[Elwynn]

Here's something I made a couple of weeks ago to help solve those new treasure caskets. Just unzip it and put the html file somewhere where you can run a web browser on it.

I also made an OS X Dashboard widget out of it with not much extra effort.

Basically, you just enter the clues using pull-down menus, the valid numbers are all shown with the middle one highlighted. It also shows you the odds for up to 6 number guesses. (7 or more is always 100%) Once you decide to go guessing numbers, enter the middle number as your guess and press the Higher or Lower button.

[Firewind]

This is actually a really nice little tool. It saves me having to write all of the potential numbers and going through the effort of figuring out the odds myself.

I have actually lost a couple of chests before because I either wrote down or crossed off the wrong number.

[Malacite]

Dude! O.O

[Sabaron]

Treasure caskets aren't that hard to solve... Thus why it's so easy to write a program to solve them. There's still an element of chance involved.

Treasure caskets are really easy to solve in your head (or at least I think they are), but it looks like a neat little app.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

This might be handy if I get a chest with 4 chances, but I usually manage well on the 5 and 6 chances myself. Cool idea at any rate.

[Ameroth]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

Treasure caskets aren't that hard to solve... Thus why it's so easy to write a program to solve them. There's still an element of chance involved.

Treasure caskets are really easy to solve in your head (or at least I think they are), but it looks like a neat little app.

Originally Posted by Omgwtfbbqkitten

This might be handy if I get a chest with 4 chances, but I usually manage well on the 5 and 6 chances myself. Cool idea at any rate.

"Nice program, but I'm way to l33t to have a program help me solve my treasure caskets."

---

Nice work. This is actually a very nicely written app.

[Neverslip]

I <3 it dude...

I do this in my head but this makes it a shorter turn-a-round for when you happen to be that un-needed/heeded member of the exp party, or just solo'n and hoping to get the damn thing unlocked before another mob aggro's you.

Very nice work.

[Armando]

Caskets are easy, but I could see this saving quite some time. I'll give it a shot next time I feel like setting up myself for the disappointment and bullshit that trying to get Gothic Gauntlets is. You have my thanks.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

/licks gothic gauntlets and gothic sabatons.

[ShepardG]

So epic, I can't wait to get home, and actually farm a damn treasure casket, and use this! Thanks elwy

Do you folks realize just how much of this game I've missed in the last 6 months?

Have never MMM
Have never had Fields of Valor
Have never even gotten to experience skilling up off of walls...
apparently sleep,sleep2,sleepga,sleepga2 don't work for shit anymore
pup is still broken
smn got fixed a bit
3 weeks!

[LilithAngel]

<3 my gauntlets and sabatons, and caskets aren't too hard to figure out, but this will save a lot of time. Nice.

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by Ameroth

"Nice program, but I'm way to l33t to have a program help me solve my treasure caskets."

Close, but not quite... I'm not measuring my 1337ness because I don't consider set reduction problems to be something 1337--it's rather the opposite thing. I consider set bisection problems to be extremely easy (e.g. Junior High) logic, which means that anyone who would have significant difficulty with said puzzle would be a bit "thick-headed" especially if they can't solve them after having seen the method demonstrated. This is, of course, barring simple errors like "Oops I forgot I already guessed 87". There is also the element that playing the game with just your head and no calculator is better mental exercise than plug and chug with a calculator. This is one reason why some math teachers still spurn the liberal use of calculators in class. It sharpens the mind especially if you are just learning the problems.

Please note that I'm not saying that people who don't know how to solve caskets are stupid. All I'm saying is that if you can't solve the puzzle with only your brain (no paper, no pencil, no calculator), you should probably try as hard as you can to solve it and you will actually earn some benefit from the application of logic instead of just receiving the reward from inside the box.


Now if you want to explore the algorithm more deeply, you should fashion it in such a way as to recommend you taking one or the other action (either examining the chest or recommending a best guess number for a bisection) based on the probability that the choice made will result in greater benefit to the solver. I of course have little experience with caskets since I haven't delved too deeply into FoV yet, so I'm not sure of how the "examine" feature works... I would ask the following:

1. Does each successive examination of the chest yield a unique result or is it possible to get duplicates?

2. What are all possible hints?

3. What (if any) is the limit to the number of hints received or is said limit random? If random, do there exist bounds outside the obvious natural limits of 0 and MaxGuesses and if so what are they?

The intention would be to have the program make suggestions rather than just take input. Sample output would be:

After initial examination input # of guesses remaining and other initial parameters.

Program responds with one of:

(A). You should examine the Chest.
(B). You should guess 55.


It is, of course, quite possible that examination is always preferable to guessing provided an examination always yields a set reduction of greater than 50% since a guess always results in a set reduction of approximately 50%. I'll wager that it doesn't always yield at least a 50% reduction though.

That said, I am still a big fan of math without calculators, but I would truly consider you to be a Master of Treasure Caskets if you could write an analyzer that provably ensures the best possible chance of success on every attempt. Of course, if you accomplish this algorithmically, you could then move on to a bit more enhancement on the development side by porting your little application into a Windower Plugin.... not that anyone uses Windower because it's against the ToS, but it would be a stimulating task, would it not?

[DakAttack]

Examining the chest eliminates certain numbers as answers. It'll usually tell you if the number is even or odd, what the first number is, what the second number is, and which numbers it's between.

[Ameroth]

Originally Posted by Sabaron

Close, but not quite... I'm not measuring my 1337ness because I don't consider set reduction problems to be something 1337--it's rather the opposite thing.

Oh I know, I was just poking fun at you two for being the only posters (at the time) who had to point out how useless the app would be for you. No offense.

And for the most part, the rest of your post, I do agree with. Kids in the future generations wont be able to do simple arithmetic because they will have calculators etched in to their foreheads eliminating the need to learn such simple math. Think about what life was like before electricity: people actually did... long division...? like, the fuck?

Calculators are great, and relatively amazing these days, but if you don't know why you are plugging the numbers into the formula or what the answer represents, you're missing the entire point.

[Malacite]

I suck at solving them ; ;


but then I never did like Logic puzzles.