New Acrostic Puzzles

[admin]

We'll be launching a new library of roughly 12,500 new acrostics puzzles over the coming week, increasing our total puzzle library by roughly 60%. These will all feature brand new quotes (taken from sources of a more "literary" nature) and thousands of new clues/terms. You will know you're getting one of these new puzzles if you see "N/A" displayed for the solving percentage, as it will take several months before we have sufficient statistics accrued.

Right now about 2,500 have been loaded, and I expect the rest will be ready for launch within the next 3-5 days. I'll post here again when they're all up.

Hope you enjoy the new puzzles as much as I enjoyed making them!

Stephen

[mmiano1]

what about the new feature: key?

[PatienceCrabstick]

Has the scoring system changed? I’m getting some weird results today (Sept. 20). For example, I just solved a puzzle in 66 seconds, which for as long as I’ve been playing has been worth the maximum 800 points. But today I received only 649 points for this. Please explain!

[admin]

The puzzle key (first letter of every answer, in order) is now actively displayed in the black area just below the grid, to aid in solving. It will fill in automatically as you progress through the puzzle. Many of the new answers we've added are so long that they may sometimes need to wrap to two lines, and this makes reading the puzzle key (the old way) a bit cumbersome, so hopefully this helps.

And yes, scoring has been changed - points are now awarded relative to the average solve time of each individual puzzle, instead of being based on a set amount of time across all puzzles regardless of length. This way easier puzzles won't award quite so many points for a fast solve, and harder puzzles will award more points. The same maximum and minimum point spread applies as always.

[PatienceCrabstick]

That’s great, thanks. It’s a positive change that many people have been requesting for a while. However — and this is intended in the mildest possible way — you really should have waited until the beginning of a new month to alter the scoring system.

[sionnach57]

Thanks for this change to the scoring system, which I think is entirely positive. Thanks also for the new puzzles!

[CliffGermaine]

I agree that these are good changes. Also, better to have done this at the beginning of the month. Can you clarify what they actually are? I just set a record on a long one and got 557 points (???)

[admin]

Scores are now based on your performance relative to the average solve time. Generally, beating the average solve time will get you a score of 500-800 points. Going over the average solve time will earn you a score of 10-500 points. Actual points depend on how much you are above or below the average solve time. Setting a new record doesn't automatically mean maximum points, especially if its a new puzzle and your new record isn't very far away from the average solve time.

[PatienceCrabstick]

Sorry to butt in again, but would you please clarify what you mean by average solve time? Is it the average for the puzzle just solved, or the average for all puzzles? I presume it’s the former, but then like Cliff Germaine I’m confused — I’ve also gotten fastest times on a few new puzzles (by 200 or 300 seconds from the previous record IIRC) but my scores have been way below 800 points. I think if you’d tell us all exactly how the new scoring system works we’d be extremely grateful.

[admin]

It's based off average solve time of the individual puzzle, not all puzzles.

It will now be a very, very rare thing to get maximum points. The system will award points on a diminishing basis up to about 2x the average time, after which it will bottom out at a standard 10 points.

I'll be keeping an eye on point statistics over the next week and may tweak it here and there as needed.

[canswp1]

Thanks for the changes! I really like the new puzzle key!

[sewaneesue]

In the past, was the puzzle key the name of the author? I never look over at the right to see these comments. Glad that I did tonight. Since I've recently set 2 new records, I love the new scoring system! I thought a miracle had happened.

[admin]

Yes, the first letter of each answer has always spelled out either (a) the source, (b) the author's last name and the source, (c) the author's full name and source or (d) just the author's full name. There was always a "Key Type" displayed under the puzzle to indicate which one it was. But until the new changes you had to look at each first letter yourself to figure it out - now the program will display it for you separately.

[billybones]

It's funny that the record times are much more reasonable now that there are new puzzles.

[admin]

Thank you sionnach57 - that quote was indeed inappropriate and has been deleted.