Re: Request for a Jasmer x Size challenge checker

Hi again. I REALLY over-simplified what this request is by calling it a Jasmer x Size challenge so let me explain what I'm trying to accomplish here. I pre-apologize for how long-winded my explanation is going to be.

I'm planning to put together a series of 4 challenges, all inspired by GC8FAFD (or GC8G04H, it's the same challenge, just cloned elsewhere, I think). Hopefully the checker for GC8FAFD is generic enough that it can be easily reused for my 4 challenges (fingers crossed). I especially like how the output grid for GC8FAFD and GC8G04H looks. Right now I only qualify for one of my 4 challenges but I have set up GC codes for all 4 already. I'm working on completing the other 3 soon. If you want to create all 4 checkers at the same time (or make a generic checker that can be adapted to all 4 challenges), I can give you all the other GC codes I've already set up. Obviously I won't publish any of these unless I qualify for each of the challenges.

My inspiration GC8FAFD is a challenge based on finding 250 different D/T/T combinations. D/T/T meaning difficulty/terrain/cache type. To start with, I'd like to replicate/clone this challenge for my local area. It appears that GC8FAFD is based on (at least?) 15 different cache types but I'd like to confirm that. For my challenge, I'd like all cache types except for benchmarks and adventure lab caches to be allowed. I'd also like to make sure a person's own caches can not be used for the challenge, because in the past people were able to sign their own caches. This is the first challenge I would like to create.

Next, building on that concept, I'd like to set up a similar challenge based on finding 250 different D/T/S combinations. The S stands for cache size or what GC calls container size/type. eg. D2.5/T1.5/micro would be one such combo. Again, all cache types except for benchmarks and adventure lab caches could be used for this challenge but a person's own caches can not be. I'm hoping this would be an easy change to make from the 1st challenge and the output grid would look similar to that first challenge.

Of course, after I came up with that, I came up with 2 other ideas in the same vein, but hopefully not too far off. I would like to create 2 more challenges based on the hidden year/hidden month (similar to the Jasmer) with the added dimensions of (again), cache type and container size. In other words, my challenge 3 is based on hidden yyyy/hidden mmm/cache type and #4 is hidden yyyy/hidden mmm/cache size. However the number required for these 2 challenges is 500, instead of 250 though. For whatever reason, it appears these combos are easier to get/find than the D/T ones hence why the higher requirement. Again a person's own caches could not be used for either one of the these 2 challenges. However in addition to the benchmarks and adventure lab caches not being allowed for these 2 challenges, all event types (regular, CITO, mega, giga, HQ block party, HQ celebration, lost and found/community celebrations) are also not allowed either. This is for fairness; past events seem to offer an unfair advantage to existing cachers since new cachers can't go back in time to attend archived events so excluding events attempts to level this playing field. For these 2 hidden date challenges, I was thinking the output grid would have the 12 months running across the top and all the years along the side so that it can dynamically grow. In theory, this challenge gets easier to complete each year with more caches being published.

So that's the gist of my 4 different challenges. Clear as mud, I hope? ;-) Hopefully it's possible to create checker(s) for them or ideally one generic checker that accepts the different parameters/criteria for the 4. Right now, I believe I only qualify for hidden yyyy/hidden mmm/cache size challenge so far, so I have have created GC9D25D for it. If you want to create the rest of the checkers all at the same time, I can also give you the other GC codes for the other 3 challenges.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I should add these 4 challenges have been pre-approved by my local reviewers so hopefully there's no other issues or concerns there.

Thank you very much for putting up with me and reading through this never-ending backstory and explanation and creating these checkers.

GC8FAFD is a generic script for D/T/Type matrix
The types (19) allowed in the script are "Traditional Cache", "Unknown Cache", "Multi-cache", "Event Cache", "Earthcache", "Letterbox Hybrid", "Cache In Trash Out Event", "Virtual Cache", "Wherigo Cache", "Webcam Cache", "Lost and Found Event Cache", "Locationless (Reverse) Cache", "Mega-Event Cache", "GPS Adventures Exhibit", "Project APE Cache", "Groundspeak Block Party", "Giga-Event Cache", "Groundspeak HQ", "Groundspeak Lost and Found Celebration"

Your other requests need new scripts unless for the d/t size request you take an other approach like GC998GX

That's great news if GC8FAFD accepts all those cache types then. As far as I can tell, the only ones missing are adventure labs and benchmarks which is perfect for me. Is there a way to modify that script to not count a cachers' own caches that they've logged? If so, please associate/apply that new script to GC8ZZVH and that one is good to go, except of course that I don't qualify for it yet. :-(

I reviewed the GC998GX challenge and I'm a little confused. It's an interesting challenge for sure and kind of in the same vein as my idea but is your recommendation to have my challenge mirror that one or something similar? Or that the output of the checker for my D/T/S challenge should look like it instead of the large grid in GC8FAFD? Is it possible to modify the GC998GX checker then to count all the cache sizes (ie include the missing 2) and sum all the numbers up instead of using percentages? And the output would be 7 different grids instead of the big grid of GC8FAFD? If that's possible, and easier for the checker writer(s), I think I could be ok with that.

However, if new scripts need to be written for the 2 hidden yyyy/mmm/(T or S) challenges, would they be written to output a grid like GC8FAFD or GC998GX? My preference would be to have them look like GC8FAFD if possible. If that's the case, would it make more sense for all 4 of the challenges to have the same consistent output look then? Or would be easier to have multiple grids output like GC998GX for each year, size, or type?

Is it possible to make the script for GC8FAFD generic enough to be modified for the 2 hidden yyyy/mmm/(T or S) challenges, or at least the yyyy/mmm/T challenge? Or maybe the better question should be - can it be made more generic so that it can be modified for the 2 yyyy/mmm/T or S challenges and then maybe the D/T/S one as well? Could it also be configured to accept different parameters then, like - what to use for the x and y axes, what to count, different requirement numbers (eg 250/500/etc) and possible exclusions, like cache types (eg. event caches)? I can see in the future that I may want the same type of challenges but with different requirement numbers (higher or lower) or maybe other people will want to put out similar challenges.

Please let me know what you think and what's possible.

Thank you again for all your help.

Hi there - I'm just following up to see if there's been any progress on the new scripts/checkers or if you need any more information from me.

Please let me know if there are any updates.

Thank you,
sapien.

I hadn't seen this until today, I can start to make a script.
so in summary there is:
difficulty/terrain/type
difficulty/terrain/size
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/size
with no events, labs or owned caches counting

Thank you for replying. Yes, essentially 4 challenges, however the difficulty/terrain/type checker has probably already been written - GC8FAFD or GC8G04H. I suspect it just needs to modified to remove the cacher's own caches however.

The no events restriction is just for the last 2 challenges -
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/size

Other than that, I think that's it. (It's sad it can be boiled down to a few lines, vs all the verbiage I wrote. ;-b LOL)

Thank you, please let me know if you need any more details. I have GCcodes for all 4 challenges if you need them as well. Please let me know.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2021 04:20PM by sapien. (view changes)

Okay, here are the checkers, some with the gc-codes you've already given me - if you could give me the rest that would be great:
difficulty/terrain/type - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC8ZZVH/61844
difficulty/terrain/size - https://project-gc.com/Challenges//61845
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type - https://project-gc.com/Challenges//61842
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/size - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC9D25D/61843

if you click on the icon, there is a link to that cache.

Thank you for the fast turnaround! I thought it would be a lot more work. That's great! And they look like as I imagined. Thank you. And I love that the icons link to the actual qualifying cache too. That's a great "above and beyond" value-add. :-)

As requested, here are the missing GC codes for the other 2 challenges -
difficulty/terrain/size - GC9CEQ0
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type - GC9D25A

Could the qualifying number needed for the 2 difficulty/terrain challenges be changed to 250 from 200? For the 2hiddenyear/hiddenmonth challenges, the number needed should be 500 instead of 200 too. Thanks.

Is it possible to change the column headings for the 2 hiddenyear/hiddenmonth challenges to have the actual month "name" (eg. Jan, Feb,.., Dec) instead of the month "numbers"?

The results from the 3 of checkers match my manually calculated numbers for my profile so they must be working. However, the only one that doesn't match is hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type. It appears to be missing a couple from my list. Later today, I'll compare and try to figure out the difference and let you know what I find.

Thank you again, DrAcorn.

The tags have all been updated:
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/size - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC9D25D/61843
hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC9D25A/61842
difficulty/terrain/type - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC8ZZVH/61844
difficulty/terrain/size - https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC9CEQ0/61845

and the months have been changed too :)

I'm not sure what changed but the checker for the hiddenyear/hiddenmonth/type challenge suddenty matches the number that I have now so that's good. Thank you.

Unfortunately though, I ran out of "checker run" credits for the day so I can't test anything else for now. I'll follow up in a bit and do some more testing then but I'm pretty optimistic right now. Looks great so far!

Thank you, DrAcorn.

My checker run "count" has reset and I have now tested all 4 of the checkers. Everything looks great and mirrors my own manual calculations so I think they are good to go. Thank you very much. :-) Please close this request as completed.