Achievements and Accomplishments Thread

[DonGuy47]

The column I care about is column D, average score per game. No achievements or accomplishments recently (I play every board, only 4x4.)

[mcdonna]

For being a responsible adult, you're doing pretty good here. Congratulations on the trophy! Also, congrats to thinkbig!

Thanks, Spike! I got lucky and hit a month where you and some of the other 40-point club members were clearly taking a winter break! It's still a fine feeling to see that pretty trophy on my scoreboard.

Lalatan/thinkbig, glad to see you were on the job, and congratulations!

[crazykate]

The column I care about is column D, average score per game. No achievements or accomplishments recently (I play every board, only 4x4.)

I usually skip over less promising boards. Going to try not to do this for a month (in 4x4) to see how I compare to your statistics. It's like everyone's playing their own game and the scoreboards aren't really a standard to compare yourself with.

[Brisul]

I usually skip over less promising boards. Going to try not to do this for a month (in 4x4) to see how I compare to your statistics. It's like everyone's playing their own game and the scoreboards aren't really a standard to compare yourself with.

Yes, it's become like Major League Baseball with "advanced metrics"

[RussDNails]

Yep, it would level the playing field pretty fast if they did away with the board stats. Probably be a lot more fun too..........

[bwt1213]

Speaking of "achievements", I actually finished my latest novel. I didn't just call it done and give up on it. I finished it, all 300+ pages. I will give it a few days, then start editing it and fixing a few things, and then I will send it off and see if anyone likes it. Probably they won't; that's the way those things work. But I like it. And maybe I can play a little more of this game while I decompress.

[crazykate]

Speaking of "achievements", I actually finished my latest novel. I didn't just call it done and give up on it. I finished it, all 300+ pages. I will give it a few days, then start editing it and fixing a few things, and then I will send it off and see if anyone likes it. Probably they won't; that's the way those things work. But I like it. And maybe I can play a little more of this game while I decompress.

Latest novel? How many have you written? What's your genre?
I'm in awe of writers who finish things. I've attempted to write a few novels, but I'm not good at mapping out story arcs. I start out with lots of ideas, then a few chapters in the story gets a life of its own and then I get stuck. I'm better at inventing bedtime stories because inevitably everyone gets tired and goes to sleep.

[bwt1213]

This is the fifth one. Of the previous four, I submitted one. The others are in a kind of limbo --they're mostly done, but they have big enough flaws that I'm not ready to send them out and I'm not quite sure how to fix them. This one, I like. It's old-fashioned hard SF. Parts are like Heinlein for writing style, but a lot of Heinlein's novels were originally juveniles, and this is quite a bit more complex both from a plot and an idea standpoint -- more complex than even his later adult stories. The core idea is three-dimensional time and eight spatial dimensions, wrapped up to create what seems to be telekinesis and discovered originally by children. It takes place over hundreds of years, and the children get old and die at different rates because of time dilation. There are AIs, dangerous aliens, wars that kill almost all of humanity, galactic colonization, name it and it's there. I like this one because it hangs together and there are love stories in it that are believable, good people with flaws and bad people you believe and hate. The conclusion is basically an explanation for existence. Don't expect an unbiased review, of course. But when I'm done polishing the clinkers out and shining it up some more, I WILL send this out. I think it will be taken by someone, if I'm patient enough. So, it's finished but it's not done. And I like it. I think I wrote a good one this time. I hope to have it seeing the rounds of the publishers within a month or so.

[Brisul]

I just scored three games in a row of over 1000 points!!! I've never done that before!!!

[mcdonna]

Just hit 1600 best word records with PLENTEOUSNESSES.

This is the fifth [book]. Of the previous four, I submitted one. The others are in a kind of limbo --they're mostly done, but they have big enough flaws that I'm not ready to send them out and I'm not quite sure how to fix them. This one, I like. It's old-fashioned hard SF. Parts are like Heinlein for writing style, but a lot of Heinlein's novels were originally juveniles, and this is quite a bit more complex both from a plot and an idea standpoint -- more complex than even his later adult stories. The core idea is three-dimensional time and eight spatial dimensions, wrapped up to create what seems to be telekinesis and discovered originally by children. It takes place over hundreds of years, and the children get old and die at different rates because of time dilation. There are AIs, dangerous aliens, wars that kill almost all of humanity, galactic colonization, name it and it's there. I like this one because it hangs together and there are love stories in it that are believable, good people with flaws and bad people you believe and hate. The conclusion is basically an explanation for existence. Don't expect an unbiased review, of course. But when I'm done polishing the clinkers out and shining it up some more, I WILL send this out. I think it will be taken by someone, if I'm patient enough. So, it's finished but it's not done. And I like it. I think I wrote a good one this time. I hope to have it seeing the rounds of the publishers within a month or so.

These sound really interesting! Have you thought about self-publishing on Amazon? Let me know if you're looking for a (free) proofreader. I can't not see errors ... have been a human spellchecker since I was about 12.

[walden123]

Razorflame: Here is the screenshot you wanted. I probably haven't seen this on a board for a year or so. I couldn't send an attachment on the PM.
Dichlorodifluoromethanes 2019-08-11.jpg

How does DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANES score 46 points?

[lalatan]

Once you submit the game, the point value is reduced to 42 pts. That's the way it is with some of the longer words.

I took the screenshot from my smartphone. He wanted to see the board layout so I snapped it before it was submitted.

[Spike1007]

It doesn't. It's reported that way during play, but it's cut back to 42 once you're done. My big question is why DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE is only considered rare.

[bwt1213]

Regarding achievements and accomplishments, I have been doing something a little different for the last few months. While I still try to maximize my game score, I temper that somewhat. If I play a game in which I set the new "best word" and I think it's a good one, OR a game in which I set my personal high score for that month FOR A WORD, I will keep that game no matter what the score is. So, here I am trying to get my per-game average nice and high and I get a game for which I set my monthly high score for a word and my score is 200 points lower than my current average. I kept that game. If I did as I had been doing, I'd perhaps have an average higher than my monthly peak of 579. On the other hand, if I played pretty much any game that took my fancy and never dumped one, I'd have an average a hundred points lower and a lot more total points each month. I'd be Scheffek or Ellen but not as good as either of them.

[walden123]

Maybe it only does that on phones. When I found ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHICALLY on a computer this morning(beating my previous best by 10 points) I think it scored 42. Maybe it would be simpler it the max was 50 even. Anyway nice find!