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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
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[Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

What: Crafting puzzle contest!
When: Scoring takes place on Sunday, October the 16th
Where: Crafting shoppes and stalls across the midnight ocean
For Whom: Everyone in the midnight ocean automatically takes part!
By Whom: British Sea Power and Looterati events

Yes, you read that right - it's a crafting puzzle contest! With the introduction of 'ultimate lists', it is finally possible to find the Midnight ocean's "most ultimate" artisan. The rules are very simple.

-No need to register - it is possible that the winner will not even realise the contest was going on!
-Just as you've been doing all along, play all of the crafting puzzles - distilling, alchemistry and shipwrightery - to the best of your ability, in order to increase your ultimate ranking as much as possible in each one.
-The ultimate lists are refreshed once every 24 hours at 2am PDT. You will only be scored on your new ultimate positions after this time on October the 16th.
-To help everyone have an idea of how things are going, current scores will be posted here on the following days leading up to the final scoring date: October 1st, 6th, 10th, 13th, 14th, and 15th.
-Only those that are in the ultimate lists for all three crafting puzzles at that time will be scored.
-The most ultimate artisan wins!

Scoring:
The scoring is calculated very simply. On the day of scoring, we take the ultimate lists and filter them down so that they only include pirates that are ultimate in all three crafting puzzles. Your score, if you are ultimate in all three puzzles, is simply the sum of your ranks! Naturally, whoever has the lowest score is the most ultimate artisan and the winner. An example of exactly how this works is given at the end of this post.

Secondary prizes will be awarded to the players that are highest on each of the *filtered* lists (so to qualify for this, you must be ultimate in all of the crafting puzzles), not counting the overall winner, who already has enough prizes. For example, if you're not the ultimate artisan but you are 5th in the ocean for distilling, so long as you are ultimate in Alchemistry and Shipwrightery and none of the players above you are, you would win the secondary prize for distilling! Again, see the example at the end of the post if you're confused.

Prizes:
1st place: The Midnight ocean's most ultimate artisan will win a custom crafting sloop, the "Crafty Win", tastefully painted and decorated with the crafting paraphernalia you have come to love!
2nd place: The secondary prize winners each get a lovely selection of furniture appropriate to the puzzle they have mastered.

Please post any questions or feedback here, or contact Rubyspoon or Crystalclaws in game.

So get crafting!

Fine print:
In the event of a tie, whoever has the smallest number contributing towards their score (i.e. whoever has the highest individual ranking in the filtered lists) wins. If this is tied, their next highest ranks are considered; if these are tied then the third ranking will inevitably also be tied, so the players in this deadlock will then be re-scored based on a new filtered list consisting of *only them*. If there are still any ties remaining, the entire scoring process will be repeated the following day (based on everyone that is ultimate in all three puzzles, although only those that were tied the previous day can win), and if necessary each day after that until the deadlock is broken. Secondary prizes will then be awarded based on the scores from the original scoring day.

If there is only one pirate on all three ultimate lists on the day of scoring, they will win the grand prize, but no secondary prizes will be awarded. This might seem unfair, but if we were to then award secondary prizes to the players that were simply at the top of each list, it would encourage specialists in each puzzle to compete, thus making it harder for anyone to reach ultimate in all three.

In the event that no-one qualifies at all by being ultimate in all three crafting puzzles, scoring will be recalculated each day afterwards until someone qualifies.

While we cannot prevent your alts from appearing in the ultimate lists, their use for gain in this competition is discouraged. Prizes are restricted to one per player, based on the scores of one pirate - so if you win multiple prizes with multiple alts you must chose which alt you wish to actually count by sending me a PM with that information.

Thanks to British Sea Power, Looterati, Artemis and Demeter for helping me develop the idea and also helping out with the prizes!

Scoring example:
Suppose on the final day the ultimate lists look like this:

Distilling    Alchemistry    Shipwrightery
1 - Alice     1 - Edna       1 - Harry
2 - Bob       2 - Fred       2 - Bob
3 - Charlie   3 - Charlie    3 - Edna
4 - Dave      4 - Alice      4 - Alice
5 - Edna      5 - George     5 - John
              6 - Ingrid     6 - Charlie
              7 - Kate

We remove from the lists everyone that isn't in all three:

Distilling    Alchemistry    Shipwrightery
1 - Alice     1 - Edna       1 - 
2 -           2 -            2 - 
3 - Charlie   3 - Charlie    3 - Enda
4 -           4 - Alice      4 - Alice
5 - Edna      5 -            5 - 
              6 -            6 - Charlie
              7 -

We then create new lists using only those that are left:

Distilling    Alchemistry    Shipwrightery
1 - Alice     1 - Edna       1 - Edna
2 - Charlie   2 - Charlie    2 - Alice
3 - Edna      3 - Alice      3 - Charlie

Finally, we add each pirates' ranks to obtain the scores:

Alice scores 1 + 3 + 2 = 6
Charlie scores 2 + 2 + 3 = 7
Edna scores 3 + 1 + 1 = 5

In this example, Edna scored the lowest and is thus the winner! Alice would win the
secondary prize for Distilling being the highest all-ultimate in that; Charlie would win
the secondary prize for Alchemistry being the highest all-ultimate barring Edna in that;
and similarly Alice would win the secondary prize for Shipwrightery.
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 1, 2005 4:22:32 AM]

[Oct 1, 2005 4:11:28 AM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

The ranks of the all-ultimate artisans as of October 1st are as follows:

Name       Distilling  Alchemistry  Shipwrightery 
Rocketboy  3           24           19
Janthina   37          3            41
Argos      18          30           43

This means that the current scores look like this:

Name       Distilling  Alchemistry  Shipwrightery  Total
Rocketboy  1           2            1              4
Janthina   3           1            2              6
Argos      2           3            3              8

Rocketboy is in the lead!

Remember that anyone that has not done a puzzle in the last 10 days will become dormant in that puzzle and no longer appear on the list - so it is entirely possible (and likely) that new people will appear high up the lists seemingly from out of nowhere. Beware!
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 1, 2005 5:30:55 AM]

[Oct 1, 2005 4:17:29 AM]

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Vurogj

Joined: Jul 28, 2003
Posts: 2233
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

The scoring example and the current score appear contradictory. It looks like ye have missed the "We then create new lists using only those that are left:" stage. Argos is 43rd in Shipwrightery, they are presumably not 43rd in all shipwrights who are ultimate in all three.

Sorry if I've misread, can we get clarification?

EDIT : Oh, and while I think o' it, the runnin' scores are jes' fer fun, aye? The only score that counts is the October 16th one?
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Older, crankier,
still haz da phat haiku skillz.
Tawnee on Midnight.
Avatar from roflrazzi.com
Apollo says, "Tawnee, I should have known you were involved."
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Vurogj at Oct 1, 2005 5:19:32 AM]

[Oct 1, 2005 5:17:44 AM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Yikes! Very good point. I got caught half-way between wanting to show the current scores, and also giving the actual placing information as well, for reference. I'll correct that.

And to confirm: yes, only the scores on October the 16th actually count. The scores that are posted on the days leading up to it are just for fun, and to give people an idea of where they and the competition stand.
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 1, 2005 5:31:35 AM]

[Oct 1, 2005 5:26:16 AM]

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Rockitboy

Joined: Jul 5, 2005
Posts: 696
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Oh wow. Cool. You were right. I had no idea the contest was even going on. LOL. I guess I should refresh my labors. Awesome idea. Got any pics of the sloop? I wanted to remodel one to look like a distil and rename it Hillbilly Moonshine (tm). I did something similar to the IM bazaar on Heph. That one came out lovely :)
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Rocketboy
Cursed Isles, ridding the ocean of poor BNAV one ship at a time.

[Oct 5, 2005 6:01:37 AM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Heh, nice to see the current leader knows about it! Here's the furniture on the sloop itself: shipwrightery, alchemistry, distilling.

For various reasons it's become easier for me to find out the scores each day. I'll still only post the scores on the dates specified (today, the 10th, 13th, 14th, 15th and of course the real scoring on the 16th), but I've also been collecting the scores on the individual days in the meantime. This should help people get an idea of how things can change in 24 hours!

Here's the summary of the results from the first six days. D' is the ranking from the unfiltered distilling list, and D is the ranking from the filtered list; similarly A for alchemistry, S for shipwrightery, and T for the total.

date    Name        D'  A'  S'  T'  D   A   S   T  

1       Rocketboy   03  24  19  46  1   2   1   4
        Janthina    37  03  41  81  3   1   2   6
        Argos       18  30  43  91  2   3   3   8

2       Rocketboy   03  23  19  45  2   1   2   5
        Janthina    37  03  42  82  3   2   1   6
        Piplicus    16  33  07  56  1   3   3   7

3       Rocketboy   03  25  19  47  1   1   2   4
        Piplicus    16  35  06  57  2   2   1   5

4       Rocketboy   03  24  18  45  1   1   1   3 

5       Rocketboy   03  20  16  39  1   2   1   4
        Janthina    36  03  43  82  2   1   2   5

6       Rocketboy   03  19  19  41  1   2   2   5
        Piplicus    17  33  08  58  2   4   1   7
        Janthina    40  03  45  88  4   1   4   9
        Argos       19  32  34  85  3   3   3   9

As you can see, Rocketboy has maintained the lead throughout! Can he continue right through to the actual scoring day? Will any new artisans suddenly reactivate their rating and leap into the fray? Stay tuned to find out!
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.

[Oct 6, 2005 4:27:47 AM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Edited to reflect proper application of rules for ties!(see posts below)

Alas, I've been away these last few days and unable to take note of the scores. I should be able to get all of them leading up to the actual scoring day, though. As before, scores are still only posted on the announced dates.

The situation as of the 10th looks like this:

Name        D'  A'  S'  T'  D   A   S   T  
Clawsofdoom 21  05  05  31  4   1   1   6
Rocketboy   03  20  20  43  1   2   3   6
Piplicus    17  27  08  52  2   3   2   7
Argos       19  33  34  86  3   4   4  11

Clawsofdoom enters the running - and takes the lead! Note that with a tied score of 6, we need to bring in the fine print rules. Specifically, we check which of Rocketboy and Clawsofdoom has the lowest number contributing to their total from the filtered list. In both cases this is 1, so we move on to see who has the lowest number contributing from the remaining puzzles: this is Clawsofdoom with another 1 (versus Rocketboy's 2).

Meanwhile, a study of the eleven pirates that only appear on two of the crafting ultimate lists shows that just one (Janthina) is technically ultimate in the third but has become inactive in the puzzle. Interestingly, of those eleven, nine are being denied the full-ultimate sweep by distilling, two by alchemistry, and none by shipwrightery. Don't forget, though, that there could well be many other pirates sitting out there with full ultimates, none of which happen to be activated. Anything could happen in the next six days!
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 12, 2005 2:23:26 PM]

[Oct 10, 2005 5:26:00 PM]

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AquaDrake

Joined: Apr 19, 2004
Posts: 1913
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Name        D'  A'  S'  T'  D   A   S   T  
Rocketboy   03  20  20  43  1   2   3   6
Clawsofdoom 21  05  05  31  4   1   1   6
Piplicus    17  27  08  52  2   3   2   7
Argos       19  33  34  86  3   4   4  11

Clawsofdoom enters the running! Note that with a tied score of 6, we need to bring in the fine print rules. Specifically, we check which of Rocketboy and Clawsofdoom has the lowest number contributing to their total from the filtered list. In both cases this is 1, so we move on to see who has the next lowest: this is Rocketboy, with 2. Thus Rocketboy again wins the day!

Ick! You mean that having two first place finishes hurts Claws? Sure, you cross off a "1" from both, but Claws has a second "1", while Rocketboy does not.

Sheesh, do you realize how hard this will be to qualify for when a 4th puzzle comes out?
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Maybe "historical" dragons were pterosaurs?
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090107-pterosaur-flight.html

"No plain fanfold paper could hold that fractal Puff --
He grew so fast no plotting pack could shrink him far enough.&quot

[Oct 12, 2005 1:08:51 PM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

AquaDrake wrote:

Ick! You mean that having two first place finishes hurts Claws? Sure, you cross off a "1" from both, but Claws has a second "1", while Rocketboy does not.

Ah-ha, you are absolutely correct! As my fine print clearly states, we consider each of the tied players' lowest number (1 in both cases), and upon that being tied we consider their next lowest, which is of course 1 for Clawsofdoom and 2 for Rocketboy. I'll edit the post to reflect that. (I sure am glad I'm running this small-scale version of the event before trying it with more at stake...)

AquaDrake wrote:

Sheesh, do you realize how hard this will be to qualify for when a 4th puzzle comes out?

Indeed I do. In fact, using the ongoing data from this competition I'm testing out reasonable methods of scoring people that aren't ultimate in all puzzles being considered - it turns out to be a lot easier to do than I imagined it might be. For the current three crafting puzzles, though, I think the all-ultimate requirement is almost ideally challenging.
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.

[Oct 12, 2005 2:18:52 PM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
Status: Offline

Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Updated scores for the 11th-14th:

date    Name        D'  A'  S'  T'  D   A   S   T
11th    Clawsofdoom 22  05  06  33  4   1   1   6
        Rocketboy   03  21  21  45  1   2   3   6
        Piplicus    17  23  08  48  2   3   2   7
        Argos       20  33  34  87  3   4   4   11

12th    Clawsofdoom 22  08  03  33  4   1   1   6
        Rocketboy   03  22  21  46  1   2   3   6
        Piplicus    17  25  05  47  2   3   2   7
        Argos       20  37  33  90  3   4   4   11

13th    Clawsofdoom 23  08  03  34  4   1   1   6
        Rocketboy   03  16  21  40  1   2   3   6
        Piplicus    18  24  08  50  2   3   2   7
        Argos       21  36  36  93  3   4   4   11

14th    Shuranthae  06  04  04  14  2   1   2   5
        Clawsofdoom 20  08  03  31  5   2   1   8
        Rocketboy   03  14  22  39  1   3   4   8
        Piplicus    16  20  09  45  3   4   3   10
        Argos       19  34  37  90  4   5   5   14

15th    Shuranthae  05  04  05  14  2   1   2   5
        Clawsofdoom 17  08  04  29  5   2   1   8
        Rocketboy   03  11  21  36  1   3   4   8
        Piplicus    14  21  10  45  3   4   3   10
        Argos       16  34  38  88  4   5   5   14

(To prevent silly thread bumpage I'll just edit this post to update it with the scores of the remaining few days, with a new post for the final actually-counting scores).
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 2 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 15, 2005 6:04:08 AM]

[Oct 13, 2005 8:38:05 AM]

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millroy

Joined: Sep 1, 2004
Posts: 146
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Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Hah, I'm in here.
Man, so depressing to be last >_<
Don't like shipwrighting much, so that's not so bad, but the alchemistry and distilling are hard to go up in.
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Argos

[Oct 14, 2005 5:17:21 AM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
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Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Shouldn't really be that depressing, since it's proved to be pretty tough to even make it onto this list!

Now, the results are in, and the winner is... Shuranthae!

date    Name        D'  A'  S'  T'  D   A   S   T
16th    Shuranthae  06  04  04  14  2   1   1   4
        Rocketboy   03  11  22  36  1   2   3   6
        Piplicus    15  22  05  42  3   3   2   8
        Argos       17  35  38  90  4   4   4   12

An extremely impressive set of rankings earns him the 'Crafty Win' sloop. The runners up prizes of furniture sets go to Rocketboy (Distilling and Alchemistry) and Piplicus (Shipwrightery). I will try to track the winners down to award the prizes, if this proves difficult feel free to PM me to arrange a mutually suitable time.

Comiserations to Clawsofdoom, who unexpectedly dropped off the distilling list (presumably due to not playing the puzzle), despite having impressive ranks in the other two crafting puzzles.

Thanks to all that took part - I hope you enjoyed it, it was certainly a very interesting event for me to observe and score! If anyone has any feedback on this style of event, be sure to post it here or PM me since I hope to run some more in the same style.
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by ruby_spoon at Oct 17, 2005 2:29:45 AM]

[Oct 16, 2005 3:17:15 PM]

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Piplicus_BNO

Joined: Aug 17, 2004
Posts: 7311
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Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Congratulations on thinking up this event. It's certainly been one of the best I've entered. It makes you manage your puzzling and focus on certain aspects of the game, which is very good for your puzzling skills. The power for teamwork is also there, as well as competitors holding an element of power. Well done.

EDIT: You seem to have mixed up Shuranthae's and Rocketboy's distillery and alchemistry filtered rankings.
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What Pip tried to do was something totally unprecedent. He, in some strange way, used Midnight as a test server, without him even knowing. [Crap, it sucks I was not online when he did that :'(... pfft, anyways]

Like a bad penny.
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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Piplicus_BNO at Oct 16, 2005 10:07:57 PM]

[Oct 16, 2005 10:05:55 PM]

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ruby_spoon

Joined: Aug 20, 2003
Posts: 466
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Re: [Midnight] Crafting competition: the ultimate artisan contest!

Thanks! It's clearer than ever, now, that I need to improve my Excel algorithm. Currently it automates most of the tricky stuff and then I do a few parts manually. The manual bit is where the mistakes come in, of course. Despite checking it extra carefully on the scoring day one thing still slipped through, as you caught, but the prizes are still correctly awarded.

*gets started on mark II*
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Rubyspoon: [Midnight] BSP, Looterati; [Viridian] OD, Morrowind.

[Oct 17, 2005 2:35:35 AM]

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