The Contest

DethBringa · 2014-01-24 16:22:59

Yes, it is on the server so you do not have to be in game all the time.

DethBringa · 2014-01-24 22:35:18

wow this is getting so frustrating... every time I hit 50k I get 1 person get through my whole house perfectly without scouting it first.... luck seems a bit off now. Happens EVERY time I hit 50k

joshwithguitar · 2014-01-24 22:57:00

DethBringa: Is it possible you can pick the correct path in your house with high Gamma? If you give me your name I can check your house out and let you know.

DethBringa · 2014-01-24 23:03:18

Nope its not. This time I tried an experiment so you cant even get through it with shroud turned off. Not sure of my name but look for a closed powered door directly below the entrance and a battery-switch-trapdoor a little up the path. I would suggest an alt account if you have one as its not really explorer friendly.

DethBringa · 2014-01-24 23:23:12

Just changed my house a little for you to look. Now its safer. You will be sweet as to pop in have a look and leave again. but stay away from door behind a door. I have just over 3k at the mo. don't venture too far just to be safe but you should be able to see what I mean by even if the shroud was removed you cant see through it.

acester · 2014-01-24 23:31:55

DethBringa wrote:

wow this is getting so frustrating... every time I hit 50k I get 1 person get through my whole house perfectly without scouting it first.... luck seems a bit off now. Happens EVERY time I hit 50k

This happened to me as well. I was around 60k and wasn't really "scouted" and got cleaned out, at least 2 times (maybe 3? I forget) by the same dude. I even changed my house around, moved the vault around too, and he went straight for the vault the 2nd time.

joshwithguitar · 2014-01-24 23:33:56

Ok, I'll have a look. Looks like you'r Mr Dill.

DethBringa · 2014-01-24 23:34:29

Yep thats exactly why this build was designed the way it was. The last 2 times it happened my house could be changed but if someone hacked the game and removed the shroud they could get through. This time I use the edge of screen and screen movement instead so even without shroud its not really possible to get through (designed using mathematics and probabilities).

joshwithguitar · 2014-01-24 23:55:41

Deth: I've just looked in and yes it seems that just using high Gamma it would be impossible to know where to walk, at least for the first hall. Do they always walk directly to the vault or do they make other moves along the way, peak into different halls? Even with a second account it would be hard to scout that far with 24 hour chills.

DethBringa · 2014-01-25 00:03:55

That was the experiment. Once you get through that first section I have made a second section using the screen movement limit as I did in the first. What they always seem to do is only open correct doors or walk the correct path and only make a couple of wrong choices but only easy to deal with ones. If given a huge number of options and only making 2 wrong choices which are supposed to be more distractions that anything... it seems like something is up.
That house was designed like a combination lock. If someone got the first part I would change the combination to the whole house. I also changed it before I went to bed and also after I got up. That way even if someone was scouting over and over they couldn't map it correctly. I used this same system of changes with my last 2 house designs too. Hit 50k and BAM perfect walk through.

I'll re-set up the start now. Didn't want to accidentally kill you off while you were helping.

Last edited by DethBringa (2014-01-25 00:05:41)

joshwithguitar · 2014-01-25 00:42:47

One thing I noticed is that with high gamma you can see the halls around the one you go down as long as you go far enough for the screen change. So you could see if one of the neighbouring ones was right and if not there is a good chance the next pick will be it as you've eliminated 2.

DethBringa · 2014-01-25 01:03:32

thats why if anyone made it through the first door I would change it around completely. I check the tapes at least once/hour if not more.

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-25 16:48:38

Hmm... looking at this particular robber's history, I don't see a pattern of any misbehavior or big heists. In fact, he has since died after robbing you. That one robbery does look strange (he opens every door in your 1/10 hallway, picks the right one, and then opens every door in your next 1/10 and picks the right one).

You know, this game does engender extreme paranoia, even in me!

After someone else reported something like this for a different robber, and I looked into it very deeply (even contacting the robber and asking to see the recordedGame).... well, it turned out that they were just bumbling through and got lucky. It was a 1/1000 chance, on their very first robbery in that house, but they bumbled the correct way. It was clear from the recordedGame that they were not peeking at the map... they loaded the house and bumbled through so quickly that they wouldn't have even had time to study the map! It was so innocent that the robber didn't even know what I meant when I mentioned a "combination lock." He just pressed a few buttons and didn't know what they were for, then walked down, found an open door, and went through to the vault.

ANYWAY... in this case, we are talking about 1/100 odds. Indeed, you had dozens of people try your house and die before he got through. So, it's really not that strange that one person got lucky. What are the chances??? Well, they're 1/100.

I REALLY like that trap and the way it uses the edge of the screen, by the way.

But yeah, I too am seeing patterns in static over here.... I've been investigating every report that I get, and haven't found a genuine case of modded-client cheating yet!

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-25 16:49:40

Zukas wrote:

Though, I'm confused about one thing. It says that it will count HOUSE WORTH right? So I can have 100$ Spare bucks but built it around 20000$ and it will count in costs of all I have, right?

It's the amount of money you have PLUS the resale value of your tools. What you've put into walls and traps does not count for the contest!

colorfusion · 2014-01-25 17:03:46

Clearing up what "If your house is worth" means on the contest page would probably be helpful for the confused people.

Not sure if possible, but it might also be worth taking database readings at multiple times throughout the end date rather than just one final one. The value of houses seems to change quite a lot depending on how long it is since they've left it, so having it as a single time would give advantage to some timezones over others.

The increase in unlikely guesses is probably caused by the amount of new people rushing through houses, it's bound to happen a few times. If there's 10 houses, a 1/100 puzzle, and each with 10 robbery attempts then the chances are one robber will get through first try. If there are 100 houses with 100 attempts, then somebody is likely to beat a 1/10000 guessing puzzle just by chance which will look really suspicious.

There's also human tendencies involved. In door puzzles people like to choose second to last for example, and in combo locks it's very unlikely that the combination is just one switch on.

jasonrohrer · 2014-01-25 17:27:15

Fixed that on the contest page, colorfusion!

Yes... I really like how probability makes us paranoid in these cases.

iceman · 2014-01-25 23:03:17

Oh man, I've reached the point both in the contest and in my house value that if I die now, I don't have a chance of coming back... I keep on finding houses that I can make a large profit off of robbing, psyching myself up, completely overkilling it on tools, being successful, then quivering as I add the new, deadly additions to my house as I question whether it can protect my family and safe from the lure of a 10k higher prize... my hands are literally quivering as I'm writing this.

*Begins nervous breakdown*

Last edited by iceman (2014-01-25 23:03:33)

DethBringa · 2014-01-26 00:37:24

Been there, 20k... 30k... 40k... 50k.... watching my cash ticking up thinking ok I have enough now... stop dying in my house the vault is getting too full! The lure will get to much and someone will storm me with like 20k tools!.... Then it happens.

haln · 2014-01-26 00:46:08

DethBringa wrote:

Been there, 20k... 30k... 40k... 50k.... watching my cash ticking up thinking ok I have enough now... stop dying in my house the vault is getting too full! The lure will get to much and someone will storm me with like 20k tools!.... Then it happens.

Easy fix for too much money, buy tools and then sell them, that way you don't get more.

colorfusion · 2014-01-26 03:17:21

haln wrote:

DethBringa wrote:
Been there, 20k... 30k... 40k... 50k.... watching my cash ticking up thinking ok I have enough now... stop dying in my house the vault is getting too full! The lure will get to much and someone will storm me with like 20k tools!.... Then it happens.
Easy fix for too much money, buy tools and then sell them, that way you don't get more.

Or paintings, which don't show in the house value.

DethBringa · 2014-01-26 13:04:10

Ahhhh sweet hadn't thought of that. It really does have you fidgeting and panicking when you go over 50k. Been there a few times now since the contest started.

Garcian · 2014-01-26 16:46:34

When my house shows how much its value is, that means half the price of the items in the vault + cash in the vault, right? So if my house is worth $600, I can get $1 USD?

joshwithguitar · 2014-01-26 16:53:28

You're right about house value.

The current exchange rate is $731 = $1 US and it's only going to go up I think and may be more like $1000 = $1 US by the end.

You check live updates on the exchange rate at the contest page: http://thecastledoctrine.net/stealRealMoneyContest.php

jere · 2014-01-26 16:59:59

This game is killing me. I've probably spent 20 hours on this weekend. Got up to 40k once, then died due to an error. Got up to ~20k THREE TIMES and repeatedly died to tiny mistakes. Mind you, the homeowners deserve credit for some very, very good traps. I've probably lost $150 in real world money just this weekend.

Each time, I tell myself I'm done....

I mean, come on. This isn't reasonable. I've got stuff to do here. You're tearing me apart, Jason!

Last edited by jere (2014-01-26 17:03:47)

DethBringa · 2014-01-26 17:37:52

LOL! Try getting to 50k, being robbed, getting to 50k, being robbed, getting to 40k, dying to my own faulty trap design, getting to 40k, getting robbed. (rounded figures of course). Add all that up in real world conversion.
I am currently floating around a safe(ish) amount editing and changing my house with the excess.

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