Other Score Modes & Skipping Puzzles & getting sent back to the beginning

[LionLemur]

I don't play these puzzles to see how fast I can be. I play these puzzles IN BETWEEN my other activities, such as: during commercials when I'm watching Hulu, in the morning while I'm making coffee, walking the dog, taking a shower, and so forth. Therefore I'm never going to be fast, and certainly not faster than most, so I don't care about my speed scores, I'd rather know which puzzles I completed, and an average of how many I got without errors. vs how many I've totally mucked up. Is there a way to find THOSE stats?

There are certain puzzles that I hate. For example, the cameras one, most of the rocket ones, any of the ones that are numbers on top of numbers on top of numbers. For instance the geo cache one could be fun if I didn't have to look at so many damn coordinates that my eyes start hurting. The credit cards are pretty terrible, but the worst is the one ...something about zip line lengths or some other rope thing? It's almost all numbers. Would it be hard to install a "go to next puzzle" link that didn't mess with your personal stats, but just let you ignore that one?

There is some glitch that happens (especially lately) when I click "somewhere" (and I've tried to figure out where I'm clicking, but it happens so fast, that I haven't been able to narrow it down) that the puzzle sends me back to step zero - blanks out all my conclusions, leaving me with the same puzzle, but now on an again-empty grid. Generally I say, the heck with this, and close it out and start a new puzzle. Is there a way to recover all my work, other than hitting the save button all the time?

Call me crazy, but there are some puzzles I like just for their subject. My favorite is always the Haunted Houses one. I also like the bigfoot and ufo, shooting stars and manatee sightings ones. The mushrooms and tall trees are also fun. Just a hope regarding the kind of puzzles I'd like to see more of.

[ella]

I can't help you with all your questions, but I hear your pain about the numbers - hence, I'd just skip them. I'd rather enjoy than be irritated! See the next paragraph on how that doesn't matter one bit to your overall scores, and obviously if you're not worried about speed, then penalties probably aren't that important either. However,

If you want to skip a puzzle, you can do so without being penalized for it. I always skip a certain one (can't remember what it's about at the moment, but it has directions and tons of long numbers - it may be zip lines, but I thought it was postal codes or something - anyway...) It doesn't hurt your score anymore. Years ago there were various trophies for completing 100% of puzzles or something like that, but they are gone and you can skip without penalty. The site counts how many puzzles you start and how many you complete, but only the completed ones "count" for trophies etc.

As for being sent back to the beginning, there are probably more than a few ways for that to happen -- the most obvious is the "start over" button on the bottom of the puzzles. But if you aren't purposely clicking that, I wonder if your browser has a automatic setting for going back a page? Many browsers (or maybe it's the OS?) go back a page if you do something special (for instance, left clicking instead of right, scrolling a certain way on a trackpad or rolling ball on a mouse...) Sometimes if I'm using a computer with a mouse, I absentmindedly rest my other hand on the trackpad and that can take me backwards. It depends on your settings and browser, but I would guess that most of them have these things. Hopefully someone else can be of more help here.

I haven't noticed any obvious bug like that, but I could be missing something.

[NashvilleSCTheBest]

The score blanking happens to me on mobile, ALL THE TIME, right after i complete the puzzle.

But yeah, as Peppermint Patty says, just click the "Play" button again if you want to skip the puzzle without being penalized. Will also say the numbers upon numbers puzzles are the worst ones. For me, the one about bacteria and mining the asteroids do my head in.

[MillieMcGee]

Yeah I totally agree with what you say about skipping puzzles. I'd love for there to be a way of choosing the theme of puzzle we play! Would that ever be a possibility?

[fleaball]

Chiming in to say I also have the page refresh on me at random times. Using chrome on an iPad fwiw.

[JedMedGrey]

I too dislike the geocaching puzzles - too many coordinates get tangled in my brain! Ziplines can also get tangled - speeds, lengths, heights: all numbers!

[tricksyfox]

Agreed on the ziplines one being the worst! Especially because there are some overlapping values (like 40 ft high as well as 40 MPH).