Useless Distractions

[Count Nerfedalot]

re Geoguesser - halfway through my first attempt I discovered you can zoom in on the guessing map, and by the end I learned how to zoom and pan the picture!  <5K total, since I guessed the wrong Albany, confused arctic circle Alaska for Antarctica, and Estonia for Argentina.

Midway through my second round I discovered you can navigate the street view, see both sides of buildings and signs, etc.  ~10k because I was still guessing some, and learning. 

On my third attempt, I got 29284 points.  But the share score URL is just the site's home page  I got 3 within half a mile, guessing the correct Pembroke College based on a coat of arms I spotted on one of the signs (Cambridge not Oxford), finding the exact curve near the intersection of two Department roads in rural France, and the front gates of a National Guard Armory in Louisiana.  Then I got one on the wrong side of St Petersbutg Russia, and guessed a few miles off on a lonely road in nowhere Montana. I spent an hour following that road back to a town where I spotted a readable cemetery sign to google.

[Shannow]

. I spent an hour following that road back to a town where I spotted a readable cemetery sign to google.

29k? 

an hour following a road in google maps? 

[Sky]

The old lady and I played quite a bit of geoguesser earlier this year. It was a little crashy for some reason, but a lot of fun (also, I'm dastardly good at it).

[Count Nerfedalot]

. I spent an hour following that road back to a town where I spotted a readable cemetery sign to google.

29k? 

an hour following a road in google maps? 

yeah, brain's been fried from work the past couple of weeks, and clicking the move forward arrow in street view was about the limit of my mental abilities at the time anyway.  Plus I just HAD to find out if it was Wyoming or Montana or the Dakotas I'd been plonked down in!

[Trippy]

Earth Wind Map

US: http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/orthographic=-100.63,43.69,865

Europe: http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/orthographic=29.29,48.20,865

Asia: http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/1000hPa/orthographic=116.97,37.03,865

[Lantyssa]

Viin's Challenge:

I thought I was off on my first and fourth guesses, then I realized I was almost smack dab on them.

"Your guess was 1.008 km from the correct location and gave 6394 points." on number four.
"Your guess was 0.801 km from the correct location and gave 6412 points." on number five.

You won the challenge with 23470 points against 10068.

You must redeem yourself, Viin!

[Viin]

Dang, you did real good at that. Do you spend a lot of time going up and down roads?

Try this one!

http://url.geoguessr.com/5JJy

[Strazos]

I hereby declare that any of you people moving from the actual spot you are plunked down are a bunch of cheaters! 

Zooming and panning are fine.

http://url.geoguessr.com/5Knv

The one I was really off on was when I confused a rocky coast for being in Scotland, when it's actually SAFR. Thought I was pretty slick when I at least guessed the other anglophone African spot close enough (SAFR vs Botswana).

[Lantyssa]

Dang, you did real good at that. Do you spend a lot of time going up and down roads?

Try this one!

http://url.geoguessr.com/5JJy

Not a whole lot, except I did travel a bit down the road on the first one.  The Thailand one was almost unfair given there were signs everywhere.  My criteria is if I can step a few feet to read a sign, it's fair game. :-p

In the follow-up challenge you trounced me.

[Lantyssa]

Also I'd like to admonish Ironwood for mentioning Swords and Potions 2.

[Hawkbit]

I had to cut myself off at some point with that game.  It filled all the little addictive niches I have in my brain a bit better than I want a game to.

[Trippy]

http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/

[pxib]

http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/

Evil evil little thing. I can't get much past 400, and don't see the point of the tiny fast train... no routes to spare for an express, regardless of how efficient it is. I don't know what comes after star... wedge, cross, star, and the paucity of squares does me in.

[Samwise]

Got up to 508... there's a bit of luck involved since you can be screwed over by getting a cluster of the same shape, or awkward river layouts.

[Mosesandstick]

Damn, I can't make it far past 300. What sort of layouts are you folks using?

[Samwise]

I just draw lines that "look right," as in look like they fit the pattern of a real-life train system, and it works out, to a point.  I might be some kind of transit savant from having grown up in a city riding subways every day.  

Good general principles, I guess:

1) Shorter lines are better.
2) Lines that connect a greater number of different shapes are better.

Clearly these two are sometimes at odds.  When in doubt I start setting up a "grid" sort of layout with a combination of north/south lines and east/west lines, since that's an easy way to minimize rider backtracking.

[Ironwood]

Arg, this game is bullshit.   

[Pennilenko]

Arg, this game is bullshit.   

[schild]

Came to this thread expecting dogeminer.se

didn't get that, weird.

[Ironwood]

That a recommendation then ?

[Paelos]

I'm up to paragon 70 something from 30 something in a matter of a couple weeks. It's going quickly and the difficulty levels provide solid challenge for me.

[Ironwood]

Are you in the wrong thread ? ? ?


 

[Pennilenko]

Are you in the wrong thread ? ? ?


 

I think diablo 3 counts as a useless distraction.

[Paelos]

Yeah I was in the wrong thread.

[Ironwood]

Can't really blame you. You saw me saying this game is bullshit. It's a reasonable assumption.

[Samwise]

Mini Metro high scores go here for critique.  I think 508 is still my all-time best but no screenshot.

[Ironwood]

You don't do any circles ?

[Viin]

500+ is good. I rarely make it to 300!

[Ironwood]

Yeah, that yellow line was a huge mistake.

[Mosesandstick]

Got lucky!

[Ironwood]

Needz Mor Surculls.

[Mosesandstick]

I tried.

[Ironwood]

Gud surculls.

I do so hate when they put about 3 or four stations next to each other that are all the same shape.  It's the randomness of this game that makes for some really fucking annoying playthroughs.

[ezrast]

2048

[Teleku]

God damn you.  I unfortunatly got my highest score on my very first game.  Which of course means I've just lost hours of work trying to top it.