1.03.05 Co-Keypad Optional Driving Puzzles

From DoctorWhen

Status

::Revise::

Location

N/A

Type

Optional, ongoing Puzzle

Plot Setup

More Co-Keypads are broken! The teams need to fix them.

Props

N/A

How To Give To Teams

See 1.03_Tachyon_Midi_Ether_Co-Keypad_1#Response_to_Correct_Answer.

Plot Point to Convey

(Almost) all the co-keypads need to be re-designed before the time machine is fixed.

Short Description

Originally we thought there was only one co-keypad broken, but now there's a lot more. Teams can fix them as they're travelling, if they wish.

Open Time Period

Available at the start of the game, although we'll only inform teams about it 15 minutes after they solve 1.03_Tachyon_Midi_Ether_Co-Keypad_1. Realistically we expect the earliest teams to start on this around 11:00 and the latest teams to start this around 12:20, so call it an average start time of 11:40.

Staff Instructions

N/A

Detailed Description

There's a lot more broken keypads than we thought.

In reality, there are 488 puzzles, but we're not going to use all of them in the event. We're going to use a maximum of 16 puzzles per team, so that's 256 puzzles the first week and 272 puzzles the second week. Initially only 4 puzzles per team are going to be released (64 puzzles first weel, 68 puzzles the second).

The puzzles can be seen here: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/puzzles/

Their answers can be seen here: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/answers/

A team requests CRAP (Connection Requirements Analysis for Pads) through the GROSS system here:

Technical Setup

Here's the steps for resetting this event:

  1. Make sure that http://weihwa.com/~whuang/nodir/doctorwhen/gross/teams.csv has the correct teams.
  2. Go to the working directory: cd /home/www/doctorwhen/trenchwood.com/public_html/keypad
  3. Clean out the logs: rm /home/www/doctorwhen/trenchwood.com/public_html/keypad/log/*
  4. reset all the database crud:
    1. mysql -u laboratory --password=forscience < resetteams.sql
    2. mysql -Dtrenchwood -u laboratory --password=forscience < puzinfo.sql
  5. Go to the admin console at: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/nimda.html
  6. In the "Team Info" section, click on "Release" next to each team name. (Try to spread out the roles a bit instead of doing all the same roles together.)
  7. For good measure, have some fake teams solve some unclaimed puzzles (click the tiny buttons in the "auto-solve" area, but only next to red numbers).

Details for what's in those sql files is at: http://weihwa.com/~whuang/nodir/doctorwhen/gross/more_notes.txt (see the bottom of the document)

Puzzle Answer

Answers to each co-keypad can be found at http://trenchwood.com/keypad/answers/ .

Puzzle Solution

Answers to each co-keypad can be found at http://trenchwood.com/keypad/answers/ .

Budget

??

Credits

Wei-Hwa

Manager

?

Hints

Ask teams what they have done, probing details if necessary (often this will get a team unstuck by themselves).

None

Response to Correct Answer

Responding to Team's solutions

Note that since you are a beleaguered lab assistant trying to learn a new system, you have some leeway if you screw up the GROSS system, but try not to.

Make sure you understand the ADMIN CONSOLE: http://trenchwood.com/keypad/nimda.html

  • Upper-left: Where team requests show up
  • Upper-right: Where you can release new puzzles to the teams
  • Lower-left: status of each puzzle
  • Lower-center: Team names and passcodes
  • Lower-right: "Auto-solve" (cheat by having dummy teams solve puzzles)

When a team is ready to submit an answer via GROSS, they will send a request through the GROSS system, which will then prompt them to either e-mail a photograph of their design or a photograph of a solution page to lab@trenchwood.com.

This request will show up on the Admin console in the upper-left. You'll see the team name, the submission time, a TASC number that links to the correct answer, and two buttons "Correct" and "Wrong". When you get the e-mail, go to the console, check the answer carefully to see if the team is correct or wrong, and then click on the appropriate button. Also, REPLY TO THEIR EMAIL, telling them whether their answer was correct or wrong (since the GROSS system isn't very good at notifying them of that)

Once you have dealt with a request, it still shows up (so you can see past requests if you need to), unless you click on "Hide" to hide it away. By clicking on "show all", you can see hidden requests and reveal them again.

Managing the flow of Puzzles

The middle area shows some Timing Stats. It should be pretty self-explanatory. Use some common sense when interpreting the results.

If teams are solving puzzles too quickly, you can release new puzzles by clicking the "Release!" buttons in the upper-right.

If teams are solving puzzles too slowly, you can have "fake teams" solve puzzles by clicking on the grid in the lower-right. Try to choose fake teams that are behind in the color competition (see http://trenchwood.com/keypad/dashboard.php ) to keep the race close. Try to only solve puzzles that are in red or purple (those are the puzzles that haven't been claimed by teams) -- teams hate it when you solve a puzzle they were working on.

To Do

Other Notes

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