Numbers Variants

[Neil Zussman]

Inspired by the new touchdown variant (lots of fun, btw) I've been trying to think of new numbers variants- whilst I enjoy winning, I always feel that, say, a goatdown victory against a bot is tainted just a tiny bit if I win by 10 points having gained 30 points on the 'normal' numbers rounds. If I'm playing goatdown, I'd rather win because of the goaty rounds (for this reason I prefer goatblitz, but my conundrumming skills leave a lot to be desired). Anyhoo, here are my best efforts.

Touchdown: Whilst I'm amused by the thought that it's theoretically possible to have a round with 6 ones, it would surely fit more in sync with the letters rounds if, after seeing the target, you could change one number. Thoughts: This may make it too easy- perhaps only have 5 numbers? Perhaps only allow small numbers to be changed for small, big for big?

Goatdown: Again, it would make sense if you could choose the last number. Again, this may make things too easy (even though you can't see the target), so you could perhaps only be able to choose a small number?

Unlimited: Obviously, being able to use the numbers an unlimited number of times would be silly. Perhaps have only 3 numbers, and be allowed to use them each twice? Or maybe use one of them three times (a small one only?), since having duplicated numbers generally makes things harder.

Miscellaneous: 1. Allow players to choose numbers one at a time. (So if you don't like the large number you got, you can try again)
2. Allow players to actually choose which number they get, as at the end of goatdown. If somebody was 11 ahead with two rounds left, they'd obviously pick horrible numbers, so to introduce more of a tactical element you could have players alternately picking the numbers.
Please comment/ add your own inventions.

[Daniel O'Dowd]

Good post.

I think your unlimited idea has very little mileage; it is simply a concrete variant of the selection, which is already partially possible in there are two of all small numbers, and in touch the potential for a cloned large.

Touchdown's current operation is hit and miss. Having two of the same large number is a novelty, and makes for more challenging selections sometimes, but at others simply gives you an added 1 in the selection, reducing it. I agree that one number could be changed at will. Changing the target seems unfeasible, but perhaps declaring one away (having supposedly changed the target by one digit as per suggestion) could still award 10 points, leading to more aggressive approaches instead of piddly 1 or 2 large. That said, it IS a difference as it is, so it's far from the most important variant now.

In goat, nominating a number seems interesting. If you chose, say, 2 large, and four small and your first large comes out, you then could choose any valid number between 11-100 for use in the calculation, but this would probably lead to extremely simple games even if the target were unseen, as you've said. But nominating a small number would probably do much the same, since any reasonable spread with good large number(s) will make things easier.

Choosing numbers one at a time makes scant difference really, since most 1/2 large are solvable anyways, the only feasible difference would be when you thought you could reasonably make a good target from 6 small or 4 large.

So, if we're mainly aiming for interest without decrease of difficulty across the board, perhaps we could increase the target range, to 1500 or 1999? Hyper already goes up to 9999, which is more than many can handle given the calculations, but some nominal increase across variants like touch might spice it up. And then allow some numberwanging on top. How might this impact on difficulty given the player-led change in number?

[Ian Dent]

Good post.

[Ben Wilson]

Inspired by the new touchdown variant (lots of fun, btw) I've been trying to think of new numbers variants- whilst I enjoy winning, I always feel that, say, a goatdown victory against a bot is tainted just a tiny bit if I win by 10 points having gained 30 points on the 'normal' numbers rounds. If I'm playing goatdown, I'd rather win because of the goaty rounds (for this reason I prefer goatblitz, but my conundrumming skills leave a lot to be desired). Anyhoo, here are my best efforts.

Touchdown: Whilst I'm amused by the thought that it's theoretically possible to have a round with 6 ones, it would surely fit more in sync with the letters rounds if, after seeing the target, you could change one number. Thoughts: This may make it too easy- perhaps only have 5 numbers? Perhaps only allow small numbers to be changed for small, big for big?

Touchdown numbers did originally work like that (with the limit that you could only swap in a small number) but I can imagine it wouldn't be easy to implement on Apterous.

[Charlie Reams]

Yeah, I didn't really want to do anything that required interface changes; the interface is enough of an implementation nightmare already, not to mention the difficulty curve of learning to use it.

[Kai Laddiman]

Perhaps for Touchdown being able to change one of the digits of the target? (not the hundreds)

[Neil Zussman]

Yeah, I didn't really want to do anything that required interface changes; the interface is enough of an implementation nightmare already, not to mention the difficulty curve of learning to use it.

Yes, I did forget that being able to use numbers not in the selection would mess up the interface a lot. The only solution would be to force people to type their solution in the notes box, perhaps giving 5 extra seconds?
The suggestion of being able to change a digit in the target is interesting, but would perhaps make things too easy. Perhaps if you were only allowed to increase the digit, rather than making the target smaller, this may not make things quite so straight-forward, and may possibly be slightly easier to implement than some of the other ideas? (The interface need not be changed, it just needs to recognise that if you reach a valid target, you are done). Not sure how the scoring would work though.
I quite like the idea of being able to choose your own last number, goaty style. Perhaps you could allow numbers up to say 20 to be chosen? Experimentation would definitely be needed though.
Allowing small 4 digit targets (eg up to 2000) is also an interesting idea, but doesn't really fit together into the same style as any of the letters rounds.