ximines Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. The ones that were "found" were generally solved by finders going to a traditional cache and getting the GZ's from a list....needs be must when the devil drives... First to Solve All...One week in Singapore, Second to Solve Two Weeks in Singapore http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...00-d0ca563732b1 There is one with a more US flavor, and a plain xword by "gerboa", my doppelganger, based on Geocaching. NB..getting an error message trying to insert named link so above is necessary Also I would like to make the xwords interactive i.e. users can enter directly into the screen..can anyone advise please, if this is possible on GC..apart from the programming. Thanks in anticipation. WOW Not sure how this turned up in GEOCOIN STUFF ???? me I guess, can moderator please move/ Edited November 11, 2009 by ximines Quote
+Chrysalides Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) I've gotten some of the answers, will work on the rest later. Looks interesting. But it might be a while before I make it to Thailand (last time I visited the country was over 30 years ago). Groundspeak unfortunately does not allow a flash application to be embedded. I'm not sure if they allow a HTML form - haven't experimented with it, but that would make it convenient. Those solving it can type in their answers directly into the page, even if it doesn't verify the solution for them. Edit : subsequent attempt to access the files failed - no response from remote server Edit 2 : I guess I got the easy ones initially. Just as well I'm not planning to visit Thailand, this one is not easy Edited November 11, 2009 by Chrysalides Quote
+ElliPirelli Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. That they aren't found might be because of the mystery status. Generally when I go on holidays, I get a pocket query with all the caches in the area. But mysteries are never included in my PQs, as mostly I have no chance of solving them. In our area, apart from some sudoku puzzles, to solve a mystery it involves local knowledge. Where a certain monument is placed, where was this picture taken or things like that. So I never clutter my GSAK database with mysteries apart from my homearea. I guess, lots of the cachers in Thailand might be tourists. They probably would go for a traditional or a multicache, but might not even be aware of the mysteries. Just my thougts on the matter.... And no, even if I solved you puzzle, there is little chance of me finding the cache, as Thailand is quite some distance from my home coordinates.... Quote
+fizzymagic Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. I'll be honest and tell you what I thought when I looked at the cache page. "That's a lot of tedious work for a two star difficulty puzzle." If it were rated 3.5 stars or higher, I might consider doing it. Yes, I know that I should just do the puzzle for the fun of it, but in my experience, those who under-rate the difficulty of their puzzles also tend to put less thought into the puzzle and the cache. How long, seriously, do you think this would take the average geocacher? If the answer is more than an hour, then you should rate it at least 3 stars difficulty. Quote
ximines Posted November 11, 2009 Author Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. I'll be honest and tell you what I thought when I looked at the cache page. "That's a lot of tedious work for a two star difficulty puzzle." If it were rated 3.5 stars or higher, I might consider doing it. Yes, I know that I should just do the puzzle for the fun of it, but in my experience, those who under-rate the difficulty of their puzzles also tend to put less thought into the puzzle and the cache. How long, seriously, do you think this would take the average geocacher? If the answer is more than an hour, then you should rate it at least 3 stars difficulty. As an avid xword solver (Ximines was the second cardinal of the Inquisition, and the "name' of the long time setter of extremely cryptic puzzles in the Observer (UK), perhaps I may overestimate peoples ability/interest. Like the Provost of Eton who could do the "Times" xword in the time it took to boil an egg, some can some cannot, i.e. find them trivial or impossible. A really cryptic xword has no square numbers and no blocking, and of course no synonyms or anagrams. Incidentally just to blow my trumpet a little I'm the only one in Asia to completely solve http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/challenge.htm#table and 9th in world 90% of our cachers are visitors, and there are so few caches a few pages can be viewed without using pocket queries As for using the time taken as a guide to difficulty, as a "member" of a world wide group of cachers tipping each other off about puzzles, especially Enigma, some take days....so if an hour is a 3...?? how might those be rated. Incidentally one has a view thro' a periscope while ships pass by with hull numbers, while the enigma morse is played..another uses an Aldis Lamp for the message. It's a bit like the terrain stuff, most of the grading must be very abitrary and obviously changes with the seasons. It doesn't really matter though, as most caching is probably done in one's own locale. It's an odd logic to believe that anyone who underrates their puzzle/cache has put little thought/effort into it. I'm not suggesting any changes to the rating system as I don't think it's a big issue at all, here at least. I might mention I'm nearly 80 years old. Edited November 11, 2009 by ximines Quote
+NYPaddleCacher Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. I'll be honest and tell you what I thought when I looked at the cache page. "That's a lot of tedious work for a two star difficulty puzzle." If it were rated 3.5 stars or higher, I might consider doing it. Yes, I know that I should just do the puzzle for the fun of it, but in my experience, those who under-rate the difficulty of their puzzles also tend to put less thought into the puzzle and the cache. How long, seriously, do you think this would take the average geocacher? If the answer is more than an hour, then you should rate it at least 3 stars difficulty. Interesting perspective about puzzle difficulty. I disagree with the poster from germany about systematically excluding puzzles from a pocket query so that they can be ignored. Whenever I travel, I'll create a PQ with traditional, vitual, and earth caches selected for the area, then a separate one which contains puzzle caches. Then I'll look over the PQ for the puzzles to see if there are any which look especially interesting that I might want to solve before I leave home. If I solve any of them I just copy the cache with corrected coordinates to a GSAK database that I download to my GPS. Typically, I would look for puzzle with a higher difficulty as it would give me an opportunity to find a high difficulty cache that is not found as often as others. In one case, that resulted in a 5 star cache 400 miles way that's only been solved and found by 5 others. Quote
+ElliPirelli Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 I disagree with the poster from germany about systematically excluding puzzles from a pocket query so that they can be ignored. Whenever I travel, I'll create a PQ with traditional, vitual, and earth caches selected for the area, then a separate one which contains puzzle caches. Then I'll look over the PQ for the puzzles to see if there are any which look especially interesting that I might want to solve before I leave home. If I solve any of them I just copy the cache with corrected coordinates to a GSAK database that I download to my GPS. Typically, I would look for puzzle with a higher difficulty as it would give me an opportunity to find a high difficulty cache that is not found as often as others. In one case, that resulted in a 5 star cache 400 miles way that's only been solved and found by 5 others. Gosh, you might want to have a look in my area..... I'm surrounded by blue questionmarks. I guess in a 5km radius around my homekoordinates there are only 5 climbing caches and the rest is mysteries. I'm hopeless with those.... I'm not going to spoil a holiday with trying to solve any of those mysteries there. I just ignore them, as I have at home more than enough still to solve. Quote
+kunarion Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 (edited) I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. If I start a puzzle and then realize I will never solve it, I stop. I do not leave a DNF, nor even a note that I "looked at it for a couple of minutes and gave up". I suspect that most people also do it that way -- so yes, people do try the puzzles, but how would you know? Believe me when I say this: You do NOT want me to type "I'm too stupid to do your weird puzzle" notes on every Mystery Cache I've attemped. Those notes would overload the server In this case, I'm VERY tempted to leave a note, because your puzzle is much harder than a 2-star difficulty. I love word games, typically complete the LA Times and USA Today crosswords every day, and I can't figure out your puzzle. The 2nd clue I attempted "13._School (2 words).. 13D.mp3", is completely baffling, and I know I have plenty of research to do for just that one (artist name, song name, how is this a "school"?). Do not give hints/answers, it's just an example. With only one or two cross-letters, I may fit an obscure answer into your obscure clue, and have the wrong answer. The links I tried work, but if or when they don't, it's not solvable. Thank you for at least having a Geochecker! Edited November 11, 2009 by kunarion Quote
+Team Cotati Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 What file storage do you link to? Quote
+murphyrulez Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 The 2nd clue I attempted "13._School (2 words).. 13D.mp3", is completely baffling, and I know I have plenty of research to do for just that one (artist name, song name, how is this a "school"?). Do not give hints/answers, it's just an example. With only one or two cross-letters, I may fit an obscure answer into your obscure clue, and have the wrong answer. The links I tried work, but if or when they don't, it's not solvable. Thank you for at least having a Geochecker! I checked out the puzzle just to see what the mp3 was, and I knew the answer within the first couple seconds of the song... Tom Cruise went to this school in a movie made in the 80's that this song was in. Quote
+The Blorenges Posted November 11, 2009 Posted November 11, 2009 Working on it... half done so far. MrsB Quote
ximines Posted November 12, 2009 Author Posted November 12, 2009 IF..anyone wants to try the puzzles and the filehosting (fileden) is not so good, I have all the sound files ready to email to potential solvers so if you pm me I will be happy to do so. I welcome anyone asking for help and two cachers from Hungary and Netherlands have solved/are solving now. posting that anyone has a solution is welcomed to encourage the others. For any who find the clues too obscure..no doubt they reflect my age, try "So Much...So Little" x word by gerboa on the Thai page..all the answers are GC related.(UK solver just solved after 9 months..but...).There's also one for children "Baby's First Try" A major problem with constructing xwords which have linked answers so that solving becomes easier as you proceed requires many many hours of work, so I use "CrosswordWeaver" for the simpler constructs. Not limiting to x-words there is "An Acid Test" set to challenge a UK Ph.D in Chemistry..but no takers. And of course the Enigma Morse Code puzzles Quote
ximines Posted November 12, 2009 Author Posted November 12, 2009 (edited) I have set a number of puzzles, here in Thailand, especially xwords and sounds, No one tries them, and I wonder sometimes if the file storage I link to is a bit flaky, although it works quite well for me. If I start a puzzle and then realize I will never solve it, I stop. I do not leave a DNF, nor even a note that I "looked at it for a couple of minutes and gave up". I suspect that most people also do it that way -- so yes, people do try the puzzles, but how would you know? Believe me when I say this: You do NOT want me to type "I'm too stupid to do your weird puzzle" notes on every Mystery Cache I've attemped. Those notes would overload the server In this case, I'm VERY tempted to leave a note, because your puzzle is much harder than a 2-star difficulty. I love word games, typically complete the LA Times and USA Today crosswords every day, and I can't figure out your puzzle. The 2nd clue I attempted "13._School (2 words).. 13D.mp3", is completely baffling, and I know I have plenty of research to do for just that one (artist name, song name, how is this a "school"?). Do not give hints/answers, it's just an example. With only one or two cross-letters, I may fit an obscure answer into your obscure clue, and have the wrong answer. The links I tried work, but if or when they don't, it's not solvable. Thank you for at least having a Geochecker! From what I have seen of US xwords they are generally all synonyms..cryptic puzzles are not a feature of USA, these require a very wide body of knowledge and a tortuous mind..they are the ones that evoke the ahaha ! response. I am not clueing C*T.....domestic animal ? I am not implying people are too dumb, but simply that cryptic puzzles are not part of US culture. The US codebreaking particularly of Japanese "Purple" and "JN25" was outstanding Needless to say I have puzzles using Purple, one entwined with the Chudnovsky brothers 2 billion place solution of pi. Here's one largely based on US stuff http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...23-65194117f835 Edited November 12, 2009 by ximines Quote
+Minimike2 Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 My answer for 14 Across won't fit in the spaces. "my score on Feb 1, 1968" Quote
+NYPaddleCacher Posted November 12, 2009 Posted November 12, 2009 IF..anyone wants to try the puzzles and the filehosting (fileden) is not so good, I have all the sound files ready to email to potential solvers so if you pm me I will be happy to do so. And of course the Enigma Morse Code puzzles I was going to suggest making all of the sound files available as a zip file that could be downloaded all at once. It looks like a fun puzzle. Not sure what you mean by Enigma Morse Code. I've done lots of variations of puzzles (created in the U.S.) that incorporated morse code. Transforming morse code to text is easy (there are even apps that will do it from an audio stream). For the more difficult puzzles I've seen that use morse code, the challenge is recognizing that what you're trying to decode is, in fact, a representation of morse code. I've seen several puzzle caches which use Enigma machine encryption and there several online sites or downloadable apps that will help decode them. Quote
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