Do the pesky math problems drive you crazy?

[Brijii]

He seems to be a step ahead of you with that one .........http://dream-world.50webs.com/mastermind.html
It's a bit time consuming to do it like that but it does work 100% the time I've ever used it..
I do though find it mostly quicker just to do it by myself though.

[catepillar682]

The one that is up is working (although I find myself not liking it too much).

Development of a different system is under way, but it has been stalled due to the increased complexity of the code and lack of time on my part. As soon as I get the free time, I will resume work on it. The new method will allow the user to input the colors he/she selected, and the code will show what possible solutions are left. I might eventually add a selector that suggests what would be the next best color to pick, but that is even more work (and requires a totally different logic skillset I am not very familiar with).

As for picking Javascript, the intent was to originally do it all in C++, as I have done limited work with PHP and have not been overly impressed with it. (C and C++ are faster, Perl is more complete.) But then I realized that client side might just be a better solution. And this way people who are capable can make improvements to it for themselves.

And if you write in a different language, transposing it to Javascript is not all that difficult.

[Cloud007]

I hadn't noticed your Mastermind Solver till not long after posting that.. go figure *facepalm*

Ive played a game before where a Fansite made a very very nifty Firefox Add-on. Essentially allowing a user to use the tools while staying on the game page and being minimally invasive. I think I will attempt to implement something similar, using your site as the resource base of the tools (if your OK with that)... with the use of JS, this would eliminate load on your servers as well.

PhP is a nice server-side option, imo. Allows for quick and rapid development of pages and acts as a bridge for programmers that dont wish to delve into the mechanics of C, C++, or C#. Perl.. is dated . ASP.. is yucky


Oh yes! Two more suggestions:

1. A database backend for the trivia questions in the game. The questions are obviously asked from a list of questions, Ive come across the same questions multiple times and have helped others with questions Ive come across. So I imagine the trivia portion of the game isnt all that large. Allowing users to submit questions & answers would be great (perhaps require admin/mod review? ) then again, user submitted entries may require too much time on your or a mods part reviewing them all..

2. Text parsing. Essentially, allow the user to copy-paste the entirety of the chicken/cow/horse questions and then use some rather simple parsing to fill out the information. I could whip this up for you sometime if you'd like. Promotes laziness, sure, but I noticed that it took me as long to post all the variables in as it would have to open calculator and do it myself

[catepillar682]

I was going to make a greasemonkey script that would run in Firefox (and other browser that support user scripts, I think Chrome and Safari both have support for them), but winter break happened. Once classes start up again, I will have more time to work. My priorities at this point though are to implement the "better" version of the mastermind solver and to clean up the user interface a bit more (I do have a plan and it should be rather easy to implement, and it will put everything on one page instead of two), before woerking on the userscript. The reason for this is simple, IE currently does not have any support for userscripts, and the version on Kongregate (which is accounting for what appears to be 60-75% of my traffic) is flash based so any such script will not work there.

The script would include text parsing and so forth. I would make another button (probably close to the style of those in game with a differnt color so they stick out a little) and possible auto-fill the text box as well as add some dialogue.

[hillbillychad]

say it's asking for chickens and horses?? ...
Formula: (H)eads (x) 2 = (B)ase, (L)egs (-) (B)ase = (N)oonan (/ <--- there is no divided by symbol here ) 2 = (Ho)rses, (H)eads (-) (Ho)rses = (C)hickens

wow, make sure you read the question before you do this formula. I always get the question: there are x amount of heads and legs, with a farm that only has chickens and horses.
my mistake is, I just read where it says it has horses and chickens on the farm and ignore the question. it never asks for chickens, however Knownmame's formula gives you the chickens. read the question, if it asks for horses, then stop at N/2=Horses. I messed up so many times because of this, and it took me forever to figure out why.

But hey, thanks for the forumlas.