Adventure Lab (Lab Cache) Possibilities

[+The Flying Dutchmen]

I have been developing an Adventure Cache "Douglas Airplane Factory" in Long Beach, California (to be published soon) and really like the idea of combining this with a physical cache. An adventure cache in this case much performs like a multi where you visit one or more waypoints, answer questions and get responses in a Journal. Those responses can be partial or full coordinates, or in my case, I opted to provide letterbox instructions detailing where the hide is located.   I tested it in the field and it works smooth, and the Journals collect all the answers and info, so you don't have to write things down as you visit waypoints. At the very end, you just review the collection of journals and may write down some of the information to solve for the physical cache.

Cachers often balk at multi's that have more than two waypoints, but this Adventure Lab is a nice way to give awards (smilies) for each stage.

 

Current drawbacks (things that may need slight improvement):

(1) Journal messages are limited to 140 characters. Maybe this should be 200.  

(2) it takes a couple of tries to get the pictures to turn out the way you want them, this is because the app crops them in a weird way.

 

It has been fun to develop the adventure lab, but as with any other quality cache, it also takes some dedication.

 

Now, what do you think:

1. The possibilities for Adventure Caches in a way are endless. Should these become an option to create multi's?
2. Should every stage/waypoint earn a smilie, or only certain stages as determined by the cache owner?

[+noncentric]

My personal opinion is that Lab Caches should just be what they are, which means they are their own thing that is primarily Virtual and is distinct from a "multi cache".  Combining an Adventure with a physical cache seems unnecessary and cumbersome. Not to mention that people who are already complaining about not being able to do Lab Caches Adventures because of the app requirement will then complain that they can't do a physical cache either. I can see the argument that requiring the use of the Adventure Lab app to complete a physical cache could open up a can of worms. I'd rather see a multi-cache built the "old fashioned" way, without requiring the use of an app.

 

That being said, I think it would be fine to create a multi-cache using the same Locations that are used for a Lab Cache Adventure. Someone that completes the Lab Cache Adventure would essentially be killing two birds with one stone, in a way, in that they'd get the Lab Cache smileys along with all the info they need to determine the final coords of the physical Multi-cache. Meanwhile someone who doesn't use the Adventure Lab app would see the same sites and be able to determine the final coords for the physical Multi-cache.

[+thebruce0]

17 hours ago, noncentric said:

I can see the argument that requiring the use of the Adventure Lab app to complete a physical cache could open up a can of worms.

Not to pick nits, but AR caches are exactly this Just the AR app is required, rather than the Adventure Lab app.

Then again, you can log the cache found as long as you figure out a way to locate the cache and sign the log, regardless of the app; not so with Lab. So, yeah...

 

17 hours ago, noncentric said:

That being said, I think it would be fine to create a multi-cache using the same Locations that are used for a Lab Cache Adventure. Someone that completes the Lab Cache Adventure would essentially be killing two birds with one stone, in a way, in that they'd get the Lab Cache smileys along with all the info they need to determine the final coords of the physical Multi-cache. Meanwhile someone who doesn't use the Adventure Lab app would see the same sites and be able to determine the final coords for the physical Multi-cache.

Great idea. In a sense, you can do the 'minimal' work for the multi, but if you want the 'full experience' (and Lab find), you can run the Lab.

[+ivss_xx]

On 4/5/2019 at 9:51 AM, noncentric said:

Not to mention that people who are already complaining about not being able to do Lab Caches Adventures because of the app requirement will then complain that they can't do a physical cache either.

Each individual cacher will not do all the caches though. It would be the same as people who don't have climbing gear complaining they can't do climbing caches. That's why there are sooo many different caches out there to choose from. I like the diversity. And if you really want to log the one that is connected to an adventure but don't have the means, you can always team up with others. Another great aspect of geocaching - the social one.