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+--- Thread: December 2024 Time Trial - Mazes of Insight (/thread-2946.html)
December 2024 Time Trial - Mazes of Insight - M11k4 - 29-Nov-2024
I'm excited. I know I often write these announcements a bit tongue-in-cheek with an overly hyped-up tone, so just saying I'm excited might not mean much. But this time, I am excited for real. I think it's to do with the anticipation of finally releasing these levels and start this competition. I worked on them about a year ago and then I just sat on them waiting for the right time to launch, when it didn't overlap poorly with CCLP5 or a busy schedule in my own life. Hopefully that time is now.
The Time Trial for this month, this year in fact, is a collection of mazes. I am releasing a set with 50 levels, but fear not, only five of those are for this competition. If that's all you need to know grab this set and get to work:
insight.ccl (Size: 49.43 KB / Downloads: 11)
I have too much to say about the levels to write everything here, so I will be uploading a video with those thoughts instead. Briefly, I thought it was time I built a maze for a TT and then I wanted to use the same maze structure to create several different challenges. Chip's Challenge levels come in many flavors and not everyone has to like every flavor, but I gave this concept my best shot and I do hope you can find some enjoyment in the set like I already have.
As for the scoring of the competition, I must also add a few words. Firstly, the competition levels are #2 - #6 in the set, but I do recommend you take a look at a few others too if you just want some casually playable levels (I recommend #9, #27, #43). Secondly, with five full levels to optimize for the competition (and we always love casual entries as well; they are awesome for getting a feel for how the level plays), I want to use a ranking scheme that does not require you to perfect all of these. The method I have in mind is to rank each level individually and only your three best ranks count towards your placement in the competition. Thirdly, I want to use a rule that incentivizes working on the level yourself, without banning computer assistance completely. If you do not use any computer assistance that does more than handle the inputs you make yourself into the level, you will receive a bonus second for that level. The intent is that you first can take a stab at each level manually, send in your score, and then, if you wish, you can use computational assistance to make improvements.
I'll probably say a few more things on Discord as I mention this competition there. If you have any other questions or comments, about the levels or the competition, all I'm doing this weekend is waiting by my screen to reply to you. (ah, I'm getting into that hyperbolic tone again...)
Enjoy!
-Miika
RE: December 2024 Time Trial - Mazes of Insight - M11k4 - 01-Dec-2024
I didn't mention a deadline in the announcement above. Let's set it at the end of the day of December 23rd where you live, and for any first submissions that arrive before the end of the 8th are eligible for the Early Bird Bonus Chip Cup Point. Please send your submissions directly to me at either my email valeosote at hotmail or PM me on Discord. The primary ruleset for this competition is MS, but Lynx solutions are also accepted.
Those things actually already came up on Discord, but I'm recording them here too. The other thing that came up was a clarification on where the line is between having computer assistance and not. This time I do want to allow solutions built manually using Melinda Router, which has a feature that can be interpreted as outside computational help, specifically by indicating to you if you have reached the same state in slower time than in an other approach you input yourself. I feel you can still be responsible for the main decisions of structuring your route even if this feature happens to help you in some of the bookkeeping. Hopefully this is fair and clear enough to avoid surprising disqualifications of routes or turning away possible participants. I am open to more discussion on this issue, particularly if and when more assisting features are made available in these sort of tools.
I also promised to post a video with some thoughts on the level designs, so here you go:
https://youtu.be/B2tlMOCOxR0
That's all for now. :-)