The Worst II [Round 8 - Mastermind ]

[Amb]

Words must be valid words in either the British or American scrabble dictionary. Use dictionary.com or m-w.com for checking as a starting point. If you arent sure of a word check with me and I will verify.

[Duphrates]

Do the words have to read either left to right or top to bottom? Or can they read right to left and bottom to top as well?

[MadMax]

Wakes up from Saki hangover on the beach.
Remembers the flight with horror, closes eyes..rolls over and thinks pleasant thoughts of Koalas and Kangaroos.

Keep Smiling all.

[UnheardVoice]

May we remove words from the original grid (that is, before moving the first time)?

[Amb]

No you cannot remove preexisting words. This is covered in the rules.

Words may run in any direction including backwards.

[Duphrates]

And I also assume that words cannot 'cross' a gap ie, LABY_RIN_TH would not count?

[Amb]

no that would not count.

[Duphrates]

quote:

---

You may make moves that form no words at all if you believe there to be an advantage in doing so....

---

I may have this wrong (again), but you can make as many 'shoves' as possible just to get a letter where you want it. If so, then this is just the same as a 56 letter anagram and we have to use all the letters .

[Amb]

Effectively yes, but the more shoves you use... the bigger the risk of coming last if everyone else clears their grid.

HURRY UP ALL

Sorry if this round is hard, I wrote it on the fly. THe next round will be more breathable.

[dethwing]

Sent. I can see it now:
Dethwing -- Couldn't shove letters around.

[UnheardVoice]

This is hard.

My answer is sentenced to death, lethal injection.

------------------
Music is the traveller crossing our world,
Meeting so many people, bridging the seas...
~ I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band), The Moody Blues

[dethwing]

Bump, Whens the dead line? Kill the stragglers!

[Amb]

SOrry for this being so difficult....

Time Limit established.

Yopu have 48 hours to get to them in. ENough is enough.

[dethwing]

times up.

[Amb]

Right marking now

[Amb]

So after a very long nightmarish round we have

Dethwing played 18 moves and was left with 6 tiles*
Werebear played 1 move and was left with 59 tiles.
Jeep played 0 moves and was left with 64 tiles.
Duphrates played 74 moves and was left with 0 tiles.
Termital played 0 moves and was left with 64 tiles.
UnheardVoice played 33 moves and was left with 0 tiles.

Its a tie for last place. Jeep and Termital. The last round that both players played was the chess puzzle in which Termital beat Jeep.

JEEP you were the worst as a result of a previous round and have been eliminated. The next round follows.

[Amb]

MasterMind.

Each player is to send me a five letter sequence of letters - with no duplicates. The sequence is to be in alphabetical order Once I give the all clear, each player will post a sequence.

eg ABDES
etc...

When all five players have guessed or havent posted for a while I will mark the guesses against all the other players sequences and give you a score out of five.

Example

		DPH	DTH	UHV	TRM	WRB
Sequence	ABDES	2	2	0	1	4
	ZYLOE	3	0	2	2	2

Once marked you may then try to submit guesses for each persons answer. I will then give the go ahead for more questions. The last to solve will be eliminated.

To kick start the game I will allow everyone to ask two combinations to start with....


[This message has been edited by amb (edited 03-03-2003 02:22 AM).]

[Amb]

Sequences for general 'consumption' get posted direct.
Guesses to a players combo are emailled, and you will get a Yes or No answer.

You want to solve the other 4 combos as fast as possible. This will be a quicker round than you think if you suss out the logic.

[This message has been edited by amb (edited 03-03-2003 02:25 AM).]

[jeep]

BAH! I sent in TWO solutions. One that you told me you didn't receive and one on Friday. And in the first puzzle in this round I was in a position where I couldn't lose (three ways to get the ball passed to me and three ways out...)

~grumbles sour grapes...~

-JEEP

[Duphrates]

Can you show us Unheards submission? 33 moves, very impressive.

[Werebear]

If the sequence is supposed to be in alphabetical order, wouldn't ZYLOE be a bad guess? So let's say I send in ABCDE, dethwing sends in ACEGI and Termital sends in EGBDF.

My first two guesses are AFLIT and BCDEF. How would the game go from there?

And by the way, I apologize for being so cheesy last game. The only word I took out of the grid was "SWINE", because that's what I was for not having enough time to do it properly.

[dethwing]

At least you did something.

[Amb]

Please send the sequences in... I dont have them yet.

Letter positioning does not affect score. So if you guess ZYLOE then you will score the same for OELZY or EZLOY. Doubled letters in guesses will count as 1. For example "SSSSS" is submitted as a guess in the thread. If any sequence has an S it will score 1. While this could guarantee solving the puzzle in less than 26 guesses it is not the most efficient and will put you at risk of being eliminated by tie breakers. This is a basic MasterMind game, but you need to be able to use the info you get to prove letters...

[Amb]

Duphrates combination is missing, other than that we are ready to start.

And congratulations Duphrates for the previous round in which he animated the letter row movement in a shockwave file. Im very impressed.

[Duphrates]

Sorry for the delay everyone....Sent

[Amb]

Okay start posting guesses. You may post 2 guesses this round only. Five letter combos and I dont care about order or duplicates. Of we go, and may the best be least likely to be eliminated.

[Werebear]

ABCDE

and

FGHIJ



I'll sacrifice myself.

[dethwing]

Me too:

k l m n o

p q r s t

[Duphrates]

OH we post HERE!!

Forget my E-Mail then, Amb :

DIMRW
EJNSX

[Termital]

uvwxy
acegh I know, I know, I'm such a conformist.

Sadly, I will be able to check the GL very infrequently for about a week, effective immediately, so please bear with me . Oh, and amb, how many times do we have to say this isn't like mastermind at all. Mastermind is all about ordered sets . And I still believe this round will either end in a massive draw or a lottery finish, but we'll see.

Oh, and how many do we have to figure out before we can win not lose? One? Most? All?

[This message has been edited by Termital (edited 03-07-2003 07:35 AM).]

[Werebear]

I know one already!! Oh, wait, that's mine. Never mind.

[UnheardVoice]

BFKPZ
DHLOY

[Amb]

Sequence	DPH	DTH	UHV	TRM	WRB
ABCDE	1	1	1	1	0
FGHIJ	1	1	0	1	1
KLMNO	2	1	1	1	0
PQRST	1	1	1	1	2
DIMRW	3	1	0	3	0
EJNSX	1	0	0	1	2
UVWXY	0	0	2	1	2
ACEGH	1	2	0	1	0
BFKPZ	0	1	1	0	0
DHLOY	0	2	1	1	0

You have made foolish moves that will help cause ties ;P but it wont be a lottery that decides this... Duphrates is playing the best tactically IMHO. There are tactics you could have use to net you information planning for it, and slipped it under the other players radar with a degree of risk. And Termital you are wrong This is mastermind.



[This message has been edited by amb (edited 03-08-2003 02:18 AM).]

[Amb]

Feel free to make your next move people

[Amb]

Anyone out there?

[mith]

http://www.javaonthebrain.com/java/mastermind/

[Werebear]

I thought we were supposed to send in our guesses, and you'd send back 'yea' or 'nay'...

[dethwing]

assuming we are not: [I for one can't solve all of them.]

ELQXY

------------------
It's interesting when people die.
Jesus loves you
--Don Henley

[Duphrates]

I'm under the impression we E-Mail them to Amb, otherwise I (for instance) could work them all out, and then it will be a race for everyone else to copy my answers.

[Termital]

Oh no it isn't . Sending in a minute.