req.co.uk Codex newsletter #90

posted by Breadmower on Sun 6th Jul, 08 at 09:11:17

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

• Update schedule
  
• Leaderboard update
• Prizegiving
• Predictions

Update schedule

There's going to be a little change to the schedule for the big update. Now, don't panic - it's sort of a good thing. Without wanting to sound too vague (as I get paranoid about the net knowing too much about what I'm up to), I'm going to have a lot less spare time to do development during the day, but am going to have a lot more spare time to do development during the evening. What does this all mean? Well, hopefully it means that I should be able to get in a few evenings of req.co.uk development each week, which'll let me catch back up to where I want everything to be. The bad news is that because of needing to do some prep for all of this, I haven't got quite as much done this week as I wanted to.

However, I did promise you an update, and there has been one: this week, I've done quite a bit of work on the awards system. It's nothing that you'll see right now (as it's all behind the scenes), but it means that it'll be a lot easier for me to add in new awards (and to be announced "award-like things"), which is part of the revitalisation plan. I suppose I could've called it the "regeneration plan" as a Doctor Who reference, but I didn't have any follow-up puns handy. Mmmm? Handy? Like a hand? Sorry, that's the best I can do at this time in the morning.

Leaderboard update

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

1st - DOM - 4.81 (52 games)
2nd - sharon - 5.1 (51 games)
xx - Bunnery - 5.3 (47 games)

Total games played: 155

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 57 times
• The Open Relay award (for sending the most challenges) goes to DOM, who sent 60 challenges
• The Turing award (for the most solo games played) goes to Bunnery, who played solo 24 times
• The Enigma award (for sending the hardest codes) is awarded to Smonkey, whose codes took an average of 5.29 guesses to break
• The Plaintext award (for sending the easiest codes) is given to sharon, whose codes took only 4.86 guesses to break on average
• The Quick Thinking award (for the fastest game) goes to sharon, who completed a game in 17 seconds
• The Deep Thought award (for the slowest game) goes to DOM, who took 1 day 22:41:03 to finish one game
• The Upgrade award (for most improved average) goes to sharon, who decreased their average by 0.47
• The Downgrade award (for most worsened average) is given to Bunnery, whose average increased by 0.08
• The Brute Force award (for the highest average) goes to Sharon, who took an average of 5.1 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 4.81 over 52 games

Yeees, well... just a bit quiet this week: three players on the board, one of whom was frozen out. I'll keep things simple, and just go through everyone in turn...

First up is DOM: he finished up at the top of the board with a final score of 4.81 over 52 games. OK, so we know that earns him this week's Bletchley award, but what else did he win for himself? Looks like he sent the most games (60, winning Open Relay), received the most games (57, winning Secret Admirers) and played the slowest game (took 1 day 22:41:03 to finish, winning Deep Thought). Nice work, DOM.

Next we have Sharon: she finished with 5.1 over 51 games. On the way, she picked up Turing (played 11 solo games), Plaintext (set codes that took 4.86 guesses to find on average), Quick Thinking (completed a game in 17 seconds), Upgrade (improved by 0.47), and (due to Bunnery being frozen out) she also won Brute Force (for the highest average).

On the subject of Bunnery, she won the Downgrade award (for disimproving by 0.08). Finally, Smonkey (whilst not being on the leaderboard) won the Enigma award (for setting codes that took an average of 5.29 guesses to find).

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? Let us know - leave a comment on the blog.

See the full award details on the statistics page.

Predictions

Don't get too excited - this isn't quite the return of Bunnery Vs Bin1, but it is a bit of news. I had a chat with Bin1 earlier in the week, and it turns out that he's just been internet-less for a while, which is why he's been so quiet. I think he said that he was moving house this week, so hopefully that means that he'll get hooked up again soon, and we'll start seeing him again.

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

Just to explain: the Doctor Who reference won't make any sense if you've only seen Original Doctor Who. If you've seen New Doctor Who, then you'll understand, but it won't make the pun any less pathetic.