Scoring model

[dotnich]

Somewhat confused at the points I get from solving different puzzles. Does the number of people explicitly marked "Innocent" change the score you get, if the times are otherwise the same?

[mellav1]

I believe it has to do with the difficulty level of the puzzle, not with whether you mark off all the innocents.

[admin]

Correct - and we will soon be updating the scoring algorithm to more accurately reflect real-world solving averages (right now it's just our system's "best guess" determining how difficult a particular puzzle is). Luckily the site has been popular enough that we're getting tons of real-world solving data really quickly - usually it takes up to a year before we can update the scoring algorithm off actual solve data.

[Luckr]

More often I see people posting their scores and I just don't understand but I seem to get a lot less points than other people very often.
It also seems like it depends on the time of day, as sometimes I constantly get 300+ points for easy completions, and sometimes I keep getting 190 points for a 30 second complete at a decently hard puzzle.
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[Luckr]

Another example. How are the differences this big?
image.png

[Slugman]

More often I see people posting their scores and I just don't understand but I seem to get a lot less points than other people very often.
It also seems like it depends on the time of day, as sometimes I constantly get 300+ points for easy completions, and sometimes I keep getting 190 points for a 30 second complete at a decently hard puzzle.

I can't speak for the Admin but awhile back they did say that the scoring model was adjusted to be based on your time vs the average time of all other who have completed the same puzzle. In your example where Astrid is guilty, your time was 29% of the average of everyone else's times but UltraVenia time was 27% of the average of everyone else's times that had completed that puzzle before August 22nd...but I agree, 58 points (or 20%) less for only 2% time seems extreme.

[Luckr]

Ah ok thanks for the explanation. Makes sense then why the scores are so different, because the average solution time is very highly impacted at every complete with such a small completion rate.
Feels a bit unsatisfying getting very low scores for what feels like quick solves, but I understand it's very hard to create a well working scoring system with different puzzle difficulties in the mix.

[Slugman]

I know what you mean...only 165 points for first place:
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but my time was 47% of the average of everyone else's