The instructions and notes-n-credits between them have a detailed record of my thought processes in doing this. The actual project is just the online calculator part of it. Anyone spotted egregrious errors? Please point them out mercilessly. **** OK, start with the marathon. As usual we have decimals, so multiply each score by 10. This gives us: Fictia 20, Hyrule 30, NC 35, Eleuth. 25, NT 10, Uni. 17, PRA 10, Prae. 30, Scevia 20, Humer. 30. Add together and we get - hang on a mo while I grab my calculator because I'm too lazy to work it out by hand despite that taking considerably less time - 227. Good gravy, 227 slots. That rules out the 'variable' method I intended to use. Let's do the 'lists' one instead that I was likely to pick anyway. [Half-hour interlude while I construct the results engine] Comments about why the results engine is made the way it is are inside. OK, test run. NOT working perfectly, I'm getting duplicates. OK, I THINK I've fixed it. And again: Nope. Right, it probably works now. I'm almost positive I know what I did wrong. Watches results tick along, seems to work... Curses, the second time I came third and now I'm second-last! Anyway, scorecard: PRA, Humerland, Hyrule, Universia, New Touleese, Scevia, Praenuntium, Fictia, New Canciona, Eleutheria. Oh, well. Be a good sport. Onto the swimming in formation! We have: Fictia 30, Hyrule 20, NC 25, Eleu. 30, NT 10, Uni. 10, PRA 5, Avac. 10, Haw. 15, Humer 40. (Humerland should do well.) Total: 195 (I have this so I can check the length of the competing countries list makes sense.) Hyrule, Hawboline, Fictia, New Canciona, Humerland, Eleutheria, Avaconia, PRA, Universia, New Touleese. Hyrule's doing well so far... Archery. NT 10, Fictia 20, Hyrule 30, NC 25, Eleu. 30, Uni. 20, PRA 15, Lang. 20, Avac. 10, Omari 10, Hawb. 25, Scevia 20, Humer 40. Total 275 (phew). Results: Hyrule, Omari Robusuta, Humerland, Eleutheria, Fictia, Hawboline, New Canciona, Langoustino, PRA, Universia, Scevia, Avaconia, New Touleese On to fencing! Fictia 20, Hyrule 10, Eleu 20, NC 15, NT 20, Uni 20, PRA 25, Lang. 20, Omari 20, Scevia 10, Humerland 20. =200 Eleutheria, New Touleese, Universia, Omari Robusuta, Fictia, Humerland, New Canciona, Langoustino, PRA, Scevia, Hyrule Hah. Hyrule can't be good at everything, can it now? Do it good to get utterly steamrollered by everyone for once. Sailing. Fictia 30, Hyrule 20, NC 25, Eleu 30, NT 10, Uni 10, PRA 10, Lang. 30, Prae 30, Omari 30, Haw 15, Scevia 20, Humerland 40. Total: 300 Eleutheria, Fictia, Hawboline, Humerland, Omari Robusuta, Hyrule, Praenuntium, New Canciona, PRA, Langoustino, Scevia, Universia, New Touleese Well, well, well. Interesting data, isn't it? Well done Eleutheria. Pole Vaulting: Fictia 10, Hyrule 10, NC 15, Eleu 20, NT 2, Universia 10, PRA 5, Omari 10, Humer 20. (I gave NT a 2 because it did have 0, but that's not fair- it has to have some chance of winning at least.) Total: 102 New Canciona, Humerland, Fictia, Universia, Eleutheria, Hyrule, Omari Robusuta, IGNORE (because I accidentally said I wasn't done when I was), New Touleese, PRA I like that result a lot. I take out top spot, and the next three places are taken by my three closest allies. Half done! Moving onto rock climbing. Fictia 10, Hyrule 30, Eleu 20, NC 15, NT 10, Uni 20, PRA 5, Lang 20, Prae 30, Haw 15, Scevia 10, Humer 40. =225 Universia, Humerland, Hawboline, Scevia, Langoustino, Hyrule, Fictia, Praenuntium, Eleutheria, New Canciona, PRA, New Touleese And onto the Barrel Race, the first of the weirdo events. Fictia 10, Hyrule 10, NC 15, Eleu 20, NT 2, Uni 10, PRA 5, Lang 20, Avac 2. Total: 94 Langoustino, Eleutheria, New Canciona, New Touleese, Hyrule, PRA, Universia, Avaconia, Fictian Empire Gymnastics: [Fifteen-minute pause to dry some dishes] Fictia 10, Hyrule 10, NC 15, Eleu 20, NT 2, Uni 10, PRA 5, Humer 20. Total: 92 Universia, Fictia, PRA, Eleutheria, Humerland, New Canciona, Hyrule, New Touleese That was the last of the regular events. And Now For Something Completely Different (and my personal fave): 100 Metres Standing Still. Fictia 10, Hyrule 10, New Canciona 15, Eleutheria 20, New Touleese 2, Universia 10, PRA 5, Omari Robusuta 10, Humerland 20. Total: 102 [5-minute Drink Grapefruit Cordial And Help Mum With Renovation Project By Holding Things Steady break] Eleutheria, New Canciona, Hyrule, Humerland, Fictia, PRA, New Touleese, Omari Robusuta, Universia Last event I'll need this for! Food fight. Fictia 20, Hyrule 10, NC 20, Eleu 20, NT 20, Uni 20, PRA 25, Avac 20, Omari 20, Haw 15, Humer 20. This should be interesting, given how even things are. Total: 210. Hawboline, Eleutheria, Universia, New Touleese, Avaconia, Omari Robusuta, New Canciona, Fictia, PRA, Humerland, Hyrule And, of course, the button breaking is easy. All I have to do is arrange the scores obtained in order. Simple. No thought engine required.
[continued from instructions] Now to calculate who comes where, by adding up scores of each country competing. So my scoring system will work like this: Last Place ("You Tried") gets zero points. 12: 1 point 11: 2 points 10: 3 points 9: 4 points 8: 5 points 7: 6 points 6: 7 points 5: 8 points 4: 9 points 3: 10 points 2: 11 points 1: 12 points Going through every country systematically. Fictia: 5 (8th), 10 (3rd), 8 (5th), 8 (5th), 11 (2nd), 10 (3rd), 6 (7th), 0 (last), 11 (2nd), 8 (5th), 5 (8th), 12 (1st) = 94 Hyrule: 10 (3rd), 12 (1st), 12 (1st), 0 (last, hah), 7 (6th), hour-long break to make tomato tray bake thing for dinner, 7 (6th), 7 (6th), 8 (5th), 6 (7th), 10 (3rd), 0 (last), 7 (6th) = 86. Lol Hyrule, you were saying you had it in hand and already Fictia's ahead of you. I'm not good at being a good sport, am I? New Canciona: 4 (9th), 9 (4th), 6 (7th), 6 (7th), 5 (8th), 12 (1st), 3 (10th), 10 (3rd), 7 (6th), 11 (2nd), 6 (7th), 11 (2nd) = 90. Good gravy, I managed to beat Hyrule too, because unlike them I never once got beaten by everyone... shut up, shut up. It was randomised and you, Tolkienfan, would do well to remember that. (Still I got 2 gold and 2 silver medals, that's good isn't it...?) Eleutheria: 0 (last), 7 (6th), 9 (4th), 12 (1st), 12 (1st), 8 (5th), 4 (9th), 11 (2nd), 9 (4th), 12 (1st), 11 (2nd), 8 (5th) = 103, the highest so far. What did you expect with 3 gold and 2 silver medals? It's a safe bet Eleutheria makes it into Top 3 overall, and probably First. Well done Eleutheria. New Touleese: 8 (5th), 0 (last), 0 (last), 11 (2nd), 0 (last), 5 (8th), 0 (last), 9 (4th), 0 (last), 6 (7th), 9 (4th), 0 (last) = 48. Oh, dear. Sorry, New Touleese. At least you got one silver medal, so you didn't fail completely. (Is forced by parents to do something off the computer for an hour instead of wasting this beautiful day) Universia: 9 (4th), 4 (9th), 3 (10th), 10 (3rd), 1 (12th), 9 (4th), 12 (1st), 6 (7th), 12 (1st), 0 (last), 10 (3rd), 5 (8th) = 81. Not bad, but still not even in the top three /so far/. PRA: 12 (1st), 5 (8th), 4 (9th), 4 (9th), 0 (last), 2 (11th), 7 (6th), 10 (3rd), 7 (6th), 4 (9th) = 55. Too bad, PRA. Sorry you didn't do better. Should've tried the button breaking. Praenuntium: 6 (7th), 6 (7th), 5 (8th), 10 (3rd) = 27 Scevia: 7 (6th), 2 (11th), 3 (10th), 2 (11th), 9 (4th) = 23 Humerland: 11 (2nd), 8 (5th), 10 (3rd), 7 (6th), 9 (4th), 11 (2nd), 11 (2nd), 8 (5th), 9 (4th), 3 (10th) = 87, which is a respectable score and just what you'd expect of a nation that earned, 3 silver and 1 bronze medal, despite having refrained from entering two events it might have done quite well in. Avaconia: 6 (7th), 1 (12th), 5 (8th), 8 (5th), 6th (7th) = 38 Hawboline: 11 (2nd), 7 (6th), 10 (3rd), 10 (3rd), 12 (1st) = 50. For a new nation that only entered five events, four medals, one of them gold and one silver, is exceptional. Langoustino: 5 (8th), 5 (8th), 8 (5th), 12 (1st) = 30 Omari Robusuta: 11 (2nd), 9 (4th), 8 (5th), 6 (7th), 5 (8th), 7 (6th) = 46 Nilo Gordas: 9 (4th) = 9. Well, what do you expect when you join only one event? IN ORDER, FROM LOWEST TO HIGHEST: Eleutheria: 103 Fictia: 94 New Canciona: 90 Humerland: 87 Hyrule: 86 Universia: 81 PRA: 55 Hawboline: 50 New Touleese: 48 Omari Robusuta: 46 Avaconia: 38 Langoustino: 30 Praenuntium: 27 Scevia: 23 Nilo Gordas: 9 FINAL NOTES: 1) This took a whole lot longer than an hour. More like three and a half, taking out the time I spent on miscellaneous household jobs and constructing the engine in the time between beginning and ending the enterprise. and 2) If you want to use the engine, that's fine. Just give credit. And you don't have to multiply anything by ten if they're all whole numbers to begin with, and it'll go quicker if you don't.