Author Topic: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???  (Read 2275 times)

Calilasseia

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The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« on: April 30, 2018, 10:39:41 AM »
Just tried today's puzzles (30th April 2018). Possibly the worst ones I've encountered thus far. The 10 letter in particular seems to have been crafted by a fulminatingly florid sadist.

Usually, I reach "better" after about 20 minutes. These three leave me struggling to come up with recognisable words I'd use reasonably often, and that's despite the fact that I routinely use, elsewhere, a raft of terms from various disciplines that invariably end up flagged as "rare" or "not known" here ...

From what bowels of the Ninth Circle did the puzzle generator drag these up from?
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pat

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2018, 08:13:49 PM »
I don't think they're any more difficult than usual - in fact I got a rosette fairly quickly in the standard puzzle. With some puzzles the words jump out at you and with others, even the 'common' common words take ages to get. I guest it's the latter case with you today, C. I'm sure you'll kick yourself when you see the solution.

jane@manutd

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2018, 08:19:41 AM »
I’m brain dead on the Challenge one!! Can not for the life of me see the common words but strangely I have the 9 letter one!!!

Greynomad

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2018, 12:10:20 PM »
Out of interest, and I am certain I could probably find the answer if I did a search, I wonder if someone can help me.

I assume firstly that the change of games is coordinated world wide, with just the local time for the changes being different for each country. Is that a correct assumption, based on the fact that players from all around the world seem to start the games at the same time? As a guide at this time of year after Daylight saving has finished, here in South Australia, I have game changes at 0130 (Challenge), 0930 (Standard), and 1730 (10 letter). During Summer time they are one hour later each day

If that is so, then when a player quotes "April 30th games" as in this thread, is that date based on the local date, or the date of the game in the first country to get that game (likely to be in the Pacific or NZ or Australia)? I say this as with the time differences being quite substantial, as I am playing the latest 2 games on May 1st, at 1130 am in Adelaide, South Australia, it is, as I believe, still evening time in Pacific Continental US, and earlier still in Hawaii, on April 30th.

As I say, just a question out of interest. I have not posted any letters or words as I do not wish to place a spoiler into the conversation.


Alan W

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2018, 02:26:42 PM »
You are correct, Greynomad. The puzzle start times are set in terms of UTC, alias GMT. The Standard puzzle dated the 30th starts at midnight UTC at the beginning of that day. The Challenge puzzle starts 8 hours earlier and the ten-letter puzzle 8 hours later. (This means that in some time zones a puzzle will have tomorrow's date on it when it starts - just as the cover date on a magazine may be some time in the future.)

I assume the puzzles Calilasseia was writing about were those current at the time he posted. That would mean the 10-letter puzzle that gave him especial grief would actually have been labeled with the 29th as its date - the HIEROGLYPH puzzle.
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Greynomad

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2018, 02:31:27 PM »
Thank you Alan.

Les303

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2018, 07:43:11 AM »
Just tried today's puzzles (30th April 2018). Possibly the worst ones I've encountered thus far. The 10 letter in particular seems to have been crafted by a fulminatingly florid sadist.

Usually, I reach "better" after about 20 minutes. These three leave me struggling to come up with recognisable words I'd use reasonably often, and that's despite the fact that I routinely use, elsewhere, a raft of terms from various disciplines that invariably end up flagged as "rare" or "not known" here ...

From what bowels of the Ninth Circle did the puzzle generator drag these up from?

G'day Cal,

I do agree that these games were a little harder than average, just another attraction & challenge of chi to ensure that you don't become to blase after a run of easier games.
I assume by your score that you pulled up stumps after your usual 20 minutes, sometimes you just have to grit your teeth & spend a little extra time to find those words that are not jumping out at you. ( 40 of the common words were found by a minimum of 130 players )

The most frustrating thing for me in that 10 letter game was that i was sure that i knew what the 10 letter word  was, i just had no bloody idea how to spell HIEROGLYPH ( i also missed RIPELY ), needless to say my hit rate took quite a battering.

Happy Chi - ing.

« Last Edit: May 02, 2018, 07:47:06 AM by Les303 »

TRex

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2018, 08:35:02 AM »
If I refer to a date of the puzzle, I use the date which appears beneath the four 'tabs'. At this moment, the Standard and the 10 Letters have a date of Tuesday 1 May, but the Challenge Wednesday 2 May. Local time is 17:35 Tuesday.

Greynomad

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Re: The 30th April Puzzles ... What The ... ???
« Reply #8 on: May 02, 2018, 10:44:23 AM »
TRex.

I think I will revert to that dating as well.

As a matter of interest, when you posted at 1735 local time Tuesday May 1st, the time was 0835 Wednesday morning, May 2nd in Adelaide, South Australia. This illustrates the reasoning behind my question.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question