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This page is mostly for the host but is here in case people are curious about it. Additionally, the script test information makes the News and Updates page look overwhelming, so they're on their own page.

There's countless script tests, but it's only the saved ones that appear below and will appear in order of occurrence:

Saved Test One

Dates: 24 - 30 Oct 2021

• I play full games to test the script and to test my knowledge. I pose as two players to simulate multiple players and then flip coins to simulate game situations. I even roll dice to select categories and levels. The full parameters for these tests are too long to post here.
• The top three categories of points earned are puzzles, questions, and jackpots, not necessarily in that order. Bonuses went under separate categories. My goal is that players earn most of their points through questions followed by puzzles. The purpose of the jackpot is to lower the disappointment of not knowing answers to questions, word scrambles, and whatnot. I have a feeling that the only way to move the jackpot out of the top three is to lower the amount of points that go there, but I don't want to decrease the number. I'm thinking about increasing it, but I digress.
• In my head, I thought the points earned for streaks, both kinds, would be much lower than about 7,000 or five percent. I didn't realize that they add up. Of the two streaks, the overall streak was the higher number, which is what it should be.
• I experimented with what would happen if I added a time bonus of one point a second remaining when asking for letters and the next category and level. It represented about 1.5, 2% of points earned. This isn't enough to really make a difference, but I hope this will motivate players to go fast.
• I also experimented by changing the points going to the jackpot after a player solves a puzzle. Currently, that number is the difference between the full bonus and what the player earns, divided by four. I experimented with adding the full number and then changed it to divide by three. It moves winning the jackpot more towards the top earning category, so I'm not changing that bonus.
• I also experimented by adding 100 points to the jackpot after asking each question. It does increase the percentage, but I don't think the jackpot will be the top earning category. At least, I hope not.

Saved Test Two

Dates: 6 - 21 Nov 2021

• Actually, all games should be different, but I digress. Ideally, I want players to get most of their points from questions and puzzles. Unless I make some drastic changes to the jackpot, that is going to be in the top three. I would like for it to be number three, but it's possible to be number one and two. Anyway, here are some highlights of the second game's results:
• The first game's victory margin, not including the bonus round, was about 32,000 points. When I added the bonus clock, the margin stayed the same, so it didn't have an effect on the game. However, when I added 100 points to the jackpot for each question asked, regardless of outcome, the margin decreased to about 29,500 points.
• The second game's victory margin--once again, not including the bonus round--was about 51,000 points. This includes the bonus clock and the 100 points per question after adjustments.
• For one player, the top three scoring categories was puzzles, questions, and a jackpot. For the other player, the top three scoring categories was questions, a jackpot, and puzzles. The first player's top three weren't that far apart, percentage wise; however, the second player's top three had a big difference between the top two and puzzles. The first player solved most of the puzzles.
• The scores for both players were neck and neck a few times during the game. The first player grabbed a big lead after solving the last puzzle and getting the final jackpot. In previous games, both players tend to score evenly, especially between questions and puzzles.
• The second game had fewer streaks and a lot less points due to breaking the streak record. I wonder if it's because I missed more questions.
• Both test games involved score corrections due to script errors. I hope I fixed the errors.
• When I first script tested, I could solve puzzles fairly fast, probably because puzzles kept repeating. Now that I added more puzzles, they are repeating less, and I have trouble solving them. In fact, for some, I don't know the puzzle until the very last letter. This is probably a good thing. I'm saying this, because it's effecting the results of my analyses by giving results that will likely match a real game.
• I'm not good with word scrambles. There are a lot of scrambles that I can't solve until the hint appears.

Saved Test Three

Dates: 28 Nov - 19 Dec 2021

• The victory margin between the highest scorer and the lowest scorer was about 46,500. This number is after corrections and before the bonus round. (I test the bonus round, too, but I believe it works well, for the most part.) The difference between the highest scorer and the middle scorer was about 27,000, which is just above the halfway mark.
• The top three methods of scoring for each player is as follows:
• Highest scorer: jackpot, questions, and puzzles at about 46.5%, 25.7%, and 12.2%.
• Middle scorer: questions, puzzles, and jackpot at about 46.1%, 16.2%, and 14.83%.
• Lowest scorer: questions, puzzles, and jackpot at about 66.9%, 23.6%, and 21.5%.
• This game had some surprising results. The top three for each player doesn't match but is the top three I want. It looks like the highest player won thanks to the jackpot.
• Winning streaks were virtually non-existent for this game. The main streak didn't go above three, and one player had an individual streak of seven. There was no bonus for breaking a streak, either.
• That reminds me. I marked a question right that I got wrong. The question asked to put three events in order of occurrence. Well, I didn't realize at game time that I got the order wrong and, therefore, missed the question. Since this means I displayed the correct answer too soon, I had to toss the question. I subtracted the points given to the players and any points added to the jackpot. Additionally, I forgot that each player got one answer right. When I toss a question, players get points for all correct answers. I also had to adjust winning streaks, and it even required adjusting the winning streak bonus. There was one time in the game where a player got a main streak of three in a row and then another player got a streak breaker the next question. Unfortunately, tossing this question decreased that streak by one and negated those streaks.
• Another mistake involved a puzzle. The script couldn't match a puzzle guess, because the apostrophe in the puzzle wasn't the standard, vertical apostrophe. The script doesn't remove the single quote characters that go left and right and even quotation marks that go left and right.
• I messed up a score display for questions with more than one answer. The bonus points for getting all answers displayed properly, but it wasn't adding the correct number to the total points. I fixed that mistake at game time and made corrections. It took a bit.
• One question was a level eight question, and I didn't realize it required three answers. (This is why I emphasize reading the question. Even I fail to read the question.) I only gave one answer and marked it right. Well, I noticed it after awarding points and a letter guess. I had to toss the question out and manually make adjustments, too many to list here. When typing this up, I forgot to award points for one correct answer, even though I tossed the question.
• Players won the jackpot more times in this test, and the jackpot still had a high number of points after lowering the starting number to 1,000 per player.
• For the last puzzle, the players revealed the entire puzzle, so the player that guessed the last letter got the jackpot. This makes it so there's no incentive for revealing all the letters.
• When I script test, my objective is to go as fast as possible to get more questions, puzzles, and word scrambles. When the final puzzle got to the speed round, I changed my strategy, because I was tired and wanted to end the test. I delayed letter guesses as long as possible to run out the game clock. Not having that extra puzzle altered the results of this test.

Saved Test Four

Dates: 20 Feb - 6 Mar 2022

• I made some adjustments to scores:
• One player didn't get a bonus for time remaining on the bonus clock.
• The script didn't calculate a winning streak bonus correctly. At game time, I thought it did it correctly.
• I made a lot of reversals during the game, and I miscalculated them that gave a player an extra 50 points.
• I gave partial credit to two players for their answers, but it somehow didn't add to their scores.
• The script awarded the jackpot once. While there's no guarantee that the script awards the jackpot more than once, I want it to be more than once. I don't want a player to win the game by winning the jackpot. It may make the rest of the game seem redundant, and I can't fully imagine their frustration. For the latest script test, it was over 40,000 points, which made the player that got it the winner. I have to rethink the jackpot's algorithm.
• The awarding of the jackpot once changed the top three of one player from questions (48.7%), letters (10.8%), and puzzles (9.1%) to jackpot (52.2%), questions (23.3%), and letters (5.2%).
• The top three scoring for the other two players are as follows:
• Middle Player: puzzles (40.1%), questions (30.3%), and letters (7%).
• Lowest Player: questions (41.3%), puzzles (17.3%), and letters (15.6%).
• I'm not good with scrambles. A player idled and lost control during the Puzzle Round test. I couldn't solve two scrambles. It was during Puzzle Round where a player had to have control before starting speed round on the next puzzle. That took almost three minutes off the clock. That was probably one less puzzle for that round.

Saved Test Five

Dates: 12 Mar - 3 Apr 2022

• Once again, I had three players, and the jackpot bug affected the outcome. One player got a big lead.
• This game had countless errors. I fixed most during the game, but I missed some:
• I processed the pregame questions incorrectly, and one player didn't get their points.
• I had troubles getting the script to add the correct number of points to the jackpot and displaying that. I caught most during the game, but I missed some and made adjustments after the game.
• The biggest mistake this session is that I cut round three short. I did this test over multiple days, and I lost track of where I was during the game. I thought round three ended, but there was still 8:32 left on the puzzle clock. This is something I can't correct post game. I'm not going to toss the rest of the game to redo round three. During a live game, I hope to have the game at one session and not split over weeks like I do with my script tests. Fortunately, it didn't mess up Question Round and Puzzle Round in that order.
• This game had a 69,000 swing between first place and last place with the middle player closer to the last place player. Here are the top three categories for each player:
• First place: jackpot (46%), puzzle (21.5%), and questions (18.3%).
• Second place: questions (37.9%), puzzles (25.7%), and letters (9.3%).
• Third place: puzzles (44%), questions (34%), and letters (9.7%).
• The problems with the jackpot skewed the top three. One player got a vast majority of those points.
• The script awarded the jackpot five times. The first time was after the first question. I think the player got lucky. The next three were after the same question in round five. I don't know if that was an error in the script. The final one was after solving the last puzzle.
• I goofed in my spreadsheet that shows the percentage of points players got in different categories so that requires adjusting previous script tests. I'll edit those directly instead of repeating it here.

Saved Test Six

Dates: 25 Apr - 30 Apr 2022

• Once again, I had three players. Since this went over several days, but I got in a hurry to complete the test that I changed the parameters of the test, and I missed questions that I don't think I would normally. I hope to never have a live game when I'm tired. It may affect the outcome.
• Out of curiosity, I counted the number of times I guessed vowels. It was a total of 39 with the highest scoring player requesting 14, the middle player requesting 13, and the lowest player requesting 12. This count only counts the number of times players lost points for vowels. There were a few times when players didn't lose points due to no consonants in the puzzle. Wow, that's a total of 9,750 points spent on vowels. It didn't affect the outcome of the game, but I was curious.
• I fixed a lot of bugs, and I found more bugs. This test, however, had fewer problems where I had to stop the test to debug the script. I won't know for sure how long a game will actually take until having a live one. I estimate it at four hours, but with all the clock changes, it may be longer. I'll adjust it later if necessary.
• For this test, the script and test parameters seemed to favor one player, who ended up winning the game. I don't know think it was due to script error. The final jackpot went to the player with the highest score. It looks like it chose randomly. No matter what I program in the script regarding randomness, there will be times when it seems it's favoring one player. There's nothing I can do about that as long as the random picker works correctly.
• The jackpot's algorithm isn't quite right yet. The first jackpot got to about 50,000, and I would like it to award it at the 10,000-point mark. This number ignores the starting value. I will tweak with the algorithm again to hopefully award it sooner and more often.
• First thing's first. It's time for post-game corrections:
1. For one question, it gave credit for one answer instead of two. That required adding 210 points, 70 of which was the all answer bonus.
2. It happened on two questions to the same player. The second time required adding 450 points, 150 of which was the all answer bonus.
3. There was a scramble as a question that got bonus points, and a player matched their guess. Unfortunately, it calculated the matching bonus before the other bonuses. That required a 15 point addition. I'll look into fixing it.
4. The jackpot didn't add the correct number of points for missed questions that required more than one correct answer. I manually adjusted the jackpot. I'm working on fixing the bug.
5. It looks like the addition of 100 points to the jackpot for each question regardless of outcome works. I'm not sure what to check in the code to verify that it works correctly.
6. I didn't program the addition of 1,500 points going to the jackpot for each round correctly. When the puzzle clock expires, 1,500 points goes to the jackpot (2,000 for Puzzle and Question rounds). It added the 1,500 points when the game clock expired, so I'll check that code.
7. The script awarded the jackpot twice. Both times required an adjustment: The first time deducted 200 points because of the 100 point error explained above. The second time deducted 1,700 points because of both bugs mentioned above this.
8. At first, the jackpot for incorrect questions wasn't adding the correct numbers. It was adding points for one answer instead of two or three, depending on the level. I fixed it later in the test, but in the process of fixing something else, the bug came back. I'm working on fixing it.
• There was an approximate 118,000-point swing from the top scorer to the bottom scorer with the middle scorer about 14,000 above the bottom scorer.
• The following is the top three scoring categories for each player, starting with the highest scoring player and ending with the lowest scoring player:
1. jackpots (52.6%), puzzles (21.9%), and questions (8.8%)
2. questions (34.4%), puzzles (33%), and letters (17.9%)
3. puzzles (35.5%), questions (32.2%), and letters (19%)
• It looks like letters is fourth, and that's even after subtracting almost 10,000 total points amongst all players.

Script Test Seven

Dates: 7 May to 8 May 2022

• First thing, I inadvertently skipped the choice for round two. Additionally, there was an error in the round numbers. A script error skipped round one. I thought I adjusted it back, but I changed the wrong variable.
• Once again, I had three players with a slight change in one of the parameters. I tried to emulate players getting a question correct in part two by using dice rolls to determine if a player answers a question in part two. Since I'm playing these tests, it's technically cheating. I didn't like doing that. However, I slacked off on it towards the end of the test, but I think it wasn't due to guilt from cheating. I think I forgot about that change.
• This test has a few corrections:
• For reasons unknown, one player got double the points for partial credit. I'm not sure why that happened.
• I don't know why, but a player got the wrong number of points for a question. The script didn't double the point value on a two answer question. I had to manually add points for one correct answer and the all answer bonus.
• There was something wrong with allowing me to award points on a missed question for multi-answer questions. I had to manually award the points through score corrections.
• On an educated guess question, I used the wrong command and awarded points for a correct answer instead of the reduced points. This also reduces that player's number of correct answers by one.
• I made an error during the bonus round: On a right answer, I moved the level down instead of up. The player got the question right, so I made no corrections.
• There was an approximate 58,000-point swing from the top scorer to the bottom scorer with the middle scorer about 3,000 above the bottom scorer.
• I still had difficulty adjusting the script regarding selecting the next category and level. When the script is about to prompt a player to select a category and level, it erroneously thought there was already a selection made. I was removing the category and level variables at the wrong times. I finally got it to work correctly.
• The following is the top three scoring categories for each player, starting with the highest scorer and ending with the lowest scorer:
1. jackpots (58.5%), questions (20%), and puzzles (6.7%)
2. questions (41%), letters (13.1%), and jackpot (20.1%)
3. questions (33%), puzzle (29.7%), and puzzle bonuses (9.6%)
• Puzzle bonuses are points awarded for matching puzzle guesses and for time remaining.
• The script awarded the jackpot six times. One player got it five of the six, which skewed the results.
• The changes to the letter values may have changed the top three scoring categories, but it's too soon to tell.
• The script tests emulate game situations through dice rolls and other parameters. The best way to tell for sure is to analyze a live game.
• This test was the fastest I've done. The goal was to go as fast as possible to emulate how long a live game will take. I did stop to make some script adjustments at the beginning. That's how I will do live games. I'll make notes on adjustments and do them after the game unless the error is catastrophic enough to require fixing right away.

Script Test Eight

Date: 12 June 2022

• I did an entire script test in one day. There were interruptions, and I took breaks, but it took one day.
• There is one correction: I awarded points for an incorrect answer. Fortunately, it didn't affect the outcome of the game.
• The objective of this test was to emulate its speed. I want to make sure it would take less than four hours. Unfortunately, I didn't time how long it took, so I don't fully know if it would take less than four hours.
• The bonus round took about 12 minutes. That's too long, but I'm not sure on making adjustments, because I didn't think too long if I didn't know the answer to a question.
• The clock stops a little too frequently. I'll have to think about how I can adjust it.
• The script awarded the jackpot five times with one time being rather high. I believe it affected the outcome of the game to the point it probably made that player the winner.
• There's a 31,500 point swing between first and second place. Here are the top three scoring categories for each player, starting with the highest scorer and ending with the lowest scorer:
1. jackpots (43.6%), questions (19.5%), and puzzles (11.8%)
2. jackpots (35.1%), questions (28.3%), and puzzles (15.1%)
3. questions (29.9%), puzzles (18.6%), and jackpots (18.4%)
• I didn't count how many times players revealed the entire puzzle by guessing all its letters. It's difficult to tell if the jackpot affected the game. Each player got at least one jackpot.
• I'm liking the newer system for vowels. The players guessed vowels 38 times for 19,000 points. I didn't track how many points they got back, and I didn't count the number of times the players guessed vowels with no consonants in the puzzle. (Remember that guessing vowels when there are no consonants left in the puzzle costs no points.) The goal is to discourage their use. Unfortunately, it's difficult to solve puzzles without them.
• There are still some bugs in the script, and I'm not sure some features work the way I want them to, but the bugs weren't drastic to where I needed to stop the game to fix.

Script Test Nine

Date: 20 Nov and 24 Nov 2022

• There were many errors adding points to the jackpot. I made adjustments, but I didn't track the total points. Also, I caught some during the game.
• Also, when a player solved a puzzle, the script awarded the points on the bonus clock to the player instead of the jackpot. That correction added a total of 1,446 points to the jackpot, which required an adjustment to jackpots awarded to players.
• Once again, I don't know how long the game took to play. I corrected some script bugs on the fly. I didn't finish in one day.
• I wanted to test recent scoring changes. I won't repeat those changes here, but I'm liking the changes.
• The script awarded the jackpot six times with the highest value of 22,456.
• This is the first test where rounds two and four were regular rounds.
• There was 23,000 point swing from first place to last place. Here are the top three scoring categories for each player, starting with the highest scorer and ending with the lowest scorer:
1. jackpot (42.6%), questions (23.4%), and puzzles (10.2%)
2. questions (36.4%), jackpot (21.6%), and letters (10%)
3. questions (37.5%), jackpot (34.5%), and letters (8.4%)
• This time, there were 15 vowels guessed that cost 7,500 points; however, there were a few puzzles where players guessed all the consonants, so the players didn't lose any points when guessing vowels. There was one vowel guessed that wasn't in the puzzle when there were consonants. It cost a total of 1,750 points: 500 from the player's score and 1,250 from the puzzle's value.

Script Test 10

Date: 14 Jan to 16 2024

• First, this is the first script test where I have to make way more corrections that usual. Some I did during the game, and I even got those corrections wrong. Here are the corrections:
• The jackpot wasn't increasing correctly at times. I believe I fixed these as I went, but I messed up on the corrections. This resulted in the following adjustment(s) to the jackpot:
• Some questions, the jackpot didn't increase by half the question's value.
• Players got a scramble right after the hint, but the jackpot didn't increase by half the remaining value.
• The puzzle round bonuses didn't add the correct amount to the jackpot. I forgot to adjust the script for time left on the puzzle clock when solving puzzles.
• These corrections added a total of 2,735 to the jackpot. The script only awarded it twice, however, with about half going to each player that won it.
• I forgot to give a player credit for a correct answer.
• Later, there were times I couldn't give partial credit, and the script would move on. Somehow, the "Do you need to award points?" prompt disappeared that allowed me to do so. I awarded points through a score correction.
• Awarding points based on the bonus clock didn't work for some questions. I fixed and adjusted as I went.
• Awarding points on educated guess questions didn't reset the category and level selected, so the script thought a player already chose.
• Also, the player didn't earn bonus clock points for being the closest in many educated guess questions. I don't know when the player answered, so this is something I can't correct post-game.
• I made the following post game corrections to player's scores:
• One Player
• Subtracted 104 for erroneously receiving a bonus clock.
• Added 300 due to missed correct answers.
• Total Added: 196
• Second Player
• Added 440 due to missed correct answers.
• Subtracted 630 due to a question's level being two, not five.
• Subtracted 450 due to using the wrong command when awarding points. It was an educated guess question, but the player didn't get the question right.
• Added 8,670 due to an incorrectly calculated bonus for time left on the puzzle clock.
• Total Added: 8,030
• Third Player
• Added 440 due to missed correct answers.
• Subtracted 48 due to erroneously receiving a bonus clock.
• Added 15 points due to matching a scramble's bonus not calculating correctly.
• Total Added: 407
• I botched a few questions and fixed during the game:
• I marked a question right when the players got it wrong. Didn't even realize it until after the player guessed a letter and chose the next category and level. I canceled the question, removed the letter guess, and adjusted the scores. I forgot to adjust the statistics. This took a while. Maybe I'll write a script that can do it for me, but it's a low priority.
• Tossed another question due to the level being six, not four.
• I marked a question wrong when a player got it right.
• For a bonus question, I gave credit to the wrong player.
• I forgot about round two being special and did not ask whether to have a Puzzle Round, Question Round, or Neither.
• There was a 131,000 point swing from first to third place. The middle scoring player was more than half the highest scoring player's score. Here are the top three scoring categories for each player:
• Questions (38.8%), puzzles (18.8%), and letters (17.1%)
• Puzzles (25.7%), puzzle bonuses (20.4%), and jackpot (17.3%)
• Puzzles (33.1%), questions (20.7%), and jackpot (18.5%)
• For this test, I only guessed vowels for the first puzzle. After that, I solved the remaining puzzles without guessing any vowels. Well, the last puzzle, I guessed vowels after revealing all the consonants, so it didn't cost any points to the players, and I ended up revealing the last puzzle.
• I was leary regarding increasing the time on the bonus clocks and even changing the bonus clocks to go to the players instead of the jackpot. During the test, it seemed that players got more points from the bonus clock than everything else. I was wrong. The percentages were about the same.
• Increasing the puzzle clock bonuses and the points for vowels in the puzzles affected the game by a lot. Also, not guessing vowels made a big difference on the scores. Let me give an idea of how it affected the scoring:
• See the table below this list to see the starting value of each puzzle, the total word count (including prepositions), and the ending value. These values do not include puzzle clock bonuses and matching bonuses.
• Remember that the goal is to show how vowels affect a puzzle's value and not for bragging.
• This game had nine rounds. I solved the first puzzle with one letter remaining to reveal.
• For the last puzzle, I guessed all letters to reveal the puzzle, but I guessed vowels last. That alone saved 2,500 points. Because of revealing all the letters, the jackpot increased by 5,000 instead of one player getting 1,250. Also, there was enough points for five more letter guesses. Since it was the last puzzle, the script awarded the jackpot randomly.
• I solved the second puzzle after guessing one letter thanks, in part, to the category and the punctuation.
• I mention it in the full rules, and I'll say it again here. Vowels add 8,750 points plus 50 points for each vowel that appears. The last puzzle in round nine had 28 vowels for 1,400 points. That is total of 10,150 points and doesn't include the 2,500 from players' scores.
• I'll find out if this is incentive enough when playing an actual live game when I'm not playing.

Script Test 11

Date: 25 Jan to 28 2024

• There were errors for this test as well, but I corrected them as I played. At least, I thought I did. First, I'll go over mistakes I fixed:
• An answer to a question was different from what I thought it was and didn't realize it until after the letter guess and selection. I undid the letter guess and then awarded points to the correct player. I need to look at the answers regardless to avoid this kind of mistake. This was also the very first question.
• When starting a speed round, the first player to guess a letter didn't get a bonus for time remaining on the clock.
• At first, scrambles had a point value of zero. This is a serious error that I'm glad it happened during this test. It took a few tries, but I finally fixed it.
• Once again, I noticed errors when analyzing the scoring that requires post-game corrections:
• First Player:
• I botched the first question's correction. This affected all players. Score increased by 10 points.
• The 25% all answer bonus wasn't working for one question, and I didn't notice it until after the game. This affected all players. Score increased by 275.
• Total: 285
• Second Player:
• I botched the first question's correction. Score decreased by 10 points.
• The 25% all answer bonus mentioned above. Score increased by 275.
• Forgot to reverse a score bonus when making corrections. Score decreased by 250.
• A bonus for time remaining somehow wasn't correct. Score decreased by 86.
• Three time bonuses for being close on educated guess questions didn't work. Unable to fix post-game.
• Total: -71
• Third Player:
• I botched the first question's correction. Score increased by 10 points.
• Forgot to reverse a time bonus for the first question, too. Score decreased by 98 points.
• The 25% all answer bonus mentioned in the first player. Score increased by 275 points.
• Points awarded for breaking a record when going from zero to two didn't work right. Score increased by 2,000 points.
• A correction that I didn't label and do not know why or by how many points.
• One missed the time bonus for being close on an educated guess question. Unable to fix post-game.
• A jackpot correction decreased this player's score by 630 points when winning the jackpot.
• Total: 1,557
• Jackpot:
• One question had an incorrect number of points go to the jackpot. Decreased by 630 points.
• I hope to have a game that doesn't require post-game corrections. It didn't affect the outcome regarding the winner, but I want things to be right.
• There's about a 60,000 point swing from first and third place. Second place was short by about 25,500 points.
• The results of this test are interesting. First, let's look at the top three scoring methods for each player:
1. Puzzles (47.5%), questions (25.3%), and time remaining points (13.51%)
2. Puzzles (38.2%), jackpot (24.6%), and questions (17%)
3. Jackpot (34.6%), puzzle (28.2%), and questions (14.3%)
• I changed the categories for the scoring, because separating them affects the top three. When I combined points given for time remaining, it changed the first player's number three scoring method to all the ways to get time remaining points instead of just time remaining for guessing letters.
• In previous script tests, I separated puzzle and question bonuses, but for the last two tests, I combined them. Boy, does it change the results. I did increase the puzzle clock bonuses, too, but that increase wasn't the only reason.
• I combined previous tests and looked at the change. I didn't look at them all, but I noticed one that flipped the top two scoring methods between letters and puzzles.
• The goal of this test was to go as fast as possible in making selections and guessing letters. The bonus clock points added about 12,000 points to two of the players' score with the third getting about 10,500. This is a great incentive for players to pick up the pace. It adds up.
• Now, it's time to analyze the puzzles:
• Remember that this isn't about boasting. It's about the game's scoring and how the fast pace affected it.
• The goal regarding puzzles was to solve them as fast as possible and not worry about vowels. This resulted in a lot of points where it was the top method of scoring.
• Round two was Puzzle Round, and it had 12 puzzles. The jackpot increased by 18,000 for that alone.
• This test had seven rounds with a total of 17 puzzles. The last test had about 10 rounds and puzzles, but I forgot about the special rounds.
• Players guessed vowels 51 times at a cost of 25,500 points. That number does not consider the points received per vowel revealed. Also, at 1,750 points each, the puzzle values decreased by 89,250 points.
• It's time to compare the two strategies used for solving puzzles: Avoid guessing vowels and solve quickly. The points earned for solving puzzles was 96,500 and 134,670, including puzzle clock and matching bonuses. It looks like my desire to discourage vowel guessing backfired. Players earned about 50% more points for trying to solve puzzles as fast as possible.
• The test had 84 questions with 20 during Question Round. After ignoring Question Round and the Grand Finale round, the average number of questions per round was 15. When adding Question Round back, the average increases to 16.
• This test revealed a lot of script bugs. I didn't record them all here or in the news section. I hope I fixed them all.

The last script test caused an imbalance in the scoring. It might be that I combined bonus points earned with questions and puzzles into one category for each with the last two tests. The recent changes to the vowel scoring made the puzzle percentage the highest method of scoring. The goal is to have puzzles and questions about equal. I'm assuming it will be impossible for the percentages of puzzles and questions to be equal, so I'll try to get them as close to equal as possible. I'm going to make some adjustments to the question scoring.

The jackpot is still a top three scoring method. I would like the script to give it away when it hits around 10,000 points, but the random aspect would go away if I changed the script to give it away at any kind of threshold. I could also have the script randomly award it to a player when it hits any threshold, but it would make the entry method redundant. I want players to have a higher chance of getting the jackpot when they score more points in one go instead of spread out.

Script Test 12

Dates: 4 Feb to 8 Feb 2023

• Another script test. I made changes to the game, and it requires testing. I'm still analyzing the scoring, but I noticed some major errors that I should record before I forget:
• I botched the puzzle for round three. I copied the wrong text to the clipboard, so the category was 1642. I didn't notice it until after the first letter guess and the selection of the next category and level. I had to reverse the letter guess and choose a different puzzle.
• For one question, I didn't put "(Order matters.)" Since this is a test, I didn't fret too much about it and just modified the question. During an actual game, I would ask the players if they want me to toss it.
• For one scramble as a question, I thought there was a problem with the script matching not working. Turns out, I misspelled a word. The script worked as it should.
• One puzzle had a misspelled word, so I had to manually award the matching bonus after verifying that it matched.
• This time, I focused more on playing than making sure the script was doing things correctly, because I still had to make post-game corrections: It didn't affect the outcome of the game, fortunately.
• Jackpot: I forgot to display the answer for a question, which adds the 100 points to the jackpot per question regardless of outcome. Jackpot increased by 100 points.
• First Player:
• Increased player's score by 100 points due to the jackpot adjustment above. This player won that jackpot.
• Round six's puzzle had a misspelling. One word missed an I. When the first player guessed the letter I, this required increasing the points earned for the number of I's revealed by 50 points. This ultimately did not affect the puzzle's value when solved, because those extra 50 points were already out of the puzzle's value.
• First Player: A scramble matching bonus wasn't correct. This required a decrease of 65 points.
• Total increase of 85 points
• Second Player: I used the wrong command on an educated guess question. I marked it right instead of being the closest. This required a decrease of 990 points.
• Third Player: no adjustments
• The bonus round required post-game corrections:
• When matching a scramble, the bonus calculated at half instead of 25%. This required decreases of 65 and 285 points for a total of 350.
• The point difference between the highest scoring and the lowest scoring was about 92,500 points. The middle player was about 48,100 points lower than the highest player.
• Here are the top three scoring methods for each player:
• Highest scorer: questions (39.4%), puzzles (25.3%), and jackpots (12.5%)
• This player won the jackpot twice.
• When removing the points received from the jackpot, the top three scoring methods changes to questions (45.1%), puzzles (28.9%), and clock bonuses (7.8%).
• This player got about 11,900 points for time remaining on the bonus clock, which is 6.9%.
• Middle scorer: questions (42.5%), puzzles (21.8%), and jackpots (16.8%)
• This player won the jackpot four times. Two of those times were during the same question.
• When removing the points received from the jackpot, the top three scoring methods changes to questions (51%), puzzles (26.2%), and clock bonuses (9.7%).
• This player got about 10,600 points from time remaining on the bonus clock, which is 8.1%.
• Lowest scorer: questions (58.7%), puzzles (16.2%), and letters (8%)
• When combining the points from time remaining on the bonus clock, it totaled 7,900 points and replaces letters at 9.7%.
• This player did not win the jackpot at all.
• Throughout most of the game, this player had negative points from guessing letters due to guessing more vowels than the other two players combined.
• Players guessed vowels 26 times with the third player guessing 61.5% of them. That's a total of 13,000 points from the players' scores with an additional 45,500 from the puzzle's value, which includes the 250 per letter. These numbers do not include the points received based on the number of vowels revealed in the puzzle.
• Okay, I was wrong. I want the top two scoring methods to be questions and then puzzles, not both equally. I'm not sure what I wanted number three to be, but it wasn't jackpots. I came to accept that it's number three a while ago. I made some changes to the jackpot algorithm to increase the probability of players winning it, but I believe it will require drastic changes that I don't want to make let alone think about.
• Virtually doubling the streak bonuses was 4.7%, 5%, and 6.5% of the player's scores. I believe I made them too high. I'm only going to lower the streak breaking bonus down to 1,500.
• Increasing the point values for questions created a situation that never happened before. One player got 11 bonuses for 13 being in their score over the span of seven questions. That's a total of 5,500 points. These bonuses occurred while a player's score had between 130,000 and 140,000 points. The goal is for players to get the bonus once or twice but 11? The score checks now only happen when finishing a question and a round.
• I thought about changing the bonus for 13 by lowering the points for when the score is between 130,000 and 140,000, but this game is already complex, so I just changed when the script will check the scores.

Script Test 13

Dates: 28 Apr to 4 May 2024

• Like all the previous script tests, the corrections and adjustments are first:
• Highest Scorer
• Due to a adjustment to a record break for player two, added 2,000 points for a record break of two to four, not three to four.
• Added 200 points due to adjustments to the jackpot when this player won it.
• Total: 2,000
• Middle Scorer
• The player got a question correct but didn't get credit, and the player was first. The lowest scorer got the letter guess. Instead, shift the points the lowest scorer earned to the middle scorer. This did not affect the middle scorer's winning streaks.
• Added 260 points for getting the question correct. The lowest scorer already got those points.
• Added 88 bonus clock points from the lowest scorer.
• Added 110 bonus clock points for guessing a letter quickly from the lowest scorer.
• Added 250 points for the letter revealed from the lowest scorer.
• Added 112 bonus clock points for selecting a category and level quickly from the lowest scorer.
• Subtracted 600 due to adjustments to the jackpot when this player won it.
• Total: 220
• Lowest Scorer
• Didn't award points to middle scorer for getting a question correct and was first. This removed a winning streak.
• Subtracted 88 bonus clock points.
• Subtracted 110 bonus clock points for guessing a letter quickly.
• Subtracted 250 points for the letter revealed.
• Subtracted 112 bonus clock points for selecting a category and level quickly.
• Subtracted 650 points for the overall winning streak.
• Subtracted 150 points for the individual winning streak.
• Subtracted 1,900 points for a lower break the record.
• Subtracted 100 points due to adjustments to the jackpot when this player won it.
• Total: -3,360
• Jackpot
• Missed displaying a correct answer for a question. Displaying the answer silently adds 100 points to the jackpot.
• Messed up on a correction. I subtracted 100 points when I didn't need to.
• I added the 100 points back to fix the correction above, but a player already won the jackpot, so it was too late. Subtracted 100 points.
• Subtracted 500 points. I thought there was a script error, but the jackpot doesn't get 500 points when ending Question Round.
• Displayed an answer too soon on a question. Forgot to subtract the 100 points from the jackpot when canceling the question.
• Total jackpot adjustment: -500
• For a question, I thought the point value was wrong, but it wasn't, and I made a correction. The correction I thought I made didn't happen, so there's no correction necessary.
• The script matched a player's scramble guess after the buzzer, but the script didn't give the player a bonus. This is a display bug.
• There's approximately 42,000 points separating the highest scorer from the lowest scorer. The middle scorer was about 16,000 points lower than the highest scorer.
• Here are the top three scoring methods for each player:
• Highest Scorer: puzzles (45.1%), questions (21.5%), and letters (7%)
• When combining the bonus clock points to one category, it replaces letters with 10.9%. The player earned 17,130 for being fast, most of which was during speed rounds.
• The player won the jackpot once.
• Middle Scorer: puzzles (40.4%), questions (25.9%), and jackpots (15.4%)
• When combining the bonus clock points to one category, it doesn't change the top three scoring. The player earned 12,876 (9.1%) points from being fast, most of which was during speed rounds.
• The player won the jackpot once, but it was at a high number.
• Lowest Scorer: questions (33.9%), jackpot (20.9%), and puzzles (18%)
• When combining the bonus clock points to one category, it doesn't change the top three scoring. The player earned 13,118 (11.4%) points from being fast, most of which was during speed rounds.
• The player won the jackpot three times.
• Round two was Question Round and had 20 questions.
• Round four was Puzzle Round and had 12 puzzles.
• The script awarded the jackpot five times.
• Players guessed vowels 54 times with one when a puzzle didn't have consonants at a total of 26,500 points coming from the players' scores. This decreased puzzle values by a total of 94,500.
• The goal of displaying all this information is not to brag but to show what going fast can do to scores.
• The script awarded the jackpot more often after tweaking the algorithm.

I was hoping that the percentage of points from questions would be higher, but I believe it's the result of choosing level one, level two, level five, and level seven questions more than the other levels. Also, solving a puzzle before the puzzle clock expires gives lots of points that may skew the percentage. That happened three times so I'm not sure about that. I feel that question scoring does not need any changes. Also, taking two months to complete the change is a factor.