ARFC A 003 Cascade (ends 26/09/09 @ 15:00 GMT)

[Votart Silak]

2409+ At me today birthday

[markmadras]

2050+++

2050+++

[ioncorpse]

I thought you all just made a mistake, when wrote 1xxx...this wan't mistake, it was such "low bidding"
"Low bidding" sometimes good, but don't you think that it should be realistic? I'll try to show my thoughts on next examples:

Suppose, that level - AR2_A_002_Trio with 3000$ budget

1st example: Absurd
==Day1:
Nick1 - I solve it
Nick2 - I solve it too, my score is more than zero
...
Nick5 - I solve it too, I have 10+
==Day2:
Nick1 - 12+
...
Nick5 - 100+
Nick1 - Yes, I tweaked my solution! 214+
==Day3:
Nick1 - 2100+
Nick2 - 2200+
Nick3 - I give up...
==Results: All solutions are 2800++++++++++

2nd example: What I think is good and normal? All of you can solve A 002 level in 10 minutes with <500$ spent.
==Day1:
Bids 2500-2600 (When you do the bid - it points also that yoг solve level & want to compete for medal)
==Day2-3:
2600-2800 or even higher, depends on what you want (win, hiding you real score (Your last bid ~90% of real) or show your cool score for everyone (~99% of real) or bluff (~120% of real)). If someone have less - he can try to tweak his solution...

Something like that....... if everyone here can solve level for N$ in 5 minutes - do we need starting bids ~3*N$ ?
For new players? ANY new player which came here will be able to solve level for N, maybe he will need few hours, but he will solve it. He will be motivated, don't worry.

A league is simple, average solution ~200$, sometimes much more but sometime much less. Start bidding with 1700$ ????

[Overlord]

I thought you all just made a mistake, when wrote 1xxx...this wan't mistake, it was such "low bidding"
Something like that....... if everyone here can solve level for N$ in 5 minutes - do we need starting bids ~3*N$ ?
For new players? ANY new player which came here will be able to solve level for N, maybe he will need few hours, but he will solve it. He will be motivated, don't worry.

Those are exactly my thoughts, just didn't know how to tell that. We should start at about 75% of the score we prognosticate to be the winner (don't rely on that though, all you need is common sense actually). In some recent contests Votart exaggerated his bids a little, and others did it way under the norm. We should start with bidding just a little, some $100 below our real score and raise as we can.

By the way, I'm awfully sorry for not playing with you right now, school is eating all the time and I need to reinstall my computer (can't launch openGL/directx applications, else I would be playing all the leagues including AR1 masters league). Once I get over my laziness and reinstall, I'll download AR2 and hop in the game again.

Meanwhile, I did a quick update on ARext, called AR2ext - for AR2: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2374

[V4nKw15h]

2410+

I've finally had time to make a solution for a level. Woohoo.

Votart jumped it to 2409. Don't blame me.

[rob]

2424+

EDIT: happy birthday votart

[V4nKw15h]

2442+

While playing this level I was thinking about the dark forces we still see in AR2: primarily causing objects to break using overlapping nodes and materials at the start of a level. This has always been considered dark and I believe still should be.

How about this for a solution for Peter:

What if he adds a little code to disable all breakages in the first 0.1 seconds after a level starts. Anything overlapping would then still pop apart, but nothing could break. I actually don't mind considering the pop apart force as light as long as nothing breaks.

[rob]

2468+ And I didn't break anything

Wouldn't disabling breaking in the first 0.1 second sometimes prevent you from breaking something with compressed rubber? Maybe confilcting objects shouldn't pop out but a little slower so no breaking occurs?

[markmadras]

2480++
2480++

About things breaking. I think Peter is simply going to stop anything that is overlapped from producing energy at the start of the simulation so that there are no Dark forces produced with can be used to make the solution work, as is still the case at the moment if you overlap two plates, like a jackhammer. That should not stop anything from breaking due to inpact, or to put it another way, things will only break if it is intentional but it will not be possible to cause a breakage by overlapping or produce any energy.

The debate on bidding rules should be moved to a seperate thread. I agree with Ioncorpse and Overlord that something needs to be done to get the bidding under control, I also feel that it is a shame that any rules should be required to govern the bidding process as the vast majority of us use our common sense and this works just fine .

[V4nKw15h]

Oh I just read the rules on this competition again.
Breaking stuff at the start of the level is allowed.
God I just spent an hour or more tweaking a solution to work without breaking anything.

Oh well, I guess I'd better tweak a solution that breaks stuff. I thought I was finished already with this level.

It also seems we have a ways to go yet before we can play AR2 without any confusion as to rules.

2500+

[rob]

2525+

[markmadras]

Ouch, I only have 2518

But still a few on the darkish solution 2550+

[rob]

So my 2525+ still stands

2600+

[Votart Silak]

2700+

P.S.:rob, thanks for a congratulation with my birthday.

[sendai45]

2710+! Just barely under my score. looks like I have work to do...