Disjointed ramblings regarding this contest:
Somehow, I managed never to be lied to. The only false clue I ever received was one made up by eytanz, which zex20913 passed on to me as second-hand information. This was probably partly due to my early strategy: I decided that newcomers to the forum were more likely to be trustworthy, since they might otherwise risk being shunned by the regulars. So I went through the list of participants, looking for people with less than 100 rank points, and sending them offers of clue swaps. Along with accepting the offers other people sent me, this netted about 25 clues.
When eytanz made his offer, I accepted, but decided to keep looking for clues on my own as well. I eventually got up to 40 clues, and started filling in the map. I was actually quite lucky to finish. When Nillo gave up, I asked for his clues. They contained three new ones, including one that seemed suspicious to me, as it contradicted an assumption I'd made earlier (I knew it might be wrong, but nevertheless...). However, I was able to verify the clue thanks to Krishh's offer of help. I erased a few mistakes and continued filling in. This got me a complete map which fit with every one of the 43 clues I had, so I sent it off to Erik.
I think a big part of the problem with the contest was that partial solving was very impractical, due to the cryptic nature of the clues. I've got one note on my paper that says, in essence, this:
(Note: if you want to solve the puzzle yourself, don't look at this.)
Click here to view the secret text
×The cave containing 74th Archivalist is separated by Wierwish Barrier from the cave containing 77th Archivalist, which is connected by Tunnel G to the cave containing 76th Archivalist who works in the Confectionary and the Watcher, and this cave is in turn separated by Tothrock Barrier from the cave containing 78th Archivalist who works in the building managed by the Manipulator.
Yeah.
In fact, it wasn't until Nillo sent me his clues that I managed to place more than one barrier with certainty. I had 40 correct clues - I should've gotten somewhere with that, but I didn't due to needing one essential clue. Making some of the clues more directly informative would probably be a good idea.
Another problem was that hiding information was practically impossible. Every one of my five clues are already known to four other people, and I have no way to find out who. What am I going to do? I'm going to trade away the clues before other people do so. Giving each player a clue that is known only to them might make the game last longer.
Also, Erik said that Oneiromancer, given all the clues, managed to solve this in about three and a half hours. That's too short a time. I'd say the puzzle should be a good deal bigger, but divided into a sort of sub-puzzles, which can be solved with only a subset of the clues. Then, you might give each player four clues relating to a certain sub-puzzle, and two relating to the main puzzle, and tell them which players have information on the same sub-puzzle. This would also set up a starting point for alliances, which might be useful. Completing sub-puzzles would of course yield a good number of points according to some sort of scoring system. (I've got a number of ideas regarding this, but I don't think I'll be writing them down unless someone really wants to hear about it.)
On the whole, though, it was a really good idea. With some tweaks, you could very well run a similar contest some time next year.
____________________________
Today the refrigerator, tomorrow the world!
/dy
are able to get the right informations! if they even trade with the right people! (special thnx at this point to Chalks, Watcher, Maurog, zex20913, leroy00 and last but not least: Nillo!; thnx too: robin, kie, KevG and techant)
I thought they were lies myself (even said something like that in the PM), just wanted to know if anybody else could confirm they weren't.
. What about a poll asking for the best trader ?
so next time can we make the map more obovious.
