YCM Easter Event 2017

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

So now that the event is over, what was the Cave of the Forbidden One before it was shut down?

Why was it shut down?

How did you find out about it, Sakura?

And what's going to happen to it now?

It's just the old card trade forum that got renamed and had a password slapped on. Nothing incredible.

 

It was shut down in like 2009 or earlier because of scammers.

 

Mods can see more than regular members.

 

It's going to be hidden again, obviously.

 

[spoiler=how I found each egg]

1. Easy

2. Easy

3. Easy

4. Easy

5. Tripped me up briefly, found after searching for flash star

6. Easy

7. Found by coincidence when checking when BS was last online

8. Easy

9. Easy

10. Confused the sheet out of me until I googled satoshi

11. Had a blind guess and was right

12. Easy

13. Easy

14. Literally just checked all the profiles starting with DL and working my way down until I found it. Took maybe ten minutes.

15. I pretty much immediately knew what the hint was talking about, but it took a little bit of searching to figure out which thread.

16. Found totally coincidentally when checking when she was last online

17. Basically immediately knew it was about links, took a few minutes to figure out which thread

18. Checked my own profile like thirty times before linking voltex without looking

19. Easy

20. Legit can't remember this one, so I probably found it by digging through member profiles

21. Found completely on accident, I literally don't remember how

22. After confirming with sakura he realized Armz's profile was inaccessible, I found this and asked "why the funk" for several minutes. Still don't know why we enshrined this.

23. I somehow was able to guess what JAL stood for, and somehow knew what the hint was talking about. This was easy, but only because of hysterical luck

24. Thank god for being able to search profiles by location

 

25. funk this math, I just found it by digging through profiles and threads

26. Easy

27. See: 25

28. I think my frustration with this hint is known. Found the member while skimming through the advanced member group, before throwing my computer mouse at the wall.

29. Easy

30. Found this while amusing the idea of "let's check out merc's rp hall of fame just in case"

31. Easy

32. See: 27

33. This should have been in a thread about the lights. In any case, found it while glancing in archive forum and going "why is a two day old thread here what the funk"

34. I actually did the math for this, and I am now glad I didn't take calculus. funk that noise.

35. funk this egg. Just found it in a mad guess of searching "latias" because I had already found 39 other eggs and was super done with sheet, and sakura's fake accounts are obvious AF

36. Found while looking at a previous thread because I was curious how the old eggs looked.

37. This sure was a mess, especially considering it was inaccessible for the first few days of the event. In any case, I solved it pretty fast and helped sakura make it actually work

38. See: 32

39. Yeah, I just found this while checking sakura's slew of fake accounts that I knew about

40. Literally searched threads for "spambot"

 

 

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Yeah, Cave of the Forbidden One = Card Trade. Was closed around 2008-ish (judging from Danilus [or w/e his name is] posting that the section is closed). I wasn't here when it got closed and only found out about it after looking through the forums in ACP. I'll rename the forum, then hide it again after a week. So look in there while you still got time.

 

Just for the record, none of the fake accounts used are mine (in the sense that I ever logged onto them). I admit that they were too obvious (though part of them were Zootopia-based). As for #37, I have no idea why the redirect error existed for the rest of you; nor why I didn't have it out from day 1 (might've forgotten to set the permissions to let you guys see the redirect forum).

 

To be fair, the ones with math/engineering equations could've been found by sheer searching and not having to do them (if you had time to search everything), but it would've made it much quicker if you solved the equations.

 

As for (real) Armz, I knew that his account was banned (by his request) and was inaccessible to everyone who isn't staff (I'm not going to leave an egg on profiles/threads you can't access). That's why I mentioned that some of you might've looked for real Armz; because that would've clicked first. Just to be clear, I thought about him for more than just posting reaction pics (though I never did talk to him much).

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I mean, if you changed the name, set up the profile, and had control over it, it's your account.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

For 2018, either make them less obvious or use obscure members that already existed. I probably ended up modifying member accounts due to theme, but meh.

 

That being said, if you guys have suggestions for future events, speak up now.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

In a game where each person is supposed to be working independently, each egg should be reasonably findable by anyone. By this, I mean that references to really old stuff is generally a bad idea. It alienates many people searching, forcing them to just grind through threads and members until they find what they are looking for.

 

The math problems were an awful idea, put simply. Trust me when I say that I know as well as anyone that it is difficult to keep people interested in a challenging event, but this was challenging in the worst way.

 

It shouldn't be so personal to the moderator who put it together. A frightening portion of the eggs were related to either zootopia or reindeer. I get that those are your interests, Jason, but I don't think it appeals to enough people to be such a significant part of the event. Zootopia was a great movie, sure, but what does it have to do with easter, beyond the main character being a bunny (which is a connection that was curiously not capitalized upon).

 

40 eggs is too much. There, I said it. When there are that many eggs it forces a portion of them to just be really weak, or just obscure (the challenge eggs in particular).

 

I don't know how much peer review went into this, but I feel like however much there was, there should have been more. A lot of the hints seemed to point much more toward the wrong places than they did toward the actual egg. A decent number that I found without use of the hints, I checked what the hint was for it and kinda just went "Really, Sakura? Really?"

 

I think this mostly covers it, if I think of anything else I will bring it up.

[~British Soul~]

The math problems were an awful idea, put simply. Trust me when I say that I know as well as anyone that it is difficult to keep people interested in a challenging event, but this was challenging in the worst way.

I agree, the math problems were an awful idea. Given what was required to solve them, I decided to not bother going for them.

[Chaosix]

After looking at the first 24, i still don't know who half of those people are.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Part of the reason Zootopia stuff was thrown in here was because of Judy Hopps (though more of the eggs could've drawn more on her being a bunny, instead of being generic hints related to the movie [and having you do computational work]). I had this up in the mod forum for a while (and yes, the other mods knew what was going on), but was generally my design for the most part.

 

(Zai provided the location for #30 though)

 

Things to consider:

• Cutting down the amount of eggs for next year, because yeah, 40 was a lot (despite have the foresight to prepare a couple months in advance).
  • Part of it was due to 2015's event; I underestimated how many eggs would be needed and the speed in which members would find them. Last year was fine (though no one found them all).
• Different themes / locations
• Difficulty level lowered (or not requiring heavy math/physics, though you did have a chemistry-based thing for Riddler's April Fools event). That, and stuff members can generally access on their own.
  • Again though, challenge eggs are meant to be harder than the others. Standard eggs are meant to be relatively easy to find.
• Timing of the event (I did this during final project periods, and would've liked to have done it in March)

 

 

I agree, the math problems were an awful idea. Given what was required to solve them, I decided to not bother going for them.

 

27 and 38 are the ones that were the most difficult, given you needed to draw FBD to determine forces and know how reactions work.

 

WolframAlpha was an option for #34 if you wanted to do it. But yeah, double integrals (or even singular ones in general) are things that most people usually don't touch.

 

There's a calculator for 32 (well, determining velocity anyway). Otherwise, the formula itself isn't hard (plug in numbers).

 

25 just had a force and a known distance. All that you needed to do was simply plug in the values into the moment equation (first one), then determine what does the value mean. You would need to multiply by the gravitational force (standard). Even if you messed up on the sign convention, you would've been fine.

 

(I probably shouldn't say that 25 / 32 were the easier ones, because while the formulas are simple and calculators do exist, they still require a basic knowledge of physics.)

 

After looking at the first 24, i still don't know who half of those people are.

• Black Enforcer (my 2015 monster account)
• Striker (you know who he is, right?)
• ~BS~
• Zai
• Roxas
• Zextra
• El Make (old veteran from YCM history; high poster)
• Catman25 (you'd see them often in Showcase, maybe the Pic thread and TCG to some extent)
• Darj (you see him very often)
• Kotaro (YCM vet from the old days)
• WTFauKorean (Relatively active member from 2013 and earlier)
• Armz (you know the original one; this was a decoy)

[The Frost King]

Yeah, Cave of the Forbidden One = Card Trade. Was closed around 2008-ish (judging from Danilus [or w/e his name is] posting that the section is closed). I wasn't here when it got closed and only found out about it after looking through the forums in ACP. I'll rename the forum, then hide it again after a week. So look in there while you still got time.

 

Speaking of this, when are you gonna take the password off of it?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

The password can be found where hint 26 is; hence why it was important that you found that egg if you wanted access to #37. But since the event is over, I can remove it.

[~British Soul~]

27 and 38 are the ones that were the most difficult, given you needed to draw FBD to determine forces and know how reactions work.

I didn't even though what FBD was (due to me not doing that in math class) so I'd have been at a loss anyway.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

FBD = free-body diagrams [i probably should've written it out]

 

If you took physics during high school (or the equivalent in your country), you probably should've seen them at some point. Essentially, isolate whatever known forces you have from the actual structure/object (or draw a barebones version), then use them to determine reactions. Math courses don't have that from what I know. 

 

===

I provided examples of such; 27 is partly messy, but that's a general idea (bridge is represented by a simple bar, arrows denote forces given).

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Sakura, I think you are missing the point. It isn't as much a matter of "these math problems were too difficult, could you explain to us how to solve them?" it more a case of "why the funk do we have to do math for this, who thought this was a good idea?".

 

Also, the April Fools event has nothing to do with chemistry, at least not beyond what could be gleaned just by looking at a periodic table. That said, it wasn't solved either, but that's more a case of nobody actually cared/ycm is super bad at puzzles.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Alright, next year will have less computational work (or if you have to do math, it'll be basic stuff that you can do on your own). 

 

That being said, for those of you who didn't find egg 26, I have removed the passwords for Cepheus/Er Rai, so go look at Card Trades while you still can. 

[Fusion X. Denver]

27 and 38 are the ones that were the most difficult, given you needed to draw FBD to determine forces and know how reactions work.

 

WolframAlpha was an option for #34 if you wanted to do it. But yeah, double integrals (or even singular ones in general) are things that most people usually don't touch.

 

There's a calculator for 32 (well, determining velocity anyway). Otherwise, the formula itself isn't hard (plug in numbers).

 

25 just had a force and a known distance. All that you needed to do was simply plug in the values into the moment equation (first one), then determine what does the value mean. You would need to multiply by the gravitational force (standard). Even if you messed up on the sign convention, you would've been fine.

I won't harp on the math thing, but I wasn't able to follow this here, let alone the math questions. I haven't done serious math since 2012 and even then it was part of gen ed.

I'd recommend focusing more on logic puzzles and lightening the difficulty a little bit for the hints. I do get that rapid-searching every thread/member on the page is a strategy a lot of people will take (including me, I've done that) but it'd probably be better to avoid designing hints with that expectation.

 

Other than that, I think it's fine sticking with the current formula.

[♪ ♪Aria ♪ ♪]

Congratulations to those all who have participated on this event, and an outstanding and extravagant achievement for Nano/Giga for finding all the eggs and cracking all the riddles....Thanks to the event organizer as well as the participants too...

Well, to be honest, I found at least 4 eggs by luck, searching this and there without no clue where the egg could end up...

As for the eggs I've missed

8. number 8 has to do with a farewell thread, and a great member, but I thought it was in Misc, never thought it showed up in the news

15. Number 15 has something to do with Night (.kids..), but I didn't manage to find it, since it is on the second post by Thar in the thread, pretty tricky...

23. I thought JAL is Java Automated Language, never thought of Japanese Airlines, so tough luck for me

As for eggs 34 and 37 I have no idea where these are, I thought a Christmas Wishlist? Banlist? something to do with lists, and one of these is in Cepheus

 

-Good luck to y'all for next year, until then-

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

...I gave you the answers on the previous page, did you even look?

 

8 was a farewell thread (yeah, in the same forum as this one; and 36). You probably missed it because you were gone for a chunk of the time Black was a moderator.

 

15 was Night themed. Who else on this forum says "kids" (though he's been using another term lately if you read his posts).

 

34 was the last version of the Age Game (most of you know why the original one Kenta/Darkplant made got removed; it's still in Games, but just hidden). You either had the choice of searching every relevant thread, or do the problem listed in the hint.

 

37 required you to have found another egg and enter the password; at which time, I have removed.

 

===

As for Fusion, yeah, the level of the academic hints will need to dialed down A LOT for next year. Format might remain the same; most of them are easy eggs (1 - 24 were supposed to be relatively simple to get to; 25 and beyond weren't).

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

I did some calculations of my own and determined that the optimal number of "academic hints" is 0.

[Nathanael D. Striker]

I did some calculations of my own and determined that the optimal number of "academic hints" is 0.

Not even basic Stats and Economics (supply/demand equations, etc.)?

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Not everyone has taken statistics, Striker (I only got through it last semester, and thankfully it wasn't the engineering version that my advisor said would require high level calc). 

 

For future hints, would probably drop to general multiplication or something you should be able to do in middle school (or really stuff you probably do when playing Yugioh [basic arithmetic]) or simple variables. Not the integrals that hint 34 forced you to do, or the structural analysis. 

 

 

(Unless you guys want them all to be riddle-based)

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Or, just spitballing here, not use math at all because it is exceedingly unfun and there are infinitely better ways the eggs can be hidden.

[♪ ♪Aria ♪ ♪]

 

..I gave you the answers on the previous page, did you even look?

 

8 was a farewell thread (yeah, in the same forum as this one; and 36). You probably missed it because you were gone for a chunk of the time Black was a moderator.

 

15 was Night themed. Who else on this forum says "kids" (though he's been using another term lately if you read his posts).

 

34 was the last version of the Age Game (most of you know why the original one Kenta/Darkplant made got removed; it's still in Games, but just hidden). You either had the choice of searching every relevant thread, or do the problem listed in the hint.

 

37 required you to have found another egg and enter the password; at which time, I have removed.

Actually, I have looked at the answers before posting my concerns for missed eggs.

Well, for the eggs Iv'e found

[spoiler=Spoiler]Egg1: Something to do with waking up in the morning....must be in the games section

Egg 2: Black Enforcer as a Crime Fighter

Egg 3: This has something to do with codes or scripting, so I thought maybe in duel portal or YGPRO

Egg 4: Got lucky for it

Egg 5: Something to do with reindeers and flash star...

Egg 6: Something to to with natives

Egg 7: Got lucky again

Egg 9:  Another lucky break

Egg 10: this is pretty obvious for pokemon enthusiasts

Egg 11: Got lucky agains

Egg 12: Something to do with art and crafts

Egg 13 & 14 & 16: found by sheer luck

Egg 17: the newest card type is a long way to go

Egg 18 & 20: Luck

Egg 19: Something to do with cooking a meal

21: The spirits of Hawaiian legend

22&24: LUCK

25: Found it by chance

26: Finding ideas for cards seems pretty obvious

27: Luck while searching for zootopia archetypes

28. A rabbit which is recently released

29:  Found through the special topic in misc. and 666

31: Searched for another flash flyer

32: Officer Judy Hopps

33: a reindeer archetype to memory of christmas

35: found through the shop

36: This is pretty obvious 

38: Luck

39: Potluck party

40: 777 Luck

 

[Sethera]

Huh, there were even less people participating than I thought. Though I suppose there's just a lot going on in all our lives at the moment. But I'm impressed that there were people that got 30+ eggs. That's pretty dang cool. Still, looking forward to that egg logo, which is, admittedly, the main reason I participate in these.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

Part of it could be that 10-12% [4 - 5] of the eggs involved computational work that's classed as advanced, which was a recurring complaint here. (Again though, I did warn in advance that some of the hints would require computations, but the level should've been lowered to things most members can do). That, and/or it's that time where final projects need to be done and ultimately examinations. 

 

I'll get to the awards after finals (which are this coming week, or sometime between Monday and Friday, because I have a gap period there.)

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

No sakura, you somehow still seem to not get it. It's like it goes in one ear and out the other. Warning about them doesn't change the fact that having eggs that require work like that is just a generally bad idea. I don't know if you somehow think that's fun, but generally speaking, people don't. Many people who did the event simply didn't bother with those hints, because who would?

 

Any nonzero amount of egg hints like this in the future is the wrong amount.