I had a couple so I thought i'd open a new thread.

1. What does it mean when the smiley face turns blue?

2. When I press F1, or use the menu to click help, nothing happens. I'm using windows ME if that makes a difference.

Thanks,
-Gsail

@Yariv: I'm still not able to get the current tournament infos, even if I deactivate my firewall. :'(
Do you perhaps have an idea, what I could do, to be able to download the infos for tournament? That would be really nice, I also would like to play the tournament.

The button turns blue when you've flagged exactly the required number of mines ;) Click to see the effect!

Don't know why help isn't working - anyone else have this problem?

Gero - there is a way for you to play the tournaments, which I'll send to you by e-mail. I still suspect SP2 of blocking net access - are you using it? And again, has anyone else had this problem?

Happy Sweeping! 8)

I suggest that you all nonosweeper fans ;) post your icq number (as I did in my profile), msn messenger nick or something else you use.I'm  deeply obssesed of the game and really love it, so I will be very happy to chat with Stephan,Luca,Roland,Gero,Jon,Hexx and all the other non less-important guys and girls  :) (I think we have only 3 active girls)...

ps/ hexx,write at least your home-country my friend  :)

Oh,in addition I would say that if we all the tournaments players communicate instantly,nonosweeper shall gain new innovating aspect  :)
I mean that it will become kind of multiplayer-likely, and not only a competition against oneself and the clock...

-I've made 77.
-OK...mf, I'm just uploading my 76.
-he-he,you guys shall endeavor more couse I'm already sub-70!
-go,go,go.But fear tomorrow,now I'm going 2 work now...

...and so on...  ;)

A suggestion: How about marking the mine (like in Minesweeper) which you clicked wrong. It's not that necessary, but sometimes it's interresting to see, what you did wrong.

Thanks Gero - I'll put that in the next update!

I have a suggestion for a feature I would like to have. I tend to focus my playing on breaking records, rather than completing many boards. Therefore it could be nice to have a feature where you can define the maximum time you want to use on a board. For example, there could be a bomber raid after 100 seconds on expert (if one would not like to keep playing on boards that will not beat 100 seconds). Of course it should be up to the player to decide when the bombers arrive. Do you like my idea?

No. Very few people actually can get under 100 seconds. My personal best is over 400  ;D

If you are having a really bad game, you would probably want to restart manually before 100 seconds anyway.

Also, how do I update to a new version as a registered user? Do I just download it again or what (I've never updated before.)

And lastly, If a person other than myself goes on my nonosweeper pro, and plays a game, and uploads it (even if it isn't record on my account) with their name in it, it changes my entire account name to whatever their name is. If you want, I will demonstrate by changing it. Is this a bug, or is there something wrong with my computer?

Interesting idea Jon - when you say a "bomber raid", how do you visualise it? I'm not drawing aeroplanes and stuff! ;)

To update as a registered user, there is a link on the Nonosweeper Pro page just below the menu bar.

As for the name thing, there is a check box on the "Edit user details" page where you can choose to fix the name to its current value to prevent overwriting. :)

Could I have the email address atteched to my account (my dads email used because of paypal) changed to my actually email (gmanbauer@gmail.com)? Because my dad isn't interested in nonosweeper stuff, and it's easier to access my account code that way.
Thankyou,
-Gavin

It's done ;)

If anyone else wants their e-mail updated, please mail me.

Man, it must be a slow night!  ;D
Quick service!

Hmm. When I tried to install the new version, first It said that the old one couldn't be deleted. I could either abort download, retry (to no avail), or continue on with out it. I did this, it didnt work. So I manually uninstalled nonosweeper, and installed it, but under "Help"-"Version information", it still just said 1.3! And, all the scores in the game are gone, although that doesn't really matter as long as they are still online.

Did you have Nonosweeper running when you tried to upgrade? That would cause it to fail.  :-[ Make sure it's properly exited (try resetting your machine to be absolutely sure) Then try again  :D

OK, I'll try that.

The past three times I've tried to submit a high score, it said "Are you hacking my program? Timer error"

I wasn't doing anything wrong, and as far as I can tell, the timer is working fine.

Arse, you're right, I forgot to fix that! :o :o :o

Back in a few minutes!

Fixed it for Pro - please download again :P

"I forgot to fix that"

What exactly was "that"?

I like Jon's idea, but don't see any outcomes of my proposal.
@Yariv:If it's not difficult for you to make the game ending by time limit, I also suggest to include time limit for the displaying of the exact time.
10q

"Houston, we have a problem"

Yariv,

I am having problems with the new clock feature.
Sometimes, the board clock and the exact time displayed do not match. ???
As far as i can remember, it happened 3 times, only when i was playing last week tournament and finished the game in 19s.
The exact times displayed were 20,04 (see picture), 20,01 and 20,00.
Something is not ok. :-/
Can you explain what is happening?
Is there any accuracy bug ?


http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/ss02t2_2004.png

Yes, v1.31 had a bug with accuracy - I replaced it after about 3 hours but you must have downloaded during that time! Sorry :-[
Anyway it's fixed in v1.32, which is the current version uploaded!

What's that? 1x8=8
                    20,6x3=61,8
                    73,2x1=73,2
8+61,8+73,2=143 and not 144 as it is in the World Rankings.
Or do I something wrong???

Seems to be a problem in SQL:

SELECT 1*8+20.6*3+73.2
143

SELECT ceiling(143)
143

SELECT ceiling(1*8+20.6*3+73.2)
144

I've patched it...

Thank you very much for correcting.  :)

1x8 = 8
20x3 = 60
72.4


8 + 60 + 72.4 = 140.4 ;)

If you don't want to create graphics of the bombers, it should be sufficient that the minefield goes black, and you're informed that you didn't manage to clear the minefield before the bomber raid (or something). :P

It could be made even simpler of course. I'm most interested in the functionality. If possible one could even have some kind of countdown (that doesn't interfere too much with the game). I never bother actually looking at the timer during play, so it must be something one notices. Maybe a countdown when you approach your best time on expert and genius?

OK, I'll put that in a future update 8) Perhaps ten seconds of beeps or something...
Personally I think it would make me panic and lose the game, but there you are! ::)

@Kire: Didn't you get my ICQ messages? I wrote you several times. ???

what all sweepers think about a screenshot section on the web site?

I also thought about an idea like this a few days ago. :)

I think this is a great idea. Those, who have vids should also be able to upload them. ;) I would be very interested in the games.

I like the idea as well.

I'll see what I can do about a screenshot page soon... but I don't think movies will be possible unless they're hosted remotely because Nonosweeper.com has limited disk space and bandwidth. :-/

I think it will be nice if players can put an image in their profile, so everybody could see how the other guys look like :)

That's also a good idea of Kire. I would like that. :)

There is a way to do that already:
Upload the image to a free image hosting service (e.g. http://imageshack.us/ ) and put an html link in the description on your user page, e.g. <img src=http://www.yarivh.com/cryptopics/cryptopicslogo1.gif /> !

@Yariv:
I'm sure you just didn't have time 2 see it,
'cause I think it's absolutely obvious that "kestha is a cheater".

Agreed. His scores are all achievable (by a great player), but, on closer inspection, turned out to be fakes. :P

People of Nonosweeper land. :D

I would like to upload my 16.50s into the screenshot section.

Does anyone can explain me how to do it?

THANKS. :)

@hexx: Well, it seems that I was wrong when I didn't believed in your times you scored. I'm very sorry for that. :-[ I hope you can forgive me my disbelieve.

So i can only congrat you for your great sweeping and your World record.
I thought I would have the Int WR for several months, just as Stephans 63s, but I didn't expected you to come up so fast. :(

Btw, could you please still record a vid for me. I'm too curious to see a vid of your playing. That would be really nice. :)

Isn't the system of uploading pics to the screenshot section the same as uploading it in the guestbook?

Happy sweeping all!

PS: @Luca: What did I told you in my mail about congrating you nearly every week? So again: Congrats!!!

Gero,

There is no problem! ;)

If you want the WR back you need to do 14.08 :o

All you need is practising and practising and practising like Duracell bunny.:)

P.S. Next week i intend to make a video (15s or 16s) and upload it in forum strategy thread. ;D

So Hexx, now which are your next goals?

Luca,

Here are my next goals.
To conquer Earth, slave all creatures (including Homo Sapiens Sapiens and every single germ), vaporize the Moon and rule the Universe. As you can see i'm a modest person.

More seriously now. ;)
First, to finish a tournament grid in order to get classified.
Second, to tye Sthephan's 63s and eventually overtake your 61s with a 59s.  :D ;D

59?! not 60?

Luca,

You didn't get the point! ???
I want to do a sub-60!
What else a sweeper can desire on expert? ;)
If i succeed, it will be a magic moment for me and all Nonosweeper community.
So far, i believe i can't do it. :P

Guys, especially Gero.

BINGO!

I have the 15s video ( 15.68 ). :D
But i need some edition tips because it has 12:06 minutes and 8Mb size.

I also would like to know if it is possible to eliminate the annoying green flash of the recording area. >:(

P.S- I still don't like recording. :P

YEAH!!!! NICE!!!  :D

Ok, how to cut everything away, you don't need:

Open Camtaisa Studio. Import your vid. It appears under Clip Bin. Right click on it and choose "Add to timeline". The vid appears in the timeline below. You can mark parts of the vid. Mark those parts, you don't like to be seen in your vid. If you marked a part, go on Edit -> Cut Selcetion. The marked part is now cut away. You can do this cutting away as often as you want. If everything is cut away, what you wanted to, click on File -> Produce Video As. Produce a .avi. Click on Next, until you have to choose the name for the vid and the path for saving it (5x "Next" :)). Then produce the vid.
That's all. The new vid should be a bit smaller. ;)

One more thing: The first second of the vid should not show the board you finished in 15s immediately. So it should show the board before. So we are able to see, how you started when the board, you finished in 15s, suddenly appears.

Hope, you use Camtaisa, otherwise my information are perhaps useless.

To eliminate the green flash of the recording area open Camtaisa Recorder. Click on Tools -> Options. Choose the topic Capture. Then activate Hide capture rectangle. This should eliminate the green flash.

Happy Sweeping all.

PS: gerowaelz@vr-web.de
PS2: HURRY UP!!! 8)

I was very lucky today ;D, because my intention was to perform some testing to get used to camtasia. When all of a sudden,15.68.  :o
I'm also glad that it fits exactly the described strategy posted in the forum. ;)

Video link (note: press right button and then choose save target as....)
http://www.free-webspace.biz/nonosw/1568.avi

CODEC link
http://www.getafile.com/cgi-bin/merlot/get/techsmith/tscc/TSCC.exe

Thanks Hexx, and thank you very much for further explanation of your strategy. I've managed coming down from really bad 42s to 20.01s non-flagging. So lets see what training brings. Until then. Regards, Roli. :)

Hi, Stephan, this post is for you.

Somethings called my attention when i visited your website last weekend.

1) You know exactly how many times you managed a certain score in a certain level. Obviously, you must be using some "management" software.
Tell me more about it?

2) Do you have any software that counts button mouse clicking?

3) What application do you use to convert screenshots in PNG format?

4) Do you have the video of your 19s? and any idea how many left clicks you needed to solve your 19s game??

Oh, what a honour, a post only for me :-)

1) My "management" is to save a screenshot of every game I finished (only sub-5 in beg and sub-31 in int, all games in exp and gen). So, it's easy to keep track of the times.

2) Not for nonosweeper. There is such a software for minesweeper.

3) I already save them as PNG, as, in my eyes, it's the best format. I use Microsoft Photo Editor, a tool included in the MS Office package, but several freeware (e.g. IrfanView) allows to save a picture in PNG format as well.

4) Unfortunately, I don't have a video. I haven't recorded for several weeks. But it's a good hint. Maybe I should try to do some low 20 with my new nf strategy [nf=non-flagging, a well-known minesweeping abbreviation].
It must have been about 20-22 left clicks. I remember, that due to the 1-1-6 pattern in the rightmost column, I could solve the 1 row and the 3 row with only one click each. The rest was mostly solved click by click.

So, it's me again, still without video of a 19... But I uploaded a nf 22 video to my website!

Guys,

I must admit that my Intermediate strategy posted a few days ago was very incomplete and a little bit confusing.  :-/
So, i updated it with all tricks and tips i know, added a few more screeshots plus the 15.68 video and a downloadable strategy Word version. ::)

Check out again if you please.

Hmmm, since a lot of records got deleted from this page today and Yariv says, it'd be hard for him to enter the database himself, I reuploaded a 15s with version 1.32 and cheatexacttimeclicking. Just in case somebody wonders about the date (00-00-0000) ;-)

YES, three of my important scores disappeared this morning:
intermediate 15, 15
T2 30,47 (I uploaded them after 23.00 o'clock, european time)

this morning I saw the T page and the point table page: I won the T

but after 5 min when I refreshed the page this changed.
I have screenshots and one 15 link (it was my real record 15,40)

someone of you guys saw my scores yesterday night or today morning?

I have uploaded again my 15 link right now.
it seems to work.
so only two more scores left...

Yes, I've seen all your 15s. Didn't see your tournament time of course, but I have no doubt it existed. Today I made a 15.08. A pity, 1s faster would have been nice.  ;)

My last 15 was 15.16. If anyone wants the vid, just mail me. I hope I get a 14 before my 5th 15. Otherwise it'll be so hard to continue... :-/

@Stephan:

Can you mail me your 19s screenshot, the one that is a "dreamboard".  :D
THANKS.

@Stephan or Roland or anybody else:

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe that the Intermediate WR of Minesweeper is 11s.
Interesting, isn't it!!!!!!!! ;)

Yes, you're right, but for the best Sweepers, 10s will be possible with a really good board. Perhaps even 9s.
Yes, it's funny, but it'll be a looong way to get the same Exp record: 39s. I don't think that this is possible with Nono. But I often thought that some scores aren't possible and always people got better and better scores. So perhaps...

@Gero, Luca and other sweepers:

Come and join me, i'm going to play Expert this week, 2 hours daily (today, Thursday, Friday and Saturday). The idea is to achieve 4 sub-60s, proving this way that  my Expert strategy really works!!! ;)

If it is nothing else you want to reach. No problem. 8)

I would really like to play 5 hours/day, but I'm still waiting for my computer. So I can play perhaps 2 hours with a lousy mouse on a shitty PC. >:( And it would be only possible for me, to get times around 65s perhaps.
But I wondered why you didn't improved on Exp anymore. Did you only play Int all the time? You should go on, to get 11s x5. Otherwise you get perhaps a new Exp record and I want to see my name in Records History in the Exp section, too. So concentrate on Int please. ;)

I didn't improve my Expert times because i didn't play since i got 55.37s. Now, and because the 6s gap between 55.37s and 61.25 is to big, i want to manage a few 57s or 58s. ;)
There is more, i also pretend  to see my name on Genius Records History too.  ;D

Damn, I want to keep the WR on genius. Why not making a complete break until September? Perhaps I equaled you then. ;)

@Gero:

I think you believe you can't achieve 12s or 11s?

Here is one tip:
You need to find the right "sweeping pace", so what about practice Int exclusively just for one week !   ;)

Another tip:
Avoid sweeping "marathons", 2x1.30h sessions per day will be fine, no more no less!!! ::)

P.S. Good luck to Vienna Tournament. :)

Well, I'm sure, I can get 12s on Int. When you look at my "missing list" in "section "New personal records" you'll see that I missed a 12s game. Also the day before yesterday I got a 13s and missed 2 others. But I need a really perfect board to get 12s.
11s seems impossible for me yet. But I'll go on practising.

Currently I have too much time, so 3h sweeping per day are much to less. ;D

Thanks for your wishes, but I'm not the only Nonosweeper going to Vienna! ;)

Ok, I have a suggestion and I would like to know what you think about it. Wouldn't it be nice to include a history to Nonosweeper? And an auto-recording option? I don't know if that is possible and if Yariv would do it. Currently I count my sub-20's and sub-80's and -70's with a text file. But it's of course more nice, if the programm counts the scores you get immediatley so you don't have to count it by yourself.
Auto-recording might be a problem perhaps, because of varying board sizes. But I always like to see vids of games I play, especially my best ones. And Camtasia might slow you down. I don't know if that's really the case, but it feels like it does.

And i'm proposing 2 new features:

1) Click counter.
How about a click counter.
One of the best ways to improve scores is to reduce clicking. This feature would help us to realize how many times we click.
Personally, i just don't have any idea how many clicks i do on Expert or Genius!
It should count flagging(right) and sweeping(left) clicks and display the final counting at the end of the game together with exact time.
 
2) Disable "grey square markers" option.
Because i sweep fast, sometimes i step out the grid and activate a grey square unintentionally.
This situation is so annoying that i hate them!
There are 2 scenarios:
a) If it is a flagging movement, you can't flag and need to do an extra click to flag again.
b) If it is a sweeping movement, you can't sweep and if the area is already flagged you remove them!!!!!!!
Both, specially b) , are a tremendous waste of time and PATIENCE.
With disabled "grey squares" this never happens.

@Gero

1) History option.
I like the idea of an history or a statistics option (with exact time).
I just lost count of how many games i finished. Problably i have more than 100 sub-15s, 100 sub-70s and 50 sub-200s. What i know for sure, is that i did 22 sub-14s, 22 sub-66s and 10 sub-180s.

2) About yesterday's misunderstunding:
The terminology click/sec is very confusing, i think that "field/sec" is more appropriate (or square/sec or even blank/sec).
So, my 152.93 means that, i:
found 0.968 mines/sec;
or
opened 0.994 fields/sec.

I also like the idea of a click counter.

And hexx's second one is also very good. When I mark a number grey, I can't finish this game without remarking it again. This color somehow annoyes me so I cannot play as fast as I could do without this marked number. Sounds crazy, but it is like this. So I also would like this additional option. :)

Perhaps Minesweeper Clone can help you (Yariv), how to make such a history file or stats window.


Btw, how many tournaments does this season have?

@Gero:

Maybe you are interested in this?
Meanwhile you were using a NF strategy on current tournament, i was doing the same on Expert. ;)
And got nice scores:
87.50, 88.09, 89.40, 89.50, 96.29 and 98.39. ;D
It won't be dificult to get a sub-80 and lost a game that could be a sub-70s. :o

Wow!!! :)

How do you play Exp NF? Can you make an example vid perhaps??

I should try, too. Not that NF is the new strategy to break my WR and I didn't practised it.

Okay, I tried a bit. I didn't finished a board, but I see that your scores are possible. But I'm not sure that sub-60 is possible. Currently I don't believe it.

Perhaps it would be useful to start Exp with NF. In this way clearing the first columns. Then go over to flagging until the end, where you leave some flags unmarked (perhaps 3-10 flags).

I think I try that method. If I get a new WR today or tomorrow, be sure that this is the right tactic. ;)

Hi!

I've done some work on Nonosweeper Pro this summer, and v1.4 is online now.
It doesn't do everything you all asked for, but let me take the points one by one:

- LastURL.txt: now updates for all scores, not just uploaded ones.

- Tournament best: is now displayed in the Tournament dialog box.

- Camtasia: Sorry, I looked for Camtasia and it seems to cost $299, so I can't do built-in recording unless someone knows where I can find a module to do it for free.

- History: It would be nice, but it would greatly increase the complexity of the software, so I haven't done it for the moment, I'm afraid. Maybe in the future!

- Stats: included statistics for clicks and % cleared for all games (including failures)

- Disabled grey squares: I added this feature, but then realised that what was actually wanted (I think) was to be able to start sweeps outside the grid, so I altered this functionality and removed the disable-grey-squares feature again. Try it and see if it does what you want, if not let me know!

That's all for this update. Happy Sweeping! ;)

Yariv, there is a bug with the tournament results emails.  When you tell us in the email what the next tournament will be the board size is correct but the number of mines is always the same as the last tournament instead of the correct number for the new tournament.

Thanks Dan, it's now fixed ;D

@Gero:
Didn't you received an e-mail from me on Sunday about 19:00h? ???
I was asking you to mail me same vids and statistics screenshots!

@hexx: I recieved it and just wrote you a re-mail.

What I wanted to say is that I'm not able to play Nono much next weeks, even months.
My military service begins tomorrow, so I will have only weekends to be at home and play some Nono. It will be nearly only enough for tournys, I think.
So everybody who is also chasing the sub-50 can breath out, because probably I won't be the one in the next weeks to get this score (even if others don't think like this ;) ).

So happy sweeping everybody and happy record breaking!!! :D

Gero

@Luca: Hey, just looked at your stats and saw that vids are available. Can you sent me the 13s and 1s vids please?

Btw, just updated my personal stats.

@Maruda:

Yeah! Luca's right.
It is hard to believe that you still don't have at least 1x1s. :P

If i remember correctly, you improved your Int record from 15s to 13s after T1 (season 6), a grid similar to Int.
Maybe it's time to do the same again!  :D
I´m sure you can fulfill the task, the key word is PERSEVERANCE. ;)
What do you think?

Interesting that, last week, i played a custom board i have called "Beginner 10" (with 10 blank squares).
After almost 1 hour my best times were:
1.87 ;D, 2.03 (6 clicks!!!!!!:o), 2.10, 2.11 and 2.17 .

In short, it's easy, if you try you CAN GET IT.  :)


http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/k10beg187.png http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/k10beg203.png
http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/k10beg187t.png http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/k10beg203t.png

Composite Score!

How about a total score using all 20 of our best times scores? Maybe include a ranking table using this score???

Just add each of the 5 scores of your best times from each of the 4 categories and use this composite score to rank users.

This would be a great measure of well rounded players.

Mine stands at 2234, but could improve with a new top 5 time in any of the categories. I'll be shooting for a score below 2000 before the end of the year!

Yariv, is it possible to add this rating to the best times page? and maybe make it part of a ranking table?

Gene

@Gene: I´m afraid this value would only show abilities on big boards (greatly prefers genius score). Let´s have an example with Roland and Maruda

Roland 1, 11.8, 59.6, 198.4=170
Maruda      2, 13.8, 61.4, 159=172

If we sum their scores:
Roland  1354
Maruda 1181

@Nikolaj

You do make an excellent point.

I agree that this does greatly favor the genius ratings, but then, most of you top guys aren't blowing each other away on beginner and intermediate... Anyone can get a dreamboard and a bit of luck on the first 2 or 3 levels (which is probably one of the reasons for having top 5 scores in each category rather than just one) but when it comes to genius, luck starts to play much less of a role in my opinion.

In my opinion, your brother is a better sweeper even though Roland wins in the first 3 levels. (with MUCH respect to Roland as you and both of them are better than i am) I believe that sustaining concentration over periods of 2-5 minutes rather than for 1-60 seconds is much more impressive. Also, the genius scores have the most room for improvement.

Maybe good, maybe bad depending on who you are... One thing I can tell you is if there was a top 10 list for this, nobody except people who are or have been in division 1 would make it.

@Gene: Maybe you´re right. This cathegory could force some players (like me or Stephan  ;D) to play genius level a bit more (I have only 18 finished games  ;))

@Nikolaj, I agree that I would probably have to play more genius games (I have only 14 finished games, by the way). On the other hand, I'm quite sure that I would be within the Top10, so I wouldn't really care whether I'm #7, #8 or #9...

@Gene, to quote you: "when it comes to genius, luck starts to play much less of a role in my opinion."
In my opinion, this is only partly true. In genius, you need another type of luck, namely having a good constellation of mines. Otherwise, there are easily some situations where you're stuck. These situations can mostly be solved by correct guessing or by real calculating. Both of them need much time which causes me to say that you need also TOO MUCH luck to finish a genius game...

@Gene, I was just curious how such a ranking would look like:

So, if a player has submitted 4x5 times, the sum wouldn't be anything different than the unweighted sum of the displayed averages, multiplied with 5. This would lead to the following ranking:

1. Luca Vezzoni [1061]
2. Gero Waelz [1074]
3. hexx [1095]
4. Maruda [1181]
5. Roland Seibt [1354]
6. Nikolaj [1475]
7. Jon Simonsen [1501]
8. Stephan Bechtel [1540]
9. Dan [1611]
10. edward rhoads [1674]
11. Qetuth [1716]
12. Yariv Hastilow [1805]
13. Greg [1882]
14. Katy LaVallee [1934]
15. piman [2003]
16. Raquel Lozano [2180]
17. Gene [2232]
18. Kire BG [2361]
19. Caren [2471]
20. LailaHoetoft [2582]
21. Vladimir Orlov [2889]
22. Richard [2929]
23. Spot [3068]
24. Rincewind [3070]
25. ainle [3215.5]
26. Elmar Zimmermann [3286]
27. SeeFarky [3302]
28. Brett Z [3358]
29. Ivan [3369]
30. Foster [3569]
31. Isengrim [3895]
32. Michelle [4100]
33. JOE D [4214]
34. Saulo Achkar [4401]
35. neder [4444]
36. eL bEn [4596]
37. liz burrow [4651]
38. Iguana [4814]
39. Nick Beamon [4920]
40. Isaac Newton [4999]
41. Atomizer [5206]
42. Krasi [5365]
43. Raid [5418]
44. bgse [5551]
45. BoBo [5574]
46. heldchen [5880]
47. Asen BG [6048]
48. Henning Krassen [6162]
49. Peter [7610]
50. Sam [7812]
51. Christoph [8295.5]
52. Morgan [8604]
53. piccolo [8653]
54. Mali [9374]
55. Gadget [9625]
56. Beeg [12546]

And your assumption is not completely right. edward rhoads hasn't been in division 1 so far. But the current division 1 players are in #1-#6, #8, and #9, so you're almost right. ;)

Wow, this has sparked an interesting conversation... It seems to have at least some people interested! Great work on the calculations! Did you enter those manually or do you have access to the score database?

The comment you made about the averages is true, thats how it should work, but the larger scores are more fun to look at!   ;D

It sounds like you're after unweighted best 5 scores including genius, which is listed at:
http://www.nonosweeper.com/cgi-bin/ranking.cgi?unweighted=1&genius=1

There are 8 different ways to calculate rankings, of which only 5 are linked in the best times/rankings section of the site. The others can be reached by mucking around with the parameters in the URL.

My sites links page has links to all 8, among a huge number of links to all over the MM and NS sites, but it hasn't been updated in a very long time...I've been meaning to put up lots of tournament statistics but haven't gotten around to it.
(At the bottom, centre column, of http://members.iinet.net.au/~queteq/MM/Links.htm if anyone is interested)

I use that site to quickly check my standings on all 8 ranking systems once a month or so, or whenever I set several new times, so I have a good idea of what I need to improve...(currently 13,11,12,11,12,10,10,10, for example)

@Gene: Neither did I calculate the ranking manually nor do I have access to the database. But there is already a ranking of weighted scores. I just copied that into an Excel spreadsheet, built some unweighted sum and generated my ranking list. So, within <10 minutes, the list was done.
But indeed, the ranking behind Qetuth' link isn't really anything different (not multiplied by 5, but almost the same anyway).

@Qetuth: Nice link list. I must check out all of them later.

@Qetuth: Nice links!

@Gene: Looks like Qetuth´s links will satisfy your need  (unless you are high number freak of course) ;D

@Stephan: You´re right, who cares if he is #7, #8 or #9, but this 294 points gap between Maruda and me looks scary  ;D

Last tournament (for next sweeping generations T2 of S7 ;)) forced me to raise this discussion. As you probably noticed some incredibly good times were achieved (sub 0.25). But there were almost no skills required, proper "tactics" and bit of luck was everything you needed  >:(.

How can be such low time achieved? It´s simple dear Watson...

ttlsquares!/((ttlsquares-mines)!*mines!)=15!/(7!*8!)=6435 possible mine arrangements. (Beginner has 94143280 possible arrangements)

With such low number it is worth waiting for fast solvable specific board. I tried to count it and with 60-80 boards played per minute (playing EVERY board right after generating as if it was the desired one) only 80-100 minutes (it´s probability, we all know it´s only theory ;)) is required until your board appears. It´s boring but with a bit of luck you get sub 0.25 soon...

As I said this "tactics" does not require almost any skills, so it probably should be prevented. Because it is not game bug, this problem should be discussed in community. My suggestion is to restrict tournament boards with less than 100.000 mine arrangements.

What do you think about it?

@Nikolaj: YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! i.e. I agree completely ;).

Hi guys, at the moment I'm addicted once more to another computer game: Shisen-Sho.

http://dvalot.free.fr/games.htm

Although my brother beat me in both levels small and medium yesterday, I think our scores are already pretty good. Some more competition would be very nice, and I wonder what times you could get. There is no highscore list until now, but please test it out and tell me how it works out. Have fun, it's a real cool game.

Roli

Is there a webpage that gives instructions for Nonosweeper?

I would like to know the keys that can be used.

For instance, I didn't know that you could click the numbers on the side until I read someones post.

Also,  someone said on there website that they had a one click beginner board.  I don't see how that's possible.  The beginner level has eight nonbombs, so you would have to click at least eight times.

Is there a key / click combination to clear an entire column or row?

Or is there a mousing combination like in minesweeper to remove a whole group of nonbombs?

Also, does shift or control key help at all?

Thanks

@Doug Mair: I´m afraid there´s no such page. I can give you all the basic information I know:

1) Keys: F1-help (not too useful ;)) F2 new game of level you have selected, F3 new beginner game, F4 new intermediate game, F5 new expert game, F9 turn marks "?" on/off

2) 1 click board: You can click and drag, you don´t have to click all squares. E.g. you see empty row, then click on edge square and drag the cursor to the opposite edge with left button pressed (same principle is applied when flagging whole row, only with right button). And there is 9 safe squares on beginner level ;)

3) If you use all flags you have in top left counter (for beginner level 27) then yellow smiley turns blue. When you press blue smiley, all unflagged fields are revealed. If you placed all flags correctly, the board is solved.

4) You already know you can click side numbers.

That´s all, no other key is necessary.

Happy sweeping

??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Can you guys see what i see?


http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/xxxniCLONE.png http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/1184ni060126.png

YES, these grids have the same mine pattern?!
They are TWINS! ???
JESUS, i got the same board TWICE. :o
That is UNBELIEVABLE.

What you guys think of it?

P.S. Just for curiosity, check out your screenshot database to see if you can find another clone?

Hmmmmm.... I don´t remember I got same board twice and unfortunately I only take screenshots of good games so my database is not too big... But if we realize that probability for intermediate is 1:1,98.10²⁷, it sounds to me like not very good random number generator is used :( or you were extremely lucky ;). Hope it´s  the second possibility, because I don´t like board scumming and this could lead somebody to generate the same board over and over again  >:(. Maybe you could mail this directly to Yariv (because he is really busy and I doubt he reads forums).

excuse me, will be the ranking showed again?

@Luca: this is Yariv´s reply when I asked him the same thing  ;)

"The reason the site went down was because the rankings were creating too many SQL requests (building the tables is more complicated than it looks!), so I had to temporarily disable them to get the site back up. I will put them back of course, but I have to restructure parts of the database to reduce the number of requests, so it will take a bit of time. I'll try to do it as soon as possible, although I don't have much free time at the moment! Anyway, the rankings will be back soon - in the mean time the tournaments seem to be doing well too... please send any board requests if you have any, as we are getting quite a lot of repeats!"

@Roland: I also tried/try Shisen a bit. Tell me your best times for the different tables.
My best for the easiest one is 0,53s. I got this score today. Next best times are 0,58s x2 and 0,59s. :)

Uh, uh, somebody really tried Shisen-Sho. Cool. Well, I suppose you meant 0.53 MIN? instead of 0.53 s? Okay, then you're drawing near. First difficult step was getting below 1 min. Meantime I managed  38 s for beginner and somewhat below 2 min for medium. I usually don't play the big one. Keep up the chase. And maybe some others as well? Greetings, Roli.

P.S.: I like the actual tournament. It's so much intermediate style!

SHISEN: day one: beginner 47; 52; 58; 59

@Roland: Grats for your 2nd 11s!!! :)

Shisen: Hm, I can choose 5 sizes for Shisen.
Can you give me a direct download link so I can be sure I use same version as you do?
Also 38s seem a bit too fast for the easy level I play. It wasn't so easy to get the 53s on the easy level I play.

I use the one by Daniel Valot. Seems the best graphics to me. http://dvalot.free.fr/download/SHISENU.ZIP
Luca seems to have the right version. Nice scores by the way. I also found out last week that one can adjust the speed you're playing in the options. Much better now. As always, it's advisable to read help-files. ;-) Till later,

Roli  8)

I don't know which version I have. I downoloaded it from the link Roland sent about one month ago.
By the way I achieved a 36 in beginner and 91s in medium

Grr... Just returned from volleyball with dislocated RIGHT thumb  :'(. It hurts like hell so I can barely lay palm on the mouse (moving to the right with pressed button is impossible). And I wanted to practice for Budapest this week... Looks like Vladimir and Gene have great chance to beat me this time GOGOGOGO guys!!! ;D

Hey shouldn´t be sport good for health :o? On the other hand I can practice left-handed sweeping :D


@Vladimir: I had hard time (Saturday) beating your time! Blasted few 12 and many 13 on the last line, but finally I got you  ;)

Hey! Sorry to hear about the thumb! I'm hoping to finish out of last place at least once out of 8 time in this season... That will be a success for me! Also, i guess Hexx wanted to give me at least a point on my first time in the to Division...

Anyway,  the most important thing is when you dislocated your thumb, did you score a point for your team???  :D J/K of course!!! Get well soon!

@Gene: I think hexx had surgery last week. That´s probably why he didn´t play last T. And sure I scored a point  ;) I got hit when blocking  ;D

Hey, Gene! There was a time when we was promoted to second division together. Do you remember? Now I hope that my way doesn't lead to the same place! ;D
@Nikolaj: You've got me when I was sleeping! :-[
Tournament usually is over at 9.00 (Sunday morning) in our city... Get better!
What can I say about health and sport?
Drink tomato juice!
Tomato juice leads to health!
Health leads to sport!
Sport leads to victories!
Victories lead to money!
Money lead to women!
Women lead to AIDS!
AIDS leads to death!
Don't drink tomato juice! ;D

@Vladimir: I got my time at 22:15 czech time. So it was slightly after midnight of your time (if you are in the same timezone as Moscow).  Hm maybe I should drink Bloody Mary more. I´m in the "Sport leads to victories" cathegory. It wouldn´t be bad to gain one more level  ;D

@Nik: next level? you? with your volleyball skills? ;D

:D

How about we organize the...
http://www.gigapages.com/images/nonolympics2006.jpg

Any Takers?
Or perhaps a Nono world cup every year...

Maybe 2-3 players from a country (at most) combine times for the "relay" events??
Also have individual events?? like the 10x10x64 sprint (same as intermediate)

Just an idea, but it sounds kinda fun...  :D

For anyone who hasn't seen yet. The rankings are back on. Nice fight on the top though. :)

Can we please remove the Budapest duplicates (Gero, Maruda, and Niko) from the rankings so it shows the correct rankings for all players?

Oops, sorry for that... I didn´t realize I can block some  top 10 entries ;D

After hard work the job is done. 8)
My Beginner screenshot database is now AVAILABLE,
so if you wanna see any of my 561 1s http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/ziWow.gif just let me know!

I tried to find out what feature in nonosweeper I´m missing most. My order is:
1. Board generation from screenshot or specific custom board creation (often I would like to replay someone else´s board to see the difference)
2. History file (it´s becoming more and more annoying to note every game manually)
3. In-game videos (not that important for me, there is free screen capturing software I can use if I want to)
4. Making grey numbers optional (if I hit it I MUST unmark it again, I´m not able to finish game with grey number - it awfully distracts me)
5. Storing game window coordinates when closed (so that next time game starts at exactly same place)

This could be nice poll and Yariv could use its results for future developing.

What features would you like to see in (hopefully there are going to be some  ;)) the future versions?

Yippie, I just made my 3rd of 4 diploma exams with 1.0. Hope I get below that soon in beginner. ;-) Also I agree with all propositions above. Maybe a function for saving screenshots with one button seems useful as well... Happy sweeping!  8)

Hi Nikolaj,

I would prefer
1 in-built video function (your 3)
2 in-built screenshot function, to be named after a predefined scheme
3 coordinates (your 5)

Your other suggestions are good, but not necessarily relevant for me.

My requests:

1. The disable f1 option from mallet mania. Who put that button so close to the all-powerful f2 anyway?

2. Making grey numbers optional, I can't finish a game with one marked either Nikolaj :)

3. Automatic screenshots, or maybe ability to save final board position complete with stats/exact time, so we could load a saved finish and screenshot it later if we want

4. Ability to save preferred custom board sizes in a list, including a copy current tournament option. Also, for the history file, a memory of custom high scores and/or tournament board high scores for repeated boards.

5. History file, but preferably not one where playing a few slow games messes up your history and cant be undone

6: A novelty extra: customisable colour settings, even if its just a choice from a standard set of 16 colours, for things like the blank colour, the clock numbers, the mine numbers, and the thick gridlines. Mainly the blank colour though, I find the grey hard to see and the white too bright, although I'm used to white now.
Alternatively, what would people think about an option to colour the numbers by the standard MS/MM scheme? (with some set colour past a certain point, since theres no upper limit like in MM or MS)

7: For the site, a history of monthly rankings: just a set of static pages with the weighted single record rankings incl genius for times set in each month, posted after the month is over. Or even just a single page for last months rankings like we have yesterdays scores.

Actually, those last two should be higher in my preferences but since they're less related to the actual sweeping I suppose they're sort of less important....

Here are my suggestions:

A) Mouse meter - From my point of view, it is the most important missing feature because it allows to set short path strategies for Exp and Gen. Without it is really tricky to say if i'm using the right strategy. >:(

B) Blue click as a single action event (press only) instead of double action (press and release). The idea is to make it faster, saving at least 0.10s. ::)

C) Hide gridlines option, because gridlines are useless in little T/custom boards and i might be interested to play Exp or Gen without them!!!!!! :o

D) Statistics window should also include misflagged squares (for failures), mines didn't flagged (for succeded games) and eventualy an indication that BLUE CLICK was performed.

E) Display exact time in high score tables.

F) EXACT TIME UPLODING FOR CLASSIC LEVELS.
1s is always 1s, however there is a big difference between 1.27s and 1.89s, but the rule "the last to upload a certain score the first" means that 1.89s will get a better rank (if uploaded after 1.27s). What else can be more depressing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  >:(
Exact time uploading it's a matter of fairness and competitiviness.

G) Sometimes i wonder myself "how exact is exact time" or "why apparently some hundreds of second aren't allowed". In my NONO adventure i have never managed scores like xx.99s, xx.88s, xx.66s, xx.13s, xx.02s and many others ....  
WHY IS THAT SO?  Is it intentional?
really annoying....... :P

Comments:

Screenshot option: should allow various types of formats including PNG, the best of all.

Nikolaj's 5th suggestion: I like this one, it should be possible to store desired coordinates for each classic level plus the coordinates of the last game played!

@hexx: i´m faster clicking right-left :) btw. what was your best attempt? mine was 0,14...

What do you guys think about one more rankings cathegory "Active players rankings"? My idea is to include only those players who were active (submitting level or tournament time) in the last two months (could be matter of discussion, but 2 months is one whole season and I think it´s adequate). I´m not good with database stuff at all, but it shouldn´t be hard to do, should it?

Heres a sample based on full points for a time set in the last 31 days, and 1% per day after that:

Name	Weighted +G	Active +G (single penalty)	Active+G (individual penalties)
Hexx	124	205	229
Luca	134	413	448
Gero	137	405	556
Maruda	141	168	226
Nikolaj	155	155	257
Roland	154	154	226
Qetuth	197	197	244
Stephan	173	173	588
Gene	200	379	392
Jon Sim.	200	1234	1234

Incidentally, if stephan set new int and beg times today, that would reduce the ind. active score to only 505. So, the ind method means not setting a genius time in over a year can hurt a lot, but on the other hand, the single penalty method would mean if you can equal your beginner time easily, you just have to upload once a month to stay on full points.

Anyway, thats my thoughts on the subject. Any other suggestions?

That´s good idea Q. I agree with both suggestions.

@Gero: Happy New Year to you too! Well, for us oldies it is more and more difficult to find enough time to play levels (for example I play only tournaments these days) and when you don´t play levels, it gets more and more difficult to retain recordbreaking skills  ;)

And I still hope you´ll return to us some day  :)

@Hexx: Great to see someone else playing :)

Actually, pretty much every 2h board can be solved without guessing. The important tricks are 'evening out' an edge: a 122 edge can be reduced to 111 (look at all possible ways of clearing and that click is common to all. The next step is that this can be carried around a corner.

Finally, this can be done for each row coming in from an edge once the previous row is evened: Any way you clear 111111etc from an edge, also removes 111111etc from the next row in, so it can be seen as a new 'edge' and evened out. Doing this near corners, as well as the corner reduction rules (again, look at what clicks are common to all solutions), allows many corners to be cleared so you can move further in.

Many of the other tricks involve counting, so while useful for solving every board, don't always help with a good time. But most things you can do with 2h, and in fact most of the boards, come down to asking two things: what clicks are in common to all solutions for this area, and what number could be hidden under that blue block.

It is very different from Nono is this way: A nono board with multiple possible solutions forces a guess as only one is accepted by the game. A MM board will accept any of the solutions so theoretically any possible board is solvable from the info you see.

Hope that helps. At least until you start catching me, then I'll hope it doesnt help at all  ;D

What is the best (easiest) way to record games? The links I found on some old minesweeper sites were all broken.

I've looked for old videos Gero sent me, but it looks like I only have the easy ones, which was always my weakness. I've equaled most of those records now and they still look impossibly fast to me. I guess games look faster when you're not the one playing them. At least to me.

@Hexx: You're lucky my hand's too sore to play this tourney any more: I've lost with over 90% done in between 280 and 320 seconds at least 6 times! I thought I finally had a chance to win a tourney until your 340...

Hey, I can mail you a nice screen recorder and an editor application.
But, of course, I need to know your email first.

I also would like to know:
1) your 2h top 10;
2) which edge patterns you can recognise to be safe;
3) does all rubbers have an hidden number?

Hello!
Been a long time but now I want you to sound your opinion: what format should the nonosweeper session have at the upcoming Budapest event? i.e. how many beg/int/exp games would you want to play? (there won't be special boards like last time in Vienna - sorry)
Gergely :)

To the attention of forums administrators:
I couldn't modify my forum profile :-/, after typing my password the follwing message appears:

"Can't open directory (/home2/simplism/public_html/yabbfiles/avatars)!
Please inform the administrator of this forum that the $facesdir setting must be fixed immediately. No such file or directory"

Meanwhile there is an interesting fight between Stephan and Nikolaj, I found some sort of "hidden" level.

To reveal 10x10+10 grid, just open ini file and change the first number to 6 or bigger!?!?!?

http://hexx.250free.com/nonosweeper/x/Newlevel.PNG

If you change to any negative number it will give you an URL on every finished board.
My best score is 2.79s , but when i try to upload the URL the system says it is invalid data. >:(
Anyway, it was fun... :)

How do I update the "registered e-mail address" for my account?  When I pick Edit user details it only has the email address to display.

@yariv: why is there a new icon next to all nonosweeper.com... url s ? this red star is a little irritating - the old icon was allright :'(

Does anybody know what happens, if a non-bottom division contains less than 6 players? (So, if there are three or more players on 0 points)
Who will relegate? Or will there be some error in the end of the season?

I just ask, because up to now only 5 players submitted scores in Div 3 - and it would be great if there wouldn't be a mixup like in the end of last season.

Personally I think, in such a case all 0-point players should relegate and additional players from the divison below shold promote.

I seem to recall that back before exact times, several times in the middle of a season there were people with equal scores and equal sum of times, and it went alphabetical for the points listing. If that is the case, I imagine the automated system will leave hexx in div3 and relegate the other two. But yes, it would be good to see 3 go up in situations like this.

but why is hexx suddenly in div3? he never was in div2. :o

i agree with christoph's suggestion

@Christoph: We didn't have that case before, but it is very likely that there will be still 3 players in div 3 with 0 points in the end of the season.
I totally agree that all three players should relegate, and 3 players from div 4 should come up.

@Qetuth: Your theory could be right. I didn't think of that possibility for the case of 0 points, but in fact, as all 3 players could have 0 points and the same time, maybe alphabetical order is relevant as third criterion. Can you ask Yariv?

@EWQM.: As hexx doesn't participate any more, he is not listed in Yariv's point tables. But of course, he only relegates one division from season to season. Look at the T pages on my website, there you can see all eight players of each division.

@stephan: i noticed that he is still in yariv's list of users, but i wonder why on his profile page it says:

Seasons in Division 1: 25
Seasons in Division 3: 1

@EWQM: Last season it said Div 1 25, Div 2 1. Because it counts the current season, but it doesnt count seasons you don't participate in?

It sort of makes sense...

could the fake 1s on beg and 8s on int by flasheur please be tken off the rankings?

chessgod seems to be fake and imo should be taken off the rankings.

TBDMfan wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2010 at 9:32pm:

chessgod seems to be fake and imo should be taken off the rankings.

What are you talking about. I worked my butt off to set these records. How could anyone possibly fake a score? Are you jealous because I beat your record?

Are you the chessgod101 the chess programmer?

NYMIKE wrote on Sep 5^th, 2010 at 12:39am:

Are you the chessgod101 the chess programmer?

Well I am not technically a programmer but I am quite well known in the chess world. Do you know me from the chess world or did you quickly search my name on google? ;D

so it should be simple thing to post few videos of your playing style, am i right? i´m really curious about it  :o

Yes I did just google your name, not often somebody shows up here, posts an all time intermediate record, and wins the first tournament he enters, of course people here be interested to know how you accomplish your results, and who are you in general.

My finding was that you are a well known person in the chess world, and you have a nice forum.

chessgod101 wrote on Sep 4^th, 2010 at 9:28pm:

TBDMfan wrote on Sep 2nd, 2010 at 9:32pm: chessgod seems to be fake and imo should be taken off the rankings. What are you talking about. I worked my butt off to set these records. How could anyone possibly fake a score? Are you jealous because I beat your record?

i believe that you use sth to slow down the timer in nonosweeper and that you are barely able to solve an expert grid. an unknown player who sets a world record and top10 times on other levels and even beats maruda, stephan, gabi and me on such a difficult tourny board is more than suspect. i want to see both screen-capture and camera videos of you getting 3s on beginner, 15 on intermediate and 75 on expert. as of now - with the scores you posted - i believe you cheated and want you to be taken off the rankings.

show me some videos and we're fine.

I agree with EWQM. It is very unlikely to pass by with an all-time Int world record (even hexx didn't achieve an Int 8 ever) as one of your first submissions. And in past, there haven't been many players who got a Pro account and immediately won tournaments and entered the all-time Top 10 in all levels.
So, as Maruda said, it should be an easy thing to show your trustworthiness by posting some fast videos so that everyone can watch and be :o by your playing speed.

In all honesty you can remove the times from the board. An enemy of mine bet me $5 usd that I could not beat the records on the board. I, being a professional software reverser, used my debugging skills to fake the score. In the pro version, I discovered that a patch at offset 000011d6 05 00 would allow me to win the game when I right clicked anywhere on the board. Using this discovery I was able to fake the scores long enough to spite my enemy. I am sorry I disrupted the community's high scores. I am however addicted to this game and hope to return and compete with honor in the future.

thank you for your honesty chessgod101. i'm curious to see your real scores and looking forward to competing with/against you in the weekly tournaments.