April 2015 Time Trial

[M11k4]

Procrastinating is fun, isn't it? That's exactly what I am doing with regards to posting more comments on the create levels by starting this topic! But I am not going to keep all the procrastinations to myself, oh no, rather I hope to spread it all over to you too! All you need to do is download these levels, play them and send in your solutions. I'm sure you all have something very important to do this month, and the easiest way to get that done is to first procrastinate a bit (these levels!) and then do it afterwards! It's that simple! And fun! However there's one thing you must watch out for when doing that... don't try to blame me for tricking you into entering this Time Trial! Yes, exactly; entering this fun competition is so easy that it feels like you are procrastinating from something more important! How much better could life get??

This time there are three levels to play. The first has some gliders and you just need to dodge them. The second is a maze, but there are some short cuts you may choose to take. The third requires some monster manipulating but should still be fun. All these were made by Ihavenoname248, so thank you for submitting them for use here! I hope to see some stiff competition this month, as well as some valiant effort from many people. Perhaps we could attempt to break the record of how many participants are in a Time Trial!



Enjoy!

Technicalities:

1) The person with the highest combined remaining time on the three levels wins! There may be a tie in overall score.
2) You may enter in either MS or Lynx, with the former being the primary rules. This means that any Lynx solution times that exceed the best MS solution time will be considered equal to that MS time, but otherwise all the times will be compared together in one category.
3) 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 before the competition results are announced. 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) The levels aren't too hard 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 more will obviously place higher.
5) This is part of the 2015 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. If you are the second person to send in your solutions, I will build a snowman and name it after you (pictures may or may not be available).
6) Submission deadline is May 3rd 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.
7) The designer of the levels, may enter the competition, as he has not optimized them, nor did he have significantly more time to work on them compared to the rest of you. The same applies to myself. In addition, I never work on my own scores after seeing someone else's solution. However, if someone protests against this, I may exclude my own submission.
8) The levels may receive an update within the first week of the competition. This will only be done if there is some significant problem with the first versions of the levels (and I did make a few small changes to the first level without running it by the designer, so he still has the right to veto them).


Thanks for your interest! I'm sure this will be a fun one!

-Miika

P.S. I will try to start the next Time Trial before this one ends (maybe even with a week of overlap), so don't procrastinate too much before getting to work on these levels!

[Ihavenoname248]

I liked most of the changes to Crystallized Silver: sent in a new version with a reverted change, though, since it threw off the central timing.


The final say on which version to use would be up to you, though, despite the fact that I prefer the one I just sent

7) The designer of the levels, may enter the competition, as he has not optimized them, nor did he have significantly more time to work on them compared to the rest of you.

This is especially true since all of the levels in the TT had sizable changes from the original designs!

[M11k4]

We looked at the first level again, and decided to change some things. One was a misclick and the other messed with IHNN's plan to not allow a glider collision. You can download the updated version, or apply these changes yourself:

• (8,14) to wall instead of chip.
  
• (16,20) to chip instead of floor.
  
• Chip count corrected to 41.
  

Apologies for the inconvenience. If we have trouble with submissions using the previous version, we'll think of something, but it would be preferred if you use this updated version.

And we have our first submission to this competition already sent in! Who'll be next??

EDIT: first this said we are not updating the level, and then we did. That's life. If you have trouble, please tell me so I can help and will be more motivated to try and not do this again ever.

[M11k4]

Rules update.

It's been great to see so many people that have already sent in their times already! Because I want to look at them, I want to add a new rule. In the past couple of months, I have been also pestered by participants to get the results out really quickly, so this might help alleviate the pain for you guys too. Here goes:

A participant may 'freeze' their scores after submission. This means 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.

This rule has its risks, as some info may leak out. I just encourage you to not talk about the competition AT ALL with others if you have frozen your scores. Even a small hint like 'this level was really fun so you should play it too and send in your solution, even though I missed the trick for the best time' is too much. (Saying something like that is more acceptable if your scores are not frozen.) This does take away some of the surprise of the results, but it also allows for more accountability from myself and my scores, so I'm testing this out if it works well.

-Miika

List of people who have frozen their scores:

M11k4

Michael

IHNN

J.B. Lewis

chipster1059

James

[Ihavenoname248]

Mentioned this in the e-mail that I sent my create entry in with, but I've elected to freeze my times for this. Couldn't find any further improvements on any of the levels, so I"m as sure as I can be that they're optimal.

[jblewis]

Submitted and frozen.

[M11k4]

The Time Trial is now closed!

As many players already froze their scores, I feel I can post some unofficial partial results.

I'll disclose some of the highest scores in the way how I experienced things...

I got 223 on the first level, Crystallized Silver. Many others got this, but also many participants got just 220.

The second level, Disentanglement, was a different creature. My best route was 403 and I was at a loss as to how to look for more. Ihavenoname248 reported that 380 was possible without opening any locks. He and Syzygy reported 404 on this level. At this point, I knew there was room for someone to pass me if they were perfect. Then J.B. reported 405, which remained the maximum. The only other person to get past 400 was James, with 403.

The third level, Compact Contact, really was a beast. I first solved it with 237 remaining and kept improving it: 255, 257, 262, 265, 266, 267, 270, 271. Each gain was something small like a block fewer in the upper room or understanding how to dodge the glider. Once I froze my scores, it was scary hearing scores from others. The big hurdle seemed to be 260, and the about half the participants got past it: Syzygy (261), Ihavenoname248 (266), Cyberdog (260), J.B. (268), and James (270). I'll see if I can record all of these for everyone to see.

If you were paying attention, this basically means that while I did not maximize every level perfectly, my own combined score was a second higher than second place (shared by J.B. and James), followed closely by Ihavenoname248 and then Syzygy. Well done guys!

I will post all the scores and some of the routes soon. Thanks to all who participated!

-Miika

[M11k4]

Ok, here are the full results:

April 2015 Time Trial

1. Miika_________ 15
pts 223 + 403 + 271 = 897 (also 263 Lynx for #3)
2. J.B. Lewis____ 11
pts 223 + 405 + 268 = 896
-- James_________ 11
pts 223 + 403 + 270 = 896
4. Ihavenoname248_ 8
pts 223 + 404 + 266 = 893 (also 222,-,254 Lynx)
5. Bacorn_________ 7
pts 223 + 399 + 268 = 890

6. Syzygy_________ 6
pts 223 + 404 + 261 = 888 (also 221,404,255 Lynx)
7. pillowpc2001___ 5
pts 220 + 390 + 247 = 857
-- chipster1059___ 5
pts 222 + 380 + 255 = 857
9. RB3ProKeys_____ 3
pts 223 + 368 + 255 = 846
10.Cyberdog_______ 2
pts 220 + 365 + 260 = 845
11.Michael________ 1
pnt 220 + 380 + 236 = 836
12.random 8_______ 1
pnt 219 + 358 + 229 = 814 (including 220,365,220 Lynx)


Congratulations to myself!! Did you know that since the start of 2012 only three people have won a Time Trial without a tie? (There has been one tie in that time which included a fourth winner.)

EDIT: added in Bacorn to the standings. Sorry for the missing it the first time!

Here's a wonderfully stabilized video of the first level:

<div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo " contenteditable="false">


Here are seven solutions to the third level:


The forum only allows two videos per post so I saved the second level for that on the excuse that I will post more info on the routes submitted for that one at the same time. (Or if you are impatient, you can already find the video on our Youtube channel.)

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this competition! I thought Ihavenoname248 did a splendid job on the design of the levels. It was also nice to have a new entrant in the Time Trials in Cyberdog.

-Miika

[M11k4]

Ooops, sorry but I originally somehow managed to miss a submission by Bacorn when posting the results above. I have edited them in now, but apologies to both Bacorn for the omission and the other participants who lost a Chip Cup point due to my mistake! It should now be in order.

I also uploaded his solution to Compact Contact,
as well as RB3ProKeys' solution, though slower was still interesting because it did not take any blocks into the upper room:




Here is the solution to Disentanglement
that I promised:


<div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo " contenteditable="false">


Or you can view it drawn out on the map:



I didn't have the energy to draw all the interesting routes submitted, but here are the locks that the quickest players opened:

JB____ - (13,10),(26,8),(11,14),(7,18),(15,21) [405]

Syzygy - (18,7),(26,8),(7,18),(18,24),(25,25)_ [404]

IHNN__ - (13,10),(18,7),(7,18),(18,24),(25,25) [404]

James_ - (15,11),(26,8),(11,14),(7,18),(13,23) [403]

Miika_ - (15,11),(18,24),(18,7),(26,8),(25,25) [403]

Bacorn - (13,10),(26,8),(15,21),(7,18),(10,20) [399]


With some patience you might be able to piece together what everyone did. (If you use the above image as reference for the coordinates, it helps to know that Chip starts at (6,6) and the middle red key is at (15,16).) I love seeing how some of these solutions are pretty close and how others are so different. Though it didn't have an effect on his time, I must comment that Ihavenoname248 picked up the chip at (14,6) earlier than he should have, and in his route it does not matter if you open (7,18) or (23,17). Seeing all these different yet pretty good routes assures me that this level was a success in the competition, (as I think the others were too). Hopefully you found this info interesting!


-Miika

P.S. I guess this is the first time I've managed to use three posts about a Time Trial's results. Upvote if you approve!