Checkers for Carni Challenge trail in Canada

Question

I would like to see checkers for every challenge in the Carni challenge trail in Canada. The challenges can easily be found on the challenge map. Only those in the trail itself are included in this task, there was a few other challenges a bit away. You are of course welcome to write for those as well, but they are not included in the request.

I have looked through many of them, and they all seem to be very easy to write checkers for. It would be enjoyable to see a whole challenge trail covered with checkers. Might be the first?

And since I am the owner of Project-GC, I will even add some rewards for this task. When every challenge in the trail has a checker, excluding those where it's technically not possible, I will send 2 years of membership to Project-GC to these persons:

• The top 3 who created the most tags for the trail. If the one who created the most checkers, has twice as many as the second one, he/she will claim 2 of the 3 rewards, and there will be no third person.
• The last 3 unique persons who created tags for the last caches in the trail. And by last I mean the last to get checkers, it has nothing to do with the order on the map or the order of publishing. (I hope this was clear, ask otherwise and I will try to explain). To claim this award, you must have created tags for at least 3 caches in the trail, otherwise the price will go on to the next one.

Answer in this thread when you want to claim your rewards!

PS! It's appreciated if you also post an answer for every checker you have created, so that I/we can feel the progress.

UPDATE: Seems that there has been added a challenge to this trail. There was a total of 60, now it's 61. Let's include the new one. (update2: Now I can only see 60 again, maybe I mixed up the trails last time ...)

UPDATE 2: 2015-01-07, two challenges left (not counting those listed below), GC4BGNF and GC5ANVF. Quest completed. Rewards will be sent out as Coupon codes via the messaging system at Project-GC. Expect them later today. I also intend to sum it up here.

Challenges that can not be checked with todays API:

• GC4RDRN "1000 Trackables"
• GC4RDRD - Carni Challenge Trail: The Fizzy Traveller
• Carni Challenge Trail: 500.000 km
• GC4ZN66 - Carni Challenge Trail: Well Rounded Year Round (possible, but impoossible to understand)

 

The following users will be rewarded 2 years membership each:

• Rikitan (top 3)
• mole125 (Was in the top 3 writers, and created one of the lasts, will get 2*2 years)
• hampf (Created most and one of the last, will get 2*2 years)
• rabmoor (Was in the top 3 writers, and created one of the lasts, will get 2*2 years)
• GentlePurpleRain (top 3)
• Target. (Created second most tags)
• the Seagnoid (top 3)

What wasn't foreseen was that 5 users shared the position as top 3 tag creators. Since there was no rule regarding it, we will reward them all with 2 years each (and learn our lesson). We think it's nice that these has been created and we have no regret in rewarding you all. (at the point of posting this, the coupon codes have not yet been sent)

UPDATE (probably the last one): Rewards has been sent. New contests will be posted on the QA forum today, in the category "Checker requests". We will also update the request list on the checker-page.

PS! The Bikeway challenge trail in California only needs 3 more checkers.

Comments

Just to be clear, as I wrote, "When every challenge in the trail has a checker". Therefore no memberships has been handed out yet. This was with the exception for those where it isn't possible due to different reasons. About 50% of the caches are still missing checkers. :)

Answer 1

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: Do You Like It Even Wetter?" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4RDRV/6242

The last 10 finders have passed the test...

Cache attributes and minimum finds per day are in the config

Answer 2

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: Caching the Fibonacci" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZK2B/6359

The last 10 finders have passed the test...

Fibonacci numbers are in the config

Answer 3

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: carnigrewal X 5" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZJWW/6373

Not all of the last 10 finders have passed the test... hmmm

letters and rounds are in the config

Comments

A bit curious what checker DNStephens used. He is referring to a PGC-checker, but his screenshot doesn't look like yours. Yours doesn't think he qualifies for virtual, while the other checker did. Could it be that the other didn't check if the gccodes were already used? (that he didn't have two different virtuals with R).

I can not find any other tag for GC4ZJWW though, not even disabled (though it can have been deleted). Or is it an old version of yours?

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I suppose (having read his log entry) that DNStephens used an existing checker which was not appropriate for your challenge. He stated, that his own calculations did not show the challenge as "achieved". I have contacted him showing the results of my checker. I think, he will strive for the needed either "r" Virtual cache or "e" Event Cache.

Answer 4

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: A Full House" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZJY4/6404

The last 10 finders have passed the test...

No config

Answer 5

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail:5 Provinces/States X 5 Types" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZRKY/6453

The last 10 finders have passed the test...

Cache types, minimum types and states are in the config

Answer 6

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: Baker's Dozen With A Twist" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZRKQ/6460

The last 10 finders have passed the test...

Cache types and twist factor are in the config

 

Answer 7

I have entered a checker for "Carni Challenge Trail: F-Bombs!" here:

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4RDQZ/6475

As the checker runs for 2 minutes I did not verify the tag for the last 10 logs :-)

GuelphHiker did qualify and the result showed the finds he/she stated in his/her log, though.

Country/state arrays and minimum cache finds are in the config. I'll ask Carni for a complete list of states he approves and change the config, if neccessary. At the moment these are "United States" and "Canada".

--> this should be the last possible checker for the Carni Challenge Trail (*hint*)

;-)

Comments

I looked at your code and there is a couple of obvious speed improvent when the checker i so slow.
Firstly you don't have to fetch all top FP caches in the US and Canada(or more excactly the countriess in the config). You only have to fetch them for states the user has logged a cache in.
And it is not necessary to fetch all. Do that when you find a new state as you might make i with the first logged states

The top array should be  keyd by the GC code and not an orderd list
I you replace TableInsert(res,v) with res[v.gc_code]=v toy can skip the nested for loops with finds and top and do a
 if top[f.gccode]] ~= nil then
to check if it is a top caches


And you dont need to fetch all caches only the countries in the config are nedded and you could insert the whole checker in a for loop and check them one by on.
This is probibly inte that important if you only fetch the required states and remove the nested for loops

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Things I have done for some reason:
1) top[f['gccode']}~=nil didn't work at the first time, so I worked around that.
2) I have set the limit to 1, so I retrieve exactly one Geocache per state
3) The suggestion of checking only states with a log is a good improvement, I'll check this out.
4) filtering the country in PGC_GetFinds is a very good idea, too

5) Getting the top rated cache of one country does run about 2-3 seconds, so I don't think there will be a too big improvement (70*2=140)

But I'll check the code nevertheless.

Thanks for your comment.

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I included some performance improvement code using your comment:

a) filter PGC_GetFinds for countries in the config
b) PGC_GetFavorites only for intersection(config/finds) country/regions

But as long as PGC_GetFavorites takes 2-3 seconds per call there only is a massive boost when the cacher has not cached in many states/provinces.

It is faster to traverse the find array after having retrieved a top cache, so I have implemented a third improvement

c) after having retrieved a top cache, test if it has been found by the user immediately and break after 5 successful tests

Performance tests:
20 seconds for user juicepig
47 seconds for kenyansherpa
51 seconds for Denali41
41 seconds for Trail Mix 8
5.5 seconds for GuelphHiker (!!)

Looks like it wouldn't get any quicker (at least much better than the 180 seconds per check in the version before)

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Psst! Enable. :)

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New optimisation and improvements:
a) top 3 per state are read to avoid problems when 2 or 3 caches with equal fav points exist (uncommon, but at least no performance drop detected)
b) rearranged the order of states in config to put US states with most likely finds to the front

New performance tests:
16 seconds for user juicepig
42 seconds for kenyansherpa
26 seconds for Denali41
40 seconds for Trail Mix 8
5.5 seconds for GuelphHiker (reason: Canada is checked first, he has found 5 of the canadian top caches)

looks good enough for me :-)

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Nice work. I am in the process of reviewing those that are still yellow on the map, but not yet listed as impossible. You wrote that the last was done, but I don't think I agree. There are still 1-3 that works, I am looking at these:
http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4BGNF_challenge-0-77777778-of-total-carniage
http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC5ANVF_85-carni-water-trail-a-to-z-day-challenge
http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4RDQZ_carni-challenge-trail-f-bombs
The first should work (63/81 DT by mentioned CO, and the rest from random CO), the second two I will read in a few minutes.

EDIT:
Second should work as well, fairly easy.
The third was this one. So I would say two left. I will update my original post with an "UPDATE 2".

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I was referring to:
"Only those in the trail itself are included in this task, there was a few other challenges a bit away. You are of course welcome to write for those as well, but they are not included in the request."

But: I agree with your last comment that the two challenges left are possible and will be pleased to write checkers for the remaining yellow ones ;-)

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My mistake, I will start giving out rewards (I have already starting to sum it up anyway).

Answer 8

I'm interested. I'll get to work this afternoon. Are the ones that are yellow the ones without a script yet?

Comments

That is correct!
You can see it on the tooltips as well, if you click a tooltip you will (on the green ones) get a link to the checkers that matches the geocache.

Answer 9

Is there a list for the Carni Challenge Trail caches that are impossible to check with project-gc?

e. g. "1000 Trackables"

Comments

Not that I can see, I know Target compiled one for one of the other trails. But feel free to add them as comment on my original question when you find them. I will then add them into the question itself after reviewing and agreeing.

I haven't really read about all of them, not even those that are left. Maybe we are close to the end after compiling such list.

Answer 10

Challenge that cannot can be checked with current api:

GC4RDQZ Carni Challenge Trail: F-Bombs! - reason: no way to find highest favourited cache in a state or province

edit:
OK, I'll see how many states I can find :-)

Comments

I am a bit unsure what is meant with provinces in this case, all logs I see only refer to US states. I assume the CO writes provinces as well since it allows Canada (and Mexico).

It is possible to get the most favored cache for each state in North America.
http://project-gc.com/doxygen/lua-sandbox/classPGC__LUA__Sandbox.html#a9b5296e202e06c443e98a0b736fab382
It will require one call for each state though, a bit less than 100 calls, may be a bit slow, but I don't think so.

I am also unsure which states actually counts, USA has 53 states according to Groundspeak (District of Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Rhode Island may be the extra 3). I am no expert in US map, but all those belong to North America I guess, and then they should count as I understand it.
Canada has 14 states.
Mexico has 32 states.

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thx, I will dive into it...

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State/province on gc.com are the only geographical level on gc.com below country and is called region on pgc because of the name of the datafield in the gpx file(via GSAK i assume).
It is always named like that on all countries if you look at a country under at "Hide & seek a cache"
Atleast one cacher has used the top cache in DC. And by that i would assume that the groundspeek grpuping are used
What is north america is a better question usually the border between south and north america is the Isthmus of Panama. I practice the border of panama/Venezuela is most often used. And all Caribbean islands nations are a part of north america. Fortunately(for geocheckers) groundspeek considers the Caribbean parts of France and The Netherlands as different "Countries" (this is not colonies but overseas part of the countries)
In the northern part there are two area that are often forgotten
 St Pierre Miquelon http://coord.info/GCJGVZ A part of france France outside Newfoundland towards Nova Scotia.
and Greenland

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Done for United States plus Canada, other countries/states could be added in the config, as needed.

Answer 11

Carni Challenge Trail: The Fizzy Traveller

Fizzy Challenge caches: howto?

D/T 5/5 does not work

Description containing 81 does not work

I think the only way is to check for the cache_name, starting with "Fizzy Challenge", but this is not sufficient, as there are only 16 geocaches worldwide. In Germany they are normally called "Projekt 81" or alike. Nothing you can rely on.

I would rate this challenge "uncheckable". Agreed?

Comments

I agree. There are no reliable automatic way to detect all fizzy challenge today.
There exist a large list at http://www.mygeocachingprofile.com/ that could be used but it is probably not complete.
A checker that gives false negative and positive result can be created but no always correct

Answer 12

I have entered a tag for "Carni Challenge Trail: 150 Earthcaches"

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4RDT0/6333

Thanks to the Generic type checker script by Target (oops, he did already tag this cache with his own script before...)

;-)

Answer 13

Carni Challenge Trail: 500.000 km

I suppose there are no means to calculate this one, because

a) home coordinates can be faked to fulfil the requirements (ooops)
b) home coordinates cannot be retrieved by the API
c) home coordinates cannot be estimated by looking at the finds list

Agreed?

 

hmm, on second thought: should be possible, regarding a) as cheating (which nobody does, don't you?)

Comments

Agreed, we have some plans though.
And yes, there are always ways to cheat, it is primarily a checker for the logger. Then the CO must decide if he wants to check this way or another, and how much trust he has.

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I'll have a second try at this one. Looks achievable (regarding to the GC-Statistics distances)

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You still don't have any way to get the home coordinates from a user. Though we will implement it at some point. But it's tricky, since you will only be able to get them for yourself. This doesn't fit with our current code for the system.

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I won't need the home coordinates of any geocacher, the API for finds lets me filter the caches by distance. I try to iterate over the GC ranges, therefore I won't need to break the code.

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Hmm, I see... filter 'radius' needs latidute/longitude to work... I don't get them, so I'll stop working on this script.

Answer 14

Question for this one:

Carni Challenge Trail: Well Rounded Year Round

In order to log this cache as a find, you must have found and logged at least five different cache types in 12 consecutive months. Each type can be found in any twelve consecutive months, not necessarily all in one year.

Does this mean, that the 12 months do not neccessarily have to be the same 12 months for each cache type? I understand from the description, that I can have finds for traditional caches from 1/2014 to 12/2014, finds for Multi-caches from 4/2013 to 3/2014 and so on. Correct?

Comments

I have read it a few times now, and this far I do not understand it. I have quite a few interpretations. I will try to go through the logs as well to see if I can figure it out.

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I went ahead and added it to the list of those that are impossible. This one is without a doubt possible to create a checker for, but I think it's impossible to understand. Also by looking through the logs, I believe everyone is doing differently.

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Answer from Carni pending.

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Great initiative. I am having a bad day, so I was mostly frustrated. Spent 5h 50 minutes calling my ISP. That was the queue time, including that they disconnected me 4-5 times.

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I noticed the outage and decided to take a walk in the sunny outside :-)
Very bad for you, though...

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After an hour or so we switch to the failover internet. But it doesn't really have the capacity.

Answer 15

Until further notice from Carni I have added a script for

GC4ZN66 - Carni Challenge Trail: Well Rounded Year Round

http://project-gc.com/Challenges/GC4ZN66/6418

It checks for 12 consecutive months, each having at least 5 different (but over all 12 months equal) cache type finds.

Only 2 of the last 10 loggers meet this criteria, maybe due to misinterpretation - either theirs or mine :-)

When Carni answers i will change the script, if neccessary.