(O)PTIMIZE XXII - Kcdaspot's Game!

[yabbaguy]

CURRENT GAME - Kcdaspot
DEMO GAME

Can you outsmart the spheres and win up to

$500,000

?

It's not just luck. It's the game where you have to Optimize.

YOU CAN /IN ANYTIME IN THIS THREAD, EVEN IN THE MIDDLE OF A GAME.
GAMES TAKE PLACE HERE AND AT THE (O)PTIMISE STUDIO WITH QUILFORD.

(no actual cash prizes awarded)

RULES:

1. There are 20 golden spheres - 8 red, 6 green, 4 blue, and 2 ultraviolet. You will receive one at the end of the game. Each color has a bank worth an amount of money: how much each contains is up to your strategy and the whim of the spheres. Red is most likely to be won, but the money doesn't rise quickly. Ultraviolet could pay out an ultra-great $500,000, but is highly unreliable. Or go green or blue for an in-between.
   
2. You will be assigned a starting target from 0-3 at random backstage. Pick a player from the list (a mix of the contender queue and NPCs), and they'll pick a number from 0-4 at random by selecting one of their five spheres. If their number beats your target, you win. If it's equal or lesser, you lose. What sector the player belongs to (represented by their font color) is essential in choosing who you go for.
   
3. IF YOU WIN: the color of that player goes up one step on its respective money ladder and makes that color's bank worth that new amount. Should that color be in your golden sphere at the end of the game, that is now the amount you win.
   
4. IF YOU LOSE: we open and discard the same number of golden spheres at random as the number chosen by the player. If they pick a 0, nothing happens. Anytime all the golden spheres of a color are chosen - the color is "collapsed" and is rendered impossible to win, but players from that sector may still be chosen. Careful, if all 20 golden spheres are removed, you get nothing!
   
5. As long as players remain, you then go again and select another player. Once you pick a player, you can't pick them again. Your subsequent targets are simply the number chosen by the previous player. Exception: if the player picks a 4, they select again to produce a new target.
   
6. GOLDEN FINALE: If more than one color of golden spheres exists after all 20 players are selected, all remaining golden spheres will be loaded with the amount in their respective colored banks, then presented to you. You simply select one at random and win all the cash attached to the color you choose. The Finale is also initiated if the only players remaining are in collapsed sectors or if the contender chooses to stop the game, a move that can be done only when the target equals or exceeds the total quantity of golden spheres in play.

GAME COMPONENTS:

The glorious monitor of information:

• Large white box: displays contender's name.
  
• Flashing white boxes: showing the progression of money for each color's bank. Every time a player wins, that player's color goes up one rung and makes that color's bank more valuable.
  
• Colored circles: quantity of golden spheres with that color remaining. Divide by total # of golden spheres remaining to get the probability of winning that color's bank.
  
• Target: the number the player has to exceed to win. A backstage draw followed by preceding player's sphere picks determine this.
  
• Golden Spheres: total quantity of golden spheres remaining. Losses from a player may cause golden spheres to be lost.

Frank
Vera
Sophie
Angelina
Harrison

Alexa
Sage
Kiersten
Kira
Molly

Clifford
Vance
Sandra
Callie
Dion

Paulette
Tristen
Eleanor
Tatum
[Contender]

An example player list. Notice contender can make one selection of the spheres for themselves.

Frank

A red player's spheres - about to confront a 3, the worst target in the game. 0 is the best target as only another 0 loses to it.

Frank

One of 120 ways the five spheres can be arranged.






The golden spheres...






...and the contents of the golden spheres.

[yabbaguy]

Current Players (Sign up any time, you may be able to join the game in progress!)

This player list is as of the start of the game in progress. Top 20 players in the queue, excluding the host of the studio, take the player spot, and the topmost player is the contender who actually plays the game.

Quilford's studio siphons from the same queue. You will be expected to pick spheres both here and there, and you may end up being a contender in either - although if you have a strong preference, you can request a host when your turn comes.

The progression is R1 (topmost red) -> G1 (topmost green) -> B1 -> UV1 -> R2 -> G2... -> UV5 (contender)

Tragedy
wazzatron
themountainclimber
Feirei
cg5

IceGuy
Elmo TeH AzN
Xalxe
Hoppster
mallowgeno

animorpherv1
StrangerCoug
swyellowtail
jmj3000
killerjester

Empking
Nobody Special
CJMiller
kdowns
Kcdaspot

A = absent

Queue:

Kcdaspot
killerjester
yabbaguy
mallowgeno
cg5
kdowns
jmj3000
Hoppster
Feirei
CJMiller
swyellowtail
Xalxe
themountainclimber
Nobody Special
StrangerCoug
Elmo TeH AzN
wazzatron
Empking
animorpherv1
IceGuy
Tragedy
bird1111
Mist7676

Spoiler: Results

---OLD VERSION---

I. cjdrum - $10,000

II. animorpherv1 - $15,000

III. Drench - $2,000

---NEW VERSION---

IV. chenhsi - $10,000

V. Kcdaspot - $200

VI. JDGA - $20,000

VII. Lowell - $10,000

VIII. Hoppster - $60,000

IX. Klazam - $10,000

X. jmj3000 - $40,000

XI. CSL - $10,000

XII. ConSpiracy - $4,000

XIII. Nobody Special - $200

XIV. StrangerCoug - $4,000

XV. mastermind - $20,000

XVI. animorpherv1 (2) - $4,000

XVII. Tragedy - $4,000

XVIII. Drench - $2,000

XIX. Mist7676 - $40,000

XX. PersonalIdiot04 - $0

XXI. Quilford - $100,000

---ANNIVERSARY BONUSES---
killerjester - $1000
yabbaguy - $1000
kdowns - $1000
Quilford - $1000
CSL - $1000

[animorpherv1]

/in

[Drench]

bjpg?

/in

[chenhsi]

/in as chenhsi

[cjdrum]

Awesome, confirming pre-/in.

[Kcdaspot]

/in but can you put up a sample of play?

like in your forum that you playtested this on? w/o revealing names of course.

i'm still confused as what to do.

[JDGA]

/in, and I second the request for a gameplay sample.

[RedCoyote]

with asterisks denoting the females because the names come from randomnames.com and some of them are strikingly unfamiliar.

Really? I've heard of all these names before. Maybe because I deal with a lot of names at work.

Anyways, /in.

My gameplay sample will be to play better than all the people above me in the queue.

[yabbaguy]

Yessir, Drench.

Yeah, I've had other people tell me learning by example is the way to go. I'll have something up later today, one of my "bjpg" games is about to conclude, the contender has picked their golden sphere as we speak. I'll re-post highlights from his game then.

[Drench]

Having just hopped over and taken a quik browse of the game in progress, it does look very simple when it's in aktion.

Also, I resent being referred to as insignifikant.

[Lowell]

/in

[cjdrum]

Oh, if I can choose this, my friend/family member's name will be [Accomplice] - he's my brother. My parents are cruel.

Proof - my name is [Contender]. Awkward.

[yabbaguy]

Hmm... should've figured people wouldn't magically start going on a first name basis here. Works a lot better over at this comparatively more quaint forum.

Bugger that, the accomplice idea won't be used for the MS edition. Once I'm home, I'll PM cjdrum and we will get going. And post the sample game.

[Hoppster]

/in.

[Xalxe]

/in, why not?

[chesskid3]

thegolden speheres look like boobies

[yabbaguy]

DEMO GAME

One note: Yellow is functionally identical to green, but since literally 0% of the MS population use dark forum skins, I had to swap.

*darkened set, I'm behind the table looking at the camera. Visible is a monitor behind me with some ambient graphics, the golden spheres, and some of the players with them in the dark and their spheres illuminated*

This is a game show where someone could win $500,000. But it's not just luck.

This is the game where you have to optimize.

*French DoND theme, camera spins around with a quick glance at the 20 virtual sets of spheres. It zooms in one set which spontaneously opens to show the innards of the spheres. A golden sphere flies in, spins around while it's opening, and shows a red $0 sign inside. It shuts, spins and opens again, and this time shows an ultraviolet $500,000 (where 0,01 euro and 1 000 000 euros are shown). The sphere closes and opens again, now showing all sorts of game components flying around on screen, with amounts of money on different colored backgrounds, spheres, along with the table are flying about. An ultraviolet sphere then flies in where it should be in the logo as its button turns red and the other letters fly in as the theme concludes.*

So begins the game. After mushy words reminiscing about "yesterday's" game, we welcome the current contender out. For this game, I'm using Clément, my most recent contender from my other forum.

Clément, we conducted a silver sphere drawing backstage and you selected 1 as your first target. The subsequent targets will be the subsequent numbers drawn by your fellow players.

...

Clément the spheres are loaded and we're ready to go. The game begins now!

Elodie

, à toi.

Color added for emphasis. With a lowish, but not the lowest target, Clément has a 60% chance of winning. If Elodie picks 2-4, she wins. A 0 or 1 loses since ties don't count in the latter instance.

(These are Elodie's five concealed spheres, along with the projection of the number 1 on the right to remind viewers of the target.)

Elodie: Bonne chance, Clément!

*Elodie reaches for the far left sphere, pushes the button which causes a clacking sound from the sphere and turns the button red, and then pulls the lid back on its hinge*

(Elodie wins spectacularly! 4 is very much greater than 1, so the ultraviolet marker is going to move up one space.)

*audience cheers, Elodie and Clément kiss and embrace beneath one of the monitors as the ultraviolet panel flips to $10,000*

We can't have a target of 4 though. I now make another announcement to Clément.

Clément, you know the rule. You've won with Elodie already, but we can't have 4 as a target, so Elodie, please select a new sphere, which will NOW become our new target.

*Elodie now opts for the middle-right sphere*

Brilliant. What Elodie did was beat the 4 with the best target with that last pick, and then selected a 0 to set Clément at the easiest target in the game, 0. That's why this is a categorically perfect scenario, no doubt is in anyone's mind that it was helpful.

*audience and players cheer*

FANTASTIQUE!!!

*Clément blows one more kiss to her from afar*

(Has anyone figured out that Elodie was Clément's girlfriend and accomplice in this game yet?)

Elodie was in the ultraviolet sector, so ultraviolet advances one space on the table and makes that color more valuable.

Fast forward the game.

Clément's target is now 2- only a 40% chance of success. He falls back to the red sector, showing a lack of interest in the cheap and common colors.

Peggy

, gimme another 4, please.

Peggy: Best of luck, Clément, you're great.

*Peggy pushes the button on the middle sphere and flips the lid*

This fails as statistically expected, 1 is less than 2. Red does not advance up the table. Clément can't possibly advance it to $50,000 since he only has 3 red players left and he's 4 red spaces away from it.

*audience groans*

But wait, there's more.

Clément, every time a losing number shows, I will go over to the golden spheres to open and remove that number. Since Peggy flipped a 1, we remove one golden sphere.



And it is...

*pops lock and flips lid*

... a red. You have less of a chance of going away with the red payout.

Don't get your mind too tangled by that, that's only a coinkydink that he lost a red golden sphere after a loss with a red player.

*supportive applause, one red dot on the monitors fades out with a whooshing sound*

The table's $50,000 spot on red has extinguished since it is now an impossibility, and a red dot has gone dark on the monitor to represent the removal of a golden sphere with the red payout.

This wasn't particularly dramatic. Fast forward to the moment when this happens:

*audience groans loudly*

And then this...

*clicks latches on all three*

And we have...

*opens*

Yellow.



Yellow...



YELLOW!

Now blue is more valuable AND more common than yellow. Especially considering Clément hadn't even paid a visit to yellow at that point, that was an incredible thing for that to happen. And sure enough...

If the yellow disappear like that, I will ask

Ray

to give me a 4 or at least a 0.

...he sticks a player from the yellow sector with the lousiest target in the game.

Fast forward again. Clément has picked all 20 players, and now has to pick a golden sphere. Here's how the golden spheres are configured:

There are five red spheres, which contain only $5,000.

There are two yellow spheres, containing $10,000.

There are three blue spheres, containing $30,000.

And there is one ultraviolet sphere, which contains your top prize of $100,000.

You simply have to choose one golden sphere, and then you get all the money inside. I really want to see a flash of ultraviolet and a $100,000 win.

Number 3. (first row, third column)

You have...

*flips lid*

$30,000!





Blue was tidily in that third column there. You should've gone lower-right for the 100 grand, but who cares? $30,000 is tons of cash!

Game over. Clément takes away $30,000.

[yabbaguy]

thegolden speheres look like boobies

I already changed the color from its original orange-y flesh color since you last told me that. Nice try.

---

PMing cjdrum now to conduct the silver sphere drawing. One note for the forum version of course: Players, I'll PM you any time he calls on you. If he picks one of our simulated players, the autopicker chooses which sphere gets selected.

[chesskid3]

I just like boobs ok

[animorpherv1]

Yabba speaks French? o_0

[yabbaguy]

Mais, bien sûr! But the clue of having a name like Clément should've tipped you off that he's a Frenchman himself. (Or French-Canadian etc., but yeah, it was a game infused with French stuff)

All right, come on let's go! Camera 1, great. Too close camera 2, get that centered on me now. Great. Roll it!

---

(O)PTIMIZE I

*darkened set, I'm behind the table looking at the camera. Visible is a monitor behind me with some ambient graphics, the golden spheres, and some of the players with them in the dark and their spheres illuminated.*

This is a game show where someone could win $500,000. But it's not just luck.

This is the game where you have to optimize.

*French DoND theme, camera spins around with a quick glance at 20 virtual sets of spheres. It zooms in one set which spontaneously opens to show the innards of the spheres. A golden sphere flies in, spins around while it's opening, and shows a red $0 sign inside. It shuts, spins and opens again, and this time shows an ultraviolet $500,000 (where 0,01 euro and 1 000 000 euros are shown). The sphere closes and opens again, now showing all sorts of game components flying around on screen, with amounts of money on different colored backgrounds, spheres, along with the table are flying about. An ultraviolet sphere then flies in where it should be in the logo as its button turns red and the other letters fly in as the theme concludes.*

*main theme plays, I walk out to a flashing set. The tables are curved and face towards the table no matter where you stand behind it, and completely surround the circular stage where the table sits. A rack of 20 golden spheres, not a rack of any other sort, is visible with giant metallic doors behind it. The audience sits behind each of the sectors, and are all cheering*

Hello everyone! Welcome mafiascum!

*theme and applause fades away*

Spectacular. A short time ago, we debuted a refreshingly intelligent luck game called Optimize to the people on another game forum that we shall not mention here except by its codename. Now the game comes to mafiascum.net to see if scummers are any better than those game-loving people at walking out of here with thousands of dollars.

Right, we need our contender. It's

cjdrum

!

*cjdrum walks out to some sort of intro music and walks towards the table in the middle of the set, audience applauds*

cjdrum, you get one post to introduce yourself to the nation. What's interesting about you?

[cjdrum]

Hi, all!

As it probably shows on your screens at home, my name is cjdrum.

The most interesting thing I can think of is that I have the

exact

same birthday as the host here. Give or take 5 years
And I Come From a Land Down Under - As in, Australia. It's nice down there. Down? We're not in Antarctica, right?

And I'm here to win $500K!

[animorpherv1]

And I'm here to win $500K!

Woos from audience

[yabbaguy]

I was going to squawk about that being Australian money, but criminey, the rate's actually right back up there. They're almost one and the same.

All right birthday buddy. Let's get going towards winning a half million, shall we?

---

cjdrum, we conducted a silver sphere drawing backstage and you selected

2 as your initial target

. Your subsequent targets will be determined by the subsequent numbers chosen by the players.

You just need to choose a player who you think can beat the target of 2, the color sector they're in being quite important. Then they'll choose one of their spheres, loaded with the digits 0-4 at random, in an attempt to select a number higher than that target. If they win, the color corresponding to their sector moves up one space on the table, making that color more valuable.

At the end, you pick one of those twenty golden spheres over there, and the color inside determines your payout. So if you select red, you win whatever money the red indicator on the table is lit up on. There are however, eight red, six green, four blue, and two ultraviolet. The more valuable the color is, the less likely it is to show. Keep that in mind.

cjdrum, I really hope our premiere is a blockbuster win. The game begins now!

*audience cheers, dramatic think music*

Frank
Vera*
Sophie*

Lowell
chenhsi

Alexa*
Sage*
Kiersten*

RedCoyote
Drench

Clifford
Vance

Xalxe
JDGA
animorpherv1

Paulette*
Tristen

Hoppster
Kcdaspot
cjdrum - Contender's Choice

As you can see cjdrum, you get direct control over one of those ultraviolet sets of spheres since we're not playing the Accomplices edition. You pick yourself, and you can just straightaway pick the sphere of your choosing.

Otherwise, just pick a player. That simple.