AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 GMT)

The easier league, for smaller, less time consuming competitions.

Moderator: Moderators

AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 GMT)

Postby bythelee » Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:14 pm

Please Note: extended deadline

Welcome to the 350th AR2 A contest: 014_Sunstroke

The original 014_Sun looked strangely easy. Which means I'm missing something, because Ioncorpse is a genius at level design.

Anyway, it seems the sun has had a little bit of extra sunspot activity in the meantime - there are dillo-flares all over the place.
And they ALL have to get home - including the big grey core......

(I'm suspecting it's the unpredictable bouncing impact when dillo hits big dillo, that made this difficult originally. But I know there are easy ways around that...
Anyway, the extra dillos mean more to catch, and more randomness. I still think this is going to be fairly easy, so every last bit of rope may count.)

Have fun, everyone. And... Good Luck!
(PS sorry for the late posting - RL just won't give me a break!)


AR2 Version 2.1.3 Beta is used, make sure you use the correct version.

If you download this level please submit your solution even if you think it's not good. You help us keep the forum alive and we might be able to help you become a better player.

Submissions by PM.

Prices are not changed.


Naming convention [DollarsRemaining]-[YourForumName]-[SolutionName]

GMT Time link: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/
Attachments
AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke.lvl2
(43.82 KiB) Downloaded 182 times
Last edited by bythelee on Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sun 2 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Sun Aug 02, 2015 7:52 am

Well, one BIG apology. Sorry, but I mucked up the challenge info.

I was sure I had checked, and that prices were unchanged. But they were. In some BIG ways for the solids. Cloth at $10 per segment, and steel plate at $50.

Which, quite certainly, would change what you might have tried to do.

It is very late in the day for me to spot that - which tells you how little time I have been able to "compete" in this challenge.
But it also explains the "mystery" - Ioncorpse always manages to set brilliant challenges, that are usually simple to solve (this one being no exception, despite my extra sunspot dillos) but the plethora of anchor points, and those price changes, mean that making a solid catchment of steel plates is guaranteed to work in about 30 seconds of effort, but will never win the price optimisation war.

I do have a challenge entry, plus my newly completed own solution, but I'm wondering....:
Does this need a nother week while everyone rethinks their strategy?

With no bids, this feeling like a huge summer lull. Do we need more pace, or more time to relax in the sun?
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sun 2 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby mark_man » Sun Aug 02, 2015 2:33 pm

Try another week ,that will work perfect for me as im away for a week after that and if I win will give me an opportunity to sit out and host
I'm Just A Simple Man.
Please for everyone don't believe ANY scores I post .... :D :twisted:
mark_man
Contest Legend
Contest Legend
 
Posts: 1686
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:31 pm
Location: England

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sun 2 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:38 pm

Well, with only one "alternate" competitor, Mark_man would be the default winner (I mean Host) of the next challenge.

So, I'll extend the deadline as suggested to Sat 8 August at 8pm.
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby Arunion » Thu Aug 06, 2015 8:22 pm

I appreciate the extra time. With all the things that have been going on I have not been using my computer much because of high electricity bills.. My computer is a bit much apparently :P

I have completed the challenge but plum forgot to send it in. With the new time I will definitely get it sent in ^^

555+
Arunion
 
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:39 pm

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:20 am

Glad the extra time helps.

My "big" PC adds 50% to my electricity bill. But then, I'm using it between 8 to 12 hours per day....
Swopping the 100W monitor for a 20W LED one helps. But, a big graphics card and CPU running an intensive game still runs about 400W.
That's a lot of light bulbs, for a long time, every day....


Meanwhile, 1000+ :D
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby Arunion » Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:41 pm

From what it seems mine adds about £80 a month.. Which adds up to quite a bit in a year :P I'm lucky enough that I don't pay that bill, but the guy I'm renting from is not very happy about it :lol:

No idea what part of my computer uses what power. It's a somewhat old screen, my LED decided to call it a night some time ago. My graphic card and CPU are decent, so I can run most games on a nice setting. Not sure about the newest games, but usually have had things on high. So pretty sure it's that that makes the most hurt :P

1333+ ^^
Arunion
 
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:39 pm

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby mark_man » Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:34 pm

2345+ :D ,I have my PC running 24/7/365 .I'm a bit shocked at what it could be costing . I used to use a beer chiller to cool it as I was folding 24/7 (in-between gaming ) and extreme over clocking
. I only over clock from 3300 to 4700 now Intel i5 2500K 24gb ram 4 hard drives a dvd drive and a Radeon R9 290x :evil:
I'm Just A Simple Man.
Please for everyone don't believe ANY scores I post .... :D :twisted:
mark_man
Contest Legend
Contest Legend
 
Posts: 1686
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:31 pm
Location: England

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Sun Aug 09, 2015 12:20 pm

I'm just running at stock speeds. I understand the overclocking attraction, but when it means the difference between 50 or 53 frames per second in a PC game, I wonder why bother.... especially since it costs so much more in energy. I've never "folded" though. Nor "SETIed".

i5 2500K sounds like the old Sandy Bridge? I'm just one step newer (Ivy bridge), but an i7 3700K. I think the overclocked i5 is probably using somewhere near to 200W. My stock i7 is 95W.
The heat you feel (and the need for cooling) is the "side effect" of the power consumption. Just like the old incandescent light bulbs. I still can't believe I have a 4W LED bulb that is as bright as an old 60W incandescent bulb.

It's those Radeon cards that use up the most juice, though. I think Arunion has an R9 290x as well. I "only" have a 290, but they will still use almost 300Watts when running flat out in a game. The increased power consumption was the biggest factor I considered when I upgraded from a 7870, because it was a doubling of fps for a near tripling of power consumption. Since I had 30fps already, did I really need to double it? It was the difference between 1Gb Vram and 4Gb Vram that drove me to it, though.

Bear in mind, that all this modern hardware has "idle" states, as well as "flat out" states. Both cpu and gpu. The 290 might use almost 300W when running a graphically intensive game (you can hear the fans spinning up), but when just browsing internet, or using Word or Excel or Facebook or suchlike, it drops to something like 15W. CPU is the same. 95W flat out (using all 4 cores), something like 10W at idle (and 3 cores powered down)
So unless you are "folding" (which runs everything flat out 24/7) or spend all your PC time playing the latest games, the electricity bill should not be that scary.
Mark_man, I'd guess that your folding was costing £20 to £30 per month in electricity... and that's the bit no-one ever talks about. That's why I never started.


I'm shocked by Arunion's electricity bill, however.
My total present bill is just £30 per month. Running my PC 12 hours a day costs only £10 per month of that, though.
And I have a fridge/freezer, PLUS a second freezer. They tend to be the biggest "regular" consumers of power. Boiling kettles use a lot (but only for little time). Same for washing machines and dishwashers. Modern TVs are very efficient.
The only other big consumer I can think of, is an errant water heater - electrically heated water tanks are not that common in UK (I don't have one) but the time I rented a place that did, I was told to switch it on one hour before wanting to run a bath, and switch if off at all other times...

So unless Norway has electricity 8 times more expensive than the UK.... I really cannot believe Arunion's PC is using £80 per month in electricity. Like I said, I reckon Mark_man's would have used 20-30 running flat out 24/7 - cpu AND graphics card, for folding.
If the landlord is seeing that much difference in his electricity bill, then I suggest looking for something else that is using more power than it should.

I once had bad wiring in a house (a near-short circuit) that used up three month's electricity in two weeks. So it might even be a problem with you using power outlets that are not normally in use. Or maybe someone else....
The other idea that comes to mind, is that sort of power consumption often looks like "weed farms" - the growing of cannabis under spotlamps in a basement or loft... There are some wonderful "thermal images" showing glowing roofs of houses suspected to be supplying locally grown drugs. Just throwing ideas out there - not saying anyone here is involved, but maybe that £80 bill is from someone else doing something they shouldn't.

A powerful PC, running a graphically intensive game, does use a lot of power. But those PCs can also be underclocked - run slower than stock - so it might help to lower the clock speeds if the hardware can easily cope with the graphics of the game involved. Don't lower settings or resolution though - just slow the hardware down until you notice an fps drop, then up it again a bit. But that's going to extreme measures....
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby mark_man » Sun Aug 09, 2015 4:01 pm

I run my PC 24 7 at the moment but once I have w10 running as I want it on my new 1tb ssd I will start to do shut downs. I no longer do folding and I have most power saving settings on .my power button brock and until recently I had to manually short it to do shutdown/startup .I got a rest button from maplin around a year ago and fitted it about 6weeks ago lol .I do have a 4" hole in my wall and through 2 walls of my computer desk this runs a 4" drain pipe from in my house ,semi underground across the garden into my garage this feeds my PC nice cool air .uverclocking for me was all about fun and not fps .I'm a bit mad I think lol
I'm Just A Simple Man.
Please for everyone don't believe ANY scores I post .... :D :twisted:
mark_man
Contest Legend
Contest Legend
 
Posts: 1686
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:31 pm
Location: England

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Mon Aug 10, 2015 9:04 pm

mark_man wrote:I run my PC 24 7 at the moment but once I have w10 running as I want it on my new 1tb ssd I will start to do shut downs. I no longer do folding and I have most power saving settings on .my power button brock and until recently I had to manually short it to do shutdown/startup .I got a rest button from maplin around a year ago and fitted it about 6weeks ago lol .I do have a 4" hole in my wall and through 2 walls of my computer desk this runs a 4" drain pipe from in my house ,semi underground across the garden into my garage this feeds my PC nice cool air .uverclocking for me was all about fun and not fps .I'm a bit mad I think lol


I'm impressed with those "solutions". Feeding cold dry air from a garage through a drainpipe? Now why didn't I think of that?
(I have an integral garage, on the North side of the house, that is my "airconditioner" in summer. When it gets too hot, I open the internal door and let the cool air in.)

I fully understand the "fun challenge" bit. I used to do stuff like that, but not any longer, as old age and physical impairment have caught up.

You don't have to be mad to enter AR2 challenges. But I'm sure it helps! :lol:
I lost my mind years ago. I keep asking at lost property, but no-one's handed it in yet.
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby mark_man » Mon Aug 10, 2015 11:58 pm

Ill do some Hangover (the film) style photos to try explain better they will be a bit mock up now as I only use the soil pipe ,I used to run at 10c ill try and illustrate .I did run at 0 or their a bouts but broke a £350 graphics card with condensation lol . :lol:
I'm Just A Simple Man.
Please for everyone don't believe ANY scores I post .... :D :twisted:
mark_man
Contest Legend
Contest Legend
 
Posts: 1686
Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2006 1:31 pm
Location: England

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Tue Aug 11, 2015 2:56 pm

Not sure I could laugh about losing a £350 graphics card.... :shock:

The thing is, you can get condensation whenever the air temperature is too low to support the humidity level.

I spent some years growing up in Durban, South Africa. Where British schools get closed in winter when the heating breaks, in Durban schools would close early, because of hot summer days when humidity was scheduled to go over 100%.

+30 degree heat, next to a warm ocean current, humidity was regularly 80 to 90 percent. Very uncomfortable to live in. On a hot summer's day, the heat would evaporate even more seawater, and as the air cooled in the afternoon, it could no longer support all of the water vapour sucked into the air during the midday heat. So, you'd get "dew" at 3pm, as the moisture condensed out with the temperature still above 30 degrees.
That's what the more familiar morning dew is - cool night air that cannot hold the humidity of the previous day's warmth. It's like a cloud forming at ground level.

My point is, that you don't have to get to zero degrees to get condensation. If the air is dry enough (low enough humidity) then you can go as cold as you like. If the air is really humid, then you have to keep the electronics hotter than the air around them, to avoid dew forming on them. With air cooling, that's usually never a problem.
Except for cold garage air, that might also be somewhat damp...
You run some risk of condensation, even at ten degrees...

Looking forward to the pics. Maybe start a new thread for them, perhaps in "general" rather than this old challenge thread?
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby Arunion » Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:29 pm

I have never known how to overclock anything myself. The build sounds impressive as hell :shock: My computer sounds lackluster compared, even though I'm quite satisfied with the stock speeds ^^

And after having talked to my father (who's an engineer and an electrician) I've found out that there is... I've no idea what it's called in English. Let me check. "ground fault"? issues. So it is indeed not my computer that is drawing that power but rather some issues with other things on the fuse I'm on. I'll have to report back when we've had an electrician look at it. Thank you for suggesting that it wasn't my computer at fault :)

And I doubt that the owner is a weed farmer considering he's the only other occupant of the house :P I imagine it's something to do with him having a barn since I technically live on a farm. But if he does have a weed farm, when he's one of the most innocent men I've met, I'd be impressed!
Arunion
 
Posts: 465
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2010 2:39 pm

Re: AR2_A_350_014_Sunstroke (ends Sat 8 August 2015@ 20h00 G

Postby bythelee » Tue Aug 25, 2015 9:46 pm

Arunion wrote:And after having talked to my father (who's an engineer and an electrician) I've found out that there is... I've no idea what it's called in English. Let me check. "ground fault"? issues. So it is indeed not my computer that is drawing that power but rather some issues with other things on the fuse I'm on. I'll have to report back when we've had an electrician look at it. Thank you for suggesting that it wasn't my computer at fault :)

And I doubt that the owner is a weed farmer considering he's the only other occupant of the house :P I imagine it's something to do with him having a barn since I technically live on a farm. But if he does have a weed farm, when he's one of the most innocent men I've met, I'd be impressed!


(I think you mean "the Circuit you are on." The fuse is the overload device protecting that circuit from excessive current)

I'm extremely good at growing weeds in my garden... but that isn't the sort of hydroponics "medicinal" weed being hinted at...

No, it all sounds like your recent usage of an old circuit has caused some sort of leakage - perhaps old insulation has begun to fail, and is now allowing a small "short circuit" of some sort. Small enough to use a lot of electricity, but not big enough to overload the fuse.

This is very much what happened in my old house. The current that flowed continuously was high enough to triple my average consumption, but not high enough to blow the fuse (which happens only when the current is high, not when it is leaking away somewhere else).


Glad to hear there is a fault. Well, not glad about there being a fault, but pleased the suggestion was helpful, and you now know the PC is not the problem.

Is there any way your father can "have a look" quickly? (I presume location/distance is a problem, else he might have sorted it for you already.)

Ground fault (or possibly called an Earth fault) is when the positive volts leak away to ground. Current flows, but it is just bleeding away, and doing no useful work. Old insulation on old wiring might be responsible. I hope you can get it fixed fast (or rather, the landlord gets it fixed....)

Have you been able to identify which circuit is the problem? Or are all of the power outlets you are using on a single circuit? It might be safer, to temporarily run an extension cord from a different circuit, known to be working OK, and shut off the damaged circuit entirely. Just be very careful about weather proofing, if it has to run outside.

Most modern electrical installations use an "RCD" (Residual Current Detector) - it compares the outgoing current along the positive line, with that returning back along the neutral line, and trips the circuit if they differ by more than (typically) 30 milliamps. Because, that means the current is leaking away, possibly electrocuting someone. It is a safety device. But there is no legal requirement to retrofit these things in any existing building.
I presume your Dad knows all about this stuff, so I should probably just shut up and let him deal with it for you. Good luck! :D
bythelee
 
Posts: 875
Joined: Sat Mar 31, 2012 1:42 am
Location: United Kingdom


Return to AR2 "A" League

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests

cron