Riphath Report post Posted September 14, 2011 (edited) Contest ended. *CRACK!* The sound of pickaxes breaking down here is so common that you don't even notice it at first, but then the normally-quiet dwarf in the corner starts grumbling up a thunderstorm, and you look over just in time to see him hurl what's left of his pickaxe against the cavern wall. It's hard to understand much of his mumbling, but you are able to pick up a few words here and there: grumblegoodfonuthinmumblelousygruntwalmart*crash*PICKS!!1 Once he calms down a bit, he tells you that he just broke his 1,000th pickaxe. He seems to think that "they" have been weakening the picks by thinning out the iron in the pick heads with some type of organic substance (probably derived from fruitcakes) and not properly curing the handles, and that there's some big conspiracy to cover it up involving corporate bribes going all the way to teh Top Dog himself. You figure the poor fellow has probably just spent so much time underground pounding his eardrums out that he's a few boulders short of a rockslide, so you think nothing else of it and get back to work. That is, until you see his announcement on the bulletin board back at storage. Apparently, he wants to give away his "good-for-nothing" picks and start fresh, but has decided to make a contest out of it. Now you're really wondering about this poor fellow's sanity - actually keep a count of how much ore he's dug up? 235, 236, 237... wow. You'll have to remember to ask Aurora if she can recommend a good mental hospital. If nothing else, Edlera might have some 'natural remedy' that would take the worries of life off his mind... Contest: Guess how many of each I (Riphath) had in my counters2 when my broken pickaxe counter hit 1,000 ('twas about 2 weeks ago now, but RL got in the way of this contest). The person with the closest guess for each item below wins free pickaxes3 as follows: 1. Total Iron+Silver+Coal ... 200 Picks (3,000 gc value) Raistlin 2. Iron Ore ........................ 100 Picks (1,500 gc value) arxan 3. Coal ............................. 100 Picks (1,500 gc value) Olorandir 4. Silver Ore ....................... 50 Picks (750 gc value) arxan 5. Total Stones ................... 50 Picks (750 gc value) arxan Rules and Eligibility: -> Contest will end at 1200 Zulu on 20 September 2011 http://www.timeandda...iso=20110920T12 -> In the event of a tie in any category, the first of those guesses will be the winner. -> Not all characters are eligible to participate.4 -> Guesses must be posted in this thread with the in-game name of the character submitting the guess (if different from the forum account name) -> Only 1 entry per forum account (entry may only include up to 1 guess for each of the 5 categories, though each of these guesses may be attributed to different in-game characters) -> Guesses must be no closer than 1% to previous guesses (e.g. if Frukas has already guessed that I had 100,000 iron ore in my counters, then Salina cannot post a guess for iron ore between 99,000 and 101,000) -> IMPORTANT: Editing your post when someone else has already posted after you in this competition will disqualify your forum account from the competition. Information that might (or might not) help: -> These are the top 3 resources in my counters that require a pickaxe to harvest. -> My counters for all other pickaxe harvestables combined total less than 1/10 of my iron/silver/coal total. -> All of my pickaxe breakages are from normal harvesting events -> Not all of my stones came from these three resources, but the clear majority of them did -> My top 3 non-pickaxe harvestable counters combined total just over 1 million, but only one of them is in my top 3 overall (side-challenge: the first person to guess what this harvestable is will win a bonus of 1k of it) -> I am not in the habit of selling harvestables I will determine the winners as soon as I am able after the contest ends. Winners will be announced here, and I coordinate delivery of prizes to them in-game if possible, or via forum pm if they are not on when I am. Riphath Fine print at the bottom of the page: 1All 'grumblings' are solely for the sake of storyline, and should not be interpreted as comments/complaints about break rates in EL. 2Note that all numbers are based on counters, not total harvests/breakages - many counts have been lost due to a laptop that likes to overheat and shut down or just randomly reboot. I do, however, believe that the lost counts represent only a relatively small percentage of my total harvests/breakages. 3The manufacturer offers no warranty, express or implied, on the workmanship or quality of these pickaxes, except as otherwise required by law in the legal jurisdiction of Sir Calaway's choosing. 4Characters ineligible due to the clash between how they have decided to play EL and interact with others here and how I have decided to do so are: current and former members of guilds YARR, NH and HmLm/HIGH/p0rc/.../.../... Edited September 20, 2011 by Riphath Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
evilmangopie Report post Posted September 14, 2011 I am heartbroken that i cannot participate in this contest in order to possibly win a very small amount of pickaxes. I go self harm, hf all <3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riphath Report post Posted September 14, 2011 If you would like to complain about being excluded, then feel free to file a complaint in Disputes. If you don't like the size of my prizes, then feel free to host your own contest with bigger ones. If you just want to cause trouble, then you should go read the forum rules first (http://www.eternal-l...showtopic=13949 - I'd especially recommend reading rule 5, "Posts should be constructive in nature."), and then feel free to find another forum on which to do so. But, if you'd like to participate in a simple little contest for the fun of it, with the chance to win some simple little prizes in the spirit of the contest itself, then please feel free to join in! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
themuntdregger Report post Posted September 15, 2011 lol Rip. Cool contest and great post. Well done Gonna think very carefully before I make my guess though Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DarElik Report post Posted September 15, 2011 Seems like fun, so here goes: Iron Ore - 545,000 Coal - 640,000 Silver Ore - 462,000 Stones - 78 Top non-pick harvestable - toadstools (In-game name: Dar_Elik) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AitorTillas Report post Posted September 15, 2011 (edited) Lets Try it Iron Ore - 586,000 Coal - 523,000 Silver Ore - 472,000 Stones - 86 Top non-pick harvestable - Red Snapdragons Edit: Modified Silver Ore Value after Raistlin Advice Edited September 15, 2011 by AitorTillas Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Raistlin Report post Posted September 15, 2011 (edited) *looks at his own 1800 broken pickies and wonders if we buy from the same Walmart* Iron Ore: 510,000 Coal: 473,000 Silver: 423,000 Top non-pick harvestable: Sunflowers Total stones: 48 @AitorTillas: review your silver ore guess, according to rules, it's not allowed Edit: comment to AitorTillas / forgot stones Edited September 15, 2011 by Raistlin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zamirah Report post Posted September 15, 2011 I miss one information, do you use Harvest Med ? If with : Iron Ore - 736770 Coal - 282480 Silver Ore - 1284290 Stones - 119 Top non-pick harvestable: Red Toads Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olorandir Report post Posted September 15, 2011 Nice idea, Rip Here goes: Iron Ore: 848,259 Coal: 563,281 Silver: 484,618 Stones: 68 Top non-pick harvestable: Sulfur Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riphath Report post Posted September 15, 2011 I miss one information, do you use Harvest Med ? I hadn't thought to include this information, but I don't think answering it now would be fair to those of you that have already guessed. A lesson learned for myself and anyone else who runs a similar contest, I suppose - thanks! I find it quite interesting to see how the guesses are lining up (sometimes I think I should have gotten my degree in psychology instead of engineering). So far, one person is the closest for 3 categories (but the farthest away in at least one of the others), and one person is the closest for the other 2. Thanks for participating! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Athel's Report post Posted September 16, 2011 (edited) nice contest Iron Ore: 732,698 Coal: 623,284 Silver: 812,418 Stones: 59 Top non-pick harvestable: sulfur Edited September 16, 2011 by Athel's Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
arxan Report post Posted September 17, 2011 Heyas Riphath, i always need picks so i will give it a try Iron Ore - 826,000 Coal - 510,000 Silver Ore - 331,000 Stones - 54 Top non-pick harvestable: sulfur btw this contest is a very good idea Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sakaala Report post Posted September 17, 2011 Great idea; ty Iron ore: 880,000 Coal: 567,000 Silver ore: 987,000 Stones: 36 Top no pick harvester: chrysanthemum Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Krrick Report post Posted September 18, 2011 May as well give it a try Iron ore: 846722 Coal: 468654 Silver: 685234 Stones: 56 Top non-pick harvestable: sulfur Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwaew Report post Posted September 19, 2011 (edited) Hi Riphath, so... is that your way of compensating for frustration (just since you mentioned psychology ) ? I love it !! Here's my psychology on your categories... (tried to guess first - then looked at other posts to correct potential 1%-range-problems) 1. Total Iron+Silver+Coal : 1,026,477 2. Iron Ore : 328,903 3. Coal : 272,007 4. Silver Ore : 425,567 5. Total Stones : 60 Top non-pickaxe harvestable: cotton :-) Thanks for the contest! Gwaew PS: edited because I purely judged from my own counters without considering this hint: -> These are the top 3 resources in my counters that require a pickaxe to harvest ==> mine top pickaxe harvestable is titanium :-) Edited September 19, 2011 by Gwaew Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Riphath Report post Posted September 20, 2011 (edited) Contest closed, actual numbers and results as follows (winner and their guess in green): 1. Total Iron+Silver+Coal ... 1,441,063 Raistlin (1,439,221) 2. Iron Ore ........................ 798,856 arxan (826,000) 3. Coal ............................. 551,835 Olorandir (563,281) 4. Silver Ore ....................... 90,372 arxan (331,000) 5. Total Stones ................... 55 arxan (54) Top non-pick harvestable: Red Roses (at 367,892) nobody! Final tally: 200 picks each for Raistlin and arxan, 100 picks for Olorandir. To fully answer Zamirah's question, I am currently using harvester medallion #7 (when event frequency is low), so no I do not normally use them. Looking at the guesses, I had over 10% more than the average guess of iron ore and coal, but the closest guess to my silver ore count was more than 3.5 times the correct number, with the average being more than 7 times! This resulted in the average total being 25% high. Part of this may be due to an assumption that I use harv meds more than I actually do, but clearly people also expect me to spend more time in the silver mine. Krrick and arxan tied on the stones guess, but arxan guessed first. The average guess was 66 to my 55 - I guess I'm not as lucky as I thought! For the top non-pick harvestable, Sulfur and Red Snapdragons were just behind Red Roses, with Cotton and Toadstools being next, so most of you were very close. I must say, though, that I was surprised at how many people guessed something that had already been guessed... Thank you all for participating! Being my first contest, I wanted to do something relatively small and simple to try out some ideas and see how they worked out. If things continue to go well for me, then I will hopefully be putting what I've learned to use in another, more significant contest near the end of the year... Edited September 20, 2011 by Riphath Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
arxan Report post Posted September 20, 2011 Thank you very much rip Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Raistlin Report post Posted September 26, 2011 Tyvm Riphath, was a nice contest Share this post Link to post Share on other sites