Spring MouseAdventure 2009

[Stan4dSteph]

GD, one comment from Joe regarding your team was that he noticed you seemed to be doing a lot of brute-forcing of the puzzles rather than going to find the information that you would need to solve them, like doing the dominoes without finding the signs that gave the ride vehicle names.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

GD, one comment from Joe regarding your team was that he noticed you seemed to be doing a lot of brute-forcing of the puzzles rather than going to find the information that you would need to solve them, like doing the dominoes without finding the signs that gave the ride vehicle names.

That was the only one we did that on. Well, that and the Parking Structure, and that one paid off well. Of course, by the time Joe was asking us if we'd visited the attraction, we already had all of the ride vehicles correct, but had just swapped a single letter in the answer.

[BarTopDancer]

It was extremely disheartening to be told they were "looking for us" after the BTMRR quest. We did it the first time and we were in line right in front of GD and CP. We had to ride again (and had the foresight to get a FP) so we did that and got the rest of the info and by the time we came back we were told they were looking for us. We thought she was kidding but when we got to the trains we ran into AVP who told us the same thing. That really took the wind out of our sails for a few hours. We got it back at the lockers when we saw how many bags were left.

[Prudence]

We should have gone ahead and checked in. We didn't get back to the Frontierland area until about 4:05, at which point I figured it was pointless so we didn't bother trying to find the finish line and instead went and checked into the hotel.

We spent too long on the first quest in DTD - should have made a beeline for the park as soon as I had enough letters to know how the directions ended; stupid completeness drive. Didn't mind bruteforcing the dominoes - knew all the conveyances except the first and it took us less time to do that way than it would have to go look it up. (especially once I got my brain around it being a question - then it was easy.) The buildings were easy, but we kept missing one of the window things. The logic puzzle would have been fine had we not guess wrong on which floor the soda machines were on. Also, should have just backtracked on the walkway to get the movie date rather than deal with riding the tram. (Hell, I've been on that route enough times I should have just REMEMBERED the movie date.) Finally - shouldn't have bothered with the Fun Fair quest. I suspected there was enough info in the quest set-up, and there was. Oh well.

[innerSpaceman]

Bruteforcing is a winning strategy. I wish we had done a little more of that. Best example is probably the Flik's Fun Fair quest which you didn't have to complete as soon as you found out the answer was a French word inside the Blue Sky Cellar.

A more obvious example is the Mickey & Friends logic problem, which you could have done from anywhere if you were pretty familiar with the parking structure. Advantage Disneyland geeks.


Anyway, it's always wise to see if you can figure out the question (leading to the answer) from very incomplete information. Often that's the case, and it's a time-waster to complete every step of every quest when only a portion of them are necessary to get to the correct answer. Eye on the Ball.



* * * *

Ok, so what was with the Double Time Penalty on a "Jump Start" (skipping the entire quest) if done in DCA? If that was part of the rules (and I assume it's in the written rules somewhere), wouldn't it have been along the lines of fair play to announce that when the annoucement was made about a Jump Start incurring a 40-minute penalty?

Logically, teams might not want to jump to the jump start unless they really need it, i.e., more likely later in the game than earlier. In fact, it was clearly announced that Jump Starts (and Roadside Assistances) could not be used in the last half hour of the game. Since the last third of the game was in DCA, I really think it was a low blow not mentioning that time penalties are doubled in DCA.


* * *

Here's the part where everyone assumes I've got nothing nice to say. So let me reiterate, the quests were clever, fun, took advantage of exploring the Resort in depth, and rewarded intimate knowledge of the Resort. Playing provided for a really good time. I've done tons of mouseadventures, and this was among the good ones.

[MovieBoy]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Ok, so what was with the Double Time Penalty on a "Jump Start" (skipping the entire quest) if done in DCA? If that was part of the rules (and I assume it's in the written rules somewhere), wouldn't it have been along the lines of fair play to announce that when the annoucement was made about a Jump Start incurring a 40-minute penalty?

Logically, teams might not want to jump to the jump start unless they really need it, i.e., more likely later in the game than earlier. In fact, it was clearly announced that Jump Starts (and Roadside Assistances) could not be used in the last half hour of the game. Since the last third of the game was in DCA, I really think it was a low blow not mentioning that time penalties are doubled in DCA.


* * *

Here's the part where everyone assumes I've got nothing nice to say. So let me reiterate, the quests were clever, fun, took advantage of exploring the Resort in depth, and rewarded intimate knowledge of the Resort. Playing provided for a really good time. I've done tons of mouseadventures, and this was among the good ones.

The sticker that sealed the Speed MouseAdventure portion in DCA said that all penalties were doubled. This was a necessary evil for a couple of reasons, but the biggest was because this was an elimination of envelopes, as you completed quests your odds increased on guessing the correct envelope. In the interest of rewarding teams who worked the quests (weather actually doing all the work or brut forcing them or reverse engineering them) over teams that just wanted to guess and rip open envelopes, we needed a big enough penalty and the easiest way was to double them.

We couldn't really say anything about this at the start because of the format of the game. In the race format, teams don't know where they are going and must strategize quest-by-quest. We couldn't say, penalties are double for your last 5 quests, because how would you know?

I'm glad you enjoyed the game. This was the first race style I worked on and this format is quite a bit harder to figure out and keep the quests fun and interesting.

I'm still chuckling about you holding the envelope up to the sun to see if you could read it. It was one of the first things I checked for because that's what we would have done. What did you decide on for the Detour? It was a kick to hear teams discuss the merits of one over the other.

[innerSpaceman]

Wow, I understand the logic. But to keep that "Rule" a deliberate secret is just about the most underhanded and disreputable thing I've ever seen pulled by the mouseadventure staff.

Shenanigans and unfair. We were saving our Jump Start for if we really needed it. When we did, and we wanted to use it, a sudden and deliberately hidden rule was revealed. That just plain sucks, and I can't see how we can trust the rules of the game if they can be changed without prior notice during the game.

The rule was stated as a Jump Start gets a 40 minute penalty. That turns out to have been a deliberate lie.


I am beyond disappointed.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by MovieBoy

I'm still chuckling about you holding the envelope up to the sun to see if you could read it. It was one of the first things I checked for because that's what we would have done. What did you decide on for the Detour? It was a kick to hear teams discuss the merits of one over the other.

We did that too, even though we knew we wouldn't be able to see anything. We also love DCA MA central being in the Farms area. Easy to spot, centrally located.

When we were heading back into DCA a woman stopped us to ask if we knew where the wine tasting was. We were in the depths of a discussion and I pointed over to the wine area saying "I think it's over there". What I wanted to say was "does it look like we've been drinking or that we need a drink?". But that would have been rude.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Yeah, you save a jumpstart or whatever until the end because you may really need it, and then the rules change...that's messed up.

Perhaps the wording should be something like "at some point during the game the penalties will double. We can't tell you when..." I'm reminded of hidden idols on Survivor, where you're not sure if they're in play or will be in play in the next round, and you have to gamble.

[BarTopDancer]

Humm. I didn't think of it like that CP.

Maybe "penalties will double in the last hour (or whenever) of the game".