News and Updates

This page shows updates made to this site and the game. Not all changes show up here.

5 Nov 2020 -- Changed values of correct spelling bonus in questions and bonuses for when puzzles guesses match. The objective is to give points based on words instead of a flat number. Unfortunately, some words have common letters with large number of vowels and can be just as difficult to spell. Furthermore, the punctuation marks take time to type. Some puzzles have zero, but others may have five or six. I'll experiment with this change.

19 Aug 2020 -- Changed formatting of text, specifically the colors of text and headings. When looking at the site in the browser, I had trouble seeing the text. My apologies to those that couldn't see the text.

21 Jun 2020

I updated the point values of consonants in puzzles to match Scrabble, multiplied by 50.
I changed the graphics and fonts for the site.
Added Table of Contents to Full Rules page.

14 Jun 2020

I went through questions marked not to use for many different reasons, especially not having choices. I created choices and resolved all of those questions.
Looking through the HTML code for the Works Cited page, I deleted redundant code to decrease the file size. Actually, it's metadata for displaying when using Zotero, but it looked redundant.
It is time consuming to move the links to the correct text, but I did a few.

1 Jun 2020 -- On the full rules page, I put some example data into tables to make it look better. It even confused me reading them.

21 May 2020 -- I made changes to the scoring. I want to make all the scoring changes before playing a game, so it doesn't affect past players.

I changed the point values of some of the letters. Some letters were in the wrong category of how common they are.
When I put an example of scoring a word scramble, I noticed that the calculation was wrong:

It's not necessary to round to the nearest five.
The value of each letter was divided by five, not 10. I changed the rules page to match.

Increased points for matching a puzzle guess to 500.
Increased correct spelling bonus in answers to 350.
Decreased scoring for educated guess questions from one-fifth to one-tenth of the question's point value.
Changed bonus points for choosing a random level. Instead of adding just points, it now adds 25%, which is worth up to 250 points for one correct answer questions.
Added bonus points for choosing a random category of 10%, which is worth up to 100 points for one correct answer questions.
Added bonus points for choosing the random category and level of 40%, which is worth up to 400 points for one correct answer questions. That includes a bonus of 5%.

I felt that a bonus of 50 points for choosing a random level isn't enough, so I changed it to a percentage to encourage it. It also means a better chance at getting the jackpot.

When I updated the rules page this iteration, I got the feeling of too much information. Specifically, I added more examples in the scoring section.

After typing that last paragraph, I got the idea to move the examples to their own section. That way, players that don't care or want to know can just skip it.

18 May 2020 -- I just noticed that the date below said 2010 instead of 2020. Oops.

I spent that last few weeks making tweaks to the script to run more smoothly.

Making sure automation in the next step is more smooth.
Reprogrammed the speed round to stop if everyone playing is idle.
If the person in control leaves the channel during a speed round, the script moves on to the next player.
Removed unnecessary and duplicate code.
Fixed bug when adding time during the bonus round for levels above four.
Added warning when players change their nickname. Scores do not change from one nickname to another. This is in case a player has technical difficulties during the game.
The script only says the puzzle has no more consonants once. It annoyed even me when script testing and playing.
During a word scramble, when the script finds a match, it waits for me to verify the player is first before continuing. I added the same function for guessing puzzles.
Added checks to make sure a player is in control before starting a speed round.
Moved bonus question text to display when getting a question instead of after.

I forgot to put that the jackpots start at 5,000 points per player instead of 7,500 and zero previously.
Changed pause times during the game. The pauses allow players to get ready and prevent floods.
To any programmers that are reading this, make sure to delete code that you don't need and not delete code you do. I deleted unused code dealing with the clocks and the code to count them down. I bring this up, because it's funny and to hopefully prevent someone else from doing the same thing. It took me some time to realize this.

19 Jan 2020

At the end of the game, the jackpot goes to the player that solves the final puzzle or to the first player that got the last question right.
Players now get entries to win the jackpot for solving puzzles and word scrambles using a similar formula for questions.

9 Jan 2019

Added feature to add time in the bonus round for levels five to eight. This is to encourage players to read the question and not worry about time.
Increased time clock bonuses after solving the puzzle from 5 and 10 to 10 and 25. Solving the final puzzle with time left on the game clock is very difficult, so the bonus should be bigger.
Jackpots now start with 7,500 points instead of zero.

25 Dec 2019 -- Did a game reset to start anew:

Reset questions asked and adjusted point values if applicable. (Sidebar: Some questions' point values didn't change to prevent the score from going outside its range.)
In response to above change, I removed the rule of point values of questions changing outside their ranges.
Archived statistics by moving the information to the end of the page and resetting the format.

8 Dec 2019

Finished changing point values, most of which got increases. Working six days a week didn't give much time to work on this.
Removed a lot of questions, a few of them duplicates. Specifically, I had questions about temples being in city limits. While it is fascinating, I feel it's not very spiritual and thus removed them.
Added a few multiple choice questions that I missed.
Some questions didn't make sense, so I marked them to look through later.
Made question format consistent. Some questions weren't fully changed to formats I developed after writing the question.

20 Oct 2019

Changing point values of questions. The main reason is to add another point value to level one, so those questions' point values will vary from 50 to 150. Some of those questions are difficult to determine difficulty. Of course, I adjusted the other levels. I'm going to adjust the points for all the questions, a process that may take a while.
I got the kinks out of the scores displaying when earning points. When awarding points for answering questions, points won't display until the end to avoid confusion. Only the players that earned points will see their scores.

16 Sep 2019

Added Scriptures category. This category includes Bible, Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament questions, but it allows questions with the answer coming from the scriptures.
Point values of puzzles now display with the puzzle. I'm hoping that seeing its value will help players strategize ways to get more points for puzzles.
There's a slight change in the puzzle scoring:

Puzzle values start at 2,500, plus 4,000, and minus 500 for each word but not to go below 3,500 points. The 2,500 represents each letter in the alphabet. Well, almost every letter. 2,500 looks better than 2,600 regarding point values. The probability of guessing every single letter is very low.
Each guessed letter subtracts 100 points, whether it is in the puzzle or not.

I forget that players of most trivia games see their scores when they get a question right, so I'm programming the script to show player's scores privately at certain times, but that hasn't fully been implemented to my liking.
When displaying player's scores in channel, I changed the format to display everyone's scores on one line and put number of correct answers and percent correct in parenthesis.

10 Jul 2019

Stored sources in Zotero reference software to auto generate a reference list. It has its flaws, like not placing the link in the title, but it's much better than doing it manually. I can now track which sources I use and ones that are waiting for me to write questions.

6 Jan 2019 -- First update of the new year.

Added code to have the script match answers for the word scramble without using a command. After finding a match, the host programmed the script to verify that the person was first, so the host can give control to the correct person. There's a possibility of two players scoring points for the word or phrase.
The !guess and !pick commands are now optional. It even works on the wrong command, so if a player types !guess instead of !pick, the script will accept it anyway. The !puz command changed to the player(s) not in control do not need to use the !puz command. If that is confusing, just use the !puz command regardless of who is in control.

30 Dec 2018 -- Last update of the year:

Added Works Cited page. The objective is to give more details for sources shown in answers. Entries added, changed, and removed from the Works Cited section will not show up here.
Moved Question Formatting and Reusing sections to Works Cited page.

27 Dec 2018 -- Updated instructions for Apple users along with other corrections on that page. I was able to test their use during Christmas. (Thanks goes to the in-laws for allowing me to test it.)

20 Dec 2018 -- Made some changes to the script:

Changed some code when adding scores and processing jackpot entries for multiple players.
Added code to stop the clock and tell me when every player submits an answer in the first part of a question.
Changed the way scores are displayed at the end of each round. Three lines will appear with points, questions right, and percent correct for each player. Unfortunately, it's not known how to sort based on score.
Added two bonuses. When the script prompts a player to choose the next category and level, any player that has a 13 or a 666 in their score will get a bonus. There are two reasons for this: One, it can be difficult. Two, 13 is a good number. I'm not sure if this bonus has superstitious origins. I want it to be humorous, but I don't know how many will see it that way.

2 Dec 2018 -- Added ability to accept answers to pre-game questions and award points for correct answers. As of this writing, no one is on the notify list to get the pre-game questions, but they are sent out most of the time. (Shh! Don't tell anyone.)

23 Nov 2018

Added pre-game sections in the rules section. Subscribers to the notify list will now get three questions to answer before the official start of the game.
Corrected errors found in the website.

23 Sep 2018

Removed when the next game occurs from the main page of the site. Sometimes, I forget to update it. For right now, I announce games in two locations and hope to get e-mail subscribers to announce times only there, but it's early.
I made changes to the text that are too numerous to list and can't remember.

29 Aug 2018

Went through site and made edits to the text. One link on all pages wasn't displaying properly, so I fixed that. I hope visitors can go to the Sound Files page now.
I've worked on the script and fixed some errors that I noticed, including the individual winning streak bonuses.
Some text in the script was put on delay to avoid flooding.
Changed some text in the script for consistency.

15 Aug 2018 -- Added information on how to connect to the game through iPhone or iPad.

12 Aug 2018 -- Made some corrections to the script based on errors from game on Thursday.

21 Jul 18 -- Made some script changes after the game. Things weren't working correctly.

Added swearing detector to enforce no swearing rules. Some words get a warning; other words get an immediate timed ban where the player can't talk until the ban ends.
Added commands to enforce no swearing rules manually. Some words aren't in the swear word detector. For example, most of the time when people use God's name, it's not in vain, but the swear word detector can't tell the difference. (By the way, using God's name in vain in any form gets an immediate ban.)

15 Jul 18 -- Three major changes:

Changed formula for winning the jackpot. Still won't list it here.
If playing with two people, the winning streak formula changed to add 50 points. It's a little more difficult with more than one player.
When a player gets a correct answer in the second half, the other half of the points go to the jackpot.
More script fixes.

14 Jul 18 -- Updated e-mail links to new e-mail address specifically for this site. I'm hoping to add a mailing list script to automate it for me.

12 Jul 18 -- This is the initial posting of this site. The game has been in the works for about a year and a half. Some major changes have occurred since the last game about 18, 19 years ago. I'll start with the changes made within the last month:

I added a winning streak record. Breaking the record gets bonus points; however, earn more points when breaking the record fewer times. The record bonus is for each game, not overall.
I added more stat tracking. The script now tracks how many questions are asked, the number of those questions were correct, the percentage correct, and the average point value for each question. Individually, the script tracks each players' number of correct answers and can calculate the percentage correct.
Added more opportunities to add points to the jackpot, which is mostly points not picked up by players, including missed word scrambles and puzzles.
Added a pause based on question's length after asking a question to allow players time to read them. That's one of the most important aspects of the game. Some questions are so large that they would take most of the time allotted just to read them.
One change is to further automate events in the game. When starting to work on the script about a year ago, automated events occurred, like having the letter guess prompt appear automatically. The objective is to speed the game up. There are pauses before the next event, but those pauses are there to help players prepare and prevent flooding.
Of course, more script testing.

That's all I can think of changing in the last month, so I'll go through changes made since the last game about 18, 19 years ago.

I added a jackpot. The only time points go to it were from missed questions. I added the algorithm on how to award the jackpot. That is a secret.
Various script changes that are too numerous to mention. Most of them are the updating of the score window that displays more information. (I have two custom windows that show the game clocks and each players' score.) I did some script testing to find bugs in the script, but I don't think I found them all. I hope the bug doesn't cause a problem that affects the game.
I cut point values by five for educated guess questions. I wanted to reward players for getting the question correct.
I'm going to talk about features removed from the game when starting this reboot:

I removed the secret letter and jackpot. The secret letter just gave extra points to the player that chose it. The jackpot, however, was hard to get. It was done by guessing a particular letter in a puzzle and then solving the puzzle in a specified time. Players would end up choosing that letter too early and thus not get the jackpot.
I removed all penalties. I had it set up that the script would track penalties and take points off based on the number of penalties, which caused double penalties. I became obsessed over them, so I don't want that to happen again. The main penalty I took out was an illegal guessing pattern. I would look for patterns in players' guessing and disqualify them from the question if I found one. Well, I found patterns that players weren't making, which lost my players, and I don't want that to happen again. Guessing vowels in the puzzle is the only time points decrease, and that's not a penalty.
I removed something I called Question Points. When players did something in the game, players earn these points. Most of it is just answering questions. Players could then convert those questions points into regular points. The objective is to give players a chance to catch up. It didn't work.
I removed double points. At the 15 minute mark on the game clock, the points for the rest of the game would double. The objective was to give players a chance to catch up. It, too, didn't work.
I removed puzzle round and question round. Two rounds were special where the entire round is solving puzzles or answering questions. I don't want to focus on just questions and puzzles.
I removed two features that I may bring back down the road:

Brain Speed Test -- A question or category is displayed that has more than three correct answers. Players would rack their brains for 20 seconds just typing up answers. When the first buzzer sounded, an additional five seconds is given to allow players to press the enter key and submit their answers. Correct answers got points.
Triple Church Mystery -- This is the original title, although it changed to something I don't remember. The host chooses someone or something with three clues given in the form of puzzles. After each solved puzzle, players got an opportunity to guess. Players got points when correct, but the point value decreased with each clue given.

Finally, I'll go over features I added or changed:

I added Educated Guess questions. Its purpose was to prevent players from throwing out guesses and my trying to find patterns. This also allows players to get points for not knowing the correct answer. Of course, some educated guess questions may have players that know the answer, but they're labeled that for this reason.
The main thing I changed is how players answered questions. Originally, questions asked were free for all with two parts. Players can post as many answers as possible before the buzzer. Each player that posted the correct answer got points with the first player getting double and a letter guess. For two answer or multiple choice questions, this allowed players an opportunity to guess each choice. A rule was added to stop that. In the end, it got more confusing than it needed to be.
The point values changed for the questions. Instead of point values, I thought of levels. There were already questions that required two or three correct answers, but adding the levels added the opportunity to increase the time given for these questions. Further, I could create a point system based on those levels and perceived level of difficulty.
The puzzle updater, word scramble, and control pick got a rewrite.
Finally, I removed a three-in-a-row limit on picking. If a player picks the same category and level three times in-a-row (excluding random), I would award the player points, take control, and then do word scramble to see who would get it and ignore that player's answers. Because I added levels, I felt this was no longer necessary. I put it in there so I wouldn't run out of questions at that point value.

Background picture from BoxedArt.
Line and banner graphics obtained from Celine's Original GIF's. (The link no longer works.)

Game format and questions written by me are copyright 2017-2020 by Jeremy Adderley. Feel free to use the game's format and questions as long as no money exchanges hands with credit. Questions written by others are properly credited in the answers. Please send an e-mail to request permission and/or make payment(s) for their use when it involves money.

So far, I wrote most of the questions, so I'm adding a disclaimer that I do not talk about the questions with anyone that I feel may end up playing the game, especially my wife. This is so they can play, and other players don't feel those people have an edge over them.

There are two mailing lists: newsletter and notify. They're considered separate just in case a person only wants one. The newsletter contains a summary of the game, including scores of everyone who played, corrections to scores, updates to the game, and even high score lists. The notify list announces the time for the next game; however, the most important aspect is asking three random questions the day before the game session. Answering these three questions before the game officially starts will earn points. The three random questions will only appear in the notify list.

There is a page on Facebook about the game, and I post when the next game will be and updates to the site/game.

E-mail addresses collected are only used to send the newsletter and inform when the next game occurs. They are not sold in any form. Any real names collected will not appear on this site, unless they contributed something that deserves credit. The idea is to use nicknames for purposes of high scores and other information shown on the stats page.

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