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[zugz]

I think it's important to have multiple locks all on the same footing. If you have only one largest lock slot, say, then you're going to be tempted to replace it as soon as even a few people have solved it. If instead you can just ignore it and start storing new notes behind a different lock, then the old lock is going to last in the game, providing challenge and reward to other players, for longer.

I know what you mean about having to remember which of your locks is which. You can always cancel though when it asks which lock to use, then go home and declare the note manually.

I think it's inevitable that new players will be happier solving than creating locks, and so they're going to put their notes behind useless dummy locks. I think that's fine though - it just means that you have to make sure your locks can't be solved by new players! And forcing them to at least make that dummy lock means they see how they're meant to play, even if they ignore it at first.

Meanwhile, I'm currently stuck on NOI:B, NOI:C, and DOR:B/C! So maybe these locks are big enough, yes...

RSS feed here btw: http://intricacy.thegonz.net/mainServerFeed/rss

[Maunomau]

With one big lock I wonder how tempting it really is to replace a lock as soon as few people solve it, for me I've been doing it mostly because the solutions you guys came up with were easier than the one I used to solve it, so assuming I had 1 big lock I don't see why I'd be too quick to replace it assuming it works as I expect it to. But if having just 1 lock isn't good you could just have 2 large locks.

Have you considered something like giving more lock slots the more notes you have(And a limit to amount of notes you can put behind a lock)? It might give me reason to solve locks other than esteem and just for the sake of it. But hmm having some people with tons of locks might seem a bit intimidating to people and stuff which is why a tiered access to bigger/harder locks would keep things more simple.

Anyway I kind of wish there was some way to get more lock slots if you solve or make enough locks or something. I like that at first you have only 3 locks to worry about but once I've done the 3 locks and have some notes behind all of them I might want to do more locks so should I then just randomly replace one of my existing locks or make a another account? Having 1 or 2 big locks that most won't even get to try(or even see) without solving the smaller ones would give me a lot more to do if I want to without really affecting the current system.

Maybe you should add some small limit to how often you can retire a lock. Something like if lock has been solved you can't retire until a day has passed since someone first solved it.

By the way, I've not tried the new NOI:B yet but NOI:C was a nice lock and took some solving.

Nice, your solution was a little different than I was expecting but close enough that I don't really feel the need to prevent doing it the way you did it right away(I could just make the top of the center part flat so you can't move it to right with the hook).
And I see you solved B just now, you did it exactly as I wanted it to be done! Now I just need to solve some locks to add notes behind it.

I also tried to do ZED:C for a while and managed to get the hook and/or ball to the top left area without making the opening I assume is necessary close but couldn't figure out what to do next

[zugz]

New version 0.5.1 up at
 

http://mbays.freeshell.org/intricacy/
; main change is that I've implemented the new scoring system.

The new scoring system should make it clearer why you'd be tempted to replace
a lock once it's been solved by people - you won't get points for their locks
if you put the notes behind your compromised lock.

It's important to have a tight limit on the number of lock slots, so locks do
get retired eventually. It could be increased from three, but I hope it won't
have to be. If you itch to create more locks (which is great to hear!), you
can always start working on eventual replacements for your current ones, or
you could play on the big-lock server (see the forum).

We can't have anything which involves rewarding the player just for having
lots of notes, by the way, because they could just create an alt and get the
reward for solving their alt's locks. This game is meant to be cheat-proof.

I'll be very impressed if anyone solves ZED:C! It should be very hard indeed.
I think ZGZ:A is pretty trick too, btw. But then, I don't see how either of
NOI:C or DOR:C can be possible, which apparently they are...

Edit: ok DOR, you met my challenge and solved both ZED:C and ZGZ:A, and I am
duly very impressed!

[dormir]

Hi Zugz,

Is there any way to recover account access without the password?

I thought there was a problem with the server since I haven't been able to connect for about a month. Normally my client remembers my username/password and will automatically log me in, but last month it seemed to forget that information. I've just created a new account though (DMR) to test the server and found it is working. I just can't find anywhere locally that my login information is saved, encrypted or otherwise.

[Maunomau]

Oh, it has forgotten me too it seems. So I might also need to recover my account since apparently the password I set and maybe entered once or twice half a year ago doesn't seem to be any of the ones I usually use for stuff.

[zugz]

I briefly lost control of the domain name a month ago, but the server should have been working near-continuously for the last few weeks.

Passwords are stored (securely hashed) in metagame.conf in the config directory (~/.intricacy on unix, or something like ...\Application Data\intricacy\ on windows). I don't know why it would have got lost.

There's no way I can find out your passwords, but I can reset them. I'll pm you both about it.

In other news, thanks to the work of one Kevin Eaves, the game now runs on OS X. There's a binary on the website (http://mbays.freeshell.org/intricacy)

[dormir]

Thanks. I'm back in the game (nice password by the way) and I've finally managed to open ZED:B which was stumping me for what felt like several hours when I last played.

It's a shame there have been no challenging locks created by new players. It really is a gratifying game once you get to grips with it and feels like it deserves a larger player base. I feel like I've lost the new-player perspective now, so I'd be curious to hear feedback from anyone bouncing off the game.

[zugz]

Well solved. I do have another even harder one prepared, but I don't want to retire any of my current locks yet.

It would indeed be good to get some feedback from new players. I don't know if there are any potential testers left on this forum, but if any are reading it would be great to hear their thoughts. (But note that the server will be down from now until Sunday (hopefully the last outage for a while).)