Feature requests

Eoin Monaghan · Post by **Eoin Monaghan** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:27 am

A happenings archive?

I've been away for the last week and I dunno if I have missed some max games or game of the week worthy matches, and so it would be nice to be able to see them without having to search player's personal happenings pages to see if anything of note had happened.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:31 am

Eoin Monaghan wrote:A happenings archive?

I've been away for the last week and I dunno if I have missed some max games or game of the week worthy matches, and so it would be nice to be able to see them without having to search player's personal happenings pages to see if anything of note had happened.

This must be one of the saddest things I've ever read. I thought I was bad reading practically every thread on C4C, but apterous is a whole 'nother step. IMHO, of course.

Eoin Monaghan · Post by **Eoin Monaghan** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:36 am

Matt Morrison wrote:
Eoin Monaghan wrote:A happenings archive?

I've been away for the last week and I dunno if I have missed some max games or game of the week worthy matches, and so it would be nice to be able to see them without having to search player's personal happenings pages to see if anything of note had happened.
This must be one of the saddest things I've ever read. I thought I was bad reading practically every thread on C4C, but apterous is a whole 'nother step. IMHO, of course.

I haven't actually read every one's page! I was just saying I'd like to see games I may have missed.

Gavin Chipper · Post by **Gavin Chipper** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:04 pm

Michael Wallace wrote:Tbh, all the cool kids just have the clock music in a file somewhere, and play it every round. Much more authentic.

Wouldn't it be awkward to synchronise it each round?

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:26 pm

On the variants page can we have a 'total number of games played' statistic like on the dictionary page?

Matt Bayfield · Post by **Matt Bayfield** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 4:09 pm

For completeness:

Aegilops Numbers Difficulty is missing from the "Statland: xxxxx Numbers Difficulty" pages. I'd be quite interested to see the results please, if you'd be able to add it?

Andrew Feist · Post by **Andrew Feist** » Sun Aug 22, 2010 10:47 pm

I can't remember if I've seen this proposed before, but: <arithmetician's> choice on the numbers game, for when you don't really care (right now I just hold down tab for a while and then randomly press enter, but sometimes you get 4 large and that's just annoying).

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 1:35 pm

Some words like SENSELESSNESS are never going to be pencilled in as they're only available under variants like Hyper Unlimited, where the max will always be SENSELESSNESSES. How about some sort of pencil / crayon / writing implement to be made available after the plural has been pencilled in? The max has already been noted, but it would be a way of getting the other ones pencilled in.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:06 pm

Lesley Hines wrote:Some words like SENSELESSNESS are never going to be pencilled in as they're only available under variants like Hyper Unlimited, where the max will always be SENSELESSNESSES. How about some sort of pencil / crayon / writing implement to be made available after the plural has been pencilled in? The max has already been noted, but it would be a way of getting the other ones pencilled in.

Seems kinda ad hoc. Who's to say that there won't be some future variant in which SENSELESSNESS is a max? *enigmatic look*

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:12 pm

Andrew Feist wrote:I can't remember if I've seen this proposed before, but: <arithmetician's> choice on the numbers game, for when you don't really care (right now I just hold down tab for a while and then randomly press enter, but sometimes you get 4 large and that's just annoying).

What you on about? 4 large is gr8

Hugh Binnie · Post by **Hugh Binnie** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:22 pm

Andrew Feist wrote:I can't remember if I've seen this proposed before, but: <arithmetician's> choice on the numbers game, for when you don't really care (right now I just hold down tab for a while and then randomly press enter, but sometimes you get 4 large and that's just annoying).

You could just press enter as soon as the box pops up. That way you get a doable numbers game and it's not 4 large.

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 3:24 pm

Andrew Feist wrote:I can't remember if I've seen this proposed before, but: <arithmetician's> choice on the numbers game, for when you don't really care (right now I just hold down tab for a while and then randomly press enter, but sometimes you get 4 large and that's just annoying).

What if the arithmetician fucking loves 4 large though?

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 4:26 pm

Matt Morrison wrote:
Andrew Feist wrote:I can't remember if I've seen this proposed before, but: <arithmetician's> choice on the numbers game, for when you don't really care (right now I just hold down tab for a while and then randomly press enter, but sometimes you get 4 large and that's just annoying).
What if the arithmetician fucking loves 4 large though?

This is Matts indirect way of requesting Jono as an arithmetician on apterous.

Lesley Hines · Post by **Lesley Hines** » Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:42 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Lesley Hines wrote:Some words like SENSELESSNESS are never going to be pencilled in as they're only available under variants like Hyper Unlimited, where the max will always be SENSELESSNESSES. How about some sort of pencil / crayon / writing implement to be made available after the plural has been pencilled in? The max has already been noted, but it would be a way of getting the other ones pencilled in.
Seems kinda ad hoc. Who's to say that there won't be some future variant in which SENSELESSNESS is a max? *enigmatic look*

I see what you mean

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 10:44 am

Just a little query: it would be interesting to see how many times someone has been 14 points ahead in a game and lost it. It's happened a lot in my games, like here and here.

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:23 am

Kai Laddiman wrote:I'm Just a little queery

lol we kno

Kirk Bevins · Post by **Kirk Bevins** » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:35 am

Kai Laddiman wrote:Just a little query: it would be interesting to see how many times someone has been 14 points ahead in a game and lost it. It's happened a lot in my games, like here and here.

What would be more interesting is those who are 19 behind with 2 to play and end up winning.

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:54 pm

Something occurred to me last night whilst grinding out the thirtieth star in the conundrum star path- I'd switched to using the mouse to 'buzz' by clicking on the first letter as that gave me a much-needed couple of tenths of a second, but often once I'd made the initial buzz I found myself under real time pressure to find the second letter on the keyboard. I don't think it ever cost me a round but it did come close, so could the patience bar for the second letter of a conundrum be lengthened by a second of two? It wouldn't encourage cheating because, of course, the first letter is locked and unchangeable and the letters disappear anyway.

Ryan Taylor · Post by **Ryan Taylor** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 5:42 pm

Ben Wilson wrote:Something occurred to me last night whilst grinding out the thirtieth star in the conundrum star path- I'd switched to using the mouse to 'buzz' by clicking on the first letter as that gave me a much-needed couple of tenths of a second, but often once I'd made the initial buzz I found myself under real time pressure to find the second letter on the keyboard. I don't think it ever cost me a round but it did come close, so could the patience bar for the second letter of a conundrum be lengthened by a second of two? It wouldn't encourage cheating because, of course, the first letter is locked and unchangeable and the letters disappear anyway.

I don't think this post was leet enough.

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:15 pm

On a player's items display case, it'd be cool if you could click on the item's icon to be taken to that item's leaderboard.

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:14 pm

Now that prune copies numbers choices, it's fun to play hyper numbers, but is there any chance of altering rexs pick to 6 large, because afterall, he's meant to puck the hardest, and IMO that's what most people would find hardest.

Matthew Tassier · Post by **Matthew Tassier** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 8:47 am

JackHurst wrote:Now that prune copies numbers choices, it's fun to play hyper numbers, but is there any chance of altering rexs pick to 6 large, because afterall, he's meant to puck the hardest, and IMO that's what most people would find hardest.

Very impressed by your 6 large skills Jack.
I think most people would find 8 small most difficult.
As I imagine you have probably realised 6 large can give the robot more trouble than other selections as a 6 large selection requiring the use of all 8 numbers can sometimes be relatively easy to a well practised human despite taking a long while for the computer to get it by brute force calculation. I think the flexibility of 4 large makes it an appropriately daunting challenge against Rex.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:22 pm

Hyperlinks from words in Apterous chat to Lexplorer?

Adam Gillard · Post by **Adam Gillard** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:36 pm

How about multiplayer for Flat 15 / other flat scoring games? That would be pretty cool.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 10:51 pm

Adam Gillard wrote:How about multiplayer for Flat 15 / other flat scoring games? That would be pretty cool.

That's basically the Duel.

Adam Gillard · Post by **Adam Gillard** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:38 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Adam Gillard wrote:How about multiplayer for Flat 15 / other flat scoring games? That would be pretty cool.
That's basically the Duel.

Fair enough. How about more Duels incorporating Hypertouchundrums then?

Ryan Taylor · Post by **Ryan Taylor** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:46 pm

I don't like being awarded a Duel Jewel.

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:49 pm

Ryan Taylor wrote:I don't like being awarded a Duel Jewel.

Dude, stop with the anti-semitism. You're as bad as those damned ragheads.

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 8:30 am

Got some conundrum removal requests, I think this topic is the most suited place to post them:

The first one should be removed because its a miserable depressing word, whenever it comes up in a game it makes me feel awful. It would never get used on the show too.

The second one is a stupid word, with a much more common anagram which for some reason is not in the dictionary yet. Some might argue that it tests your knowledge of the dictionary, but I think the idea of conundrums is to test your ability to unscramble a word that you are expected to know, you shouldn't be expected to identify multiple solutions and know which one is in the dictionary.

Adam Gillard · Post by **Adam Gillard** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 10:58 am

JackHurst wrote:Got some conundrum removal requests, I think this topic is the most suited place to post them:

The second one is a stupid word, with a much more common anagram which for some reason is not in the dictionary yet.

Is UNCATERED* the anagram you're referring to? I honestly can't think of another plausible one (UNREACTED* sounds silly).

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:18 pm

Adam Gillard wrote:
JackHurst wrote:Got some conundrum removal requests, I think this topic is the most suited place to post them:

The second one is a stupid word, with a much more common anagram which for some reason is not in the dictionary yet.
Is UNCATERED* the anagram you're referring to? I honestly can't think of another plausible one (UNREACTED* sounds silly).

UNREACTED is used all the time in chemistry, it should definitely be in the dictionary.

Michael Wallace · Post by **Michael Wallace** » Fri Aug 27, 2010 1:26 pm

JackHurst wrote:
Adam Gillard wrote:
JackHurst wrote:Got some conundrum removal requests, I think this topic is the most suited place to post them:

The second one is a stupid word, with a much more common anagram which for some reason is not in the dictionary yet.
Is UNCATERED* the anagram you're referring to? I honestly can't think of another plausible one (UNREACTED* sounds silly).
UNREACTED is used all the time in chemistry, it should definitely be in the dictionary.

MODDING MODDING MODDING MODDING MODDING MODDING

Ben Hunter · Post by **Ben Hunter** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:39 pm

Assuming the OED3 is released before Countdown start using it (I couldn't find an official word on its release in my two minutes on google), will there be an option to play apterous with an OED3 word list like you can the CSW?

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Wed Sep 01, 2010 4:47 pm

Ben Hunter wrote:Assuming the OED3 is released before Countdown start using it (I couldn't find an official word on its release in my two minutes on google), will there be an option to play apterous with an OED3 word list like you can the CSW?

I expect that the current "English" dictionary will simply be replaced by OED3, since there's no reason anyone would want to continue playing with the old one (the number of changes is sufficiently small that most people won't notice the difference anyway). I'll probably make the switch after the current series finals are filmed, i.e. beginning of November.

tomrowell · Post by **tomrowell** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:50 pm

It would be cool if you got an item for beating your opponent by exactly double their score

Graeme Cole · Post by **Graeme Cole** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 7:03 pm

tomrowell wrote:It would be cool if you got an item for beating your opponent by exactly double their score

On the subject of new items for notable scores, I note the Poultry section lacks a duck. Or a goose-egg, which would mean the same thing.

Dinos Sfyris · Post by **Dinos Sfyris** » Fri Sep 03, 2010 5:41 am

tomrowell wrote:It would be cool if you got an item for beating your opponent by exactly double their score

Or triple, quadruple, decaseptuple etc. (I play Howard a lot)

Andrew Feist · Post by **Andrew Feist** » Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:16 pm

Speaking of new items:
"Who needs numbers?" (Winning a game after scoring 0 on the numbers)
"Who needs letters?" (Winning a game by <30 after scoring 30-0 on the numbers)

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:50 am

Another Lexplorer suggestion:

Introduce the option to mark certain words as "known", so that when lexploring you can chose an option to not show known words, so its not all clogged up with words you already know. The word stats is a really good idea, but I can't help but think that the type of players that would want to use it for learning would more than likely already know most of the words on there. If a player had marked DONATES, RETINOL, DAPSONE, ANODISE etc as known, then maybe when they looked at most declared 7's in normal, the ones at the top would actually be new to them.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 6:09 pm

Just a little request: could the Nines Offered page in Superstats have counts for each section?

Robert Baxter · Post by **Robert Baxter** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:14 pm

Kai Laddiman wrote:Just a little request: could the Nines Offered page in Superstats have counts for each section?

Your 2000th post Kai!!!!

Wish it was me

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:06 pm

Graeme Cole · Post by **Graeme Cole** » Tue Sep 07, 2010 6:45 pm

Yet another new item suggestion...

How about a tnetennba for declaring a max word that appears unscrambled in the selection?

If it's a nine you get a "nice tnetennba".

Matt Morrison · Post by **Matt Morrison** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 1:52 pm

Charles, can you whack an 'Ascension' link on to the left hand menu please, at least while the competition is still live? Would be super useful.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:33 pm

A fundamental of all(?) letters variants is the vowel/consonant choice. How about an option allowing different groupings of letters, such as picking either A-M or N-Z, or high-frequency/low-frequency (this would need some sort of minimum from the low criterion I suspect)?

To make this into a full-blown variant (would need a better name than I can think of, my best effort is Bunch-up), numbers could also be altered in a similar manner, choices being for example 1-49/50-99.

Conundrums, whatever!

Criticisms please, nothing so harsh as ignoring the idea though...

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:39 pm

Ian Volante wrote:Criticisms please

Your avatar needs an update.

Rest of the idea sounds interesting.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:04 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:Criticisms please
Your avatar needs an update.

Rest of the idea sounds interesting.

Yep, antlers are so passé this Autumn. The warm glow from the interim non-dismissal of my idea makes up for this for now.

I might have a look around for something new

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:25 pm

Ian Volante wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:Criticisms please
Your avatar needs an update.

Rest of the idea sounds interesting.
Yep, antlers are so passé this Autumn. The warm glow from the interim non-dismissal of my idea makes up for this for now.

I might have a look around for something new

Nevertheless this belongs in another topic, either the existing "new variant ideas" one (which has been somewhat hijacked) or a new one.

Ian Volante · Post by **Ian Volante** » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:44 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Ian Volante wrote:
Charlie Reams wrote: Your avatar needs an update.

Rest of the idea sounds interesting.
Yep, antlers are so passé this Autumn. The warm glow from the interim non-dismissal of my idea makes up for this for now.

I might have a look around for something new
Nevertheless this belongs in another topic, either the existing "new variant ideas" one (which has been somewhat hijacked) or a new one.

Oh aye, good point. Done.

Edward McCullagh · Post by **Edward McCullagh** » Thu Sep 09, 2010 11:47 pm

How about a multi-lingual duel? For example, when each letters/conundrum round pops up the only indication of what language the round is in is from the flag on the notes part.

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Sun Sep 12, 2010 11:07 am

When browsing the classic games window would it be possible to have a hide score option? Because when I want to go through an octochamps octorun and see what score they got, it can sort of alert you as to whether there will be a nine or not and spoils it a little bit.

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:03 am

I'm liking the new break down of the dictionary by length. Could we also have a break down by length and vowel count? It would be interesting to see if theres any nines with 7 vowels, or twelves with 2 vowels etc.

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:50 pm

A-lol at 'Coffee milk cup lid collector' being one word in Dutch.

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:09 pm

Kai Laddiman wrote:A-lol at 'Coffee milk cup lid collector' being one word in Dutch.

Is this an item request?

Kai Laddiman · Post by **Kai Laddiman** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:31 pm

Charlie Reams wrote:
Kai Laddiman wrote:A-lol at 'Coffee milk cup lid collector' being one word in Dutch.
Is this an item request?

Obviously.

Gavin Chipper · Post by **Gavin Chipper** » Tue Sep 14, 2010 5:59 pm

Kai Laddiman wrote:A-lol at 'Coffee milk cup lid collector' being one word in Dutch.

For some reason I read that as "detector" rather than "collector". Is there a word for "Coffee milk cup lid detector"?

Ben Wilson · Post by **Ben Wilson** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:23 pm

Can we have some more csw star paths please? Junior and Goaty ones would be good. Also, goaty version of the 'My Way' and 'Highway' paths would be really fun.

JackHurst · Post by **JackHurst** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:37 pm

Please can we have a twelve leaderboard, showing who has got the most twelves from hyper, hypergoat and hypertouch. Maybe a table with a column for each and a total.

Peter Mabey · Post by **Peter Mabey** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:24 pm

Gavin Chipper wrote:
Kai Laddiman wrote:A-lol at 'Coffee milk cup lid collector' being one word in Dutch.
For some reason I read that as "detector" rather than "collector". Is there a word for "Coffee milk cup lid detector"?

I read that as "Coffee milk cup lie detector" & wondered how it works

Charlie Reams · Post by **Charlie Reams** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:34 pm

JackHurst wrote:Please can we have a twelve leaderboard, showing who has got the most twelves from hyper, hypergoat and hypertouch. Maybe a table with a column for each and a total.

I can happily confirm that Matt has a 12. Possibly more than one.