Achievements and Accomplishments Thread

[mdyak]

Last Friday was a bad day for friggatriskaidekaphobics but it was a great day for me. I finally achieved what is for me the big one. I reached 50,000 5x5 best/longest records! Woohoo!! A very long time coming as you see below.

50K 5X5 RECORDS.jpg

Also, on April 22, I passed MegaWord's totals for best/longest word records in 4x4 and 5x5 combined (another huge goal for me). Currently, I've collected 59,269 lifetime best/longest word records; 2,559 of them were attained under 3 other usernames I've used in the past.

You are totally amazing and inspiring! I definitely continue to be inspired by what you do!

I'm familiar with triskaidekaphobics... what's the frigga part??

[lalatan]

Last Friday was a bad day for friggatriskaidekaphobics but it was a great day for me. I finally achieved what is for me the big one. I reached 50,000 5x5 best/longest records! Woohoo!! A very long time coming as you see below.

50K 5X5 RECORDS.jpg

Also, on April 22, I passed MegaWord's totals for best/longest word records in 4x4 and 5x5 combined (another huge goal for me). Currently, I've collected 59,269 lifetime best/longest word records; 2,559 of them were attained under 3 other usernames I've used in the past.

[dannyb]

Today I played three board that were dazzling in my stupidity and nonpareil in frab-ju-bab fingers. If I had a video to post, I am certain that I would be accused of playing so poorly on purpose. It was that stunning.

[Naboka]

Finally broke 9 points per word average in a game.

Thank you "Q's."

(Though my left little finger hates you with a passion and wants nothing to do with you.)

Soooo many words had to be retyped. Which meant that I couldn't get to the requite, requites, requiter, requiters (11, 13,13,14 points) that I saw.

Gonna have to exercise that Q muscle.

Screen Shot 2022-05-13 at 9.20.06 AM.png

[lalatan]

...Did you notice that the last game above had zero common words? And the previous best had 40-50 more total words, so there is that advantage, as all that extra verbage wasn't even sufficient to get 600 points...

No, I did not notice that. But I have trained myself to completely ignore common word totals in puzzle stats. So that must've spilled over to game results.

I just had a look at fasteddieb's stats for this month. 66 5x5 games played, averages of 1,186 pts/game, 209 words and 5.672 pts/word. Absolutely remarkable. Seems like he knows lots of higher scoring words to attain those kinds of avgs.

[Naboka]

[QUOTE=lalatan;n29680]Very impressive. Congrats! With your successes you are probably changing how some people play the game.
You're tantalizingly close to getting 100 ultra-rare words...[/QUOTE

100 ultra-rare words. That's an interesting goal.

Though I haven't studied whether all the high point words are rare or ultra rare. I wouldn't sacrifice a wide word that's only 4 letters for 6 points. Zoo is probably a common word, as is tax. Quiet, quite, quit. Lot of words with k, x, z or q are probably common or wide but provide good points, so...

Did you notice that the last game above had zero common words? And the previous best had 40-50 more total words, so there is that advantage, as all that extra verbage wasn't even sufficient to get 600 points.

Necessity being the mother it is forced a poor typer to find a more efficient way to run up points. Exceptional typists wouldn't benefit much from what I do. Plus it takes hours and hours and hours of memorizing what is and what isn't worth typing. You can learn a lot of high point words watching Megaword's Youtube videos. Freeze the image of the played results and write down what's juicy.

I doubt many players would be interested in learning what words NOT to play. Most are interested in finding and learning words of any sort.

The main takeaway is that learning a lot of high point words can make a difference. And avoiding the opportunity costs of typing in low value words provides more time to take advantage of the juicies.

I probably wouldn't have typed either of the longest words in the above downloads except the board stats indicated they would be records. I sure didn't type non, restrict, restricted, measure or less even though they were obviously there.

This hybrid approach also demands a nearly masochistic willingness to fail. Just played a game that was crash and burn. By the time I realized the ultra-rare and rare words that I recognized were too sparsely populated to make a difference, the clock left me with the race status of the hare but with only tortoise speed to try to make up the difference.

Here's that board. Just so people don't get the idea I'm killing it consistently.

Screen Shot 2022-04-30 at 3.15.39 PM.png

This against a player I beat by nearly a hundred points earlier in the day.

The ego just shrugs and grabs a carmel to sooth the shattering wounds.

---

[lalatan]

Very impressive. Congrats! With your successes you are probably changing how some people play the game.
You're tantalizingly close to getting 100 ultra-rare words...

[Naboka]

Used to seem like an impossible task.

Then two in one morning.

Lot of work paying off.

Screen Shot 2022-04-30 at 11.54.29 AM.png
Screen Shot 2022-04-30 at 11.55.19 AM.png

[dannyb]

I just played a board and found 106 words while only scoring 399 points. Has anyone found more words and scored less than 400 points?

[lalatan]

Screen Shot 2022-04-24 at 6.36.30 AM.png
Even though I saw a lot more words (such as resting and eating) I ignored them and concentrated on the potential point getters. Some of the -ing words wouldn't take the "s" so that wasted time. And I had to retype several of the longer words, like rosettings and rosterings, because the fingers were just too excited

Still, finishing with over 8 points a word was a first.

And, getting the most total points despite having more than 60 fewer words?

Priceless.

Wow, I don't ever recall seeing a Total Words stat line w that many words found and w such a high proportion of ultra-rare. You showed good discipline and skill ignoring the lesser value words. 8 pts/word w 75 words played is amazing. Congrats!

[Naboka]

Post flagged as spam after edit:

Naboka, excellent job on significantly bumping up your score and finding the best/longest word. I doubt if there was anything more in that board worth more pts.

It's interesting that 20 mins prior to your post I played a 5x5 board that contained haemo- and alkali-. I spent too long trying to pair the 2 and time expired. I took a screenshot of it and the post-mortem revealed that alkalimeters had been available. In my experience a word and its variations are often released in puzzles simultaneously. I have dubbed it "theme week" in my thinking. For instance, this week I played RHINOLARYNGOLOGIES (no oto- available). Then today I found OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICAL. (I hadn't seen either word for months til now.) I was unaware that the phenomenon also occurred in 4x4 and 5x5 at the same time.

Thanks.

Despite the psychologist's view of synchronicity, I find great pleasure in hearing stories about timely and parallel experiences. You finding "alkalimeters" ( though post mortem) made me smile.

I doubt that most players pay much attention to the details and discoveries you mention. The details are just so...tedious.

Mostly, progress in any field stems from analysis and synthesis. Taking things apart to understand them, and putting the elements back together in new and creative ways. The real genius comes from taking disparate elements and learning how to connect them so they work in harmony.

In art, visual contrast brings excitement.

Or not. If the artist fails to properly balance and connect. Then: cacophony, disharmony, inconsonance, failure.

This applies to most things: music, cooking, conversation.

Here's a game just played that might impress you somewhat--though probably won't mean diddley to most. The board stats showed almost 400 words available. The high score was a hair under 600, and just short of 140 most words. Didn't register as necessarily being high on points per word average, but...

the dilution factor can distort what's possible. Most players will type in every word they see regardless of point value. So, a bunch of 3 point words will dilute the average points per word.

Anyway, -ing jumped out, then -ings. The difference between -ing and -ings is dramatic. "Mastering" is worth 8 points, "masterings" worth 18! 10 points for a single key stroke.

Eating-5 points, eatings-12 points. resting-6, restings 14, rosetting-10, rosettings 18, rostering-8, rosterings-18. sorting-6, sortings-14. And on and on.

(Though smattering is 9 points and smatterings is 10, so the wide disparity isn't constant. )

With the "-ings" in mind, and noting the "rostie" anagram, the possibility of getting lots of points per word made the old heart pitter-patter.

Screen Shot 2022-04-24 at 6.36.30 AM.png
Eventhough I saw a lot more words (such as resting and eating) I ignored them and concentrated on the potential point getters. Some of the -ing words wouldn't take the "s" so that wasted time. And I had to retype several of the longer words, like rosettings and rosterings, because the fingers were just too excited

Still, finishing with over 8 points a word was a first.

And, getting the most total points despite having more than 60 fewer words?

Priceless.

[lalatan]

Post flagged as spam after edit:

Naboka, excellent job on significantly bumping up your score and finding the best/longest word. I doubt if there was anything more in that board worth more pts.

It's interesting that 20 mins prior to your post I played a 5x5 board that contained haemo- and alkali-. I spent too long trying to pair the 2 and time expired. I took a screenshot of it and the post-mortem revealed that alkalimeters had been available. In my experience a word and its variations are often released in puzzles simultaneously. I have dubbed it "theme week" in my thinking. For instance, this week I played RHINOLARYNGOLOGIES (no oto- available). Then today I found OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICAL. (I hadn't seen either word for months til now.) I was unaware that the phenomenon also occurred in 4x4 and 5x5 at the same time.

[lalatan]

Excellent job on bumping up your score and finding the best/longest word. I doubt if there was anything more in that board worth more pts.

It's interesting that 20 mins prior to your post I played a 5x5 board that contained haemo- and alkali-. I spent too long trying to pair the 2 and time expired. I took a screenshot of it and the post-mortem revealed that alkalimeters had been available. In my experience a word and its variations are often released in puzzles simultaneously. I have dubbed it "theme week" in my thinking. For instance, this week I played RHINOLARYNGOLOGIES (no oto- available). Then today I found OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGICAL. (I hadn't seen either word for months til now.) I was unaware that the phenomenon also occurred in 4x4 and 5x5 at the same time.

[Naboka]

So, I was cruising along,

minding my own business,

listening to the best of slow blues rock ballads on YouTube

when this slapped me in the face!

image_800.png

I always examine the gameboard stats to see what to expects (sic) and what to looks for. A board with 152 ultra rare words is normally a high point gold mine. It's the kind of board the top players might get 1,000 points or more. Especially with 48 and 46 words that are only 4-5 letters.

But! It had been played 34 times and the person with the most words is perpetually in the top 10 on point averages. So, how had 418 total points survived 34 tries?!!!

Curious, had to take a screen shot for possible later reference.

Screen Shot 2022-04-23 at 2.49.07 PM.png

How this board eluded all the top scorers in all categories is just plain weird. There's probably a longer word or two, worth more points that lalatan and others would have found, but... Guess they'll just have to wait until they find the 152 word mystery board.

btw, -metries is a useful word segment. Also got algometries, which I knew from algometry, but the alkalimetries was mostly a gamble.

[admin]

the banner ad kept popping-up in front of the area of the grid where you can see the word you typed.

Hmmm, that definitely should not be happening! If you or anyone else ever sees an ad interfering with gameplay, please email a screenshot of what you're seeing to me at admin@puzzlebaron.com and I will fix it ASAP.