Wheel of Challenges

[+DarkFlare]

Honestly.... this month was a downer for me. I hate streaks, they suck the fun out of everything in my opinion because they make it a chore. You are actively not finding caches because you need to save it for a bad day when you're sick or the weather is miserable. (the wildfire smoke and extreme heat make it pretty brutal where I am in Toronto) 

 

I liked signals Labyrinth because it was more flexible, I could take my time if something was bad that month. The wheel of challenges feels too grindy for me you know? 

 

Probably shouldn't be so pessimistic because i like collecting souvenirs but it is getting harder to feel motivated when I know I wont be able to complete this month without killing myself. The souvenir is cute too.... 

[+Hügh]

On 7/4/2023 at 1:17 PM, Hügh said:

Sure, but I’m going to wait until they sort out the issues since I worry that it would only confuse players more. 

 

It sounds like the issues have been resolved, and they're now working on retroactively awarding souvenirs. So hopefully it is now safe for me to post:

 

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/79195

 

This checker will list out every streak you achieve (even the 1-day "streaks") between 2023-07-03 and 2023-08-06. That way, it is helpful for those going for the 2- and 7-day streaks as well:

 

 

However, it will still report "FAILED" unless you hit the full 28 days.

 

(ping! @LySt)

Edited July 6, 2023 by Hügh

[+OusKonNé & Cétyla]

Yhank you Hügh for this Checker!

[LySt]

@Hügh Very nice, in particular the in-between status reports. While it apparently took me another log this morning (that doesn't show up on PGC) to get the Easy award, things seem to go back to normal. We'll certainly see on Sunday when the first 7-day streaks will be done.

[LySt]

Since souvenirs are now flowing, and hopefully will not be blocked for the upcoming stages - what about going back to speculating which challenges will be coming in August and September? Both will be 28-day "months", which may be fortunate or unfortunate, depending on the tasks...

 

In the beginning, the wheel offered (in that order, three times each) 

- smiley (drawn as 1st challenge) "seeking smileys"

- two people

- coins with multi symbol

- heart (challenge 2) "favourite fan"

- car (challenge 3) "out and about"

- star (challenge 4) "streak star"

 

The mathematicians now can determine the chances to draw 4 from 6 selections and have no duplicates... and can smoothly continue to the chances of getting the other two next... If the draw was really random we should see a duplicate sooner or later, shouldn't we? What do you experts say? (Yeah, yet another 4-week streak star in August?! That'd be really hard!)

 

Nevertheless, what about the two yet not-unveiled challenges: the "multi-coined" and the "multi-people" ones? Will we have a "multi month" and a "summer of socialising", whatever that would mean? Your ideas, please

Edited July 7, 2023 by LySt

[+barefootjeff]

19 minutes ago, LySt said:

Nevertheless, what about the two yet not-unveiled challenges: the "multi-coined" and the "multi-people" ones? Will we have a "multi month" and a "summer of socialising", whatever that would mean? Your ideas, please

 

There's a Wheel of Challenges geocoin that might give a clue of what the remaining two are about:

 

This has changed a little, in that "Mystery" got replaced by "Favorites" at some point, but it suggests the other two are something to do with multis (find a hundred of them perhaps?) and a leaderboard one that combines the scores of you and all your friends, similar to what was used in one of the Mary Hyde weeks in 2017.

[+OusKonNé & Cétyla]

18 hours ago, Hügh said:

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/79195

 

 

This checker will list out every streak you achieve (even the 1-day "streaks") between 2023-07-03 and 2023-08-06. That way, it is helpful for those going for the 2- and 7-day streaks as well.

By examining the code of the checker, we can see that you are very meticulous. Well done!

 

Thank you again Hügh for this checker!

[+nachtmusik]

11 hours ago, LySt said:

Nevertheless, what about the two yet not-unveiled challenges: the "multi-coined" and the "multi-people" ones? Will we have a "multi month" and a "summer of socialising", whatever that would mean? Your ideas, please

My hunch is that the multi-coined one is about different cache types. Either you will have to get a certain number of different cache types that month, or in one day (hope it's the former). The two people one could have something to do with events or with getting a certain number of collective points in the Friend League.

 

EDIT: If the two people one is literally cache with friends, maybe you will have to find a certain number of caches on the same day as one of your friends?

 

11 hours ago, LySt said:

If the draw was really random we should see a duplicate sooner or later, shouldn't we?

I doubt there will be duplicates, or that the draw is random. They want to run all 6 challenges. They probably determined the order of challenges before even announcing it (and recorded all the videos). Spinning the wheel is just a framework for presenting the challenges.

Edited July 7, 2023 by nachtmusik

[+Hügh]

2 hours ago, OusKonNé & Cétyla said:

By examining the code of the checker, we can see that you are very meticulous. Well done!

 

Thank you! Props also to @arisoft also for implementing such a versatile script.

[+Mausebiber]

The script found 3. 4. and 5. but did not count the LAB I did on the 6. July even the 24-36 hrs delay at Project-GC are over by now.

 

"Wheel of Challenges (July) — Streak Star"
2023-07-03 - GCA7EYD Inspector Barnaby – Mord am St. Malley's Day (Unknown Cache)
2023-07-04 - GCAA97H Event am Anglersee - die Zweite (Event Cache)
2023-07-05 - GCA56PG Katzenklo, Katzenklo... (Multi-cache)
⭐️ That marks the end of a 3-day streak.

 

 

Is there anything I can do to solve this?

[+Knocky737]

1 hour ago, Mausebiber said:

The script found 3. 4. and 5. but did not count the LAB I did on the 6. July even the 24-36 hrs delay at Project-GC are over by now.

 

"Wheel of Challenges (July) — Streak Star"
2023-07-03 - GCA7EYD Inspector Barnaby – Mord am St. Malley's Day (Unknown Cache)
2023-07-04 - GCAA97H Event am Anglersee - die Zweite (Event Cache)
2023-07-05 - GCA56PG Katzenklo, Katzenklo... (Multi-cache)
⭐️ That marks the end of a 3-day streak.

 

 

Is there anything I can do to solve this?

Huhu Mausebiber :-)

For me it is the other way around. The checker finds the adventure labs I did on the 3+4+5th of July but not the two "regular" caches I logged on the 6th of July :-/

[+OusKonNé & Cétyla]

1 hour ago, Mausebiber said:

The script found 3. 4. and 5. but did not count the LAB I did on the 6. July even the 24-36 hrs delay at Project-GC are over by now.

...

Is there anything I can do to solve this?

 

If you go in your Project-GC Dashboard, box "User-data", you will see the last database update timestamps of:
- User-data refreshed
- Geocaching profile refreshed
- Find logs refreshed

[+Hügh]

7 hours ago, Mausebiber said:

Is there anything I can do to solve this?

Wait. Or, don’t; the problem seems to have solved itself now.

 

Same for you @Knocky737, though it shows you missing a find on the 7th. Maybe an AL that hasn’t been detected yet?

[+Mausebiber]

1 hour ago, Hügh said:

the problem seems to have solved itself now

 

Yes, it has.  Thanks Hügh

[+Knocky737]

13 hours ago, Hügh said:

Wait. Or, don’t; the problem seems to have solved itself now.

 

Same for you @Knocky737, though it shows you missing a find on the 7th. Maybe an AL that hasn’t been detected yet?

Correct, Hügh! I did an adventure on the 7th. Thanks for info :-)

[+Knocky737]

22 hours ago, OusKonNé & Cétyla said:

 

If you go in your Project-GC Dashboard, box "User-data", you will see the last database update timestamps of:
- User-data refreshed
- Geocaching profile refreshed
- Find logs refreshed

Thanks for info! I didn't know that the timestamp is visible there. But - strange thing - in my user-data there it says:
Find logs refreshed at: 2023-07-07 09:29:42
However, the checker already detected a found log from yesterday (8th of July) but is missing one on the 7th of July

Update: Working now!

Edited July 9, 2023 by Knocky737
Working meanwhile

[+Hügh]

11 hours ago, Knocky737 said:

However, the checker already detected a found log from yesterday (8th of July)

That was probably because I manually refreshed a couple GC codes by looking at your profile. So PGC knew that you had found the cache, but hadn’t yet refreshed your find logs. 

[+barefootjeff]

On 6/28/2023 at 1:38 AM, Heidiekkroamer said:

Driving by car every day to find a cache is also not environmentally friendly, which goes against what our hobby should actually be. Shame on you, Groundspeak.

 

I've now passed half way to the medium level with 4 consecutive days of finds, as follows:

• Day 1: a drive to a newly published cache about 13km from home, so probably not too environmentally unfriendly.
• Day 2: a 230km drive each way to a friend's relatively new terrain 4 cache on a mountain-top at Sandy Hollow in the upper Hunter Valley. Yes, a long drive that burned through most of a tank of fuel, but it's a great cache and one I would have been doing anyway, promotion or no promotion.
• Day 3: redeeming a previous DNF on a cache on Scotland Island in Pittwater, 14km from home as the crow flies and which I did mostly by public transport with two ferry rides and two bus rides each way. I still had to drive to the local ferry wharf (about 6km each way) and the buses and ferries aren't that entirely eco-friendly, although they would have run anyway and the additional emissions resulting from me being on them was probably pretty small.
• Day 4: An AL bonus cache in Hornsby (30km as the fly crows) which I went to by electric train, plus the 6km drive each way to the local railway station.

If I continue with the 7-day streak, the remaining caches will likely be train trips to Sydney and Newcastle unless there are any new caches published close to home in the coming days. There was one such published a couple of days ago but that was mine so it doesn't help with my streak, though it might help some of the other locals.

 

I guess, for me, the streak hasn't really had any negative environmental impact as they've all been caches I was going to do anyway, and that will likely be the case for the remaining three as well.

Edited July 12, 2023 by barefootjeff

[+Max and 99]

Premium members can keep track of streaks statistics in the Geocaching® mobile app and also see detailed statistics including streaks on the website.

___

How for this souvenir if it doesn't count ALs?

[+funkymunkyzone]

19 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Premium members can keep track of streaks statistics in the Geocaching® mobile app and also see detailed statistics including streaks on the website.

___

How for this souvenir if it doesn't count ALs?

The streak challenge, and souvenirs, does include ALs. If not then I owe Groundspeak a couple of souvenirs back.

Edited July 14, 2023 by funkymunkyzone

[+Max and 99]

The souvenir/promotion includes the adventure labs, but the app streak checker does not. But the blog post says you can check your progress on this promo on the app. But you can't because it only checks regular geocaches not adventure labs. 

Edit: although the app streak does not show your streak count when you find an adventure lab that day, it does show the correct streak count once you do find a regular geocache!

Edited July 14, 2023 by Max and 99

[+thebruce0]

4 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

although the app streak does not show your streak count when you find an adventure lab that day, it does show the correct streak count once you do find a regular geocache!

haha, sounds like the streak reporter on the back end only updates on the posting of a new geocache log, not when an AL stop is claimed. But the souvenir progress (and rewarding) uses the current streak status, so it's an esthetic bug that could confuse people if they're only claiming Locations towards the streak...

eg, only ALs for a week: "I found ALs for 7 days straight and got the souvenir but the app says I don't have a streak!"

Edited July 14, 2023 by thebruce0

[+barefootjeff]

On 7/7/2023 at 6:20 PM, LySt said:

Nevertheless, what about the two yet not-unveiled challenges: the "multi-coined" and the "multi-people" ones? Will we have a "multi month" and a "summer of socialising", whatever that would mean? Your ideas, please

 

After a bit more thought I'll refine my guess for the multi challenge. I reckon it'll be similar to the favourites one, requiring 1000 points on the leaderboard with 10 points for a regular find and 20 for a multi. Perhaps there'll also be bonus points given to the CO for finds on their multis, too, although that's probably wishful thinking since I own 14 active multis .
 

This morning I completed the medium level streak challenge, but avoided doing any multis as part of it to save those for what's likely to come in August or September. In this recent blog post on Tips to Keep your Streak Going, they suggested "Keeping up a streak becomes a lot easier when you incorporate it into your daily and weekly routines. Anytime you head out of the house to commute to work, go to the grocery store, or walk the dog could also be an opportunity to find a geocache." I can only imagine there might be some places in the world where you can find a cache every time you walk the dog or go to the grocery store for weeks, months or years on end, but even back in 2013 when I started and the map was a sea of unfound caches (with a lot more locally than there are now), that would have lasted me about a week before I'd have had to start going further afield. For this 7-day streak just ended, I travelled a total of 1070km, 610 by car and 460 by public transport (a mix of trains, buses and ferries). The closest cache to home was a 13km drive each way, with most being in the range 50-100km and one 230km each way. This equals my best-ever streak, tying with the 2019 Streak Week promotion, but at least I had better weather this time with heaps of sunshine and no rain.

 

I probably need to take a break from caching now, at least until the next round of the promotion starts, after all any caches I find in the next three weeks would leave me with fewer available for the last two rounds.

 

[+funkymunkyzone]

12 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

The souvenir/promotion includes the adventure labs, but the app streak checker does not. But the blog post says you can check your progress on this promo on the app. But you can't because it only checks regular geocaches not adventure labs. 

Edit: although the app streak does not show your streak count when you find an adventure lab that day, it does show the correct streak count once you do find a regular geocache!

 

Ah now I get you. Tbh I had not noticed, probably because the app etc never updates for us in New Zealand until well into the night anyway - so even when we find a cache or ad lab for the current day it doesn't tell us. I guess it's more noticeable if you expect it to work and it doesn't. We just don't ever rely on it!

[LySt]

Anyone with the hard souvenir yet,

Quote

completing a 28 day find streak within the timeframe of July 3–August 6

(cited from the blog post) i.e., having started a streak at least a week before July 3 and continued since then?

[+Max and 99]

Not possible yet.

[+Max and 99]

From the blog:

Iconic Cacher! From August 7–September 3 find as many different types of geocaches as you can. As you collect different cache icons with each find, you’ll also make progress toward earning two new souvenirs!

 

Earn the easy souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these three different cache types:

 

Traditional Cache

Adventure Location

Event Cache

Earn the hard souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these eight different cache types:

 

Traditional Cache

Adventure Location

Event Cache

Virtual Cache

EarthCache

Multi-Cache

Mystery Cache

Letterbox Hybrid

This challenge is not connected to the leaderboard. Finding and logging the three cache types for the easy souvenir will also count toward earning the hard souvenir.

 

How many cache types will you find? We can’t wait to see all of the geocaching adventures players go on in their quest to become Iconic Cachers!

 

Tune in again on August 29 to find out what the final challenge will be and don’t forget to share your #WheelofChallenges geocaching outings on social media!

[+Charlie_Towlson]

50 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

From the blog:

Iconic Cacher! From August 7–September 3 find as many different types of geocaches as you can. As you collect different cache icons with each find, you’ll also make progress toward earning two new souvenirs!

 

Earn the easy souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these three different cache types:

 

Traditional Cache

Adventure Location

Event Cache

Earn the hard souvenir for this challenge by finding and logging these eight different cache types:

 

Traditional Cache

Adventure Location

Event Cache

Virtual Cache

EarthCache

Multi-Cache

Mystery Cache

Letterbox Hybrid

This challenge is not connected to the leaderboard. Finding and logging the three cache types for the easy souvenir will also count toward earning the hard souvenir.

 

How many cache types will you find? We can’t wait to see all of the geocaching adventures players go on in their quest to become Iconic Cachers!

 

Tune in again on August 29 to find out what the final challenge will be and don’t forget to share your #WheelofChallenges geocaching outings on social media!

Does the Event cache include Mega events? I know it seems an obvious question but have the chance to do the lot in one day and just wanted to be sure.

[+capsai]

You really have to find a lab cache? Sorry, but that is not good.

Edited August 1, 2023 by capsai

[+Hügh]

...I smell people disliking the requirement for Lab Caches. Unrelated; here's a Challenge Checker:

 

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/79875

 

For now, the checker expects "Event Cache" == "Regular Event Cache", but if they clarify to include CITOs/Megas/Gigas, somebody ping me please.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Hügh

[+MartyBartfast]

2 hours ago, Charlie_Towlson said:

Does the Event cache include Mega events?

The MK Mega's on the 5th, this doesn't start until the 7th.

[+MartyBartfast]

I think this round would have been better as:

Easy: Find ANY 3 cache types.
Medium: Find ANY 5/6 cache types.
Hard: Find ANY 8 cache types.

But of course that wouldn't allow GS to push people into doing Labs Caches...

 

[+Harry Dolphin]

Well, since I cannot do Adventure Caches on my GPSr, I'm out of this one.

[+lee737]

We have a short interstate caching trip booked, so will passively get this one, except the event I think.... but that is easily fixed...

[+lee737]

What happened to the poor old Wherigo??

[+predator1337]

Please remove Labs from this Challenge, Labs are absolutely senseless. 

Or remove Labs and add Whereigos.

[+barefootjeff]

This one looks fun, as it's more the older style of promotions that were about different caching experiences rather than just a numbers chase. Luckily there's an AL on Sydney's northern beaches that's reasonably accessible by ferry and bus from here that I've been saving in reserve, as new ALs are as scarce as hen's teeth around here (the last one was my Dangar Island one almost a year ago).

[+Team Canary]

Asking for a friend, does anyone know how to delete Adventure Locations after you get the Souvenir?

[+Max and 99]

From the Help Center:

Delete an Adventure find 

Visit your Adventure finds page.

Select Delete on the Adventure find you want to delete.

Note: Deleting a find for an Adventure decreases your find count on Geocaching.com but does not remove the find from the Adventure Lab® app. It is currently not possible to remove a find from the Adventure Lab® app.

 

[+Corp Of Discovery]

Add me to the list of people who don't like being forced to log a lab cache for this one...

 

8 different icons of any type would've been the way to go.

[+MNTA]

7 hours ago, Hügh said:

...I smell people disliking the requirement for Lab Caches.

 

I've never attended a single event. Will that change now? Will see. Never say never but unlikely. But then would qualify for a Fizzy.

 

 

6 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

I think this round would have been better as:

Easy: Find ANY 3 cache types.
Medium: Find ANY 5/6 cache types.
Hard: Find ANY 8 cache types.

But of course that wouldn't allow GS to push people into doing Labs Caches...

 

 

Agreed!

 

4 hours ago, predator1337 said:

Please remove Labs from this Challenge, Labs are absolutely senseless. 

Or remove Labs and add Whereigos.

 

Never done a Whereigos, don't think a challenge would change that. Wish all the apps were integrated into one then may change that.

 

[+thebruce0]

14 hours ago, MNTA said:

Wish all the apps were integrated into one then may change that.

All the geocaching-related apps... just had to add that in there ;P

[+Harry Dolphin]

15 hours ago, Corp Of Discovery said:

Add me to the list of people who don't like being forced to log a lab cache for this one...

 

8 different icons of any type would've been the way to go.

 

Rather a slap in the face to us GPSr users.  Actually an insult.

[+barefootjeff]

9 hours ago, Harry Dolphin said:

 

Rather a slap in the face to us GPSr users.  Actually an insult.

 

I guess it's swings and roundabouts. In all the preceding challenges, the hard level has been way out of reach for me (and I'm sure many others in similar places) due to the sparsity of caches in this area and in particular new cache placements. However, what we lack in cache numbers we make up for with cache diversity and, since we only need one of each type, this one won't require any great expense of time and fuel for me to complete. lee737 has already put out an event and, on the way to that, I should be able to pick up a traditional, multi, mystery and EC. LBHs and virtuals are a bit thin on the ground here (none of the 43 rewards 3.0 that were published in NSW went to COs living in the northern half of the state), but there are quite a few close to public transport in Sydney. I'm now thinking about hiding an LBH (a proper one with letterbox-style clues) to give the local community something easier to access, I just have to find a suitable location for it and get a stamp made.

 

I use a GPSr pretty much exclusively for my caching but have the AL app installed on my phone, even though I delete all my AL finds from my geocaching stats as otherwise they'd be way out of proportion to everything else. There are no doubt some cachers, though, who don't own a smart phone, or one new enough to support the app, and there are plenty of places that don't have any mobile data coverage, so I have to agree that making an AL stage a requirement for the easy level was a bad move. I think it would have been much better if the easy level had been any three of the eight needed for the hard level.

[+niraD]

On 8/1/2023 at 11:31 AM, Max and 99 said:

Adventure Location

I'm out. If I ever do an AL, then I'll do it with a separate AL-only account.

[+thebruce0]

It'll be interesting to see a statistic of how many people on average complete Easy souvenirs and whether there's a noticeable dip in this month's due to the AL requirement.

[+barefootjeff]

6 minutes ago, thebruce0 said:

It'll be interesting to see a statistic of how many people on average complete Easy souvenirs and whether there's a noticeable dip in this month's due to the AL requirement.

 

From Project GC, these are the number of souvenirs issued for each of the challenges thus far:

 

                                              Easy                Medium                 Hard

April (Smileys)                 191895               121642                22585

May (Favourite Fan)       143842                    -                        34144

June (Out & About)          66340                  32161                17287

July (Streak Star)             89564                  23893                  9921

 

The July challenge still has a few days to run so those numbers will likely increase a bit. A lot of the easy ones will be people who weren't actively participating in the promotion but just got them from their regular caching activity, but the big drop-off in those after the first two months is intriguing. As you say, this month will be interesting to watch.

[+MNTA]

2 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

From Project GC, these are the number of souvenirs issued for each of the challenges thus far:

 

                                              Easy                Medium                 Hard

April (Smileys)                 191895               121642                22585

May (Favourite Fan)       143842                    -                        34144

June (Out & About)          66340                  32161                17287

July (Streak Star)             89564                  23893                  9921

 

The July challenge still has a few days to run so those numbers will likely increase a bit. A lot of the easy ones will be people who weren't actively participating in the promotion but just got them from their regular caching activity, but the big drop-off in those after the first two months is intriguing. As you say, this month will be interesting to watch.

 

Very interesting. Shows what people like to do and you can kind of infer how they cache.

 

April    Find 5 10 100

May Leaderboard favorite points 100 1000

June Cache number of days 5 10 20

July Streak days 2 7 28

 

So what I infer here is most folks cache a few days a month and usually get more than one cache a day but don't go crazy. 

 

Personally I. achieved all but July Hard, was travelling with non-cachers and my priorities was not caching. Though little annoyed missed a new state, shoot. However, between June and July kind of burnt me out.

[+barefootjeff]

1 hour ago, MNTA said:

So what I infer here is most folks cache a few days a month and usually get more than one cache a day but don't go crazy. 

 

Yeah, my guess would be that there are a lot of players who can only cache on one day a week (probably Saturday or Sunday), so they would have made it into the first two as long as they made sufficient finds on those days, but wouldn't have got to the easy level in June or July due to their lack of caching days. I would have likely fallen into that category when I was in full time work, particularly at this time of year (mid winter) when I'd be leaving home at dawn and returning after dark.

 

[+CAVinoGal]

5 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

From Project GC, these are the number of souvenirs issued for each of the challenges thus far:

 

                                              Easy                Medium                 Hard

April (Smileys)                 191895               121642                22585

May (Favourite Fan)       143842                    -                        34144

June (Out & About)          66340                  32161                17287

July (Streak Star)             89564                  23893                  9921

 

Interesting comparison, not only of the types actvities needed and #'s earned, but also the differences in how many earned the easy. medium, and hard for each challenge.

 

April we earned Easy, Medium, and did not even attempt to get the hard souvenir; our usual caching activity earned us the first 2.

 

May, both hubby and I got to 1000 points, only because people gave US favorites, our caching alone was not enough to earn 1000 points.  We gave out our fair share of favorites that month too, as we were traveling out of state and earning state souvenirs along the way too!

 

June, we actually earned all 3, and made the effort to get 20 days of caching in.  It was close, but we made it!

 

July, we didn't even attempt to earn any of them.  We ended up with the easy as there were a couple of times we managed to go out 2 days in a row.  But we did a streak of 404 days in 2018, and with the 20 days (not necessarily strung together. but more days than we have normally been caching in a month) June challenge, we had no desire to even TRY for a streak of 7 days!  So we didn't.  We got the Easy and called it good!

 

We are planning to try for all 8 icons for the next challenge.  It's really only 8 caches, and I think we can manage that, we'll just target those types we need to be sure we get them all.  And yes, we do Adventure Labs, we're not numbers oriented, and aren't particularly statistics driven either.  We like the experience of the AdLabs, but it does seem too easy to get 5 smilies for not much effort.  That's how GS scores it, so we just accept the 5 finds and move on.