Help with rating an Unknown Cache

[GrandPotentate]

I am working on creating a puzzle for an unknown cache and need some help with the difficulty rating. If you have more experience than me with puzzles (doesn't take much to beat me) I would love your help my email address is bdyoung8 at gmail.com send me an email and i will send you the puzzle and the pertinent information that goes with the puzzle.

[+niraD]

My approach is to consider the time required to find the cache, including solving the puzzle. Then I just use the normal descriptions for difficulty:

1 - a few minutes

2 - less than 30 minutes

3 - a good portion of an afternoon (up to a few hours)

4 - multiple days

5 - specialized knowledge or skills required

[+Beach_hut]

You can PM me if you like?

[+Ohiosiouxfan]

I'm relatively new to doing puzzle caches. I'm finding that it's taking me longer to figure out what cipher or method I'm supposed to apply to the puzzle facts than to actually get the puzzle figured out once I have the correct method. I hope to goodness there's a learning curve here as I will go crazy if I have to beat my head against the wall for the correct method of figuring a Difficulty 2-3 puzzle cache every time. IMO if a puzzle cache is a 3.5+ then by all means, make it difficult and make the finder figure out the method on their own. If it's less, again IMO, then set the table a bit and - at least - suggest the type of puzzle or cipher the cache is using.

[+The_Incredibles_]

No matter what you come up with, I'm sure the cachers in your community will voice their opinions.

 

What I usually do is make my best guess, then wait for the logs to tell me if I should increase or decrease the difficulty level.

 

Sometimes people put a line on their cache page saying "I didn't know how to rate it and welcome any feeback."

[+fuzziebear3]

I'm relatively new to doing puzzle caches. I'm finding that it's taking me longer to figure out what cipher or method I'm supposed to apply to the puzzle facts than to actually get the puzzle figured out once I have the correct method. I hope to goodness there's a learning curve here as I will go crazy if I have to beat my head against the wall for the correct method of figuring a Difficulty 2-3 puzzle cache every time. IMO if a puzzle cache is a 3.5+ then by all means, make it difficult and make the finder figure out the method on their own. If it's less, again IMO, then set the table a bit and - at least - suggest the type of puzzle or cipher the cache is using.

 

Generally, figuring out HOW to solve the puzzle is the hard part. The actual solving then becomes mechanical, once you know what to do.

 

Usually, the type of puzzle or cipher is suggested as well, by the theme on the page, the title, text, content, or somewhere else.

[+SSO JOAT]

There are different methods in different regions, but what we do in my area is baseline all puzzles at D = 3. If the puzzle is quite easy, you would downgrade it to 2.5 or maybe even a 2 (no puzzle should be less than 2 if you follow the standard difficulty rating system for geocaching that is posted on the cache creation page). If the puzzle is fairly hard, then you can go up to 3.5 or more. After publishing, you can adjust the D rating as needed. The longer a puzzle sits unsolved, the more inclined I am to bump the D up. And then if I publish the puzzle and it's found within hours, I'll probably downgrade the D rating.

 

I'd suggest going out and solving the puzzles in your area and look at what most others are using for their rating system. Then model yours after the majority so that there is something of a community standard.

[GrandPotentate]

thank you everyone who helped me with this cache. it is completed and just about ready to be placed.