January 2013 Time Trial - the Case Files

[M11k4]

Happy New Year Everyone!


Let's kickoff this year's competitions with a Time Trial!

http://cczone.invisionzone.com/index.php?/files/file/191-ccz-tt-1301ccl/

Download and enjoy. Send either ms or lynx solutions to my email address ( valeosote at hotmail dot com ).

That's basically all the information you need (and a bit of common sense), but I'll spell out some details too.

1) The levels are quite simple, at least to solve. There are several of them, but they all stick to the same frame so you won't get lost easily. I wanted to try and see if something as basic as this could still be fun to compete with, and if the submissions will still avoid ties.

2) The person with the highest combined remaining time on the levels #2- #11 wins! Both ms and lynx will be judged in the same category, though I suspect that there are no levels where lynx can be completed quicker than ms. Ties in overall score won't be broken.

3) This is part of the new 2013 season of the Chip Cup. Winner will be awarded 15 points, second place 12 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.

4) 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.

5) Submission deadline is at the end of the month. In practice this means I will post here during the first week of February announcing that no more submissions will be accepted, and judge the competition right then. This can happen sooner than you hope, so get your solutions in early rather than later. You can send in improvements while the competitions 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.

6) I have the Time Trials for this spring mapped out already, so there might be something special in store for everyone who participates in all of these before the summer. Each month will be a different experience, so join in now to not miss out on the fun! If you have a level you want to submit as a TT level, send it to me and I might still find a slot for it too.

Report any problems or ask any questions here! Have fun!

-Miika

[AdrenalinDragon]

Is it Lynx or MS? I don't know if it can be both because there would be time differences I think.

[M11k4]

Is it Lynx or MS? I don't know if it can be both because there would be time differences I think.

I'll clarify. I want to allow for people to play in which rules they prefer, and we could still keep just one category. Originally I was hoping the scores could just be picked from whichever rule set was submitted (and in the case someone played both, I'd pick the better of the two for each level). If the levels had boosting and other timing differences available, I might even have announced a small offset for playing in the slower rules, but that didn't look to be necessary this month. I was also hoping that the optimal routes would still be in ms, so the top players wouldn't be forced to work in both rules.

Upon closer examination of the levels, I will now change this idea a bit. You can submit solutions in either ms or lynx. If a lynx score is higher than the highest submitted ms score (by you or someone else), then your lynx score will be considered equal to this ms score. This way, you know which rules to concentrate on, but can still play in the other one if you wish. In particular, even if a level might be quicker in lynx, having the quickest ms solution is equal to the best possible score. You can still submit your lynx solutions too if you want, but in the case of the level being possible faster in ms, you lose out for picking lynx. For this month most of the levels seem to score the same, though at least some collision differences arise in some.

-Miika

[M11k4]

Welcome to February!

So we have some submissions for this competition and I'll compile the results soon. I'm having trouble opening one of the tws files sent, and I'm looking into uploading the quickest solutions to the CCZone Youtube channel, but hopefully we'll get those sorted out over the weekend or within a week at latest. I will be accepting late entries for as long as I have not announced the results, so you still have a chance to participate or improve your scores, but don't count on this window being open for long.

I already have the levels ready for this month, so expect those to be released within a few days too!

-Miika

[M11k4]

Submissions time is now closed.

The entries are in, and I will compile and publish the final results quite soon. We had seven members send in solutions, and nobody sent in optimal solutions on every level. On the other hand, every level had suboptimal submissions. There are no ties in the overall scores. One of the levels had a lynx solution that was quicker than the best possible time in MS, but nobody submitted it. Including my own scores from before releasing the levels, three other submission totals were within ten seconds of each other. There was more than one level where only one person found the best solution. I was hoping for more casual entries, but one can't complain about having several submissions be of so good quality.

I received some positive feedback on the levels, so thank you very much for that. I will strive to make more good TT levels! Thanks to all participants! Now go try the new TT levels and the new Create comp too!

-Miika

Edit: Oops. None of the levels are quicker in lynx; I was comparing the wrong scores in a hurry. I also thought this when I first released the levels, but it turned out that my initial ms solution wasn't perfect.

[pieguy]

We had seven members send in solutions, and nobody sent in optimal solutions on every level.

I just now noticed that not all the chips are required on level 6

[M11k4]

Compiling the results was a bit more work than I anticipated, but I guess I've let you guys wait for them long enough.

Judging from the previous post, pieguy was one of the entrants to this competition. Oh yes, I do have his scores listed. He has yet to lose a TT over the years, but surely losing 8 seconds on one level opened up the door for someone else to snatch the trophy this time? Well, as it turns out he was able to do pretty well on the other levels, and come out on top! Here are the final standings:

365 - pieguy

362 - Random8

357 - Markus

342 - pillowpc2001

331 - Tom R

310 - BlazingApollo

290 - Michael

Congratulations to pieguy!!
There should really be an award for coming in second in a TT where you have participated (and you almost would have won it this time too). Also congrats to Random8 and Markus for submitting pretty good times. Mike and Tom were not far behind either, and Apollo and Michael had some good entries as well.

As BlazingApollo and Tom R entered a TT competition for the first time, you are entitled to the Run, Chip, Run!
-award! All the Chip Cup points will also be updated in the Chip Cup thread. As a special honorary prize, James is awarded 0 Chip Cup points for looking at the levels but not sending in his solutions.

Below are some oddly formatted breakdowns of the submissions.

You can view the best known solutions in a tws here: http://cczone.invisi...301-resultszip/

First the best MS times:

45_ 44_ 41_ 34_ 36_ 37_ 32_ 28_ 32_ 44_ bolds (MS)


_B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ b-8 _B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ pieguy


_B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ b-3 b-5 b-6 b-3 _b_ Random8


_B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ b-3 b-4 b-3 b-6 _b_ Markus


b-1 _B_ b-1 _B_ _B_ b-5 b-4 b-6 -12 b-2 pillowpc2001


_B_ b-1 b-3 _B_ b-9 -21 b-3 b-6 b-4 _B_ Tom R


b-1 -34 b-1 -26 b-5 -14 -17 -21 -10 b-8 Michael


Then the best Lynx times:

45_ 44_ 41_ 33_ 36_ 37_ 31_ 27_ 32_ 44_ bolds (Lynx)


_B_ _B_ _B_ _B_ b-1 b-3 b-2 b-1 b-4 _B_ Random8


_B_ b-3 b-9 b-1 b-8 -10 b-3 -12 -12 b-2 BlazingApollo


b-6 b-4 -24 -18 b-8 b-3 -16 -16 -14 b-6 Michael


Complete combined scores:

#2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 10 11


45 44 41 34 36 37 32 28 32 44 bolds


45 44 41 34
28
37 32 28 32 44
pieguy


45 44 41 34 36
34 29 26 29
44
Random8


45 44 41 34 36
34 28 25 26
44
Markus


44 44 40
34

36
32 28 22 20 42 pillowpc2001


45
43 38
34
27 21 29 22 28
44
Tom R


45
41 32 32 28 27 28 15 20 42 BlazingApollo


44 40 40 15 31 34 15 11 22 38 Michael


So the best possible combined time is 373; with the Lynx bolds being 370. Interestingly enough, Markus had better scores than Random8 if we only look at the MS solutions. On level #7 (
Monday Case

), it was interesting to see that about half the participants
used the block to blow up the final bomb, scoring a maximum of 32 seconds in MS, while it is quicker to send the glider to that bomb (though Markus did re-submit this method after first having gotten the 32 the other way).


You'll notice that both Random8 and Michael submitted scores in both MS and Lynx, so the complete scores lists their best time choosing from each a level at a time. (For Random8 the pattern was EEEMMELLME, and for Michael it is MLMLMLELML; where L means Lynx was better, M means MS was better, and E means the scores were equal.) Random8 also sent in some improved scores once submission time was over, improving on levels #7-#10 by +3/+2/+0/+3 in Lynx and +3/+1/+3/+0 in MS, for a combined total improvement of 5 seconds (+3 for #7, and +2 for #8). I guess I'll just list this info below if that sentence was too confusing.


Before someone asks about my own times on the levels, I have to say it's rather impossible to compare my scores fully. A couple of the levels were still edited (at least #9 and #11) after I recorded some of my own times, but the times I did had are listed below. (My pattern was EEEMELMLE if you must know.)

Some insignificant scores:

45 44 41 34 36 37 32 28 32 44 bolds (MS)


45 44 41 34 36 37
28 26 25
44
Random8 (MS)


<strong>45 44 41 33 36 </strong>
37
31 26 31

<strong>44</strong>

Random8 (Lynx)


45 44 41 34 36 37
28 26 31
44
Random8 (best)


45 44 40 34 36 37
30 28 29 44 M11k4 (MS)


45 44 40 33 36 37

31

27
31 44 M11k4 (Lynx)


45 44 40 34 36 37
31 28 31 44 M11k4 (best)


45 44 41 33 36 37 31 27 32 44 bolds (Lynx)


If you have any questions or corrections, please let me know. Thanks once again to everyone who participated! I enjoyed watching all your solutions. Hopefully these coming Time Trials will be just as exciting!


And with that, this Case is closed.


-Miika