(O)PTIMIZE Reloaded: StrangerCoug's game!

[jmj3000]

I walked away with $40,000 last time I was here. I'm feeling like I'm going to walk away with at least $200,000 this time and claim my rightful place at the top of the leaderboard. Also, yabba, how is that home version coming along?

[JacobSavage]

/in

[yabbaguy]

Not much room to go up from there, but hey, you never know. We shall see.

Meanwhile, let's pretend you've never heard of this game and explain it anyway.

*audience laughs*

DiplomatDC
puzzledan
D3f3nd3r
IceGuy
Nobody Special

JerryArr
Drench
Mist7676
animorpherv1
Xalxe

orcinus_theoriginal
xtopherusD
bird1111
JasonWazza
Feirei

Cheery Dog
KingdomAces
Tragedy
StrangerCoug
jmj3000

Your starting target's 2. You can win money in each of those four colorful sectors by assigning them to the players in that sector. Every time you pick a player, they pick one of their color spheres with a number inside from 0-4, and if it's higher than your target, you move up one step on that sector's money ladder.

Although you're racking up four sums of money though, you'll only win one in fact, and which one is determined by which golden sphere you pick (or get stuck with ) at the end of the game. Bad news, looks like there are more golden spheres on the cheaper colors. That may change...

Meanwhile, a target of 2 means the first player you pick only wins if they find a 3 or 4. Who kicks the game off?

[jmj3000]

Drench

Also, you're going to pass up a chance to plug the home version yabba?

[puzzledan]

Brings in a house

Bring in the home game for Yabba to plug here you go Mr Yabba

[yabbaguy]

I'm not nearly as excited about it after some sobering playtests showed how far less exciting it was in board game multiplayer form. Maybe I might release a smaller, cheaper solitaire version? Still contemplating that. Hmmmmmm...

Meanwhile, I was wondering if this was gonna happen...

*laughter as everyone looks at Drench*

Drench

Hey Drench... guess what.

You're first in. Again.

Your five spheres contain the digits 0-4 among them. Find one of those numbers higher than a 2, and green moves up one step to $400. Can you succeed on the first go this time?

[puzzledan]

Hey excuse me Yabba can I go toilet I dieing from standing up feel free to make a toilet joke at my expense please

[Xalxe]

If he did, it's just be a shitty joke.

[Drench]

to celebrate my mathematical methods exam in six days this post will take the form of integral calculus

₁

∫

-3(x-2)²+12

dx

⁰
=

[

-(x-2)³+12x

]

= (1 + 12) - (8)
= 13 - 8
= 5th from the left

then

₅

∫

5(x-3)⁴+4x³-6x²-275

dx

⁴
=

[

(x-3)⁵+x⁴-2x³-275x

]

= (32 + 625 - 250 - 1375) - (1 + 256 - 128 - 1100)
= -968 + 971
= 3rd from the left

ah yes, i love the smell of maths in the evenin'
you're lucky i didn't break out the spooky transcendentals
happy halloween

[yabbaguy]

puzzledan, that'd be a crappy idea if you didn't. Go for it.

Meanwhile, Drench let's see if complex mathematical modeling is maximizing our output here.

Drench

*Drench puts his pen and paper down, then lifts the lid back on its hinge, exposing the inside of the lid*

Drench

*groans and laughs from the audience, set flashes grayscale*

0 < 2. Did you factor that in?

The good news is subsequent targets come from the previous color sphere, so with that best target of 0, we can

derive

it like we mean it.

*rimshot, more groans*

Drench

Backwards? Must've left a negative in there somewhere.

In every round, however, we open two spheres. Drench's sphere was the first one, the second one comes from our golden spheres.

*spotlight shines on golden spheres*

Before you get the chance to pick a golden sphere at the end, we're going to open and remove one just about every round. That's going to affect the odds of winning each particular payout while the game goes on, so pay attention!

Here comes the first one.

*click*

(8)

(6)

(4)

(2)

*flip*

*audience applauds*

Red. Good, we don't want to see a cheap color show up today. Now there's a lesser chance of that happening.

DiplomatDC
puzzledan
D3f3nd3r
IceGuy
Nobody Special

JerryArr
Mist7676
animorpherv1
Xalxe

orcinus_theoriginal
xtopherusD
bird1111
JasonWazza
Feirei

Cheery Dog
KingdomAces
Tragedy
StrangerCoug
jmj3000

Poor Drench, everyone keeps putting the pressure on him to start and his spheres keep failing.

Where to next?

[Drench]

this is why people hate calculus

[Tragedy]

I have a feelin the next one is going to be a 0 or 3. :/

[JDGA]

Nyeh, Tragedy shouldn't be so pessimistic. I'm calling a 1.

[Tragedy]

No JDGA, stahp it!

[jmj3000]

Tragedy

[yabbaguy]

Tragedy

Burden of proof is squarely on you, then, Tragedy.

[Tragedy]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

4, 1

BECAUSE I SENSE SOMETHING DELICIOUS!

Please let this be 3-1-0-4-2!

[yabbaguy]

Aiming 4-3? Okay.

Tragedy

*sphere opens up*

Tragedy

*audience groans, set turns colorless, as does jmj a little bit*

Tragedy's pessimism warranted in this instance. Self-fulfilling?

Tragedy

*spotlight shines on golden spheres*

Red went last time, and we've taken knocks to both green and UV in the cash department. Blue's been untouched so far.

What happens this time?

*unlocks sphere*

(7)

(6)

(4)

(2)

*exposes the contents*

*applause*

Another red gone!

DiplomatDC
puzzledan
D3f3nd3r
IceGuy
Nobody Special

JerryArr
Mist7676
animorpherv1
Xalxe

orcinus_theoriginal
xtopherusD
bird1111
JasonWazza
Feirei

Cheery Dog
KingdomAces
StrangerCoug
jmj3000

Ummmmmmm... where's the money? :\

[Tragedy]

I FEEL USELESS.
DAMN IT YABBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

[yabbaguy]

What'd I do?

[Tragedy]

You didn't hug me!

[JDGA]

[jmj3000]

Jason

[JasonWazza]

3rd and 2nd and inb4 you just lost your chance at $200,000

[yabbaguy]

JasonWazza

Switching the focus of our zeroes now that the $500,000 has turned to rubble.

Jason, can you duck the zero?

*JasonWazza pushes in the middle latch, turning the button red*

JasonWazza

*JasonWazza flings the lid up*

JasonWazza

*"HOORAY!" cheers the crowd as the set flashes blue*

Yay, at last! By picking a sphere higher than our target, blue's now worth $600. But you only get that money if you pick a blue golden sphere at the end!

JasonWazza

Speaking of golden spheres...

*spotlight shines on golden spheres, I walk over*

...you've knocked two reds out to start out. Looks like blue's on its way, so we want to keep those 4 around as long as possible.

*clicks the latch*

(6)

(6)

(4)

(2)

*flips lid*

*audience groans, I facepalm*

I still don't believe in jinxes, but yikes. Funny I bring up needing to keep blues around.

DiplomatDC
puzzledan
D3f3nd3r
IceGuy
Nobody Special

JerryArr
Mist7676
animorpherv1
Xalxe

orcinus_theoriginal
xtopherusD
bird1111
Feirei

Cheery Dog
KingdomAces
StrangerCoug
jmj3000

Now the cash is on its way but the golden spheres aren't cooperating!

Can we remedy that problem? Target of 2 is back though, so you tell me how you want to approach this.