First, I have to say that I'm relatively addicted to this game, despite not actually knowing about 90% of what the hell I'm actually typing out.
One thing that I do notice, though, is that the scores assigned to each puzzle seem somewhat unbalanced. In some cases, the problem requires a significant amount of typing to solve, but only gives a relatively small amount of points.
I'm curious whether you would be interested in a solution that balanced the scoring out by having the score be calculated based directly on the complexity of the solution. There are several approaches that I think could yield interesting results, but the one that currently sticks in my mind as a good balance follows (with the intermediary point values needing to be played around with to better balance the relative complexity of typing a simple number versus a symbol versus some LaTeX construction)
The intermediary point value of a particular problem is defined by the summation of the following points in the defined solution (not the user-entered solution):
For each literal character, either number or variable, add 1 point.
For each symbol or use of \frac, \mathbf, or \mathrm, add 3 points.
For each use of \left or \right, add 5 points.
For each use of any other LaTeX command, add 8 points.
For each use of a LaTeX environment, add 10 points.
Each problem should be calculated, and then assigned final scores based on the ratio of their points against the points of the hardest problem.
Hello!
First, I have to say that I'm relatively addicted to this game, despite not actually knowing about 90% of what the hell I'm actually typing out.
One thing that I do notice, though, is that the scores assigned to each puzzle seem somewhat unbalanced. In some cases, the problem requires a significant amount of typing to solve, but only gives a relatively small amount of points.
I'm curious whether you would be interested in a solution that balanced the scoring out by having the score be calculated based directly on the complexity of the solution. There are several approaches that I think could yield interesting results, but the one that currently sticks in my mind as a good balance follows (with the intermediary point values needing to be played around with to better balance the relative complexity of typing a simple number versus a symbol versus some LaTeX construction)
The intermediary point value of a particular problem is defined by the summation of the following points in the defined solution (not the user-entered solution): For each literal character, either number or variable, add 1 point. For each symbol or use of \frac, \mathbf, or \mathrm, add 3 points. For each use of \left or \right, add 5 points. For each use of any other LaTeX command, add 8 points. For each use of a LaTeX environment, add 10 points.
Each problem should be calculated, and then assigned final scores based on the ratio of their points against the points of the hardest problem.