Time Trial Time! This time I believe we have a couple cool levels for you.
And I know it's not quite May yet, but I have this ready so I thought I'd share them already!
The first level, Off the Humble Shelf
, is more of a puzzle of how to get all these blocks moved, but works also for competing on the quickest time. My inspiration for this come from Lessinath's use of blocks on popup walls in a couple levels.
The second level, Time Trial Mix II
, is a continuation of a concept from last year, where I took some old Time Trial levels and built a new one using pieces from the old ones. This one is quite a bit more linear to solve than the first one, as that's how many of these old levels also worked. I wonder what you will think about this mix of old and new?
http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/562-%7B?%7D/
As a twist to this month's competition, I thought we could try a bonus category of solving the levels in Lynx. The players are still ranked by their MS times, but a one-and-done bonus of five Chip Cup points
will be awarded to the person with the quickest solution in Lynx (no award for second place). Who's interested in going for that?
Standard technicalities apply:
1) The person with the highest combined remaining time on the two levels wins! Players will be ranked according to how fast they solve the levels. Scores for each level will be ranked separately and then combined in some overly clever way.
There may be a tie in overall score.
2) You may enter in either MS or Lynx. 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.
3) Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. It would be good to include at least your username from here, perhaps even in the subject line, like 'May TT - pieguy'. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.
4)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.
5) The levels aren't overly complicated to solve. 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.
6) This is part of the 2016 season of the Chip Cup. 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 receive the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a Time Trial earlier receive the "Run, Chip, Run" award. As explained above, an additional 5 points will be awarded for the person or persons who submit the quickest Lynx solution. A randomly chosen entrant will receive a super prize!
7) Submission deadline is May 31st, 2016 where you live. I will judge the submissions without warning the 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.
8) The designer of the levels, may enter the competition, as long as he feels to not have gained any significant advantage as a result of having some advanced knowledge of the levels or of seeing someone else's submissions.
9) The levels may receive an 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.
10) A participant may 'freeze' their scores at some point after submitting their own solutions. They will not be able to send in 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.
Enjoy!
-Miika
UPDATE, 2h after first release: first level updated a bit, but if you didn't see the first version, don't worry about it
UPDATE: Some scoring changes and an extra prize announced; details below!
And I know it's not quite May yet, but I have this ready so I thought I'd share them already!
The first level, Off the Humble Shelf
, is more of a puzzle of how to get all these blocks moved, but works also for competing on the quickest time. My inspiration for this come from Lessinath's use of blocks on popup walls in a couple levels.
The second level, Time Trial Mix II
, is a continuation of a concept from last year, where I took some old Time Trial levels and built a new one using pieces from the old ones. This one is quite a bit more linear to solve than the first one, as that's how many of these old levels also worked. I wonder what you will think about this mix of old and new?
http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/562-%7B?%7D/
As a twist to this month's competition, I thought we could try a bonus category of solving the levels in Lynx. The players are still ranked by their MS times, but a one-and-done bonus of five Chip Cup points
will be awarded to the person with the quickest solution in Lynx (no award for second place). Who's interested in going for that?
Standard technicalities apply:
1) The person with the highest combined remaining time on the two levels wins! Players will be ranked according to how fast they solve the levels. Scores for each level will be ranked separately and then combined in some overly clever way.
There may be a tie in overall score.
2) You may enter in either MS or Lynx. 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.
3) Please send your solutions (either the tws file or avis) to my own email valeosote at hotmail dot com. It would be good to include at least your username from here, perhaps even in the subject line, like 'May TT - pieguy'. I will strive to respond to your message by a confirmation that your score has been recorded.
4)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.
5) The levels aren't overly complicated to solve. 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.
6) This is part of the 2016 season of the Chip Cup. 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 receive the "You're Winner!" award. All participants who haven't participated in a Time Trial earlier receive the "Run, Chip, Run" award. As explained above, an additional 5 points will be awarded for the person or persons who submit the quickest Lynx solution. A randomly chosen entrant will receive a super prize!
7) Submission deadline is May 31st, 2016 where you live. I will judge the submissions without warning the 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.
8) The designer of the levels, may enter the competition, as long as he feels to not have gained any significant advantage as a result of having some advanced knowledge of the levels or of seeing someone else's submissions.
9) The levels may receive an 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.
10) A participant may 'freeze' their scores at some point after submitting their own solutions. They will not be able to send in 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.
Enjoy!
-Miika
UPDATE, 2h after first release: first level updated a bit, but if you didn't see the first version, don't worry about it
UPDATE: Some scoring changes and an extra prize announced; details below!
) or grind it out eventually if the odds were around 1% chance of success. I also hadn't realized just how much boosting is required in this until I tried to execute my own route after posting the levels, so I can see how that adds to the difficulty. In design, the level didn't first have the ice, but I added it to not force everyone to play it in Lynx and to give it a bit more zing.
This is going to be fun!
