"Adventurous" Adventure Labs

[+G0ldNugget]

I recently published a non-traditional AL, requiring a 10 mile drive down a windy country road, visiting historic mining towns and pioneer cemeteries. The reviews have been very positive but a recent player found the road a bit too windy and "couldn't believe people actually live along this route." She followed up with another local AL, a standard city walking tour and found it "so nice after what I experienced before." Lol.

She stepped outside her comfort zone and completed it solo (she mentioned this several times). And I'm glad she was able to complete a "nice" one afterward to soothe her rattled nerves.

 

I was wondering about other COs of non-standard, adventurous ALs. How have they been received? Any griping that they aren't quick and easy as most other ALs seem to be?

Edited November 3, 2020 by G0ldNugget
tyop

[+Max and 99]

8 minutes ago, G0ldNugget said:

I recently published a non-traditional AL, requiring a 10 mile drive down a windy country road, visiting historic mining towns and pioneer cemeteries. The reviews have been very positive but a recent player found the road a bit too windy and "couldn't believe people actually live along this route." She followed up with another local AL, a standard city walking tour and found it "so nice after what I experienced before."

Lol. I'm proud of her, she was forced outside her comfort zone and completed it solo (she mentioned this several times). And I'm glad she was able to complete a "nice" one afterward to sooth her rattled nerves.

 

I was wondering about other COs of non-standard, adventurous ALs. How have they been received? Any griping that they aren't quick and easy as most other ALs seem designed to be?

Definitely griping when it's not super easy!!

[+barefootjeff]

10 minutes ago, G0ldNugget said:

I was wondering about other COs of non-standard, adventurous ALs. How have they been received? Any griping that they aren't quick and easy as most other ALs seem designed to be?

 

My first one is a 5km loop hike with an elevation change of about 160 metres from the parking area on the ridgetop down to the shipwreck remains in the bay and back up again. Had it been an ordinary cache I'd have rated it terrain 4. These are some of the activity logs I've received:

 

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We broke this adventure into 2 parts, yesterday the Spur and Maitland Bay, today Gerrin Point. No way MrsFish or I could get to the coastal walk from the spur. They were 2 great walks, although I had forgotten how steep the walk is up from Maitland Bay. Definitely one of the better adventures we have completed, highly recommended.

 

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Excelllent walk around the NP, well worth the visit.

 

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Fabulous walk around the two headlands.

 

My second one is easier walking along the waterfront but is still 3.7km end to end, but again it's been well received:

 

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A very nice walk along the beach from Ettalong where we usually spend a lot of our time at various cafes. Today was one of the best since covid thanks for a great lab adventure.

 

I certainly prefer the more adventurous adventures over the urban stroll ones, but the need for internet access and the lack of walking tracks on the map makes them harder to create.

[+thebruce0]

My AL is a story-based adventure making use of a real-world mystery. The AL focuses on the content of the real mystery while the bonus is a 4.5/4.5 cache that continues where the AL left off and expands the story.  I use certitudes keyphrases for the bonus stages and link it in the AL to be used for hints (the 'wrong' answer options).  Certainly not a traditional geocache in the sense of tiny bit of text + coordinates now go find something.  But there are definitely much more elaborate caches out there.  Just didn't want to make another 'historic/educational keyword-entry-for-smiley AL

[+G0ldNugget]

1 minute ago, thebruce0 said:

Just didn't want to make another 'historic/educational keyword-entry-for-smiley AL

 

And how has it been received? Do players complain about the extra work or appreciate the challenge?

[+thebruce0]

4 minutes ago, G0ldNugget said:

And how has it been received? Do players complain about the extra work or appreciate the challenge?

 

That's something we'll find out in time. So far one person's attempted it. My beta test didn't work out, so she ended up being the beta tester, as it were, and a minor bug or two was fixed. And being a less technically minded person meant I got a perspective of doing it without that savvy.  There were a couple of wording adjustments for clarity, but she ended up spending a couple of hours on it from start to finish (much longer than I'd expected); DNF'd the bonus the first day but went back with help the next day and found it. So there was some frustration, but in the end it sounds like the experience was rewarding.  Without the couple of bugs and with some clearer text/description/tips in the story, it probably would have been better overall. Still got 5/5 for the Lab.  The person who helped with the bonus didn't really do it all the way it was intended and logged them minimalistically, thus no idea what their impression was.  So it'll take a few more to get a better sense of its reception.

[+CAVinoGal]

16 hours ago, G0ldNugget said:

I was wondering about other COs of non-standard, adventurous ALs. How have they been received? Any griping that they aren't quick and easy as most other ALs seem designed to be?

 

My recently published AL is about a 10 mile drive around our local valley, highlighting the wineries and vineyards.  Not particularly "adventurous" except for the drive, the questions are simple and easily answered, but I did try to have them somewhat related to the the location.While I was planning my locations, another local cacher and I met up at a CITO event and coordinated our locations - she was working on focussing on the variety of things (like olive oil, wine, fruits and veggies, etc) while mine was the wineries.  We agreed not to overlap locations, hers is a driveable one as well, and between the two you get a real sense of the local valley.  The single winery included in hers is not one of the ones my tour takes you to.

 

Hers went live 5 days before mine, and coincided with her CITO event on the same day.  It inspired me to get mine done and live, and I did her AL just to see where it went and how she put together her questions.  She also had a bonus cache, clues given at each of the locations to come up with final coordinates for a container and logsheet to sign.

 

I have no bonus cache, but I do have caches hidden at wineries that are part of my tour, so I  give the GC code of caches nearby.

 

Feedback has been so-so.  Her lab has 14 logs, 9 with positive comments and shared experience, 5 "fun tour".  Of the 8 completions I can see on mine, 2 did not leave a log, 3 left positive comments, 2 were Nice tour (equivalent of TFTC, IMO) and one griped about "saturation" and no bonus cache.  These two labs are the only ones within 10 miles, and we coordinated so as not to use the same locations!!  That comment irked me!

 

I'd say the reception has been pretty neutral.  I'd like to try another (if I get a second chance) and make it more of a real adventure, a story, a mystery to solve or something.  Incorporate some gadgets, make it unique for this area.We'll see if I get another one.

Edited November 3, 2020 by CAVinoGal
Added info

[+NLBokkie]

Together with a friend, we put out two Adventure Labs of 10 locations each. Mine was about the history of beer breweries in Leiden, and traces that can still be found of them. Hers is a Pub Crawl along 10 nice "old style" cafés in Leiden. The two Adventure Labs are in the same style, add to each other, reference each other, are at separate locations but in the same area, created to both be done as one experience while visiting the town. Not unlike what CAVinoGal describes above except they all are in walking distance in an old partly medieval city centre.

 

We published these two end of February, when Adventure Labs were relatively new. They were really received well back then, and we had lots of positive logs in both the Adventure Lab Activity Logs and the logs with the Bonus Caches. But that was then. Since that time, Leiden and the whole area is swamped in Adventure Labs, so the specialty and novelty wore off. Second, Covid set in, forcing cafés and restaurants to close, making the Pub Crawl Adventure Lab far less attractive than it used to be. On top of that, the answers to the questions of these two Lab Adventures can now be found on the Internet, which not only facilitates armchair logging, but makes the experience for those that actually walk the routes less "active" with the answers already in hand. And we both see that in the logs, as we receive fewer long positive logs and far less Favourite Points to the Bonus Caches.

 

Now these may not be the most Adventurous ALCs of the type the topic starter means, but I suppose it describes what to expect from your ALC over time . . .

Edited November 3, 2020 by NLBokkie

[+rragan]

My two non-"magical history tour" ones involving puzzle solving at each location rather than seeking a word have had mixed results. Getting puzzles that can be done in the field that are not too easy or not too hard is tricky. I ensured everyone could finish by providing a graduated set of hints (easy, extended, answer).

 

"Very cool lab cache. While we tried to solve each stage , sorry to say we had to resort to the final hint on most of the stages."

 

"This is a super fun and very imaginative adventure. We needed to utilize the hints on several occasions but they allowed us to progress through the adventure. Thanks for a new type of adventure!"

 

"The puzzles were too hard with too many steps of some sort of mind reading. Had to resort to the hints for all of them and even to the answer for some."

Note: I fixed the "mind reading" one to remove a non-intuitive leap to the answer. The user was correct in the assessment.

 

'"Enjoyed this “puzzle” adventure - challenges that were imminently doable without any need of hints. Fun! Thanks for the adventure."

 

"Really fun puzzles that were easy to do and felt very rewarding. This was a very fun adventure, if I could give it 6 stars I would!"

 

"Fun adventure through a larger park than I realized! No trouble at any stage, though a little lateral thinking was required. Thanks!"

[+thebruce0]

For my 15,000 milestone I did a new AL from a friend, and he placed a series of new geocaches, in which were physical field puzzles for the Adventure Lab. He was kind of bothered that in the end it would reward 10 smileys (5 stages, caches, plus bonus), but the strategy allowed the AL to make use of physical components without requiring caches to be found (of course no one wouldn't log them found since you actually locate them to see the content), and the proximity clause is covered by the new caches.  It's a way around the 'no physical waypoints' rule; the AL is just 'making use of' physical assets already in place, as if going to a location and gathering the info for the text entry. I don't think the reviewers could say no anyway, since the caches are all valid and they don't review ALs (at least without being reported). But they do give their best advice, and least in my region didn't think there was problem.  It worked out nicely too.

[+Max and 99]

8 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

For my 15,000 milestone I did a new AL from a friend, and he placed a series of new geocaches, in which were physical field puzzles for the Adventure Lab. He was kind of bothered that in the end it would reward 10 smileys (5 stages, caches, plus bonus), but the strategy allowed the AL to make use of physical components without requiring caches to be found (of course no one wouldn't log them found since you actually locate them to see the content), and the proximity clause is covered by the new caches.  It's a way around the 'no physical waypoints' rule; the AL is just 'making use of' physical assets already in place, as if going to a location and gathering the info for the text entry. I don't think the reviewers could say no anyway, since the caches are all valid and they don't review ALs (at least without being reported). But they do give their best advice, and least in my region didn't think there was problem.  It worked out nicely too. 

There's a similar one in my area that uses geocaches.