Chronic Logic

I hope a LOT of people didn't submit a bridge at all.  108 people who bought the game only totals a little over 2000 american dollars.  Nothing to scoff at, but I hope for Chronic Logic's sake that enough people purchased the game to fuel their ability to make more software/money.

Maybe putting a map-pack up for sale, or sending the demo to schools to spark interest.   Schools are often looking for a cheap alternative to expensive software that is already on the market, and having it be a game too is just icing on the cake (chocolate cake).

I will support CL with whatever they do, even if their next game is "Corporate Soda Bottle Constructor".  

Since the question of changes in contest 2 has come up, let me just mention that Gray put up a new poll on www.bridgebuilder-game.com , asking your opinion on whether to "Allow posting of scores/designs for an ongoing Pontifex contest?" Go cast your vote!

Grats to Calis, really spectacular design, it's always funny to see the way people are building their bridges, mine was 92k, but i never thought of the way Calis, Grey or Chillium did it

And congrats to CL i think the level was really great, it was easy to solve, and you always could squeez out a lot of money.
And the possibility of different bridge designs was really cool, I just hope for the next one that we get a reply mail, so we know you got the bridge.

Looking forward to the next contest, hope they will start soon

BTW, CL, what was your cheapest design ?

But just imagine the possibilities... short-squat soda bottle... tall-thin soda bottle... oddly shaped soda bottle that looks like it won't work but does... ;)

Congrats Calis!!!

My expensive bridge at �

http://www.citicom.com/~matt/bridge.gif

Calis, OverClok: I like those "inverted cable-stayed" designs much as well. Apart from the fact that I haven't used V-supports because I thought it wasn't worth the extra steel cost (which seems to have been a bad decision), this type of bridge is, in my experience, extremely susceptible to twisting - I had a bridge that had 1 train passing just fine, but the back journey would commence on a bridge slightly askew, and the whole underpinnings would just slide out on that pass, resulting in bridge twisting, keeling over  and the big splash. I found this to depend on the cable setup in ways I don't understand.
OverClok was seemingly fighting the same problems because he broadened some supports in #6 to a trapeze-shape.
I find refining this kind of bridge very difficult, because I cannot refine a working design to another by small working steps - intermediate steps would show twist, and I wouldn't be sure whether that could be remedied by a small change or whether that idea was worthless.
Calis, if you would provide some construction strategies, I'd be forever indebted to you (or at least for as long as your new title lasts :-)

AFAIK, Vienna has some nice bridges, too!

Congrats to Calis!

I would also like to say that I hope people are paying for this program.  It would be a real bummer if CL could not make enough coin to keep up this great work.  I will be happy to chip-in for any new software they produce.

Calis is still a Newbie
The main members page and the CL main page are outdated... Guess that means there's a huge contest stats page coming at us

Mendel wrote: ´.. had 1 train passing just fine, but the back journey...´  
lol.. during optimization I got one that twisted over on the 4th pass
Obviously, I experienced that twisting effect, too.
If you get my zip-file, you can see ´badtumbl´ collapsing exactly the way you describe.
But when I made the transition from rectangular supports to ´V´ supports, this effect completely vanished. I have never seen a V-support bridge twist over, so I wonder why OverClok had troubles with the V and went the other (wrong?) way towards rectangular supports..
And I still wonder where the asymmetric twist force come from.. Is it based on some inaccurate floating point calculations, where small truncation errors sum up over time, doesn´t the train run in the perfect centerline of the decks, or is it some random effects introduced on purpose?

I don't think contest entry numbers will bear any resemblance to the amount of sales.  With any game, it's only the hardcore that even post on related forums, let alone enter contests!

Unless I'm missing something though, we don't seem to have any dedicated web space to upload map packs etc.  CL need to get this sorted ASAP 'cos it's user support that really makes a game last 'n' last (Half-life, Operation Flashpoint, etc)

congrats calis

I didn't enter the contest but I downloaded the file(just for kicks). and I thought that the winner would build a bridge a lot like grays. the thought never crossed my mind that the type of bridge calis build would win.

Mendel wrote: AFAIK, Vienna has some nice bridges, too!

Yeah, with the not-so-small river Danube running through, we got some of these ;)

And we got some collapses, too!
Remember the ´Reichsbruecke´ going down early in the morning (with just an empty bus and a single car on it, iirc) the same day when Niki Lauda had his horrible Nurburgring fire crash?

And then there was the (unnamed) new bridge that collapsed even before it was opened to the public. Actually my father did the material calculation for that one! And he had a hard time to prove that his calculation was ok. Finally, he kept his job when they found out that more than one bridge worker redirected concrete transports to their own weekend house construction sites!
So the bridge went down. Well, we all know what happens if you remove just a small piece, or weaken a few links ;)

You can see my (non-winning) bridge designs here: http://www.sili.net/pontifex/index.html

Congratulations to Pontifex Maximus Calis, and all the Pontifi (?!?)

That's a really interesting design.  It's great seeing the winners, because they show a distinct lack of of imagination in my entry (which I thought was pretty good at *100,000* under budget!  WOOHOO!!)

This will make me think much more creatively about my next designs  Thanks for posting the bridge!

Carlosius Minimus

Speaking of bridge collapses, there's everyone's favorite suspension bridge - the first Tacoma Narrows bridge.    Refer to discussions of new materials and heavy cable to support stiffening trusses.  Perhaps Callis' delicate solution to the torsion problem would make suspension bridges work better.

Congrats to Calis, it seems that triangle spamming has been beaten silly by those smelly old cables =)

Ah well, even Gray got beat, so I guess you're way out of our league. =)

Calis,

Congrats on the best Bridge.

My expensive attempt @ 114948

(http://www.rivendell.d2g.com/scsht006a.GIF) (http://www.rivendell.d2g.com/scsht006a.GIF)

I like to think that the asemetric twist is intentional. It is more realistic that way anyway.

but I do not think it is random because then some bridges would only fail some of the time

Yeah, triangle spamming age is over

You can get my bridge at
ftp://ftp.complang.tuwien.ac.at/pub/herbert/maximus1.zip

I have included two other bridges, both do interesting collapses:

badtumbl is my first try, over optimized.
I had rectangular supports and tried to remove the lateral links at the bottom to save $. But this design seems to need the weight of these (There shouldnt be any other forces there.). Just re-insert another lateral link (to make it symmetric again) and it will work.

ok8not5 is even more interesting, as it can withstand 7 and 8 cars, but it collapses with 5 and 6. So if you ever wondered whether it is possible to build a bridge that gets more stable with more weight on it, look no further ;)
(on the other hand, it is probably the higher speed of the lighter train that brings down this bridge, not sure about this...)

Tip for next time:  don't use heavy steel.  If you need heavy steel, you're probably doing it wrong.  I'm intrigued by the wide range of pricing and strength in the subtle variations on the arch design.  Looking forward to a longer span next time....

Wow. I really thought I was getting better at this game, but piffling effort was so expensive its embarasing! Oh well, must practice more!

Gray: It doesnt matter to me if they forgot to change my subtitle over implementing pretensioned cables :)

...actually just posting crap to check my current subtitle again :D

Just wanted to add my congrats to Calis....nice work. Contest was a blast, looking forward to the next one.....

regds to all :biggrin:

Calis, oh yeah I forgot:

CONGRATULATION TO YOU, LUCKY POST ,Calis, IT TRUELY SI A MAGIC APARITION INDEED!

OverClok: I looked at your designs and wonder what kind of dead end you run into?
Actually, first I thought, you want to make a joke and append my winning bridge to your rejected designs ;)

Your number 5 is basically what I had before I started to optimize..
Or did you use heavy steel for the supports?

Congrats to Calis! His design both impresses and surprises me (I'd never have thought of that!)
Guess I'll have to live forever now... Wait! What restrictions? Noooooooo....

P.S. I felt that the Contest Bridge thread was getting too long... Let's start a post-contest thread...

Here is a screenshot of my bridge, along with the actual bridge itself.  Just put my bridge into your bridge folder.  I built mine for 93094 (notice the strategically placed cable.  Congrats to Calis for an awesome design.  I tried some like it, but didn't quite pull it off.  Way To Go!!!!

Go here for my screenshot and bridge:

http://home.pacbell.net/monster9/93094.zip

Thx all for the grats :)

Of course, I will make the bridge public, so we all can optimize it further. I really spend only a few hours to get the cables into place, so there should be at least some hundred bucks still to save :)

BTW: the design applies well to some other levels, e.g. normal level 12 can be done around 55k that way :)

I must say, your bridge is the bomb.  After I submitted a bridge very similar to Gray's I toyed around with the monkey bridge concept, but alas, I couldn't even keep all the links from breaking, let alone break the 90k barrier with it.  I must say, you downright smashed through it, and never looked back.  I look forward to duking it out with you fellows again in Contest 2.

Just wanted to share my efforts. The first design here is what I submitted. I thought it was going to knock the socks off of everyone. ;) Click on the picture to d/l the pxb.

This second design was my best effort prior to the contest end. This is what I wish I'd submitted. Still wasn't enough to get an honorable mention I'm afraid.

My last bridge I designed after the contest was over, and before the results were in. I was inspired by Gray after discussing what method he used to design his bridge. I never came close to approaching his score.

I hope you all enjoy my failures, I know I've learned from them. I look forward to seeing everyone elses designs.

I want to extend a thank you to mendel for hosting these pictures and the bridges.

Just want to say congrats to Calis, Gray, and Chillum.    My design was similar to the 2nd and 3rd place entries, but I didn't spend much work trying to optimize it, it just squeaked in under ๪k.  Anyway, congrats again to the winners, and I also look forward to contest 2.  

Congrats to Calis and Grey!

Calis, that's an awesome design...never even crossed my mind to try something like that! A thoroughly deserved win! :-D

And a big vote of thanks to the CL team for an excellent competition. I know I wouldn't fancy testing all those #### bridges!!

My bridge is available at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/chillum/chillum.pxb if anyone wants to take a look, although I know which one we really want to see....

(Edited by Chillum at 12:45 am on Oct. 30, 2001)

Congrats Calis, very nice design. That was like a beginning test I did but never got it to stand, didn't think of the internal cable crossbrace. Fantastic!

I'm sure I joined the slew of people around the ๠,000 mark with a similar arched design. From tests it seemed that the lower the arch the cheaper, so I was content to submit a rather wobbly arch weighing in at ๣,884. Congrats to Grey & crew to find cheaper, higher solutions.

Overall I must say that the comp has been VERY entertaining, if somewhat stressful. I think that the decision to limit the bridges to 1 and discourage talking has worked in the comps favour. I'm pretty impressed with 108 entries, more than I thought were on this forum. Hopefully some statistics will also show how varied the designs were.

Hi folks,
congrats again to Calis of course
I did get an honourable mention I'm proud to say... although I'm kicking myself because my design did bear a passing resemblance to the winner
Beating second place by Űk is quite an acheivement.
I won't say who it was who said the winner wouldn't get under 贄k (it wasn't me I'm pleased to say!)

I would like to say how much the contests have extended the lifetime and fun element of Pontifex for me, and I hope this has a knock-on effect of increased sales.

So, Contest Two, what changes do we need?  I'll leave the actual problem to CL of course, but I'd like to see the following:  (once they recover from this weekend)
* Email confirmation of bridge received.
* Calis banned (just kidding)
* Some way to clarify the settling issue.  Perhaps a later version to have a competition mode that starts the train say 20 seconds after start is pressed.  If reliable bridges are sought the train could zip back and forth 100 times for all I care
I for one was praying that on the one run that CL did of my bridge it wouldn't get a freak collapse.  (I'm also wondering about floating point consistency here?)

Anyway, thanks all for a great competition and I look forward to round 2