September Update, 09-29-09

Hey there guys, its been while. If you're thinking "oh my gosh could this be a Project Advent update?!" then pat yourself on the back! You're 100% correct. Well mostly. Today the Development Team is releasing an update a little different than the other updates we've released. What do I mean by different? Well, this is going to be a rather small update, but for a very good reason which you'll find out later. Now, onto what you came here for.

Now there's been a poll on the main site for some time now. 64% of the voters wanted to see a new character in the next update, 28% wanted

to see a new Advent, and 6% wanted a new Battle Chip. So by popular demand, we have prepared for you artwork for a character whom we have not yet confirmed for the game until now.

Introducing...



You didn't really think we'd show off something like this so easily did you? Of course not. Infact, we'd like to present you guys with a challenge. We've prepared a jigsaw puzzle type deal for you guys. If completed, you'll get a full look at this new character. We were even considering giving the first few people who complete it a special surprise. If you'll refer back to the image above, you'll notice the date 11/10/09. That is the 10th of November, 2009. This is the date we will be posting the full artwork of this character. Anyone who can complete the puzzle before that date will be rewarded. Don't worry though, we'll still continue the competition even after this date. (Trust me, you'll need all the time you can get to finish this nasty puzzle.) You'll find the ZIP file containing all 3072 pieces (No, that isn't a typo) at this link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jz4gmmzn2mz

Good luck to everyone and be sure to check back here on November 10th for the extra special Project Advent update you won't want to miss!

Oh god no.

"Well, I guess I'm gonna have to be inactive for a while when I'm trying to solve this."

>_>

You don't have to solve it, you can always just go wondering who this new guy is.

Careno O.O Put it in one document, not each peice individually. It'll take my computer 30 minutes to open all of these.
OMG is that who I think it is! If it is you guys are AMAZING
Devs, PM if you wanna know who I think it is.

This post has been edited by ngaurhoth1 on Sep 29 2009, 04:49 PM

I would just like to point out I did not make the puzzle, nor did I scramble it.

I love jigsaw puzzles, but this is ridiculous. The puzzle is composed of 3072 files, each of which are 10 x 10 pixels and from what I can see, are all shades of gray.

At least with the KH puzzle ngaurhoth1 posted in the chatbox, there was color to help sort out the pieces.

Careno, I read in the chatbox that you don't expect anyone to finish the puzzle. I'm not surprised that you think so, but I feel that in saying so, there's no point in attempting the puzzle at all. Why bother if you won't finish?

Because I am not a troll in spite of whatever contrary implications the above statements may show, I have some possible suggestions for the future if not this matter.

1) Make the puzzle more solvable. I don't feel that it is fair to give a puzzle that is near impossible to solve to the fans that want to see this project completed.

1a) Considering how the pieces of this puzzle are all gray/white in color, I feel that there should be some compensation by increasing the size of each piece. After doing some math, here are my results.

10 x 10 : 3072 pieces (the original)
15 x 15 : 2048 pieces
20 x 20 : 1536 pieces

Because most jigsaw puzzles come in ~1000 pieces at most, I feel that 20x20 pieces would be an appropriate compensation for the monotonic coloration and would still provide a lot of difficulty in solving. A puzzle with 1536 pieces is much more solvable than a picture with 2072 pieces.

2) If you want to make a puzzle of 3072 pieces made from 10x10 blocks, please add some color to the final result. I understand the difficulty of this puzzle, but why make it almost impossible?

Am I being unreasonable in my requests? Maybe, but because I enjoy jigsaw puzzles and because I've started working on the puzzle in some fashion, I want my thoughts to be heard if there will be a puzzle in the future.

*bows deeply*

-Draiken Talkos

Absolutely not; your reasoning is going to be taken into account, especially after comments from ~9h ago, and Careno's.

As an aside: Wouldn't 20x20 become ~800 pieces because it would cover four 10x10? I'll be quiet now.

I didn't get a chance to check my equations because I was rushing, but here's how I checked my calculations (done just a few minutes ago).

3072 pieces * 10 pixels = 30720 pixels for one side.

30720 ^ 2 = area of picture in pixels

area / (15 * 15) = area divided by the area of one piece (in my second case, 15 x 15).

Square root of that answer gave me 2048 for the number of pieces.

(Initial calculation: If 30720 is the number of pixels for one side of the picture, how many pieces will fit along the side after increasing the number of pixels per piece?

15 x 15 pieces yielded 2048 pieces for the puzzle if at this size.)

-Draiken Talkos

I don't expect anyone to get the current puzzle done, which is why we're rethinking it, and making it solvable. Thats what I meant. I'm sure you'd agree if you knew what the puzzle looks like solved.

I find it more hilarious that we actually have an update, regardless of content.

I didn't get a chance to check my equations because I was rushing, but here's how I checked my calculations (done just a few minutes ago).

3072 pieces * 10 pixels = 30720 pixels for one side.

30720 ^ 2 = area of picture in pixels

area / (15 * 15) = area divided by the area of one piece (in my second case, 15 x 15).

Square root of that answer gave me 2048 for the number of pieces.

(Initial calculation: If 30720 is the number of pixels for one side of the picture, how many pieces will fit along the side after increasing the number of pixels per piece?

15 x 15 pieces yielded 2048 pieces for the puzzle if at this size.)

-Draiken Talkos

That assumes that one lines up all the pieces such that the dimensions are 30720x10, and therefore one cannot arrive at the area of the picture in pixels by squaring one side. More accurately, what should have happened was for you to realise that each piece is 10x10, and therefore 100 pixels' worth of pixels, then multiplied that by the number of pieces to arrive at the total number of pixels, and from there derive your answer final answer.

Or, more lazily, thought about it as a picture, and have done the math that way. Would have saved you lots of time.

Math aside, Zero could you put all the pieces in one file rather than thousands of individual files?

So, let's get this straight: The picture is 640 X 480 pixels. divided in 3072 10 X 10 tiles.

10x10 tiles are too small, because you cant see enough of the picture to solve it, plus 3072 pieces is a lot, I can't even load them properly on my pc!

So I believe the best bet would be 16 X 16 tiles. That covers 256 pixels per tile, for a grand total of 1200 pieces.

(16x16=256)

(640x480=307200)

(307200/256=1200)

What do you think?


Edit: Also, 1200 is a round number! Who doesn't like those?

This post has been edited by Anonymous on Sep 30 2009, 07:59 PM

Actually Anon it can be solved. I almost solved the one exactly like this for a Kingdom Hearts Fan game. Um Zero is there a logo on the picture. I remember to make things slightly easier the KHIH team had a logo behind the character to use a point of reference.

I know it can be solved, but the problem is that there are too many tiles that look almost exactly the same, and with no jigsaw pattern to fit, you are practically guessing.

On the other hand it's supposed to be a challenge...

I think slightly bigger tiles would help to distinguish them from each other, without lowering the difficulty too much.

Ps: Ngaur, how many tiles had the KH Puzzle?



This post has been edited by Anonymous on Sep 30 2009, 08:27 PM

My apologies, I just couldn't neglect that misconception. I am not on my PC currently, so I am kind of loathe to do it at the moment. You know when you're on someone else's computer and nothing feels right: the mouse is backwards from the way you're used to, the monitor is too small, the OS annoying, the processor power half of what you're used to, the RAM non-existant, your beloved files not there... need I go on?


tl;dr In about 12 hours' time, it should be up, the one image file. Possibly with some sort of visual cue to the image in terms of starting point~

@Anon I can sort of see your point, but mine was to make it devilishly hard. While I could add colour and compile to one file, I really don't want to enlarge the puzzle size. However, I also realise that the hardness of he puzzle should be preportional to the reward given, so we will have to discuss that. Also that it technically isn't within this lowly drawist's power to ah... decide those sorts of things.

That aside, I really wish I was able to write a script that automatically does all this for me. :<

This post has been edited by Zero on Sep 30 2009, 08:57 PM

Ask KHIH how they did it. They would porbably be willing to help you.

Wow! EXE Fusion is really active now! When I last came here a year ago, there was barely a post every two days. This is great!

EDIT: Sorry for going off topic. Also, I'm glad that you guys are making the puzzle easier. xD

I didn't get a chance to check my equations because I was rushing, but here's how I checked my calculations (done just a few minutes ago).

3072 pieces * 10 pixels = 30720 pixels for one side.

30720 ^ 2 = area of picture in pixels

area / (15 * 15) = area divided by the area of one piece (in my second case, 15 x 15).

Square root of that answer gave me 2048 for the number of pieces.

(Initial calculation: If 30720 is the number of pixels for one side of the picture, how many pieces will fit along the side after increasing the number of pixels per piece?

15 x 15 pieces yielded 2048 pieces for the puzzle if at this size.)

-Draiken Talkos

That assumes that one lines up all the pieces such that the dimensions are 30720x10, and therefore one cannot arrive at the area of the picture in pixels by squaring one side. More accurately, what should have happened was for you to realise that each piece is 10x10, and therefore 100 pixels' worth of pixels, then multiplied that by the number of pieces to arrive at the total number of pixels, and from there derive your answer final answer.

Or, more lazily, thought about it as a picture, and have done the math that way. Would have saved you lots of time.

I knew something was extremely flawed with my reasoning. >_<

Thank you for correcting me. *bows deeply*

-Draiken Talkos

Can I just blurt out who I'm 99% sure it is?

IT'S $%#&*
I don't wanna say it cause if I'm right I'll probably get busted.

You could tell one of the Devs in a PM. By the way it is not Kai D:

Star, if you have a guess then send me a PM. And just fyi to everyone, even if you do post your guess in here, we tell you via post, so its not a big deal.

I just pmd you