req.co.uk Codex newsletter #89

posted by Breadmower on Sun 29th Jun, 08 at 23:29:28

What's this newsletter all about then?

Welcome to the Codex newsletter, where we bring you up to speed with what's going on at the site and - more importantly - let you know the results of the weekly leaderboard, and what accolades have been awarded to the movers and shakers this week.

Bored of this waffle already? If you're receiving it by email, then you can unsubscribe by going to the blog and clicking "unsubscribe from this blog"...

In this issue

• (Mis)adventures in Time
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving

(Mis)adventures in Time

Seems that someone's tried to hide us by putting us all an hour out of sync with the rest of the universe. No, wait, it's just that the server time is out again for some reason. Thanks to Bunnery for spotting that - I'll get it fixed in the morning.

Quick update update: hey, I did some rather cool backend updates over the course of the week, and have got some more planned for the coming week. If it goes to plan, I'll fill you in with a few details in the next newsletter.

Leaderboard update

When the leaderboard closed for the week, here's how things looked (rank - user - average guesses):

1st - DOM - 4.89 (19 games)
2nd - Bunnery - 5.22 (37 games)
3rd - sharon - 5.57 (60 games)
xx - Breadmower - 6.0 (1 game)
4th - Smonkey - 7.74 (31 games)

Total games played: 158

See the full leaderboard, along with a trend graph for the top five players on the statistics page.

Prizegiving

This week:

• The Secret Admirers award (for receiving the most challenges) goes to DOM, who was challenged 59 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to sharon, who sent 55 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to sharon, who played solo 27 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to sharon, whose codes took an average of 6.17 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to Smonkey, whose codes took only 4.86 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to Smonkey, who completed a game in 9 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 23:59:54 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to DOM, who decreased their average by 0.34
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Breadmower, whose average increased by 0.56
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Smonkey, who took an average of 7.74 guesses to break codes
• The Bletchley award (for top codebreaker) is this week awarded to DOM, whose average number of guesses to break codes was 4.89 over 19 games

So, five players on the board this time, one frozen out (but then, they only did play the one game). DOM finished up at the top with a final score of 4.89 over 19 games, winning this week's Bletchley award - nice work :-) In addition, he also received the most games (59), winning the Secret Admirers award. He was also responsible for the slowest game of the week (1 day 23:59:54), winning Deep Thought, and improved the most (by 0.34), winning Upgrade. Seemingly, that wasn't enough, as he also won an Optimal Algorithm award for finding a code with one guess.

Sharon and Smonkey won three awards each: Open Relay (sent 55 games), Turing (played 27 solo games) and Enigma (set codes that took an average of 6.17 guesses to find) for Sharon; Plaintext (codes took 4.86 guesses to find on average), Quick Thinking (finished a game in 9 seconds) and Brute Force (final score of 7.74 over 31 games) for Smonkey. Finally, Breadmower managed to disimprove the most (by 0.56) and wins this week's Downgrade award.

Congratulations to everyone who won an award - they'll now be visible on your personal statistics pages so that the rest of us can marvel at your skills.

Got a suggestion for a new award? Think I used the word "also" too much? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Until next week...

That's it for this newsletter, thanks for reading. Want to make a comment or suggestion? Leave a comment on the blog.

Remember, you've got under seven days to make your mark on this week's leaderboard... get to it!

Have fun,

Breadmower and the rest of team req.co.uk