ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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agaricus5 wrote:
Does a set of standard functions on a spreadsheet (like "if" statements and mathematical operations) count as a "macro"?

Don't do anything like programming, including logic flow ("if statement") or sequences of statements that are executed. The general idea is that since that program you create is not available to everyone in a form they can all use, then it isn't fair. I don't want to explore all possible grey areas or get into semantics, so if that covers your case, then please let's just leave it at that.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

agaricus5
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ErikH2000 wrote:

agaricus5 wrote:
Does a set of standard functions on a spreadsheet (like "if" statements and mathematical operations) count as a "macro"?

Don't do anything like programming, including logic flow ("if statement") or sequences of statements that are executed. The general idea is that since that program you create is not available to everyone in a form they can all use, then it isn't fair. I don't want to explore all possible grey areas or get into semantics, so if that covers your case, then please let's just leave it at that.

It is covered by what you've said, so I'll state for the record (just in case anyone is suspicious) that I promise not to use it in this contest. Would it be alright to post it in this thread after the contest, though, or would it spoil the whole thing?

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

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[Last edited by agaricus5 at 02-19-2006 11:40 PM]

ErikH2000
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agaricus5 wrote:
It is covered by what you've said, so I'll state for the record (just in case anyone is suspicious) that I promise not to use it in this contest. Would it be alright to post it in this thread after the contest, though, or would it spoil the whole thing?

Sure, after all four contests are concluded, it would be cool to see what you came up with.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Chaco
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Alright, submitted my answer. I hope I was first, or close.

Anyway, I based my answer on linking monsters that were the same in orientation, but considered different frames of the same monster orientated the same way the same monster. This was only an issue for the rattlesnake and the tar baby. I hope that was the right assumption to make.

Good luck to everyone else who might have already solved the puzzle or might still be solving the puzzle!

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Sergenth
Level: Master Delver
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Registered: 05-04-2005
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Chaco, ya beat me by more than 4 minutes (considering that I started typing this at 40 minutes past the hour right after I posted my response)

I shouldn't have gone back and checked over my work... recklessness for the potential win!

I now know what is needed to make a puzzle like this viciously fiendish... heheh...

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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Ah, goodie. I knew somebody had posted an answer (Schik hasn't fixed the "turning red after a new reply" bug in the submission topic yet), but I had no idea if somebody had come before.

Anyway, yeah. If I had bothered to use pencil and paper, I might have finished even faster. But I dunno, it would have taken a while to write it all down.

Whatever, I got it done twice as fast as Erik thought I would, that's worth something

Anyway, I thought the puzzle wasn't actually that hard. It was like the entry puzzle, just more tedious, as it took longer to place all the deflectors. I never had to revise my paths once.

____________________________
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[Last edited by Chaco at 02-20-2006 12:52 AM]

The_Red_Hawk
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You could of course have printed it out.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Maurog
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The hardest part was typing the solution out. I'm not very good at blind typing. Anyway, it was too easy. The 90 deflectors limit is way way too much and there should have been a limit on the maximum number of deflections allowed between any pair. That would make it a challenge.

____________________________
Slay the living! Raise the dead!
Paint the sky in crimson red!

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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*smacks self*

Oh well. My color printer is currently only printing magenta, and my mono printer wouldn't help too much. Regardless, I *think* I may have been first, though I wouldn't be surprised if I was proven wrong.

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agaricus5
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Chaco wrote:
Anyway, I based my answer on linking monsters that were the same in orientation, but considered different frames of the same monster orientated the same way the same monster. This was only an issue for the rattlesnake and the tar baby. I hope that was the right assumption to make.

The roach queen and brain, subtly, were also affected, but as there didn't appear to be any more of those on the board, I also guessed in a similar way.

Good luck to everyone else who might have already solved the puzzle or might still be solving the puzzle!

I finished in an okayish time, which is probably near the middle again (or more towards the end). I'd made a mistake when copying down the objects and had to re-check them (I lost about 10 minutes). I then checked my actual answer, so I'll be extremely annoyed if even my double checking didn't catch any errors, since it sort of lost me this contest (again).

Oh, well,

Good luck to everyone else!

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

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[Last edited by agaricus5 at 02-20-2006 01:16 AM]

Chaco
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Yeah, it was rather tedious to draw the lines and input the answer. One thing that helped was that I started almost as soon as the puzzle was released.

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The_Red_Hawk
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Interesting...the folder hasn't turned "red" (for a new reply) for about 15 minutes...

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Tim
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1979
Registered: 08-07-2004
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You all have finished already? Then I don't think I win

I thought the hardest part was entering all those answers. Writing down all 70 coordinates was quite a challenge...

The_Red_Hawk
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I think the most likely reason I got something incorrect is that I had a typing error.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3626
Registered: 10-06-2005
IP: Logged

Yeah, I don't think you won. Sorry.

How long until official results? Before Puzzle 2 or after puzzle 4?

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agaricus5
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Tim wrote:
You all have finished already? Then I don't think I win

I thought the hardest part was entering all those answers. Writing down all 70 coordinates was quite a challenge...

Yeah. I wish we could have just pasted a picture of our answer in our post. Much easier (for those who did it on a computer) and less prone to mistakes.

____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

Tim
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Oh, I wanted to use a -secret- tag, but I used an -quote- tag instead

The_Red_Hawk
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Then those of us who did it by hand would be at a disadvantage.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Stefan
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I'm not sure it's such a good idea to give your times, because if I've understood correctly, those who submitted an entry in one round will compete time-wise with the players in all other rounds as well. Giving the other players a timeline of how fast they should solve it to beat those in this round gives them a slight advantage.

____________________________
0.099³

Chaco
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I wasn't aware of that. However, the only place where I gave the exact time was in my submission post, which is invisible.

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ErikH2000
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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Chaco wrote:
How long until official results? Before Puzzle 2 or after puzzle 4?

I'm not posting any times or standings until after the last puzzle has been completed. You earlybirds might want to be careful about giving away techniques or other info that helps people in the remaining 3 contests. I won't make any rules about this, though.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Chaco
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Fair enough, I'll just keep my trap shut. I haven't said anything along those lines yet, and I won't.

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Maurog
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Hmm, now that I think about it, given the fact that you have 90+ deflectors to spare and it is usually possible to connect any pair using at most 2 additional deflectors, and considering the amount of pairs (height plus width), I think anyone can see what the best strategy is...

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Slay the living! Raise the dead!
Paint the sky in crimson red!

Chaco
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Shh. We can discuss tactics later.

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ErikH2000
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Unfortunately, one person edited his contest entry, and I had to disqualify him. This doesn't mean that he was trying to cheat, necessarily. But for the purpose of running a fair contest, it doesn't really matter what the intent was. Note that I already specified this rule; it isn't some arbitrary thing I'm bringing up late.

People, please remember not to edit your solution posts. Some people made non-solution posts in the "Puzzle #1" topic and edited those, which isn't a problem. I will be disqualifying anyone who edits his solution post.

-Erik

____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals | twitch stream | youtube archive (NSFW)

Swivel
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I hate to drop out at last moment, but, yeah. I'll have to.

Blondbeard
Level: Smitemaster

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Blech! I realize that my hour was a very very bad time, well... No suprise that one of the slowest DROD players is a bit slow here as well. I kind of knew this would happen

Doom
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I was on a school trip only a few hours before the fourth puzzle started. (And as I mentioned before, the three others were all at a very bad time for me) Made it home exactly 10 minutes before the puzzle was revealed. That was it about my planning... Didn't even have time to solve the three earlier puzzles. (Even though that might've been considered as unfair advantage because you'll know exactly what to expect)

Still, I managed to surprise myself and solve the puzzle in a pretty good time. And after I checked later, it seems that I didn't even make any typoes! The chance was very big with this kind of result-typing. Being able to paste a picture as the solution would've indeed been nice. And would've cut roughly half of my time off.

Bombadil
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Doom wrote:
Being able to paste a picture as the solution would've indeed been nice. And would've cut roughly half of my time off.

Yup, that would've been a lot nicer. I spent a lot of time typing the results and checking them, and then my router went down, so it took me a lot of time to do it all. I didn't expect to win, either way .

I had fun doing it, that's what matters.

Banjooie
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I dunno. I saw a post after the contests opened (I was there for two of them), went 'argh, forget it' and didn't bother touching it after that.