Third Contest cost discussion

[chroniclogic]

Keep all discussion of third contest costs in this thread

[Calis]

Well, I like it, too.

Just broke that 95k barrier,
working on 90k now, but some sublinks do nothing but break. I'd like to take 'em out to save even more money... would be a nice feature

[nelson]

sorry, i pressed "new topic" instead of "post reply".
Am I disqualified now?
I am still somewhere around 130000$
anyone already below that?

[nelson]

same problem.
I#M only at 99k but if I could subtract links at certain places 95 or even 90 would be easy.

[orealis]

i was so insanely addicted to the original BB.. then i lost track of it with the namechange and all.. then someone "sent" me the full version.. like 2 weeks ago.. been going bazonkers since.. im finally registered and happy and i cant for the life of me get the bridge below 94k.. arrgh..!

I had one a little cheaper but it just broke a couple of links :-(

I'm not gonna do very well on this one, can't work up any enthusiasm for this level at all.

[Argonut]

So at work today I "accidentally" downloaded Pontifex and entered my level in and did a bit of tweaking and managed to cut the cost a little more, and sent the level to myself at home via email. But when I try it on my home machine the bridge breaks every time, while it worked every time at work. Has anyone noticed if the physics can vary between machines? my PC at work is a P4, while my home machine is an Athlon, perhaps that makes a difference in the floating point calculations? it's kind of frustrating because my bridge worked really well at work, but now it's not working here

[Argonut]

Calis, I'm impressed! I can't for the life of me come up with any tricks to get below ๬k, so I'm looking forward to checking out your bridge after the contest

[Argonut]

I've got a 贉k ragged edge bridge - it tends to break 1 out of every 5 passes. And of *course* it would break on the pass the judges look at, so I need to figure out what's causing the breaking and fix it

I think it's possible to get under 贄k...

(Edited by Argonut at 10:31 pm on Mar. 31, 2002)

That's worrying! Wonder what machine they'll use to test entries?

[nelson]

meanwhile I'm at 110. but I guess I'll have to think around some corners to get any cheaper. there's really not much left in my current design.

[Argonut]

Absolutely. And who knows if it's CPU related, or maybe something else. If they happen to use a PC that can run the level I created at work, then I have a bridge that's under ๪k. But they might have one that's like my PC at home where that bridge fails every time, in which case I can't send in my best bridge and would need to send in my current "safe" best, which is ๯k. Because I don't know whether their machine will accept my cheap bridge I'll need to go for the safe bridge

People who happen to have a PC like my one at work where riskier bridges work might send in their bridge, but if ChronicLogic use a PC on which that bridge breaks, then an otherwise valid entry will be failed!

Controversy! Someone phone the tabloids

Or there might be other physics variations between PCs that cause even my "safe" bridge to fail!

For what it's worth the part of the bridge that's breaking for me are the very small links inside the deck joints which a cable connects to. They seem to be the weak point in my bridge compared to all the other components. At work they are very close to breaking but don't, but at home they are snapping.

[nelson]

btw: I like the level. It forces you to build completely different from the previous contests.

[Calis]

Hmm... I tried my bridge (designed on Athlon XP/1400MHz) on another machine with a P3/500. Takes a *much* longer settling time on the P3 to be safe...

(I know the simulation runs slower on that P3, so I didnt count of seconds, but 'bounces' of the bridge)

Of course, I can add a cable to make it safe even on short settling times, but that would cost 2k more - unsure about what I should send in now
(both bridges are rock solid once settled - survived 40 passes without probs)

Maybe they should allow more than one entry per person (and count only the best working one for results).

[Argonut]

I agree about liking this level (maybe it's just because this is the first level I've done since the first contest.) The previous contests both seemed to end up with weird bridges that didn't seem very much like what you'd normally see in reality (maybe real bridge designers need to check out our contests and take notes?), while this one is laid out quite a bit differently and my bridge design is far more conventional. I've pretty much got it as cheap as I can get it, I doubt I could find another โ at this moment unless I come up with some new tricks to tweak the design with

I'm curious to see what the masters of Pontifex will come up with for this level...