Playmage Forum

Does anyone understand what to do here? Everytime I get it, I just randomly pick colors(never get the reward) and feel like it is just a waste of my time and energy. I am talking about the one that has 4 rows of colors, red, green, blue, and yellow, and then 4 colomns that you pick a color in each of. I just don't understand the game therefor I don't understand how to play it to win. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

It's part luck, part deduction. When you know you have say "2" in the column correct, move one and see if the number goes up or down. If up, it was wrong but now correct, if down, it was correct to begin with.

The horse/cow box is still puzzling me, thank goodness I can bash it now:)

Asrugan wrote:It's part luck, part deduction. When you know you have say "2" in the column correct, move one and see if the number goes up or down. If up, it was wrong but now correct, if down, it was correct to begin with.

The horse/cow box is still puzzling me, thank goodness I can bash it now:)

The farm question is just math, search for "farm problem solved" and read my post, simple to understand I hope.

As for the color thing, I have been doing that, but it seems 6 guesses is not enough for a possible 256 cominations??

It says the same color can be used more than once, so that makes the above possible true... 256 combos and only 6 "guesses"?

LOL, some clarification on this one would sure be nice, and an option to bash that one would be great seeing as I never get it right and am about to start skipping it all together to save myself time.

this 4 color column puzzle box is actually called "mastermind" if im not wrong, except that usually the game is played with SIX colours. there are algorithms which allow u to solve the puzzle without fail within a number of steps, unfortunately im not familiar with it. u can google 'mastermind' and probably find several websites which teach u how to solve.

for myself im able to solve it 90% of the time in 6 tries through deduction. its not difficult. but explaining how to do it is very difficult XD

I see, have never heard of mastermind, nor played it. Thanks for the tip though, I will try to google it and see if I can atleast figure out the general idea of how to play. Perhaps knowing a little about it would make it easier and maybe I'd be able to win now and then.

There is a definite technique that helps you solve it, and once you know how to do it, it's rather easy. Explaining can be difficult but I'll try...

Start by choosing red in all four columns. Pay attention to C and P and remember what they stand for: C is the number of correct choices, P is the number of correct colors but in the wrong columns.

Now start with the left-most column and change it to green. One of four things can happen: if C goes up, this column should be green. If C stays the same and P goes up, then this column is NOT red, and one of the other columns IS green. If C goes down and P goes up, this column IS red, and one of the other columns IS green. If C goes down and P is still 0, then you know this column IS red, and none of the other columns are green.

This step should only take you about 2 or 3 attempts to be able to determine which columns (if any) or red and green. Since you'll most likely have a couple columns solved, you'll be able to finish the rest in a similar manner by moving the incorrect columns to blue and/or yellow.

I used to play that game when I was younger (Mastermind), and even have a copy I picked up at a garage sale. Fun game, but yeah, in the board/peg game you would have many more chances so it's still luck in part with 6.

I just ran into a box... these are the steps I used to solve it:

Attempt 1: R R R R
C: 1
P: 0
So I know that one of the columns is red.

Attempt 2: G R R R
C: 2
P: 0
Lucky me, the first column is green. One of the remaing three needs to remian red, and I don't know about the other two yet.

Attempt 3: G G R R
C: 2
P: 1
Now I know three things: 1) The second column is not red. 2) The second column is not green. 3) Either the third or the fourth column is green. I know this because C stayed the same and P increased (read my previous post).

Attempt 4: G B R R
C: 2
P: 0
This tells me that the second column is Yellow (deduction, because it can't be red, green, or blue), and neither the third nor the fourth column is blue.

Attempt 5: G Y G R
SOLVED
I changed the second column to yellow since in step 4 I already determined it should be yellow, and I took a guess which column (third or fourth) was supposed to be green (from step 3). Even if this had been wrong, I would still have another guess, and since there was only one other possible outcome, I still would have solved it.

I do a diagonal Red - Yellow, check result write it down if u need to. Keep adjusting per result. It gets easier.

Maryellen....now that's a cute name. lol