Finally, I get to give one a try! I’ll edit this post with my analysis and strategy. But first, a clarifying question—are the new plans supposed to be lacking costs?
First off, it looks to me like you only get impossible structures if you were apprenticed to “Bloody Stupid” Johnson or Peter Stamatin, or if you’re self-taught. No love for Dr. Seuss, Escher, or Penrose. Also, while being apprenticed to either of those two lunatics guarantees you an impossible structure, being self-taught looks to do it only half the time. We can thus immediately reject plans B, C, F, J, and M.
Next, I started thinking about cost. Looks like nightmares are horrifyingly expensive—small wonder—and silver and glass are only somewhat better. Cheaper options for materials look to include wood, dreams, and steel. That rules out plan G as a good idea if I want to keep costs low, and makes suggestions about the other plans that I’ll address later.
I’m not actually sure what the relationship is between [pair of materials] and [cost], but my snap first guess—given how nightmares dominate the expensive end of the past plans, how silver and glass seem to show up somewhat more often at the top end and wood/dreams/steel show up at the bottom end fairly reliably—is that it’s some additive relation on secret prices by material, maybe modified by the type of structure?
A little more perusing at the Self-Taught crowd suggests that… they’re kind of a crapshoot? I’m sure I’m going to feel like an idiot when there turns out to be some obvious relationship that predicts when their structures will turn out impossible, but it doesn’t look to me like building type, blueprint quality, material, or final price are determinative.
Maybe it has something to do with that seventh data column in the past plans, which fell both before apprentice-status and after price, which I couldn’t pry open more than a few pixels’ crack and from which then issued forth endless surreal blasphemies, far too much space, and the piping of flutes; ia! ia! the swollen and multifarious geometries of Tindalos eagerly welcome a wayward and lonely fox home once more. yeah sorry no idea how this got here but I can’t remove it
Regardless, I’d rather take the safe option here and limit my options to D, E, H, and K, the four plans which are: 1) drawn up by architects who apprenticed with either of the two usefully crazy masters (and not simply self-taught) and 2) not making use of Nightmares, because those are expensive.
For a bonus round, I’ll estimate costs by comparing to whatever’s closest from past projects. Using this heuristic, I think K is going to cost 60-80k, D and H (which are the same plan???) will both cost ~65k, and E is going to be stupid cheap (<5k). EDIT: also that means that the various self-taught people’s plans are likely to be pretty cheap, given their materials, so… if this were a push-your-luck dealie based on trying to get as much value per dollar as possible, maybe it’s even worth chancing it on the chancers (A, I, L, and N)?
Yes. The Duke has learned the hard way that his architects’ guesses as to how much their projects will end up costing are consistently worse than useless; if you want to optimize on cost as well as impossibility, that’s another thing you’ll have to deduce from the record of finished projects.
Finally, I get to give one a try! I’ll edit this post with my analysis and strategy. But first, a clarifying question—are the new plans supposed to be lacking costs?
First off, it looks to me like you only get impossible structures if you were apprenticed to “Bloody Stupid” Johnson or Peter Stamatin, or if you’re self-taught. No love for Dr. Seuss, Escher, or Penrose. Also, while being apprenticed to either of those two lunatics guarantees you an impossible structure, being self-taught looks to do it only half the time. We can thus immediately reject plans B, C, F, J, and M.
Next, I started thinking about cost. Looks like nightmares are horrifyingly expensive—small wonder—and silver and glass are only somewhat better. Cheaper options for materials look to include wood, dreams, and steel. That rules out plan G as a good idea if I want to keep costs low, and makes suggestions about the other plans that I’ll address later.
I’m not actually sure what the relationship is between [pair of materials] and [cost], but my snap first guess—given how nightmares dominate the expensive end of the past plans, how silver and glass seem to show up somewhat more often at the top end and wood/dreams/steel show up at the bottom end fairly reliably—is that it’s some additive relation on secret prices by material, maybe modified by the type of structure?
A little more perusing at the Self-Taught crowd suggests that… they’re kind of a crapshoot? I’m sure I’m going to feel like an idiot when there turns out to be some obvious relationship that predicts when their structures will turn out impossible, but it doesn’t look to me like building type, blueprint quality, material, or final price are determinative.
Maybe it has something to do with that seventh data column in the past plans, which fell both before apprentice-status and after price, which I couldn’t pry open more than a few pixels’ crack and from which then issued forth endless surreal blasphemies, far too much space, and the piping of flutes; ia! ia! the swollen and multifarious geometries of Tindalos eagerly welcome a wayward and lonely fox home once more.yeah sorry no idea how this got here but I can’t remove itRegardless, I’d rather take the safe option here and limit my options to D, E, H, and K, the four plans which are: 1) drawn up by architects who apprenticed with either of the two usefully crazy masters (and not simply self-taught) and 2) not making use of Nightmares, because those are expensive.
For a bonus round, I’ll estimate costs by comparing to whatever’s closest from past projects. Using this heuristic, I think K is going to cost 60-80k, D and H (which are the same plan???) will both cost ~65k, and E is going to be stupid cheap (<5k). EDIT: also that means that the various self-taught people’s plans are likely to be pretty cheap, given their materials, so… if this were a push-your-luck dealie based on trying to get as much value per dollar as possible, maybe it’s even worth chancing it on the chancers (A, I, L, and N)?
Response to clarifying question:
Yes. The Duke has learned the hard way that his architects’ guesses as to how much their projects will end up costing are consistently worse than useless; if you want to optimize on cost as well as impossibility, that’s another thing you’ll have to deduce from the record of finished projects.