal effort from Tom on today's Hashi!
Poor Nick, a 60 second solve, and he gets -ve points!

[detuned]

Haha - that was more a reactions test than a puzzle - but you can only solve what's put in front of you. Not a surprise to see Thomas trump me though, someone always seems to manage it on croco (and nikoli, come to think of it).

David - I used only mouse clicks. The way I did it was one click for one bridge, I somehow managed it so that whenever I wanted a vertical bridge I got one as opposed to a horizontal one (and vice versa).

[berni]

Just can't compete with Tom's speed on certain puzzles. Hope you stay top for today's Hashi. I would have been faster if I had a better keystroke system. I currently click on the mouse 4 times to get a double vertical link. I realise that W places a single horizontal link, E places a double horizontal link, S places a single vertical link and D places a double vertical link. But I find these rather counter-intuitive and think I prefer my rubbish technique. Maybe I should use the mouse for moving around and horizontal links and the S key for vertical links.

You can press S and W twice to get double links.

[david mcneill]

Nils, Tom and Berni,

Thanks for the tips. Crocopuzzle is getting very addictive. I sincerely hope that Berni doesn't add a third puzzle each day!!

By the way, is there a particular time in the week when a new Preisratsel is uploaded?

David McNeill.

[nickdeller]

Phenomenal effort from Tom on today's Hashi!
Poor Nick, a 60 second solve, and he gets -ve points!

Oh well, I think that one's at least back up to -0 now. I just haven't developed a fast enough input technique for those "no puzzle at all" puzzles. It'll come!

Pillen is obviously still my Big Problem Puzzle though, today's wasn't an exceptionally difficult one and I still managed to hit an unresolvable contradiction on the first run. I think I have all the tips I need, I just can't do 'em!!!!

[berni]

Nils, Tom and Berni,
By the way, is there a particular time in the week when a new Preisratsel is uploaded?

Normally it's on mondays. But this is no written rule: From time to time I'll dispart from this; for example in the advent I uploaded them allready at sunday.