ARFC A CXXXVIII Contest Results

[FF]

Veterans:

(3932) V4nKw15h
(3948) V4nKw15h & Cresta

Newbies:

(3868) ConstableBrew
(3900) ConstableBrew

[V4nKw15h]

**Text removed** due to pretentiousness. hehe

Sorry to break your winning run Cresta. hehe. I'll get right on posting the next contest. It's a nice one I think.

I'm surprised nobody else got the Dark.

[TSchultz]

Wow, nobody within $20 of my light score

Others may not agree with me, but please stop being so pretentious in everything you say. You really don't need to overanalyze everything (not in this thread, but in pretty much all the other ones). Honestly, for me at least, it is getting really annoying.

[V4nKw15h]

Wow, nobody within $20 of my light score

Others may not agree with me, but please stop being so pretentious in everything you say. You really don't need to overanalyze everything (not in this thread, but in pretty much all the other ones). Honestly, for me at least, it is getting really annoying.

Thanks, love you too.

But I take criticism pretty well, so sorry I upset you. You are right too. I can be a gobby little s$%t. It's really all meant with good intentions or fun though. Maybe I take it a step too far so I'll take it under advisement.

[Cresta]

Sorry to break your winning run Cresta. hehe. I'll get right on posting the next contest. It's a nice one I think.

Your solution was really good, much better than mine!
Will put more efforts next time

[V4nKw15h]

How about this, the moon walking dillo.

[beonny]

I've followed these last few competitions and subsequent discussions closely, especially what is and isn't allowed "in the rules".

For me, as a physics teacher, the appeal of the game was that it was a pretty accurate representation of the laws of physics. A game I had a chance of figuring out through logical thought!

Vankwish's solution to this level just defies all logic. Although he says it is allowed within the rules (and, after reading the comments, I tend to agree with him) it obviously wouldn't happen in the real world. It is exploiting a bug in the physics engine.

FF's winning "light" solution to Momentum has the same issue. I was amazed when I saw it, and quite impressed. Scientifically, in some ways, there is nothing too wrong with it; as the centre of mass of the metal bar lowers, the centre of mass of the ball raises, so it does not break any laws of thermodynamics. But it does break a rather obvious law of physics - you can't move cloth through metal! It therefore exploits a bug in the engine.

Someone would only be able to compete with you guys if they had spent hours and hours exploring the intricacies of the game, rather than by having a good sense of structural engineering. That has just made this whole competition a load less appealing to me.

In my opinion, the community should make any case of overlapping materials "dark". Perhaps there is even a case to open up a third category of solution that includes ?welding? but no rotation devices. Either way, without making this change, the competitions will continue to get less and less appealing to new players. And as I understand it, that is a current problem.

I was thinking of introducing this game at my school, where a number of potential engineering students would get to see it. I would be much more reluctant to do so if the competitions did not reward scientifically correct solutions, but instead rewarded hours of playing the game.

Cheers,
Ben

[JustcallmeDrago]

I would be much more reluctant to do so if the competitions did not reward scientifically correct solutions, but instead rewarded hours of playing the game.

I really agree with that.

[V4nKw15h]

I understand exactly where you are coming from Beonny. I had the same feeling when I first started playing. I thought that it would take months of playing to get anywhere close to competitive with the best.

However I only joined the game 2 months ago. My first competition was called Pony in the N league. If you take a look that was Oct 10th 2007.

If I hadn't come up with that solution to the last A league I would also be scratching my head wondering how anyone could think up something like that. The truth of the matter is that solutions like that come with time and experimentation. Take a look through all of my solutions for that level and you will understand.

My first solution is based far more around real physics. Then I got lucky. While experimenting with breaking the second lock, I luckily broke the 3rd one by accident with the same metal bars. Once I knew it was possible, I was able to slowly work at using less and less material to achieve the same job.

Eventually I was experimenting with trying to break both locks with only 2 metal bars, and it seemed impossible. I kept tweaking and tweaking and got lucky again. Completely by accident the metal bars and the ball hit the 3rd lock at exactly the same time and it opened. Again, once I knew it was possible it was only a matter of time before I could achieve the same result for subsequent cheaper solutions.

However, throughout the whole process a knowledge of real physics definately helps to make things happen how you want them to. But working out what you want to happen in the first place is often luck through random experimentation.

Don't give up on the game Beonny. Not only will you be surprised how quickly you will grasp how to bend the rules of physics, but you will learn to enjoy bending them, and an intimate knowledge of those real rules will allow you to bend them logically.

Even dark power tries it's hardest to obey the laws of physics. Place one object over another and the game simply tries to push them apart, and you can use this knowledge to your advantage. When it can't get them apart, we get continuous dark power.

I too would like to see a purely light medal with any type of overlapping material banned. But as long as we have clear rules for what is light and dark, I'm not really too bothered.

It's still a little grey though. I think the welding I used to open the 4th lock has dark power, but welding is classed as light still so it's all a little confusing. Banning all overlapping material would definately make it far easier for new players to understand.