Re: Multiple "Ultimate" Checker Requests

Hello!

I am creating a series of 6 "Ultimate" challenges, each focusing on a specific cache type. Each of the 6 challenges are very similar to each other. I don't know exactly how challenge checkers are written, but my assumption is these would all be very similar checkers, with only minor tweaks between them. For that reason, I am putting them all on one request. If I should do separate requests, please let me know and I will be happy to delete this post and post 6 separate ones...

I will list the challenges below and the specifics for each, but they all have the same "basic" requirements and the only thing that will change will be the actual numbers and the cache types. I will go into a little detail here on the challenge requirements:

Find X# of [Insert cache type] caches - Just a total count for the requested type
Find X# of [Insert cache type] caches in one state or state equivalent (Can be any state. Does not matter)
Find X# of [Insert cache type] caches in a second state or state equivalent (Can be any other state but the one used for the previous requirement
Find a [Insert cache type] cache in 10 different states (Or state equivalents) - Can include the 2 states used in the previous requirements
Find a [Insert cache type] cache each month of the year - As per challenge requirements, year doesn't matter. Just count to verify one found each month of the year
Find a [Insert cache type] cache hidden each month of the year - Same as previous, but based on month hidden
Find a [insert cache type] cache each day of the week - Again, years/months don't matter. Just Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.
Find [insert cache type] caches in X# different counties (Or county equivalent): Just a total count of counties
Find X# different D/T combinations - for the given type, find any D/T combinations that total the amount listed.
Find X# favorite points - Find caches of the type where the total favorite points (Across all finds) meets or exceeds the amount listed.

Note that each of these requirements are independent and using a cache for one requirement in no way makes it ineligible for another type (With the exception of the "first and second state" requirement. So, you can find a cache that was hidden on June 1st, found on Tuesday, August 15, and you would take care of three separate requirements.

Because I don't know how challenge checkers are constructed, please let me know if anything here is problematic or time-consuming to create. The last thing I want to do is create some crazy workload for the people that create these!

Here are the GC codes and specific requirements for the caches...

GCAGWY1 - GCCS - The Ultimate Letterbox Challenge!
Find at least 200 total Letterbox Hybrid caches
Find 75 Letterbox Hybrid caches in any one state
Find 25 Letterbox Hybrid caches in any second state
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache each month of the year
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache hidden each month of the year
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache each day of the week
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches in 35 different counties
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches totaling at least 750 favorite points

GCAGWXZ - GCCS - The Ultimate Multi-Cache Challenge!
Find at least 400 total Multi-caches
Find 100 Multi-caches in any one state
Find 35 Multi-caches in any second state
Find a Multi-cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find a Multi-cache each month of the year
Find a Multi-cache hidden each month of the year
Find 2 Mulit-caches each day of the week
Find Multi-caches in 50 different counties
Find Multi-caches with a total of at least 35 different D/T combinations
Find Multi-caches totaling at least 1,500 favorite points

GCAGWY6 - GCCS - The Ultimate Earthcache Challenge!
Find at least 250 total Earthcaches
Find 75 Earthcaches in any one state
Find 25 Earthcaches in any second state
Find an Earthcache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find an Earthcache each month of the year
Find an Earthcache hidden each month of the year
Find an Earthcache each day of the week
Find Earthcaches in 35 different counties
Find Earthcaches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations
Find Earthcaches totaling at least 1,500 favorite points

GCAGWY4 - GCCS - The Ultimate Virtual Challenge!
Find at least 175 total Virtual caches
Find 75 Virtual caches in any one state
Find 25 Virtual caches in any second state
Find a Virtual cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find a Virtual cache each month of the year
Find a Virtual cache hidden each month of the year
Find a Virtual cache each day of the week
Find Virtual caches in 50 different counties
Find Virtual caches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations
Find Wherigos totaling at least 2,500 favorite points

GCAGWXY - GCCS - The Ultimate Mystery Challenge!
Find at least 1,000 total Mystery caches
Find 300 Mystery caches in any one state
Find 75 Mystery caches in any second state
Find a Mystery cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find a Mystery cache each month of the year
Find a Mystery cache hidden each month of the year
Find a Mystery cache each day of the week
Find Mystery caches in 100 different counties
Find Mystery caches with a total of at least 35 different D/T combinations
Find Mystery caches totaling at least 2,500 favorite points

GCAGWY2 - GCCS - The Ultimate Wherigo Challenge!
Find at least 200 total Wherigo caches
Find 75 Wherigo caches in any one state
Find 25 Wherigo caches in any second state
Find a Wherigo cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)
Find a Wherigo cache each month of the year
Find a Wherigo cache hidden each month of the year
Find a Wherigo cache each day of the week
Find Wherigo caches in 15 different counties
Find Wherigos with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations
Find Wherigos totaling at least 500 favorite points

Thanks in advance for your help!!

You can use the following:

GCAGWY1: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY1/83341
GCAGWXZ: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWXZ/83342
GCAGWY6: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY6/83343
GCAGWY4: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY4/83344
GCAGWXY: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWXY/83345
GCAGWY2: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346

(Note #1 - for 2 state requirements - it's implemented as two checks: the first checks one region against the higher number, and the second checks you have two with the lower number. ie. If you have one with the higher number, and two with the lower number, the one with the higher number will be included in the lower check. It's done this way to make sure they are distinct regions).

(Note #2 - you didn't explicitly specify if these are for United States only although you used the word "state"... I've not limited them to regions in the US, but I can change that, if you'd like)

Test them out and let us know.

Hi there!

First and foremost, thank you for the quick, hard work!

I've looked them over and they all appear to be working as expected. Overall, things are fine, but I had just a couple of comments. The first comments are just general and apply to all of the checkers. I have a couple of tweaks on two of the checkers that I will list at the end.

GENERAL COMMENTS (Applies to all checkers)

You are right, I use the term "states" (I'm in the US, so that's kind of my default). I'm fine with regions to allow others to qualify that may be visiting...

In the output script, I was wondering if there was any way to improve the output script a bit to make things more clear? For example, when I run https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY1/83341 for myself (GeoMonkeyTiger!) I see the following:

The first line says "User has 663 finds (200 needed) Filters:( types (Letterbox Hybrid) )". This is perfect. I know exactly what this is
The second line says "OK: **Georgia**". Because I'm very familiar with the challenge, I know this is in reference to the
"Find 75 Letterbox Hybrid Caches in any one state" requirement, but there's nothing that tells me that.

I won't repeat every line from the checker, but that's generally the concern I have. It gets particularly confusing around the "Find a cache every month" and the "Find a cache hidden every month" requirements. These look identical in the checker and I assume they are in order of the requirements (So the first is month found, the second is month hidden), but I don't know. I will say if someone fails the checker, it is a little clearer.

Is there any way to improve the script a bit?

Also, I know that people often like to copy and paste the results of the checker with their log. Currently, the script has a lot of information that would not allow that. For "Success" logs, can any of the output be shortened? For example, for the requirement "Find a cache in 35 counties", it lists the counties and then the caches. Can it just say "Find a cache in 35 counties: Complete (75 counties) or something like that? For checker fails, the extra detail is fine, but I just wonder if there's a way to shorten the results on successful checks.

CHECKER SPECIFIC COMMENTS

A couple of the challenges were a little harder than I expected. I qualify, but I had a hard time finding others in the area that did. If you can tweak just a couple of requirements, I think they will allow more people to qualify...

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346: Can you change the following requirements:

Find at least 200 total Wherigo caches - change to 150
Find a Wherigo cache in 10 different states - Change to 5 states
Find a Wherigo cache each day of the week -Remove this requirement

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY6/83343: Can you change the following requirements:

Find at least 250 total Earthcaches: Make this 200
Find 75 Earthcaches in any one state: Make this 50

Thanks again for the help!

I've updated the specific requirements (from the end of your post). The output fixes are going to take some extra time... that particular function I'm using in the multi-checker doesn't have really nice output, because it was adapted from another script. But, maybe it's overdue for a prettifying pass.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2023 09:38PM by bmuzzin. (view changes)

Thank you so much for adjusting the two checkers that I changed the requirements on. They are both working as expected.

All of these checkers are now working as expected, with the only possible changes remaining are to the output scripts (which are correct, just not as easy to read as they could be).

Whatever work you are able to do on this would be greatly appreciated by me, and it sounds like it might have future benefits for the checker community at large. I'm not in a huge rush on these (Well, they technically work fine now)-- I am hoping to publish around mid-December, so if you have any time to improve the output, I don't need anything urgently.

Thank you for your work so far on these checkers. It is greatly appreciated!

(Let's iterate on one of them, and then apply to all the rest, since they all use the same script - I chose the LB one):
https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346

I've made it so you can add "headers", to each of the conditions in the logic table. So the output now at least in the table form is more clear. Can you confirm this suffices? If so, there's then still the matter of cleaning up the log output. That might be possible without modify the script itself (or at least minimally), but I'll look at that tomorrow, assuming the new headers are good.

First of all, your idea of modifying one first is perfect! I like the idea of getting one just like we like it before repeating the steps!

Secondly, WOW! I love the headers! They add exactly the clarity I was looking for and make the checker a lot easier to read! Great work!

The only thing I would change on this checker (if it's possible) is the "Example Log" section. It's not a requirement by any means, but I know a lot of people like to copy and paste this info into the cache log. In the current form, it's just too long. Could the "Example log" be more of a summary? Could it say something similar to what you see in the "Script Output" section?

So, it might read like this:

Find at least 200 Letterbox Hybrids: User has 663 finds (200 needed)
Find at least 75 Letterbox Hybrids in any state (region): User has 500 finds in Georgia
Find at least 25 Letterbox Hybrids in 2 states (regions): User has 500 finds in Georgia, 100 finds in Alabama
Find Letterbox Hybrids in at least 10 states (regions): User has finds in OK: Georgia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Florida, Kansas, South Carolina, Colorado, Alabama, Ohio
Find Letterbox Hybrids every month of the year: PASS
Find Letterbox Hybrids hidden in every month of the year: PASS
Find Letterbox Hybrids hidden on every weekday: PASS
Find Letterbox Hybrids at least 35 counties: I made it with 153 different counties and needed only 35 Filters
Find Letterbox Hybrids in at least 20 DT combinations: I made it with 48 entries of 20 needed
Find Letterbox Hybrids whose favorite points sum 750 or more: have collected 2130 favorite points with 1 found caches.

Would an output for the "Example Log" like that be possible and not a crazy amount of work?

Thanks again for all your help!

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346

Oops... I was editing the Wherigo one and overwrote it with the LB one, so I've put it back, and made that the test case. I've made an additional option so that you can just log the header of the challlenge, and ignore the output from the sub-function... unfortunately, that doesn't capture the specifics. However, since the specifics are shown in the HTML output, maybe that's sufficient? It would be extremely difficult to capture the subfunction specifics (ie. which states/counties) you pass in, and show those succinctly in the log. (Your log output:)

[GeoMonkeyTiger!](https://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=GeoMonkeyTiger!) has used [Project-GC](https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346 "Project-GC Challenge Checker") to see if they qualified for this challenge and they did. 

OK: AND{
OK: Find at least 150 Wherigo Caches
OK: Find at least 75 Wherigo Caches in any state (region)
OK: Find at least 25 Wherigo Caches in 2 states (regions)
OK: Find Wherigo Caches in at least 5 states (regions)
OK: Find Wherigo Caches every month of the year
OK: Find Wherigo Caches hidden in every month of the year
OK: Find Wherigo Caches at least 15 counties
OK: Find Wherigo Caches in at least 20 DT combinations
OK: Find Wherigo Caches whose favorite points sum 500 or more
}

This looks great! Thank you so much for the changes!

You can make the same changes to all the checkers. Please let me know when that is complete.

Thanks again!

Okay, I've updated all of them. Please double check I've done all the types and numbers correctly.

Hi there!

I have looked at all the checkers and everything is working as expected!

Thanks so much for all the extra work you did to make these look really great!

OK, I don't know if this is the correct way to do this, but I need to make some changes on these checkers.

I don't know anything about the checker creation/modification process, but I assume that there is efficiency in handling multiple, similar requests together. Given that, I'm submitting the revisions as one request. PLEASE let me know if this should be done as separate requests.

I am going to list each checker, the original request, and the required changes.

GCAGWY1 - GCCS - The Ultimate Letterbox Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY1/83341

Requirements

Find at least 200 total Letterbox Hybrid caches - Change this to 150
Find 75 Letterbox Hybrid caches in any one state - Remove this requirement
Find 25 Letterbox Hybrid caches in any second state - Remove this requirement
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above)- Change to 4 states
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Letterbox Hybrid cache each day of the week - Leave the same
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches in 35 different counties - Leave the same
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations - Leave the same
Find Letterbox Hybrid caches totaling at least 750 favorite points - Leave the same

GCAGWXZ - GCCS - The Ultimate Multi-Cache Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWXZ/83342

Find at least 400 total Multi-caches - Change to 200
Find 100 Multi-caches in any one state - Remove
Find 35 Multi-caches in any second state - Remove
Find a Multi-cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above) - Change to 4
Find a Multi-cache each month of the year- Leave the same
Find a Multi-cache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find 2 Mulit-caches each day of the week - Leave the same
Find Multi-caches in 50 different counties - Leave the same
Find Multi-caches with a total of at least 35 different D/T combinations - Change to 20
Find Multi-caches totaling at least 1,500 favorite points - Leave the same

GCAGWY6 - GCCS - The Ultimate Earthcache Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY6/83343

Find at least 200 total Earthcaches - Change to 100
Find 50 Earthcaches in any one state - Remove
Find 25 Earthcaches in any second state - Remove
Find an Earthcache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above) - Change to 4
Find an Earthcache each month of the year - Leave the same
Find an Earthcache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find an Earthcache each day of the week - Leave the same
Find Earthcaches in 35 different counties - Leave the same
Find Earthcaches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations - Leave the same
Find Earthcaches totaling at least 1,500 favorite points - Leave the same

GCAGWY4 - GCCS - The Ultimate Virtual Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY4/83344

Find at least 175 total Virtual caches - Change to 150
Find 75 Virtual caches in any one state - Remove this requirement
Find 25 Virtual caches in any second state - Remove this requirement
Find a Virtual cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above) - Change to 4
Find a Virtual cache each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Virtual cache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Virtual cache each day of the week - Leave the same
Find Virtual caches in 50 different counties - Change to 35
Find Virtual caches with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations - Leave the same
Find Virtual caches totaling at least 2,500 favorite points - Leave the same

GCAGWXY - GCCS - The Ultimate Mystery Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWXY/83345

Find at least 1,000 total Mystery caches - Change to 500
Find 300 Mystery caches in any one state - Remove
Find 75 Mystery caches in any second state - Remove
Find a Mystery cache in 10 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above) - Change to 4
Find a Mystery cache each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Mystery cache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Mystery cache each day of the week - Leave the same
Find Mystery caches in 100 different counties - Change to 35
Find Mystery caches with a total of at least 35 different D/T combinations - Change to 20
Find Mystery caches totaling at least 2,500 favorite points - Leave the same

GCAGWY2 - GCCS - The Ultimate Wherigo Challenge!: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCAGWY2/83346

Find at least 150 total Wherigo caches - Change to 100
Find 75 Wherigo caches in any one state - Remove requirement
Find 25 Wherigo caches in any second state - Remove requirement
Find a Wherigo cache in 5 different states (Note: they can include the two states you used above) - Change to 4
Find a Wherigo cache each month of the year - Leave the same
Find a Wherigo cache hidden each month of the year - Leave the same
Find Wherigo caches in 15 different counties -Leave the same
Find Wherigos with a total of at least 20 different D/T combinations - Leave the same
Find Wherigos totaling at least 500 favorite points - Leave the same

Thank you in advacnce for your help. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Config of the checkers adjusted, please test

Hello!

Thanks so much for the quick response!

I have checked them all out and everything is working perfectly.

Thanks so much for your help!

Matt (GMT!)

Hello!

I am having an issue with the checker on at least one of them - GCAGWXY - GCCS - The Ultimate Mystery Challenge!:

The checker shows that it is checking for 500 (which is why I said all was well with this), but it seems to be checking for 1000.

A user ran the checker, emcee1996 and got a "did not pass". The checker displays this message:

Find at least 500 Mysteries
User has 660 finds (1000 needed) Filters:( types (Unknown Cache) )

That is the only requirement missing and it did not give him a "pass" for the challenge.

I think this is the only one this happened on. I checked the other sand don't see where it shows the difference in the requirement statement and the checker result.

Can this be fixed?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Error corrected

Thank you! It's working as expected!