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First attempt at Wherigo not successful


semessen

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I tried my first Wherrigo yesterday (Whereyougo app on Google Pixel phone). I thoroughly enjoyed the first 30 minutes but I got to a point and it told me I was too slow, to turn around and go back and try again. So I went back and tried again. I walked faster and got a bit further this time and yet again, got another alert telling me I was too slow. So I went back a third time and it was then that I realized there was a timer. I needed to run 350 meters in 3 minutes. I am not a runner. I have a bad ankle. But I’m stubborn so I tried and failed.  I hate failing so I went back for a FORTH time and tried again. This last time I was 17 meters away from the next location and it alerted me and told me I was too slow, to go back and try again. I gave up. Four tries was enough for me and my poor ankle.
 

Here’s the kicker, another family was following this same Wherigo at the same time as me. We followed each other for a good 30 minutes. When it got to the running section, they were maybe 10 meters ahead of me and we were going the same pace. We got alerts at the same time and I’m assuming they got the same one as me (too slow, turn around and try again). I turned around and tried again and again and again. They never turned around. They kept going. I checked late in the evening and they logged the cache as found. They said it took several attempts to run but they eventually managed. They obviously know something I didn’t because they did not attempt to run at all. What am I missing? Is there a way to bypass this timed run? How did they continue without event attempting once to run?

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30 minutes ago, semessen said:

 How did they continue without event attempting once to run?

 

Have you asked them? They are the ones who know, the rest of us can only guess.

 

Maybe there was an extra task for those who didn't make it in time? Ask the CO maybe?

In any case we love Wherigo's and I'm aware of 2 timelimited caches where the CO made one for people on foot and one for bikers. As far as the listing goes I think both follow the same route but I'm not sure the final location is the same as we didn't do them. We like to combine caches when we go somewhere so we might start a Wherigo, take a detour to start a multi, continue the Wherigo and then finish the multi or even take on a few other caches in between. As we like to take a break to go for a drink time limited Wherigo's are not high on our list.

 

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I like Wherigos as well, but still fail some time. The most fun one I´ve ever tried spit me out two times. No Idea why. Maybe my solution was not creative enough, I was a bid nub, or the cartridge had an error for one of the many posible ways to solve the task.

In your case I see some possibilities. The Co-Cachers hardware might have worked diferently and thought they already are in the target area by error. Then there are apss to forge youre location. That would be one way to "excelerate". The of course you could excelerate your self by car, or bike, or Segway or what ever. But warning, I did WIG´s where the covered distance was not counting when going to fast ;)

 

Oh, Edit: Don´t be enchouraged by this experiance. There are many more. WIG´s are great fun!

Edited by DerDiedler
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5 hours ago, on4bam said:

 

Have you asked them? They are the ones who know, the rest of us can only guess.

 

Maybe there was an extra task for those who didn't make it in time? Ask the CO maybe?

In any case we love Wherigo's and I'm aware of 2 timelimited caches where the CO made one for people on foot and one for bikers. As far as the listing goes I think both follow the same route but I'm not sure the final location is the same as we didn't do them. We like to combine caches when we go somewhere so we might start a Wherigo, take a detour to start a multi, continue the Wherigo and then finish the multi or even take on a few other caches in between. As we like to take a break to go for a drink time limited Wherigo's are not high on our list.

 

No, I did not ask. I could try and send them a message but I don’t think they speak English (I am traveling in Germany from US). When I saw the compass on their phone and realized we were doing the same thing, I tried to speak to them but only got smiles in return so we didn't speak to each other. Their log was in German so I used Google Translate to read what they posted. I suppose I could try sending the owner a message. Since I am traveling, I don't have a bike or car available. 

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2 hours ago, DerDiedler said:

I like Wherigos as well, but still fail some time. The most fun one I´ve ever tried spit me out two times. No Idea why. Maybe my solution was not creative enough, I was a bid nub, or the cartridge had an error for one of the many posible ways to solve the task.

In your case I see some possibilities. The Co-Cachers hardware might have worked diferently and thought they already are in the target area by error. Then there are apss to forge youre location. That would be one way to "excelerate". The of course you could excelerate your self by car, or bike, or Segway or what ever. But warning, I did WIG´s where the covered distance was not counting when going to fast ;)

 

Oh, Edit: Don´t be enchouraged by this experiance. There are many more. WIG´s are great fun!

Thanks for the encouragement! I am traveling and don't have a bike or car available for me to use. There are not any Wherigo's in my hometown back in the US but I will have to find some nearby to try! 

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7 hours ago, semessen said:

I got to a point and it told me I was too slow, to turn around and go back and try again. So I went back and tried again.

When I read this, I checked your profile and it said North Carolina.  I then thought the cartridge was "Run to 'The Outback'".  This one involves getting to locations on time, but it has a timer visible.  It's also now really lax on its times.

 

1 hour ago, semessen said:

I am traveling in Germany from US

Then I saw this and realized it wasn't my cartridge.

 

It has been my experience that not all player apps count time precisely the same way.  I'm speaking more from the Garmin versus phone perspective.  If you think this is odd, consider that the device might be busy with other things, so this slows down the counter.  It's not anything to do with the cartridge itself, but how the player app deals with timers.  When you get to timing things in the minutes and tens of minutes, you'll start to see some drift.  There is something the cartridge author could do to mitigate this, but I would not expect any author to know how to implement this type of code (it involves getting the OS time when a timer starts, then doing a sanity check versus the OS time when the timer stops--essentially, you're recreating the timer, which is silly since Wherigo already provides you a somewhat flawed timer).  Really, I'd expect a cartridge author to be a little lenient.  For example, when I created my timer-based cartridge, I took my times and added a 30% buffer to them.  In later years, I added another 30% buffer to that, to the point where as long as you don't stop, you could probably complete it walking. 

 

I've come across other timers before, assisting on a cartridge where the only thing the author wanted was to make sure people were on a bike.  Really, the author's first priority is to create something fun for their players.  Some challenges can be fun.  But what if a challenge is too challenging?  That's where an author should decide if they need to let up after one or two attempts so their fun cartridge doesn't become a frustrating cartridge.  Then again, not all challenge caches can be completed by everyone, so perhaps not all cartridge challenges should.  It's a fine line.

 

I feel many cartridge authors are happy when people spend time playing what they created.  If someone is having difficulty with a cartridge, I think most authors would want to help that person out if the person could explain what they're done, what they're having difficulty on, say they've made several attempts, and ask for help.  Personally, I love rewarding honest effort.  Just make sure to phrase things positively and compliment where deserved.

 

Last thing: when I communicate with people using a different language, I take time using Google Translate.  I put in my original message, get the translation, then translate it back into English.  Once I get close to what I've put into it, I send them both the translated message and my original English message, just in case something was lost.  When you're asking for help, making it easier for people to provide that help is important.

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10 minutes ago, Ranger Fox said:

When I read this, I checked your profile and it said North Carolina.  I then thought the cartridge was "Run to 'The Outback'".  This one involves getting to locations on time, but it has a timer visible.  It's also now really lax on its times.

 

Then I saw this and realized it wasn't my cartridge.

 

It has been my experience that not all player apps count time precisely the same way.  I'm speaking more from the Garmin versus phone perspective.  If you think this is odd, consider that the device might be busy with other things, so this slows down the counter.  It's not anything to do with the cartridge itself, but how the player app deals with timers.  When you get to timing things in the minutes and tens of minutes, you'll start to see some drift.  There is something the cartridge author could do to mitigate this, but I would not expect any author to know how to implement this type of code (it involves getting the OS time when a timer starts, then doing a sanity check versus the OS time when the timer stops--essentially, you're recreating the timer, which is silly since Wherigo already provides you a somewhat flawed timer).  Really, I'd expect a cartridge author to be a little lenient.  For example, when I created my timer-based cartridge, I took my times and added a 30% buffer to them.  In later years, I added another 30% buffer to that, to the point where as long as you don't stop, you could probably complete it walking. 

 

I've come across other timers before, assisting on a cartridge where the only thing the author wanted was to make sure people were on a bike.  Really, the author's first priority is to create something fun for their players.  Some challenges can be fun.  But what if a challenge is too challenging?  That's where an author should decide if they need to let up after one or two attempts so their fun cartridge doesn't become a frustrating cartridge.  Then again, not all challenge caches can be completed by everyone, so perhaps not all cartridge challenges should.  It's a fine line.

 

I feel many cartridge authors are happy when people spend time playing what they created.  If someone is having difficulty with a cartridge, I think most authors would want to help that person out if the person could explain what they're done, what they're having difficulty on, say they've made several attempts, and ask for help.  Personally, I love rewarding honest effort.  Just make sure to phrase things positively and compliment where deserved.

 

Last thing: when I communicate with people using a different language, I take time using Google Translate.  I put in my original message, get the translation, then translate it back into English.  Once I get close to what I've put into it, I send them both the translated message and my original English message, just in case something was lost.  When you're asking for help, making it easier for people to provide that help is important.

Thank you for this! I sent a message to the cache owner and explained how I attempted multiple times and failed. I thoroughly enjoyed the first bit of the story and I made sure to let the owner know in my message. Hopefully I'll get a response!

 

I understand that some caches are more challenging than others and have no problem with that. But I feel like it should be written in the description that a timed sprint is involved. I would have made a decision that maybe this isn't a good cache for me. Looking back now, I see several previous logs mention the sprint but it's not in the description of the cache, which has a D2T2 rating. Oh well. I'm just trying not to feel too discouraged and looking forward to trying more Whereigos! I'll look yours up when Im back in NC! 

Edited by semessen
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On 11/25/2019 at 12:34 PM, semessen said:

I'll look yours up when Im back in NC!

Many of mine are odd.  Be careful which you choose because they're not your standard cartridge.  Some were the results of experiments I ran.  For example, Whack-A-Lackey, the first play-anywhere cartridge to have a cache backing it (the rules had to be challenged and changed to allow this), is so far outside the standard for Wherigo that it's not even in the same ballpark (oh, and you'll have to run a little because it's like Whack-A-Mole).  Same is true of Battleship, but without the running.  "Sadie's BiG Adventure" was also the result of an experiment, where I was trying to simulate how people walk around a park, so put NPCs on rails.  (Due to being lambasted for its horrible performance on the Garmin Oregon, most of those features have been taken out.  I created the cartridge prior to the Oregon's release and thoroughly tested it on the Colorado, the only handheld GPSr that did Wherigo at the time.  I didn't deserve the insults, but it was a different caching environment back then and my find rate was making a group of people upset.)

 

Anyway, if you come to my area, let me know ahead of time.

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