February 2018 Time Trial

[M11k4]

Most times scoring the best time on a level is about understanding the how the Exit is reached most efficiently. Other times it can be about the execution of a planned route or reacting to elements in the game that aren't always the same. This competition is about one of those latter times.

Now, not everyone enjoys random elements in a speed running environment, so don't take this one too seriously. I know some of us can obsess about scoring the perfect run, but for your own sake, just play these levels only for as long as you enjoy them.

The first level has some random force floors. The second level has some blobs. Thanks to Jeffrey for making these for us. You can find them as levels #107 and #108 in the updated CCZoneTT.dat:


CC Zone File embed: https://cczone.invisionzone.com/files/fi.../?do=embed


A few quick things before I let you go:

• Deadline for the competition is March 4th where you live.
  
  
• Please send your submissions (tws or avi) to me at valeosote at hotmail dot com.
  
  
• The competition is in MS mode, but you can send in Lynx solutions as well.
  
  

Enjoy!

-Miika

Technicalities:

[Click to Show Content]

<ol style="background-color:#fafafa; color:#353c41; font-size:14px; text-align:start">
[*]
The person with the highest combined score on the two levels "Acid Pocket" and "Sludge Report" wins! There may be a tie in overall score, though I may choose to have the level with more variance in submitted scores to be a tie-breaker.

[*]
You may enter in either MS or Lynx, with MS considered primary. This means the players will be ranked by their MS times if they have one, and if not their Lynx time will count as their MS time, with the caveat that if it exceeds the best reported MS time, then it is considered equal to that time.

[*]
Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.

[*]
The levels aren't hard to solve but getting a great time does require some grinding. Don't be afraid to send in your solutions even if you sense they aren't perfect, and simple casual solutions are also appreciated. You may enter if you solve at least one of the levels, but solving both will obviously place higher.

[*]
Submission deadline is March 4th, 2018 where you live. I will judge the submissions without warning during the following days but will accept submissions until I do. If you need a more specific time, you can always ask. To avoid losing on time (it is a time trial after all), get your solutions in early rather than later! You can send in improvements while the competition is running, 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.

[*]
This is part of the 2018 season of the Chip Cup. The winner will be awarded 15 points, second place 12, third 10 points, and so on. If you win a competition here for the first time, you qualify for the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a Time Trial earlier qualify for the "Run, Chip, Run" award. The quickest Lynx solutions may be awarded an additional 5 Chip Cup points. The participants who send their first submissions before February 12th may receive an Early Bird Bonus of 1 Chip Cup point.

[*]
The designer of the levels and any others who have seen the levels in advance, may enter the competition. Please be fair and do not abuse this rule; it is meant to maximize the fun, not provide an advantage.

[*]
The levels may receive an (other) update within the first week of their release. This will only be done if there is some significant problem with the first versions of the levels. Please contact me if you suspect something is off. If you saw an earlier version of one of the levels, this time around you may use that for submissions but it is not preferred.

[*]
Do not post your solutions or solution times or share them with others before the competition results are announced. All times will be published at the same time, and the quickest solutions will eventually be released. Stay tuned for a public tws of all the levels so far!

[*]
As an exception to the above rule, a participant may 'freeze' their scores at some point after submitting their own solutions. They will not be able to submit any more updates after this, but they may talk about the levels and their times with other people who have frozen their entry. I may update a public list of people who have frozen their score.

</ol>

[M11k4]

Results!

I'm working on getting the replays of the solutions for your viewing pleasure, but as I already compiled these results, I thought I'd post them already.

Code:

1. Ihavenoname24815pts 373+251= 624
2. M11k412pts 369+253= 622 (344+240=584 LX)
3. Bacorn10pts 374+246= 620
4. rubenspaans 8pts 364+244= 608 LX
5. chipster1059 7pts 348+202= 550

Congrats to Jeffrey for the win! I believe this is the first time someone wins a Time Trial without actually scoring a bold on any level That might sound worse than it is, because it just needs the right circumstances to happen. We often are pretty lucky not to have many ties in the scores, but this time with the randomness involved that was expected more than usual. (Of course avoiding ties is not a requirement for this to happen, but it does help.) Once there are no ties, all it requires is that someone (Jeffrey) has two good scores that fall just short of what others did, and it needs at least two others to beat those good scores but on different levels. Well done to Bacorn for the best score on the first level! For my score on the second one, I was sure someone would beat it because if this was a level in a CCLPn, I feel 257 would be scored by several people (at least eventually). Well done also to Ruben for crushing my Lynx scores, and thanks to Chipster for sending in more casual solutions.

Thanks to Jeffrey also for providing the levels. They were actually more fun to play than one might think at first inspection. The blob level is one of my favorite blob levels ever! It combines several types of blob challenges in the right sizes and even provides some chances for using smart strategies to pick the order in which to visit the rooms. Both levels actually ended up having small tricks to them to score the best times (so it wasn't all just luck), which is always a nice thing to see.

We'll have a new Time Trial starting up pretty soon, so keep your eyes open for it

(And if someone wants to make levels for a CC2 competition, that would be welcome as well!)

-Miika

[Ihavenoname248]

I had a couple of 375-376 paced runs on the first level die to the block, and just never felt like pushing for just a little more time.

With the blob level, well, I just wanted to complete it with a solid time, so I grinded for the start and then kept that for my submission (250) and then later got an extra second with a few extra tactics.

I'm very glad to hear that Sludge Report was enjoyed! It helps that I stole concepts from every past official set, but I also spent a lot of time tweaking each area to make sure it was reasonable