Possible Problem or Issue - 31 Sec Solve time?

[Macabre Sunset]

In theory, I think I could get to around 80 seconds on the 4x4s and maybe 120 on the 4x5s. On puzzles where the lower grids aren't necessary and I instantly identify the right order to address the clues.

I still have to learn when filling red Xs isn't necessary, though. It's possible that's the key to lower scores.

I'd be interested in knowing how the people suspected of cheating are doing, now that the preview information is gone.

[Laura]

Same here Stephen. I just solved a puzzle and wondered why the grid wasn't displayed prior to loading -- I've found it rather helpful because I create a table in Word to track my answers. However, I can see how displaying a grid beforehand can make cheating possible.

My times have gone down considerably now that I've been playing more often. I've even had some under 3 minutes. But under 20 seconds is just too astounding to be believed. You can't even read all the clues and fill in the grid that quickly.

I'd like to add my thanks to all the others -- you do a great job.

Laura

[bowl231]

There are still some real low scores for 5x5
this is a "new" ID - Spirit Bear have not seen this person before
---------------------------------
This Puzzle's Statistics
Success Rate: 53%
Average Time: 656.6 seconds
Record Time: 34 seconds (spirit bear)
Your Time: 539 seconds

[admin]

That will be the case for perhaps another week or two - we are gradually re-figuring statistics on all of our puzzles using the new criteria. To avoid heavy server loads while re-processing we are re-figuring 60 puzzles per hour. My guess it we will get through the whole of them in another 4-5 days or so, after which time the "false-records" should be all purged.

[stongia]

Steps According to me for fast solution.
Once the puzzle come on the screen do print screen and come out of the puzzle screen it will stop the puzzle and put it in incomplete state.
From the print screen get the puzzle and solve it offline get ready with your answers and try to complete the puzzle and you only have to click correct entries.

And you will get decent fast time for the same.

[fyre69]

I have seen patterns in the games. They are computer generated and only the lists of words change. So if someone has a great mind for patterns, or has written a program that can recognize the pattern after a few right answers it is possible to get those super fast solves. I do this for fun, there is no money involved, and is just for fun and bragging rights, I try to just have fun with the games and ignore the high scores. I will admit though, sometimes when I know I have solved it at a pretty fast time without using pattern recognition, it can be frustrating.

Happy gaming. Peace out,
Fyre69

[bgates87]

I think that basically what is happening is that people have found a way to retrieve the clues and other information about their next puzzle without actually loading the puzzle. The puzzle you will play next is determined when you click "New Game," but the timer doesn't start until you click "Start Game," (I assume) so it's possible (I won't go into much detail here) that once you know the URL of the next puzzle you can use it to retrieve all of the information about the puzzle without starting the timer. You can then solve the puzzle at your leisure and once you have the solution you can allow the page to load. Then all you have to do is put in the answers which should take around the amount of time that most of these suspicious solves are taking.

The fundamental problem here is that the puzzles are pre-loaded. This is done as a convenience for the players so we can see information about the puzzle and so that when we're ready to start solving we don't have to wait as long. The pre-loading could be done away with, clicking "New Game" could throw us straight into a random puzzle, but the timer has to start when the page is loaded to avoid foil another much simpler method of cheating, and then we would have to wait for the entire puzzle to load while the timer was running which would probably add between 10-20 seconds to everyone's solve times.

Here's my solution to cheating: Do way with pre-loading the puzzles, just throw the player into a random puzzle as soon as they click "New Game." Start the timer as soon as they click "New Game" too. Now, to make up for the added time of waiting for the puzzle to load, have a second timer that starts when you click "New Game" and stops when the puzzle has fully loaded. When the player is done, subtract the value of the second timer from the total value of the first timer to get an accurate time.

At this point though I don't think that the cheating is bad enough that it's necessary to go this far.

[Punkfunkmo]

I used to see the scores under 100 seconds and thought it was impossible or people cheating.

I have learned to do the puzzles using only the top rows and I have, on more than one occasion, completed puzzles in the area of 55-59 seconds.

There is always someone better out there, I'm going to assume that the 30 second scores are legit.

[Punkfunkmo]

Okay, I didn't read all the posts....

14 seconds, that's gotta be impossible

I have never cheated or used a spreadsheet on a logic puzzle....I really bums me out if all of my record times will be cleared

The record time cut off should be somewhere around 45 seconds at least. Why am I being penalized for being speedy???

[moodymom]

I could never make myself cheat on these - it completely defeats the purpose. But I have on 2 occasions solved a puzzle in under 40 seconds. I was astounded both times, but sometimes the clues are just laid out in a way that makes perfect sense. For those puzzles, there's often a lot of extra clues with duplicate information. Sometimes the 4x4 puzzles only need 3-4 clues to solve, but they might give you 6-7. There's still lots of people faster than me out there.