Tips on Rigging.

So rigging is the newest piracy puzzle, and i haven't spent a lot of time on the puzzle, as I know the basics (Moving the pieces to make "multiples" at a knot) But am unsure on how scoring works, and how to score highly. How do you score highly, and are there any general tips towards the puzzle you could give? I thought about asking in /tells but it would benefit more people being written on here. Many thanks,

Demonz.

Well as far as my knowledge (Grand - Master) goes the scoring system is based more on clearing an entire piece set (for example the blue square ones). I understand that more points are awarded if you do this in without having to booch any of the 6 exit points (like the waisteful feature in carp). You still get points for clearing 3,4,5 or more pieces, but this gives very few score points. You should always remember the extra pieces you get for completing a roll on knots (the bottom thing where rope winds up) can be very useful to connect pieces. I hope I was of some help to you.

hmm. Where to start without writing a long essay (sorry I think the essay is inevitable)...

I should add the disclaimer that this is... somewhat... conjectural. I have tested things extensively, but hypothesis testing is not easy when you don't have access to the numbers... especially cause my score meter is almost always sparkly so its hard to differentiate between scores.



Ok, basically there are 3 things that affect scoring:

1) Moves taken (each move = - score)
2) Length of pull (longer = better, duh)
3) Score bonuses (more = better, duh)


Move Taken

Each move you make costs you score. In very general terms, if a puzzle is described as an "efficiency puzzle", that is what this means (bilge being the other main example of this). Consequently, good scoring is about making the highest scoring pulls with the lowest number of moves.

Contrary to popular belief, losing counters from your wild piece thing at the bottom does NOT lose you score... but it can seem this way, because it means you have made several moves without getting anything adding to your score (I assume this is what skindred meant by "booching" the 6 pulleys... if he meant something else I don't have a clue because there is no way to booch a pulley that I am aware of).

I would say as a general rule you should be making a decent pull every 1-6 moves. More than 6 it had better be fucking awesome or you're wasting your time (I tend to avoid doing these as the possibility for messing up is too great and it isn't a good way to consistently get incredible). Even 5/6 should be a very good one for it to really be worth it. If you can do things every 3 moves, that is great, and gets you some wild pieces that can be useful (though they're a bit of a double edged sword).


Length of Pull

Length of pull is important. Anything less than 5 scores you less points than you lose from making a move, so as misty says, never ever ever move to make less than 5 (exception: if you are tokening, taking a score hit to get tokens is a valid use of a move). If the pull is already at the pully there is no sense in cancelling it, its only actually making moves to get to less than 5 that is the problem. Note also that there is only one score bonus (see below) you can actually get with only <5 pieces.

Now... what is a good length. 5 is minimum that you should make. 10+ is a good length. 15+ is great. 20 is awesome (and more on this below). Score from length also seems to increase exponentially; the difference between 12 and 10 is greater than the difference between 10 and 8.

(nb. The exact score of the pull is affected by what Star your board is. As the stars go up, shorter pulls will get you a higher score. This is generally true of all puzzles; you have an increase in score as the puzzle difficulty goes up. Consequently, in a 1 star board, <10 is a low pull. The exact degree is not known to me.)




Efficiency and length are the basics. But apart from low star boards, you need to do something special or have incredible luck to be able to consistently get large pulls every 3 turns or so. As such, the third element of scoring, the score bonuses, are actually the most important. If you want to consitently do well in rigging, learn the score bonuses, and try to get at least one per pull you build.


Score Bonuses

They are (in order of usefullness, I will explain each in detail below)

a) All of the pieces of a colour (gets Tar)
b) Connecting two pulleys (gets Splice)
c) Looping (gets Gaff)
d) Geting 20+ from a pull (no special piece, but you'll probably get at least one wild)
e) Clearing in subsequent turns (no special piece, but builds towards wild)


Note: You can (and should) combine these bonuses. If you have 20+ pieces to clear, it is a waste to just clear them; it is absolutely worth it to spend extra moves to get several bonuses on top of it. Note also that all of the ways to get bonuses also help you get special pieces. Truly awesome rigging require you to use the special pieces effectively.


Now just to explain a bit more on the score bonuses...

a) All of the pieces of a colour (gets Tar)

The pull you do this in has to contain at least 5 pieces to count. Wild pieces, tars and gaffs (INCLUDING the pieces taken by the gaff - and if there is only one of the colour and the gaff takes it as part of a pull from another colour, that counts). The pieces taken from a splice do NOT count. Nor does the splice itself. I believe the individual score bonus for this is the highest (unsure). It is also usually easy to combine this with another bonus of some kind.

The tar piece is incredibly useful. As well as being a wild piece, it causes all the pieces in the pull which are next to it to be of one colour. It is good to put the tar next to a lot of other pieces if you can. The reason this is so useful is that it helps increase the length of pulls - as we covered above this is a good thing. It can also usually be used to make a decent mid-sized pull on the subsequent turn (adjacency bonus below). Finally, using several different tars all at once will make all of them produce the same colour, so it can be a good idea to save all the tars up and use them in one epic pull (this is a strategy I only occasionally use).


b) Connecting two pulleys (gets Splice)

A pulley is conected if, for any reason, there is a piece next to it when the pull is made (not counting the pulley that the pull is made from) The pulleys you connect have to be separated by at least one (i.e. they cannot be next to each other) from the active pulley (the pulley that you are making the pull from). However, not that if at least one pulley is connected to in this way, if you can ALSO join the one that is between them (next to both) this will give you an additional score bonus. This is VERY useful; its often easy to rack up multiple bonuses this way. In particular, its easy to combine with the Tar bonus above. Note: the pieces for this can be taken in ANY way; wild pieces, pieces taken by a gaff, pieces taken from a splice etc. This seems to be the second most effective bonus, and can be stacked (unlike tar).

However, splices are perhaps the trickiest piece to use, and the least useful special piece. First of all, a splice is directional, unlike any other piece; it connects along a specific line. It will connect to a wild only if that wild is part of the pull taken from the ACTIVE pull; it will not connect into a wild piece (but anything from the active pull (e.g. pieces take by a gaff) will do). Unlike other piece, you can only ever have one splice at a time. Finally, using a spice creates TWO pulls with the same move, not one large pull. This is important because (as mentioned above) score increases exponentially with size of pull; two pulls of 10 connected by a splice is less score than one pull of 20 (and the 2 pulls do NOT get the 20+ score bonus). Where a splice is mostly useful is that it can allow you to get truly AWESOME pulls if used well, and to build up bonuses when you don't have enough of a colour to otherwise get a good score.


c) Looping (gets Gaff)

"Looping" is when some pieces are totally surrounded by other pieces that are part of the main pull. You can loop any number of pieces this way, as long as they are totally enclosed. This is the lowest individual score bonus of the special pieces. However, it is also the easiest to stack; getting a 5 loop, combined with the pieces pulled, is often enough to push you from dark blue to incred. The highest scoring pulls are ones which involve phenomenally high loops.

The trouble with is it is very tricky to do. Especially the really large loops. I generally DON'T aim to loop unless I can see that it is easy to get. Also, most of the times when I don't get incred are because I have tried to large loop and fucked it up. It is a risky tactic, and so I shy away from it unless it basically given to me. A 5 loop is fantastic a 10 and I'm laughing. More than that requires serious dedication and planning

Smaller loops of 1-5 are very useful and often not too difficult to do. In particular, they are useful because they give you the gaff - the most useful special piece in the game. A gaff pulls EVERY piece adjacent to it. So if your pull has a gaff in it, its at least 7 - more if you use it well. They are also very useful for extending already large pulls. In particular, the pieces taken by a gaff count for ALL other bonuses - including towards looping to get further gaffs in the future.


d) Geting 20+ from a pull (no special piece, but you'll probably get at least one wild)

Self explanatory. Usually the only ways you can get this are a) early, low star boards b) using tar in clever ways to build up your pieces or c) using several gaffs on the same pull bulk up your pull size.


e) Clearing in subsequent turns (no special piece, but builds towards wild)

So this bonus happens when you make a pull, then IMMEDIATELY make another. This is the worst and smallest of the bonuses. Really it is mostly useful for token rigging, as it essentially means you don't take quite as much of a score hit when making a small pull to take tokens. It is also useful when using tar - it can get you a decent score by using the pieces taken from the tar immediately after your pull.


So yeah... everything you could ever want to know about rigging. If its confusing, ask, I will try to clarify.

ye have been awarded the incredible rigger!!! it really helped..thanx kaine!