Quest for Cheese (5K Entry) (in Contests)

I had another idea for another program puzzle. This time, it is not really code-breaking. The input is far more well-defined and it actually has meaning. What that meaning is it is up to you to discover. Anyhow, different inputs will result in different scores. Whoever gets the highest score will win. Since you can run the program yourself, you can try to figure out what determines score and win with that. If interested, send 5K to code and post here. Please note that apparently, gmail accounts (and some other accounts, I suspect) will not allow file attachments, especially those containing exe files. If you had trouble receiving the file for the code contest, you'll have trouble here, too.

You'll need a PC to play.

No refunds will be provided unless the contest does not run.

If interested, send 5K to code. Please post or chatmail or do something if your email address is not public.

Entire pot minus transfer fees will go to the person with the highest score. In the event of a score tie, the person who submitted earlier will win. As with the previous contest, I'll only allow one submission per person. I'll probably post this contest at 10PM, but probably not today.

If you don't have 5K, you're welcome to team up, have one person send the money, and have that person distribute the program. Remember that 5K you earmarked to pay for tat-loaning? Well, now perhaps you aren't so interested in tat-loaning and can spend it here instead. Come on!

Ok I'm in. C'mon people!

Sefton (Sefton) 68.93.184.254 private (code) $5000 2:23 AM EST

dai-can (The Charon) 65.35.136.227 private (code) $5000 -- Bew for Contests 2:40 AM EST

Ya know, a lot of people had issues last contest. I think I'll post it online in addition to emailing it. However, I won't post until the contest starts and I won't accept late entries..

Becoming (Becoming) 67.77.58.193 private (code) $5000 -- Quest for Cheese 2:45 AM EST

InSaNiE (InSaNiE) 198.54.202.242 private (code) $5000 3:00 AM EST

[Ankh]The Weasel (Ankh) 203.59.61.165 private (code) $500 -- *carp* 3:24 AM EST

<[Ankh]The_Weasel> Just don't expect me to be happy about losing 5K.
<private> You could win it :)
<private> I'll put in 5K of my own. That way I lose 5K, too.


And he didn't even enter :( Ah well, I put in 5k.

[Ankh]The Weasel (Ankh) 203.59.61.165 private (code) $4500 -- *extra carp* 3:25 AM EST

Hurrah!

^^

Entry!

I'm in

[EG]Raucus (Raucus) 206.80.111.124 private (code) $5000 3:46 AM EST

Sure.. i'm game. I'll probably also run one of these myself (not exactly like privates, but code-breaking type) sometime soon (ie, when I have a spare day or 3) :)

I'm in, 5k sent

i'm wondering if i can post an e-mail for you to use instead of the e-mail that i use for cb1 or cb2 so i'll get the program if so count me in i'll wait to send the money if this is allowed :D

fine with me

Kira Beth (Kira_Beth) 4.158.129.204 private (code) $5000 5:42 PM EST


please send e-mail to: kira_b3th-cb@yahoo.com

thanks :D

Quest... for cheese?

Okay, ya found me.

I finally finished the program. I ended up spending at least 3 hours on it. It might have bugs that allow you to earn lots and lots of points or something but hopefully not. In the event of a serious bug, I reserve the right to fix the program and use the fixed program to evaluate the inputs. In the event of a tie, the earliest sent input will win.

I will allow up to 5 submissions for this contest and will only look at the most recent submission (or the 5th one if you submit more than 5 submissions). Note that the only tokens the program can understand are the following letters: q,w,a,s. If the program does not understand a letter, it will substitute a q. There are no special tricks involving using letters other than qwas. Any input after whitespace will be ignored, unless you find the cheese. The program will indicate if this happens.

If you find the fox's shortcut, you can name that input file whatever you want. Other inputs should be named input.txt. Your submission will only have two files, or one if you did not find the fox's shortcut. And it will be sent to reefpip@chewplastic.com

You can earn points for exploring, finding the cheese, bringing the cheese home, and for finding the fox's shortcut. You lose points for having longer inputs. If you do not find the cheese, the program prints out a big string of garbage. If you figure out what the garbage means, it will make this entire puzzle trivial to solve. Note that the garbage is random...but not completely random. Also note that you cannot earn points after finding the cheese unless you bring the cheese home, in which case any points earned between finding the cheese and bringing it home will be added.

I'll be emailing out this contest at 10PM. It is not too late to enter. I'll also provide a download link for it.

Contest is no longer open to entries. I have chatmailed all entrants with more information.

Contest ends at 10PM on Sunday. I will not accept any submissions after that.

Some tips:
Sometimes I might edit posts to add more info.

If you talk to me in PM, you might be able to understand the problem better. I've decided that unlike last time, I'm not going to post just because I give out pm help. I doubt I'll give much away, but it's possible.

The fox's shortcut is pretty much impossible to find by luck. In order to find it, you will need to cheat. Which is a pretty meaningless thing to do unless you understand the puzzle.

Despite being warned that it was not helpful information, kira_beth paid 10K to find out why I used qwas. So, that's 10K more for the pot. I also told Max (for free). If you feel like wasting 10K on useless information, feel free to send 10K to code (it goes to the pot) and I'll provide the info. People who are not participants may pay for it as well though I can't imagine they'd care.

I'll tell if you put 5k into the pot and post your transfer log :)

I firmly believe that anyone who takes the time to chat with me about the contest deserves an advantage.

but... that doesn't mean you will help anyone :p (as i have figured out...) i mean good luck everyone ;)

Tip: If you are getting less points in the fixed version (I chatmailed all participants and updated the link), it is because the broken version was ignoring some of your inputs. As with before, the program will read from a file named input.txt. If there isn't one, it will just act as though it read an empty input.txt file. The highest score in the old version was 5900 or so. Anyhow, just delete individual inputs one by one, putting them back in if your score drops. Note that this process should be done with the old version to produce a new input for the new version. If you do this right, it will always result in an input that gives you as many points (or a bit more) in the new version as you earned in the old version.

5900 was the highest theoretical score or the highest score someone turned in (in the old version)?

5900 was the highest score anyone turned in. I would think you'd realize this since you're the one who did it.

ok great so what's the highest score for the new one?

Higher

Kira Beth wins with 7685 points. The string of text at the end was a 31x31 maze without line breaks. The case of a letter indicated if it was a wall or not. The case of a space was changed in the output if a particular piece of the maze had been traversed at least once. You earned explorer points each time you travelled to a new space. Your other points were with the formula 5000-(x+y)^2 with x and y being distances from the cheese. If you found the cheese, you earned 10,000 points. Visiting every square earned points as well. So did going home after finding the cheese. The solution to the fox's shortcut was supposed to be to go outside the maze and get to the solution but I messed up (and chose not to fix it) so all you needed to do was exit the maze and be luck.

And Bolfen: there were more than 50 inputs in the solution. You told me you thought 50 was enough for your algorithm :P

Gah! Nice. I want another game. I want another game!

Clever...guess I should have looked more at the number 961.

Hmm...even knowing the maze, I'm still not finding the cheese :P

Congrats KiraBeth

w=up, a=left, s=down, d=right. Just like the classics. And um, it recognizes anything other than was as right. ;)

Actually, private, that was just in my circle search.  My pathfinder had no limit.  But the best it found was 

aaaaawwqqqqqaawwaawwqqwwaqwwaaaaaqwwwwqqwwaaww

Using your map, I guessed that the solution should be:
aaaaaawwwwwwwaaaaaawwwwwwqqqqqqwwwwaawwwwaaaaaawwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwa

But I'm still not getting it.

d? ;)

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lol all i gotta say