Working On A Baseball Puzzle Cache

[+Bernsports]

To give a brief summary, I'm working on a baseball puzzle cache and I'm wondering how hard or (tricky) I should make it? I know the general answer is to make it as hard as I want. For a true baseball fan, it should still be fairly easy to solve, and I'd like non-baseball fans to be able to solve it with a little extra homework as well. Here's how I'm working the puzzle. You will basically have to build a box score for a game that has been played. There will be 9 caches that will have passwords to a web page and each page will have the summary of 1 inning played. After you have found all 9 caches, you can use those inning summaries to build an accurate box score of the game that was played. From there, you will answer 10 questions about that game to give you 10 of the digits for the coordinates of the final cache. For example, Question A: How many runs were scored in the game? That would be an easy answer. Here's where I can make it a bit tricky. Let's say a batter strikesout 3 times and walks once. Question B may ask: How many At Bats did he have? For a non-baseball fan, it looks like 4. He had 4 Plate Appearances, but only 3 At Bats (walks do not count as an AB). Putting the wrong answer in the coordinates, can put you miles away from the locaction of the final cache.

 

To me, asking detailed questions like that to fill in the coordinates are fine, but I could see some people arguing that I may be getting too ticky/tacky. Would the puzzle be interesting enough to just ask 10 pretty obvious questions? Or should I ask some of the tougher baseball questions? In general, all 9 caches will most likely be found in one weekend. Piecing the innings together and building the boxscore shouldn't be too hard. I think the toughest part will be answering the questions correctly and I am leaning toward throwning in a curveball or two. I guess I'm just looking for some confirmation before I get too devious. I've even seen some puzzle caches where the owner requires you to log a DNF before he will give you a hint. In reality, all the answers will be there, it will be a matter of how well you know the in's and out's of baseball.

 

Bernard (Bernsports)

[+QDman]

Make the cache as hard/tricky as you like, just make sure the final reward is comparable. I'm not a sports fan, so this would be a toughie for me. If I got to the end and found a lampskirt micro, I'd be pretty upset. If it's a beautiful view that takes my breath away, I'd feel it was worth the effort.

[+Frodo13]

I think the difficulty of the questions should be high. With the internet, answers can come pretty quick. Also consider making a bonus cache for an extremely difficult question. Call it Extra Innings. Something like the total number of pitches thrown in the last three world series.

 

Good luck

Edited March 6, 2006 by Frodo13

[+IndyTechNerd]

Check out Diamond Ghosts here in town. Fun puzzle with a nice location for the finish.

[+Sputnik 57]

Compared to some of the cryptanalist puzzles I've seen, the sort of thing you are proposing should be fine. I would love the final cache to be at a baseball related location, but that's just me. Set the difficulty appropriately and you should be good.

 

If I get stuck on a puzzle I want to solve, I may e-mail the cache owner for a hint (if the hint on the cache page isn't enough). You may want to think about what hints you might keep "in the bullpen" if someone asks for some help.

[+Bernsports]

Thanks for the suggestions. My final cache is going to be an ammo container. All the caches leading up to the final one, will be micros and small ones and easy terrain, so I don't want to make the last one a 4 star terrain or a 2 mile hike, but it will have to be somewhere out of the way. I'm going to try and make sure it's at least 2-wd friendly. I was a huge baseball card collector when I was a kid so I will have rookie cards and other baseball stuff in the final cache. Nothing like a Honus Wagner card, but I will put so good stuff in there. I guess if I plan on making it real hard, I could even put a gift certificate in there to a local sporting goods store for at least the FTF. I am trying to make all the caches baseball related and I have eyed a few spots near sports complexes and baseball fields. From everything I have been researching, I guess I am headed in the right direction.

 

Thanks for the ideas,

Bernard (Bernsports)

[+NotThePainter]

Would the puzzle be interesting enough to just ask 10 pretty obvious questions? Or should I ask some of the tougher baseball questions? In general, all 9 caches will most likely be found in one weekend. Piecing the innings together and building the boxscore shouldn't be too hard. I think the toughest part will be answering the questions correctly ... In reality, all the answers will be there, it will be a matter of how well you know the in's and out's of baseball.

Just be forewarned, if the hide is percieved as "too difficult" you will get less finders. Park and grab caches around here generaly get several logs per day on a weekend, yet the difficult puzzles will often go months between finds. If you're ok with that, go for it!

 

I consider myself a baseball fan. I try to catch about half the Red Sox's games on TV and near the post-season I watch close to 100%. Yet I have no idea how to answer your questions!

 

Paul

[+Ed & Julie]

 

There will be 9 caches that will have passwords to a web page and each page will have the summary of 1 inning played.

 

Bernard (Bernsports)

I'm not sure how this may fall in the guidlines, which state:

 

Mystery or Puzzle Caches

 

The “catch-all” of cache types, this form of cache often involves complicated puzzles that you will first need to solve in order to determine the coordinates. The information needed to solve the puzzle must be available to the general caching community and should be solvable from the information provided on the cache listing.

 

I imagine your reviewer can let you know if it listable. I would contact your reviewer before putting all the work into setting it up first, just to get some guidance.

 

Ed

Edited March 7, 2006 by The Badge & the Butterfly

[+Bernsports]

Here is the blueprint of what I have planned. First off, I am building a web sight on geocities that will work along with the puzzle. I will hide 10 caches around the area that are small and micro caches. Each cache will have a password in it that will be used on the web sight. The first cache will have the password for the lineup cards for both teams. The other 9 caches will have passwords that will link them to 1 inning of my simulated game that has been played. For example, once you find the cache for the 1st inning and you enter that password, it will send you to a web page with the play by play results of that inning. It would look something like this:

 

Dan Haren pitching for Oakland

G Sizemore struck out swinging.

C Crisp singled to right.

J Peralta struck out swinging.

V Martinez singled to center, C Crisp to third.

J Liefer flied out to left.

 

After you have collected all 9 innings, you can actually piece the whole game together and build a boxscore. Kind of like keeping score as a kid when you went to the ballgames with your dad.

 

Then, there will be 10 questions you have to answer about the game, to give you the coordinates of the final cache. The final coordinates would look like:

 

N 39 AB.CDE

W 119 FG.HIJ

 

You would then have to answer 10 questions (A-J) from the box score you have built to get the final coordinates.

 

For example, Question A: How many rbi's did the clean up hitter for the home team have? 3 so A=3

If you have all 10 answers correct, you should have the exact coordinates for the final cache.

 

I understand that not all people like puzzle caches and the final cache may have very few visits. Even if you don't want to solve the puzzle, you can still search for and log finds for the other 10 caches. Those should get normal traffic visits. By looking this over, is it considered a puzzle cache since you have to solve for the 10 questions? Or is it more of a multi-cache? Also, as far as coordinates go, which digit is the most important for accuracy? I know for like E & J, you could be off by a few digits but still be able to get close to the cache. I want to make my tougher questions for the tougher digits. This way a person must find all the caches to find the final location. I've seen other posts on here where guys can bust a puzzle and go right to the end without going through all the preliminary caches and logging the find. I don't have a problem with that, but I'll try to make it as hard as possible for them to do so. Thanks for all the responses so far.

 

Bernard (Bernsports)

[+Tyrithe]

Dan Haren pitching for Oakland

G Sizemore struck out swinging.

C Crisp singled to right.

J Peralta struck out swinging.

V Martinez singled to center, C Crisp to third.

J Liefer flied out to left.

 

Is there a specific reason why this information couldn't be included in your first micro stages directly? I take it that it is to cut down on the amount of information each geocacher needs to record at each stage?

 

Tyrithe

[+Criminal]

I gave up after the fourth sentence of your explanation...

[+Jhwk]

Love the concept! If I were doing it, I would probably give a warning on some of the trickier questions. Or maybe some sort of checksum before they head out for the final cache. jat

[+Ed Rad]

I love the theme and concept for this cache. I'm a huge baseball fan so I know I would take the time to get the information. Like a previous poster said, if you don't mind few finds on the cache then go right ahead with your plan. The more info available in the field the more finders you will get.