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Nov-10-2006 17:12

I was just perusing the weekly high scorers (wow! you guys are amazing...) and was wondering just how it is possible to complete so many cases (200+!) in one week. By my count, 7X12 is 84, plus maybe another 4 favors per day - that still only makes 112, if you solved everything. Where are the other 100+ cases coming from?

Nov-11-2006 14:48

I made a foolish mistake in a lot of assumptions. And I am truly sad that I spent so many hours achieving a goal. That was really based on a wrong assumption. So what does it feel to find out that you spent 1000s of hours on a wrong assumption. Really really shit. I am really sad. If I had known, that the amount of experience points that I have could be reached in a matter of weeks, in a fraction of the amount of time I did it. I would have NEVER done it.

It was a stupid mistake on my end, assuming certain rules, and a sense of honor in achieving points. That’s all. As for any other debate, I rather leave that to those that are still playing the game and in this community.

Nov-11-2006 14:53

First of all, thanks for moving this back.

Second of all, I have nothing but respect for Nikkie and what she's accomplished in this game. You did things, in my opinion, the right, ethical, fair way and its an honor to try and overtake you :)

Nov-11-2006 15:12

I think that there are rules in Sleuth.

3 False Accusations and you are retired.

Liar/no alibi + PE = Guilty

Etc.

Everything else like the High Score boards are measuring sticks, not rules. They capture a moment in time. They do not proclaim any player better than another, they state who has the most points at that moment. If that moment has passed for a player, and they no longer play the game then they should not feel badly that someone else is now on the list.

I have talked about milestones in the past ( http://noir.playsleuth.com/map/cityhall/post.spy?id=14884 ) and those did not involve judgements of myself against others, but of judging my current self against my past self.

Aralives and Biggie make very good points that they value thier agency and that is the important thing, not the actual fame # that they currently have. In recent celebrations for Hitchhikers of London for their 100th hunt it was pointed out that it is a milestone, not that it made them better than anyone else.

The high scores are there for new people to measure themselves against if they want, to blow past if they want, or to create brand new ways of measuring like Chelsea and Carrie are now doing on the new Arch Villain High Scores.

Chron and his team should feel good about seeing their name at the top of the weekly high score list. They obviously value that number and they put in the hard work to grind out that many cases. If someone else has a different yardstick to measure themselves against it does not mean that they are wrong.

Ben creates the rules, and we just look for ways among ourselves to compete with each other. There is a reason that after you solve a case the options are:

Buy gear
Look at high scores
Purchase skills
Start a new Case

Nov-11-2006 15:29

Thanks for your opinion Ran, and you make several good points.

There is also another rule in Sleuth.

No more than 2 detectives subbed into each agency by one person.

In my eyes, this violates that rule. Its a loophole that needs to be closed. My suggestion for this is to limit the number of cases any detective can have to 32, which is the most you can have with 2 subbed detectives.

Thoughts on this?

Nov-11-2006 15:34

Starting a new thread for that topic now Biggie.

Nov-11-2006 16:01

Many of us are not here for the competition but are here to explore and solve puzzles. However, it is very easy to hand over your password to a Director if you are new and don't know any better.

Nov-11-2006 16:16

I think passwords is getting off the subject a bit.

Nov-11-2006 16:20

For the newbies and people who do not know, assembly line solving cases means, opening a case, getting all suspects, checking your contacts for matching PE evidence, then storing it. Using another detective with different contacts to check and match the physical evidence, then accusing the only person who has a fake alibi that matched the PE. It is not about skill, but about being able to turn over case after case, over and over, doing the same thing day in and day out. You can rack up experience points by the truckload doing this method.

The question that it raises, is this really playing the game?

Nov-11-2006 16:43

NO

In my opinion anyways. First of all, for the newbies, this is a BAD way to go about learning to play the game. You will need to be able to solve AIs on your own in order to Arch Villain Hunt, which is not only fun, but challenging AND gets you great Exp at the same time.

Second of all, its akin to using cheat codes on video games. Sure, you can use it, and you'll finish the game, but did you REALLY win? Or did you just take the easy way out?

Nov-11-2006 17:04

It's finally time for me to make my opinion known publicly on this issue.

There are detectives in this game that on average do 15-20 cases a day ABOVE not only what their personal limits are, but also including the amount of cases their rules-allowed agency "double" should be able to provide them.

My feeling is this:
If you are subscribed, in an agency, and have a double, the MAXIMUM amount of cases per week you can bring into the agency as a distinct player is 224. For people whose weekly high scores are in this range, are subscribed and have an agency "double", I cannot look down at those players seeing as they have paid to maximize their case availability.

When the weekly high numbers show a CLEAR and INDISPUTABLE discrepancy between generally recognized available caseload and (the drastically higher) number of cases as shown on the weekly high score list, there IS a problem. Players who are showing this degree of discrepency must be doing one of two things, as far as I can theorize:
1) Solving the cases of more than the rules-allowed one double under a single detective (according to the agency rule, this would be tantamount to cheating)
2)Solving the cases from other agency members on an established and regular basis under a single detective (which, though the rules don't expressly forbid it, I find it analogous to conning credit card numbers from the elderly). I use that negative analogy because I feel that players who utilize this method of caseload acquisition are in essence stealing rightfully-paid-for gameplay from their subscribed teammates.

I agree with Biggie's idea about limit maximum allowed cases per day; however I would change the system slightly.

Each detective should have a maximum daily case-solving limit of 32 if they are subscribed (12 caes+4 favors*2 detectives in an agency) and 8 if they are not (3 cases, 1 favor*2 detectives in an agency).