It's time for a new Time Trial! It's also the first Super competition
on the forum! That means it's a bigger competition that couldn't be contained in a single month and participants will be awarded twice as many Chip Cup points as usual! (For a summary of the competition, skip to the end of the post.)
Last year I went back and looked at all the levels that had been made for any competitions on these forums.
I compiled them into a single download here: http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/305-cc-zone-competition-goodie-bag/
It includes some information on the competitions, but I would like to improve it by including some solutions to at least the time trial levels. However, several of the Time Trials never received any participants and thus there is no official time for those levels. Now I'm giving everyone a chance to revisit those levels before any solutions are released.
For January, we're reusing all the levels from months that didn't receive entrants, namely September 2009, January 2010, October 2011, and December 2011. Some of these levels aren't ideal for a Time Trial, so the scoring will be a bit different and won't require participants to optimize all the levels. For every level you complete you get some 'chips
' and the participant at the end of February with the most chips
wins the competition! The levels in question are all from CCZoneTT.dat (found in the download above), and for January the levels are:
Level 9 - "CCzone TT Challenge #5A
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 10 - "CCzone TT Challenge #5B
" - 10-20 chips
for completion, see below for details.
Level 12 - "CCzone TT Challenge #7
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 27 - "11.3 - Not Red, Green and Blue
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 29 - "11.5 - December 2011 Time Trial
" - 10-20 chips
for completion, see below for details.
For levels 10 and 29, I will award between 10
and 20 chips
for any solutions and use my judgement on how this is done by taking into account the time remaining on the levels. I don't want to force anyone to work too hard on the long block pushing level, so I might award 20 chips
to each participant who optimizes that level decently. (Because of possible ties, it is hard to commit to the exact method of distributing chips
, but basically I want to award the two quickest solvers equal chips and the rest get lower amounts staggered between 10
and 19 chips
.) So the time you get on these levels matter, but there still should be a point where you can feel confident that squeezing another second from the solution won't make a difference.
For February, we will add other levels to the mix, so check back for an update then. I will then also explain how the scoring will deal with cases where someone can only participate during one month, and not the other.
February Update:
The other levels for this competition fall under the theme "were part of a competition but the results were never announced" which basically means a repeat of the five levels from November 2010. You can find them in the same file as the previous levels and the number of chips you'll receive for solving them is:
Level 19 - "#9A: TT Nov 2010 - CODE BREAKER
" - 10-20 chips for completion, see below for details.
Level 20 - "#9B: TT Nov 2010 - PORTAL
" - 10 chips for completion.
Level 21 - "#9C: TT Nov 2010 - DIAMOND
" - 5 chips for completion, and an additional 5 chips for tying with the best time.
Level 22 - "#9D: TT Nov 2010 - RANDOM
" - 10 chips for completion.
Level 23 - "#9E: TT Nov 2010 - DIRECTIONAL
" - 10-20 chips for completion, see below for details.
For the first and last of these levels, the person who submits the best time on each will receive 20 chips.
The second best scorer will get 19 chips
, third will get 18 chips
and so on down to 10 chips
. (If it makes no difference in the result, I might round these steps to two or five chips
each.) I will be interested in seeing who scores the best times on the other levels too, but I can't make those matter for the competition, as it would be too much work for you guys. I will also try my hand at what scores I can get.
Remember that the person with the most chips at after all these ten levels wins! I can't reveal how many participants we already had in January, but if you feel like it is too late to join in you would be wrong! Even with half points available from the first levels you can still place pretty high and start off the year with a big pile of Chip Cup points. It's even possible that some participants will drop out this month and someone else entirely will come and claim first place!
Other notes:
1) The person with the most chips
after all levels from January and February wins!
2) As not all levels are playable in Lynx, this time you may enter the competition only in MS. You can send in your Lynx solutions as well, but those won't count towards the competition. You do not need to solve all levels to enter. There may be a tie in overall score.
3) You may use the levels in either CCZoneTT.dat or the original smaller sets as released (they should be identical). Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to CCZoneNextLevel at gmail dot com, or to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. Do not post your solutions or solution times or share them with others. All times will be published at the same time, and the quickest solutions will eventually be released. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.
4) This is part of the 2014 season of the Chip Cup. The winner will be awarded 30 points, second place 24, third 20 points, and so on according to twice as much points as for normal competitions. If you win a competition here for the first time, you receive the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a time trial earlier receive the "Run, Chip, Run" award. If your username starts with a K, I will create and dedicate a level to you.
5) Submission deadline is at the end of January where you live for the first five levels, and the end of February for the rest of the levels. Results will be announced in March. More exact deadlines will be posted, but get your solutions in early rather than later! You can send in improvements while the deadline hasn't passed, so there is no downside to sending in something you know might not be your best effort if you had forever to work on it.
6) Now that it is February, you may still enter the competition, but if you did not submit anything in January, you will only receive half points for those levels.
Summary of competition:
-Miika
on the forum! That means it's a bigger competition that couldn't be contained in a single month and participants will be awarded twice as many Chip Cup points as usual! (For a summary of the competition, skip to the end of the post.)
Last year I went back and looked at all the levels that had been made for any competitions on these forums.
I compiled them into a single download here: http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/305-cc-zone-competition-goodie-bag/
It includes some information on the competitions, but I would like to improve it by including some solutions to at least the time trial levels. However, several of the Time Trials never received any participants and thus there is no official time for those levels. Now I'm giving everyone a chance to revisit those levels before any solutions are released.
For January, we're reusing all the levels from months that didn't receive entrants, namely September 2009, January 2010, October 2011, and December 2011. Some of these levels aren't ideal for a Time Trial, so the scoring will be a bit different and won't require participants to optimize all the levels. For every level you complete you get some 'chips
' and the participant at the end of February with the most chips
wins the competition! The levels in question are all from CCZoneTT.dat (found in the download above), and for January the levels are:
Level 9 - "CCzone TT Challenge #5A
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 10 - "CCzone TT Challenge #5B
" - 10-20 chips
for completion, see below for details.
Level 12 - "CCzone TT Challenge #7
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 27 - "11.3 - Not Red, Green and Blue
" - 10 chips
for completion.
Level 29 - "11.5 - December 2011 Time Trial
" - 10-20 chips
for completion, see below for details.
For levels 10 and 29, I will award between 10
and 20 chips
for any solutions and use my judgement on how this is done by taking into account the time remaining on the levels. I don't want to force anyone to work too hard on the long block pushing level, so I might award 20 chips
to each participant who optimizes that level decently. (Because of possible ties, it is hard to commit to the exact method of distributing chips
, but basically I want to award the two quickest solvers equal chips and the rest get lower amounts staggered between 10
and 19 chips
.) So the time you get on these levels matter, but there still should be a point where you can feel confident that squeezing another second from the solution won't make a difference.
For February, we will add other levels to the mix, so check back for an update then. I will then also explain how the scoring will deal with cases where someone can only participate during one month, and not the other.
February Update:
The other levels for this competition fall under the theme "were part of a competition but the results were never announced" which basically means a repeat of the five levels from November 2010. You can find them in the same file as the previous levels and the number of chips you'll receive for solving them is:
Level 19 - "#9A: TT Nov 2010 - CODE BREAKER
" - 10-20 chips for completion, see below for details.
Level 20 - "#9B: TT Nov 2010 - PORTAL
" - 10 chips for completion.
Level 21 - "#9C: TT Nov 2010 - DIAMOND
" - 5 chips for completion, and an additional 5 chips for tying with the best time.
Level 22 - "#9D: TT Nov 2010 - RANDOM
" - 10 chips for completion.
Level 23 - "#9E: TT Nov 2010 - DIRECTIONAL
" - 10-20 chips for completion, see below for details.
For the first and last of these levels, the person who submits the best time on each will receive 20 chips.
The second best scorer will get 19 chips
, third will get 18 chips
and so on down to 10 chips
. (If it makes no difference in the result, I might round these steps to two or five chips
each.) I will be interested in seeing who scores the best times on the other levels too, but I can't make those matter for the competition, as it would be too much work for you guys. I will also try my hand at what scores I can get.
Remember that the person with the most chips at after all these ten levels wins! I can't reveal how many participants we already had in January, but if you feel like it is too late to join in you would be wrong! Even with half points available from the first levels you can still place pretty high and start off the year with a big pile of Chip Cup points. It's even possible that some participants will drop out this month and someone else entirely will come and claim first place!
Other notes:
1) The person with the most chips
after all levels from January and February wins!
2) As not all levels are playable in Lynx, this time you may enter the competition only in MS. You can send in your Lynx solutions as well, but those won't count towards the competition. You do not need to solve all levels to enter. There may be a tie in overall score.
3) You may use the levels in either CCZoneTT.dat or the original smaller sets as released (they should be identical). Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to CCZoneNextLevel at gmail dot com, or to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. Do not post your solutions or solution times or share them with others. All times will be published at the same time, and the quickest solutions will eventually be released. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.
4) This is part of the 2014 season of the Chip Cup. The winner will be awarded 30 points, second place 24, third 20 points, and so on according to twice as much points as for normal competitions. If you win a competition here for the first time, you receive the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a time trial earlier receive the "Run, Chip, Run" award. If your username starts with a K, I will create and dedicate a level to you.
5) Submission deadline is at the end of January where you live for the first five levels, and the end of February for the rest of the levels. Results will be announced in March. More exact deadlines will be posted, but get your solutions in early rather than later! You can send in improvements while the deadline hasn't passed, so there is no downside to sending in something you know might not be your best effort if you had forever to work on it.
6) Now that it is February, you may still enter the competition, but if you did not submit anything in January, you will only receive half points for those levels.
Summary of competition:
- Download and extract CCZoneTT.dat from: http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/download/305-cc-zone-competition-goodie-bag/
- Try getting a good time on levels #10 and #29.
- Attempt solving levels #9, #12, and #27.
- Make a silent wish that you already would have done all that in January.
- Then try getting a good time on levels #19 and #23.
- Also attempt solving levels #20, #21, and #22.
- Send in your solutions to CCZoneNextLevel at gmail dot com or valeosote at hotmail dot com.
- Check back in March for the results!
-Miika