Wheel of Challenges

[+lee737]

2 hours ago, Lowin said:

I'd prefer to know the details of each challenge

I'm not sure.... I'm sort of keen to be surprised, and maybe challenged...  Although I suspect I'll be surprised if I am surprised, or challenged..... 

The one thing that really tests us here, is a streak. Between work and school, and fading daylight, streaks become really difficult.....

We were lucky the first challenge was the 'bulk finds' as we headed off to a mega a few days after it started, and bagged over 500 finds in a week, hundreds of kilometres from home.... we still have slim pickings around us though!

[+nachtmusik]

There is a Wheel of Challenges geocoin for sale on the geocaching shop which says that the other five challenges are Mystery, Multi, Streak, Cache with Friends, and Road Trip. Not sure what the last two would entail, maybe events and distance from home? 

[+HHL]

1 hour ago, nachtmusik said:

Wheel of Challenges geocoin

https://www.cache-corner.de/wheel-of-challenges-spinner-geocoin.html

[+peter-tvm]

I do hope that the level for the gold souvenir will be far less than 100 multi and mystery caches. 

 

Cache with friends may have something to with the leaderboard and friends. One previous campaign used the total numbers of finds among ones friends. It was still possible to match the criteria for the souvenir by one self. 

 

Road trip is more difficult to imagine what it could be. If it's the distances from one set home coordinates the distances must be manageable for most cachers. Probably at most 100 km. 

 

[+Vicious Cycle]

How is everybody doing on getting the 100 finds for the month? I'm currently at 85 with 7 days left. I have to travel next weekend (which is the last weekend of the month) and I'm a little concerned. We just had a snow storm northern Montana that put me a little behind schedule. I was hoping to have the 3rd souvenir by now.

[+BirdSearcher]

I wasn’t going to try for it but then I did a short trip away & picked up 20 quick points just doing a few Adventure Labs! A bit lame but if that’s how the points are set up then I will take it.

[+lee737]

3 hours ago, Vicious Cycle said:

How is everybody doing on getting the 100 finds for the month? I'm currently at 85 with 7 days left. I have to travel next weekend (which is the last weekend of the month) and I'm a little concerned. We just had a snow storm northern Montana that put me a little behind schedule. I was hoping to have the 3rd souvenir by now.

We had a mega event start a few days after the challenge, so had nailed all three souvenirs by morning tea time on our second day!

[+MNTA]

3 hours ago, Vicious Cycle said:

How is everybody doing on getting the 100 finds for the month? I'm currently at 85 with 7 days left. I have to travel next weekend (which is the last weekend of the month) and I'm a little concerned. We just had a snow storm northern Montana that put me a little behind schedule. I was hoping to have the 3rd souvenir by now.

Got mine last week. 

 

My advice is if possible seek out the Adv. Lab caches. Was able to get 4 just by walking around the block.

[hsiale]

12 hours ago, Vicious Cycle said:

I have to travel next weekend and I'm a little concerned.

For most people travelling over the weekend would only help increasing the numbers due to being in some new area and having access to easy roadside caches they didn't do before. What kind of travel are you doing?

[+Vicious Cycle]

31 minutes ago, hsiale said:

For most people travelling over the weekend would only help increasing the numbers due to being in some new area and having access to easy roadside caches they didn't do before. What kind of travel are you doing?

Going to visit my 93-year-old grandmother who went into the hospital, so not much of an opportunity to do much in the way of caching. I will have a lay over in Denver which has a virtual and an EC, so I'll try to get those if there's time (which will also give me a new state). I'll try to get at least one or two if there are any nearby, but it won't be an all day caching excursion.

[+Vicious Cycle]

11 hours ago, BirdSearcher said:

I wasn’t going to try for it but then I did a short trip away & picked up 20 quick points just doing a few Adventure Labs! A bit lame but if that’s how the points are set up then I will take it.

Of the 85 finds I have so far towards this challenge, 40 of them are AL finds. I just hope the next challenge isn't finding Adventure Labs because I've cleared them all out in my immediate area.

[+Vicious Cycle]

The good news is I have a half-finished power trail that I should be able to use to wrap up the required 100 finds. As long as the weather cooperates and Old Man Winter decides to take a long-awaited nap for a few months. (Will someone please tell him it's spring?), I think I may be able to pull off the final souvenir for this challenge.

[+fuzziebear3]

I thought the 100 was a bit of a stretch, and therefore decided early not to push for it.  As a dedicated player, most of my local area is already done.  To get 100, I would need to get more than 3 per day all month; or have several 'cache weekends' with power trails.  Just not feasible for me.  Travel, time, gas prices, etc.  Additionally, I need to save what I can for the next months challenges.  I think 25 would have been a better goal for this month.   And overall I am getting tired of always trying to do some challenge constantly, every month.

 

I think this particular challenge missed the mark.  Experienced players may not have 100 caches available to go get.  Newer players would find 100 to be a very tall order.

 

 

[+nachtmusik]

On 4/23/2023 at 8:04 AM, peter-tvm said:

I do hope that the level for the gold souvenir will be far less than 100 multi and mystery caches. 

 

It will probably be proportional to the percentage of those cache types. I wasn't able to find those statistics, but if 30% of caches worldwide are mysteries, then I would expect the Gold mystery level to be 30 mystery caches.

[+thebruce0]

11 hours ago, fuzziebear3 said:

I think this particular challenge missed the mark.  Experienced players may not have 100 caches available to go get.  Newer players would find 100 to be a very tall order.

I'm sure they chose that number based on many factors - including the numerous surveys they've handed out asking about find counts, and likes/dislikes about souvenir challenges. I'm sure they felt that 100 was sufficiently difficult enough to satisfy the desire of advanced users for somewhat of a, well, challenge, knowing that it would be a much bigger reach for novice players, and knowing the variety of cache densities worldwide, both in general and by finders' stats.

Since they can't seem to win, maybe next time they should add a 50 count souvenir too; or just award a souvenir for every 10 finds in the month. ;P (plzno, ikid)

[+JL_HSTRE]

At the start of the month I thought I had a slim chance to get to 100, especially if I got some ALs.

 

Alas, Florida weather did not cooperate. A few potential daytrips and overnight trips didn't happen due to heat, rain, and/or work. I think I've only got 2 Finds this month as a result. This weekend is the start of a long vacation and should allow me to easily get Silver, but Gold is almost certainly out of reach. 

[+Lowin]

I settled early, for just going for silver. As a few others have said above, I need to keep unfound localish caches, available for further challenges/bad weather days etc etc.

I also don't travel, unless I really want to be somewhere, not just for a day of long driving, and madly caching in the hours available.  That's why I'd prefer notification of all the challenges, in advance, so that I could research, book a holiday somewhere, enjoy the holiday and the caching!

Looking forward to seeing what's revealed today, and then at least I can plan for May's caching!

 

[+nachtmusik]

5 hours ago, Lowin said:

I settled early, for just going for silver. As a few others have said above, I need to keep unfound localish caches, available for further challenges/bad weather days etc etc.

 

Same, exactly. I also have a big milestone coming up and a trip planned for a specific day with a group, to find a specific cache. Finding 100 caches this month would put me over that milestone too early.

[+Hügh]

Looks like the next Challenge has been announced (on YouTube) --- don't see anything on the Blog, though.

 

 

Quote

From May 1–June 4, you have the chance to earn two new souvenirs for easy or hard levels of the Favorite Fan challenge. As with all leaderboard challenges, you can earn points for finding and logging any geocache or Adventure Lab® Location, but extra points are available if you find a geocache with 10 or more Favorite points or if you receive a Favorite point on one of your owned geocaches.

 

To earn the easy souvenir for this month, you must reach 100 points on your leaderboard. To earn the hard souvenir for this month, you must reach 1000 points on your leaderboard.

 

[+nachtmusik]

16 minutes ago, Hügh said:

Looks like the next Challenge has been announced (on YouTube) --- don't see anything on the Blog, though.

 

 

 

Thanks! Glad this is out now. Looks like the Mystery challenge isn't on the wheel anymore.

[+Lowin]

"To earn the easy souvenir for this month, you must reach 100 points on your leaderboard. To earn the hard souvenir for this month, you must reach 1000 points on your leaderboard."

 

Lets see how that's attained!

 

 

[+Max and 99]

Favorite Fan! This challenge is a leaderboard challenge that focuses on creating and finding Favorite point-worthy geocaches.

From May 1–June 4, you have the chance to earn two new souvenirs for easy or hard levels of the challenge. As with all leaderboard challenges, you can earn points for finding and logging any geocache or Adventure Lab® Location, but extra points are available if you find a geocache with 10 or more Favorite points or if you receive a Favorite point on one of your owned geocaches.

To earn the easy souvenir for this month, you must reach 100 points on your leaderboard. To earn the hard souvenir for this month, you must reach 1000 points on your leaderboard. Here are the point values for the leaderboard:

Found a cache with 10+ Favorite points	20
Received a Favorite point on an owned geocache	50
Found it*	10

*Log a Found it on any cache type including Adventure Lab® Locations

The leaderboard will reset on June 5, but players have until Wednesday June 7 at noon UTC to post qualifying logs for leaderboard points toward earning Favorite Fan souvenirs. Only logs dated May 1–June 4 will qualify toward earning souvenirs.

What exceptional caches will you find to get extra points this month? How will you make your own geocaches bring in the Favorite points to get the second souvenir? We can’t wait to see your geocaching creativity in action!

We’ll see you again on May 30 to find out what will come next for the third challenge. Share your Wheel of Challenges geocaching Favorite point-worthy finds on social media using #WheelOfChallenges!

Read our Wheel of Challenges announcement blog post for FAQs and more information about the souvenir challenge.

[+K13]

So, finding 100 caches or AL stages will get the Hard Level.

[+Max and 99]

I expect more messages asking me to give a Favorite Point to a cache I found.

[+RobinHood2009]

I very rarely leave favorite points. I have 113 of them.

[+MartyBartfast]

It's good that we're back to using the leaderboard to keep track of progress, and also good that COs are being rewarded by getting points for receiving FPs too.

[+thebruce0]

Effectively it's the same as April but with bonus point opportunities. 100 finds for hard, but faster if you find the intended cache targets (among other bonus points)

[+HuggableHamster]

I wonder how the points will work if a cache you find goes from say 9 to 10 favourite points after you found it.

[+Max and 99]

3 minutes ago, HuggableHamster said:

I wonder how the points will work if a cache you find goes from say 9 to 10 favourite points after you found it.

You only get the extra points if it has the minimum favorites when you find it. I'm basing that on previous promotions. 

[+nachtmusik]

3 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

I expect more messages asking me to give a Favorite Point to a cache I found.

I wonder if only FPs given at the time of logging will count, or if points given retroactively will also count. 

[+Max and 99]

7 minutes ago, nachtmusik said:

I wonder if only FPs given at the time of logging will count, or if points given retroactively will also count. 

A good question.

I think any point you are given during the days of the promotion will count. I'm thinking a lot of people do not provide favorite points at the time of logging, but rather go back and do it later. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Max and 99

[+nachtmusik]

4 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

I'm thinking a lot of people do not provide favorite points at the time of logging, but rather go back and do it later. 

The retroactive FPs I've received are a minority, but I know there are many people who do this. However if this is allowed wouldn't it be possible to add and remove a FP multiple times to stack up the points for that CO? Or would it be the net increase in FPs over the challenge period? If someone removes a FP will you lose 50 points?

[+Max and 99]

6 minutes ago, nachtmusik said:

The retroactive FPs I've received are a minority, but I know there are many people who do this. However if this is allowed wouldn't it be possible to add and remove a FP multiple times to stack up the points for that CO? Or would it be the net increase in FPs over the challenge period? If someone removes a FP will you lose 50 points?

A fair question. Yes, the system can be gamed in numerous ways regarding fav points. I do hope they go by net increase, but I don't know how that would be accomplished when the points are awarded immediately. 

 

[+lee737]

I wonder why AL's are included in this one - they have nothing to do with FPs whatsoever??

[+thebruce0]

If I were programming it, I could see two options.

- Count FPs given with find logs, adding to a distinct tally active during the promotion (I would think the backend function for flagging a Find log with a FP would include a +1 to the tally, which could also -1 if a FP is removed) and this can work with the posting of a Find log as well as adding a FP to a cache already found (I'd think the FP would be attached to the user's find log, so would only count to the total if it was also found within the souvenir period, a quick date check).

- Or, the algorithm that shows current score would do a query on find logs within the date range, and add the FP count to the current point total (but this would be more cycles used for querying every time the point total is shown).

 

One requires more code insertion but keeps the main promo functionality external to core functions with least impact (and the external call really only needs to be added into posting a find log (with its details), adding/removing a FP (with the find date), and completing an AL location); the other requires more live calculation and querying.  I would think the former was employed as these souvenir promos are evolving to be able to 'track' quite a lot of activity, so the code has probably been improved sufficiently to be able to simply insert a call within whatever action is desired to be tracked to its own souvenir module, and can be removed once the promotion period is complete.

[+MNTA]

28 minutes ago, lee737 said:

I wonder why AL's are included in this one - they have nothing to do with FPs whatsoever??

Because it is not a favorite point challenge. It is a leaderboard challenge with custom value for different find types.

 

Ignoring that. Does anyone else wish they used favorite point% rather than favorite points. Can't tell you how many older caches have high favorite points but really are meh. Most of the geocaching tourist draws I feel fall into this category.

 

Looked on project-gc %favorite page and found a few that I'll try to target for this next challenge that don't show up as high favorites but a pretty good. 

 

[+lee737]

1 hour ago, MNTA said:

Because it is not a favorite point challenge. It is a leaderboard challenge with custom value for different find types.

And with the find types being differentiated based on the number of FPs, sort of makes it an FP challenge....

[+lee737]

1 hour ago, tbbiker said:

Need to push those Al's as they are the future of geocaching 🤣

Sad, isn't it.

[+Max and 99]

I wish the leaderboard more accurately reflected the points for the current promotion. DT factors and activating and moving Trackables have nothing to do with the current wheel promotion. 

[+vpdj]

Wondering why I did not get the HARD souvenir for April - had 114 including Labs - 106 per the project-gc checker...

 

Maybe the day ended early - due to UTC time - from 7pm EST instead of midnight - as expected.

Edited May 1, 2023 by vpdj

[+Gill & Tony]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:48 AM, Max and 99 said:

 

Received a Favorite point on an owned geocache	50

Is this the only souvenir you can earn without leaving home?

[+lee737]

10 minutes ago, Gill & Tony said:

Is this the only souvenir you can earn without leaving home?

There was a similar one a few years ago with the same sort of scoring, but yes you can earn it from your couch. Perhaps earnt points from FPs should be capped at 500??

[+Max and 99]

2 minutes ago, Gill & Tony said:

Is this the only souvenir you can earn without leaving home?

Except for the Virtual Caching Day Souvenir.

https://coord.info/GC7X4F3

[+Max and 99]

19 minutes ago, lee737 said:

There was a similar one a few years ago with the same sort of scoring, but yes you can earn it from your couch. Perhaps earnt points from FPs should be capped at 500??

I like the idea of a cap. I remember recent souvenir where you could get a bunch of points by activating trackables and getting favorite points. 

[+lee737]

Capping the points from the <10FP caches would keep the challenge more interesting too....

[+BirdSearcher]

1 hour ago, Gill &amp; Tony said:

Is this the only souvenir you can earn without leaving home?

Yes! I just earned the first souvenir, received 2 favourite points today!

[+lee737]

It sucks a bit how you can get truckloads of points doing ALs, but attending an event gets you zip.... I think an event should count ahead of an AL.....

[+baer2006]

11 hours ago, Max and 99 said:

Except for the Virtual Caching Day Souvenir.

Huh? Did I miss the joke here ? Never heard of a "Virtual Caching Day" souvenir, and Project-GC doesn't know it either.

[+nachtmusik]

Yesterday I saw that I had the Easy souvenir on my profile even though I only have 90 leaderboard points. Anyone else notice a similar bug? 

[+MacPacFamily]

As someone who lives in New Zealand and our date changes over before the USA, so I am rather peeved, as I went out on our 1st of May, at considerable effort to get a couple of caches for the current favourite wheel of challenges. Because it wasn't 1st of May in the USA they haven't counted. I tried to make them register by changing the date to 2nd May but that hasn't worked because they were 1st registered on 30th April on Groundspeak's servers. I was trying to follow the rules but they should allow for local time zones.