It looks like I was basically right. Even in the place I came up short – figuring out Trum-Troopas – I knew I was probably missing something, since it would have been weird for that to be the only not-perfectly-predictable part of the problem.
Reflections on the challenge:
This is the first D&D.Sci which is a pure puzzle; that is, the first one without randomness in the linkage between explanatory and response variables. I think this would be unfair for something presented as a social science problem, except that a) the Seussian context was a pretty big hint that normal rules don’t apply and implausibly-tidy solutions are on the table, b) it was fairly obvious after an hour or two of looking at the data that there were unusually clean linkages between at least some toy choices at at least some noise levels (G+S equals exactly 16 more than half the time, many toy combos have a suspiciously low number of possible noise outputs), and c) using only ML can still net you a much-better-than-chance result. However, I suspect the anomalous neatness may have caused limited engagement: once someone posts a complete or near-complete solution, why bother investigating for yourself? And why bother writing about your analysis if it’s identical or near-identical to one already posted?
Others may have other opinions, but I really liked the 10-day length: giving players a week plus a choice of weekend provided a lot of breathing room. I also (continue to) think the problem introduction was the best-written one so far. And while I don’t know if the high puzzleishness was a good idea overall, it definitely enabled one heck of a eureka moment when I figured out (most of) the rules. Thank you very much for running this game.
Reflections on my attempt:
It looks like I was basically right. Even in the place I came up short – figuring out Trum-Troopas – I knew I was probably missing something, since it would have been weird for that to be the only not-perfectly-predictable part of the problem.
Reflections on the challenge:
This is the first D&D.Sci which is a pure puzzle; that is, the first one without randomness in the linkage between explanatory and response variables. I think this would be unfair for something presented as a social science problem, except that a) the Seussian context was a pretty big hint that normal rules don’t apply and implausibly-tidy solutions are on the table, b) it was fairly obvious after an hour or two of looking at the data that there were unusually clean linkages between at least some toy choices at at least some noise levels (G+S equals exactly 16 more than half the time, many toy combos have a suspiciously low number of possible noise outputs), and c) using only ML can still net you a much-better-than-chance result. However, I suspect the anomalous neatness may have caused limited engagement: once someone posts a complete or near-complete solution, why bother investigating for yourself? And why bother writing about your analysis if it’s identical or near-identical to one already posted?
Others may have other opinions, but I really liked the 10-day length: giving players a week plus a choice of weekend provided a lot of breathing room. I also (continue to) think the problem introduction was the best-written one so far. And while I don’t know if the high puzzleishness was a good idea overall, it definitely enabled one heck of a eureka moment when I figured out (most of) the rules. Thank you very much for running this game.