Suggestion: Scores are too lenient.

[DeltaLeeds]

I personally find that the score range should reach 0 when the year guessed is 50 years more or less than the actual year.

Formulas I... formulated: Δyear = Absolute(real_year - guessed_year)

• Simple formula suggestion: Score range for 0 - 5000 should be like 0 - 50 years minimum, so 100 score lost for every year.

  5000 - (100 * Δyear)
  >50 years: 0

More exponential / complex formula:

• Formula 1: 5000 - (2 * Δyear ^ 2) The complex formula is somewhat interesting, the score drops further the more off you get:

  0 - 10 years apart: 4800 - 5000
  11 - 20 years: 4200 - 4758
  21 - 30 years: 3200 - 4118
  31 - 40 years: 1800 - 3078
  41 - 50 years: 0 - 1638
  >50 years: 0

  Problem with this formula: Smaller Δyear values have extremely lenient values compared to before. 10 years off is still 4800.

• Formula 2: An inverted formula from the above where the score drop off is higher in the beginning would be: 2 * ((50 - Δyear)^2)

  0 - 10 years apart: 3362 - 5000
  11 - 20 years: 1922 - 3200
  21 - 30 years: 882 - 1800
  31 - 40 years: 242 - 800
  41 - 50 years: 0 - 200
  >50 years: 0

  Problem with this formula: Smaller Δyear values drop off way too much. Getting 1 year off is losing a whopping 198 points and 6 years off is already less than 4000 points.

• Solution for ideal formula: Combine the two together but weigh it more for the lenient formula so that smaller Δyear has a higher score, but a not too lenient score like in formula 1. Here is my final proposed formula: (Formula 1 * 1.25 + Formula 2 * 0.75) / 2 Results become as follows:

  0 - 10 years apart: 4200 - 5000
  11 - 20 years: 3300 - 4114
  21 - 30 years: 2300 - 3204
  31 - 40 years: 1200 - 2194
  41 - 50 years: 0 - 1084
  >50 years: 0

[s0er3n]

fn calculate_score(real_year: f64, guessed_year: f64) -> f64 {
    5000.0 * f64::exp(-f64::abs(real_year - guessed_year) as f64 / (MAX_YEAR - MIN_YEAR) as f64)
}

this is the current function @DeltaLeeds

[DeltaLeeds]

Here's how you can test out the formula in this c playground site

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>

int main() {
    float formula_one;
    float formula_two;
    float formula_one_weight = 1.25;
    float formula_two_weight = 0.75;
    for (int delta_year = 0;delta_year<=50;delta_year++){
        formula_one = 5000 - 2 * pow(delta_year,2);
        formula_two =  2 * pow(50 - delta_year, 2);
        float result = (formula_one * formula_one_weight + formula_two * formula_two_weight)/2;
        printf("Year difference with result: %i\nFormula 1 score: %f\nFormula 2 score: %f\nResult: %f\n\n", delta_year, formula_one, formula_two, result);
    }

    return 0;
}

[s0er3n]

@DeltaLeeds I think scores are almost perfect but i would like to have it a bit harsher

[s0er3n]

https://github.com/s0er3n/whenwasthisphototaken.com/blob/fff5e0c9224ceccaf165aaa682c9b7b46bd5bc07/src/game.rs#L17 here is the code