[Resolved] Mutliple checker requests: Oldest cache in country

Hi again,

Apologies for the raid on this forum. And thank you for your contributions to the challenge element of the game - you add a lot of fun!

GCB2MEC Any 5: Find the oldest cache in any 5 countries

GCB2MF8 Europe 10: Find the oldest cache in 10 European countries

EDIT
GCB2MF9 International 10: Find the oldest cache in 10 countries, must include finds in three continents* I can't find enough qualifiers for 15 :-(


Again, if you need a definition of continents, I have used those countries recognised by Project GC, removing duplicate occurrences, so Türkiye is removed from the Europe list, and Cyprus is removed from the Asia list. I have listed these below.

Africa (59)
Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, British Indian Ocean Territory, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Antarctic and subantarctic islands (5)
Antarctica, Bouvet Island, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

Asia (52)
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen Cyprus

Europe (54)
Aland Islands, Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Sark, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City State Türkiye

North America (37)
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, United States, US Virgin Islands

Oceania (28)
American Samoa, Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, N. Mariana Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, US Minor Outlying Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna Islands

South America (15)
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2025 03:30PM by RubyShoos. (view changes)

GCB2MEC Any 5: Find the oldest cache in any 5 countries

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MEC/96441

Please test and confirm

geoPetros (Slovakia)
2000 hides
300 active challenges

See Challenge Guidelines

The checker for GCB2MEC seems to behave perfectly. Thank you

GCB2MF8 Europe 10: Find the oldest cache in 10 European countries

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MF8/96442

Please test and confirm

geoPetros (Slovakia)
2000 hides
300 active challenges

See Challenge Guidelines

GCB2MF8 This too seems to behave perfectly and matches my findings. Thank you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2025 03:26PM by RubyShoos. (view changes)

GCB2MF9

Sorry, creating a checker for GCB2MF9 is beyond my capabilities (due to duplicate continent countries). Please note other duplicate countries Egypt and Russia.

geoPetros (Slovakia)
2000 hides
300 active challenges

See Challenge Guidelines

Is it possible if

Russia = Asia

Egypt = Africa

?

Maybe other checker/script author

geoPetros (Slovakia)
2000 hides
300 active challenges

See Challenge Guidelines

Thank you for your help with the other two :-)

My multi checker script is capable of configuring which continent countries are in (I distinctly remember implementing it, because someone wanted very specific behavior). Not at the computer now, but I can tag it tomorrow night of someone doesn't get there first.

Lovely. Much appreciated. There’s no rush.

Hrm... looks like I misread this one too. It will require some script additions... so stay tuned.

So, I think I have it working property, or at least really close... here's the progress:
https://project-gc.com/Challenges//96553

However, it times out for you... which is frequently a problem we have with 'oldest' type challenges with many different countries/regions/counties. Querying the oldest in a country is linearly correlated with how many caches are in a country. So querying the US usually takes ~15s, UK ~7, Germany ~7 and Canada ~4. Countries with few caches are less mostly 1s or less, but you've got finds in all those big ones, and a whole bunch of others. I myself have finds in all those, but NOT many so others and running me takes 37s. But, I'm not sure how this is ever going to be able to fit under the time limit for someone who actually qualifies with finds from those countries.

@bmuzzin
58 countries (52 of 55 in Europe) and 8000 finds = 50 seconds

geoPetros (Slovakia)
2000 hides
300 active challenges

See Challenge Guidelines

Ahh. OK. This seems up be unviable. Thank you for your efforts to resolve this.

Instead, could I use GCB2MF9 for the criteria, find 15 of the oldest cache in country, anywhere? I think this world be considerably quicker to run?

Thank you again.

Here is the link to a checker https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MF9/96559

Please test and reply

It appears that if I use the "alternativeDBCluster" parameter, then the queries are considerably faster. And now RubyShoos - you complete in 59s! ... which is obviously very close to the timeout. If you'd like to pursue the original challenge, I have a few ideas about how to optimize it further if you don't mind waiting a bit for me to implement them. But, if you'd like to go with the new one, that's totally okay.

Aw. That is so kind of you and much appreciated.

Let me get home and run a few people through the one already created. TBH I think I’m going to struggle to find enough qualifiers for the 15, and if that’s the case, I will graciously take you up on your kind offer.

Watch this space, I’ll be back in a couple of hours.

Thanks again

Hmmm, I'm struggling either way. Don't waste any of your time on this at the mo. I need more time to find the qualifiers I will need to get it published...

Hi @bmuzzin (and the rest of the team who have helped out on this one)

I have run your new improved version of

Quote

So, I think I have it working property, or at least really close... here's the progress:
https://project-gc.com/Challenges//96553

and it looks like this is a goer. The criteria is: 10 'Oldest Cache in Country' with finds in at least three continents.

Could you tag this with GCB2MF9

(and if necessary remove the GC code from this checker created by vogelbird: https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MF9/96559)

Thank you so much for the work you have all put into this - much appreciated.

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MF9/96559 is removed

bmuzzin can attach his checker with GCB2MF9

Thank you :-)

Here you go:
https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MF9/97519

Thank you. It still times out on some searches, but I am not too worried as the checker for

GCB2MEC Any 5: Find the oldest cache in any 5 countries

https://project-gc.com/Challenges/GCB2MEC/96441

confirms whether people qualify for GCB2MF9 too - except not with a tick or cross.

Thank you again for your work on this.