Different Stations Timed Challenge

[jamesthegill]

While being completely unpolitically correct in the "Mock The Week" challenge thread I had an idea. The challenges we have all involve a strict amount of stations and the ranking being the time all the stations are completed in. Well, why not turn it on its head?

Why not have a certain time limit to do as many stations as possible in? I was thinking along the lines of the Z1 challenge, everyone meeting at one station to have a random starting station drawn, and then having two hours from the drawn starting station to visit as many different stations as possible. Standard rules apply regarding a visit, but to prevent people shuttling back between Leicester Square and Covent Garden, have the final number of stations divided by the number of changes taken on the route.

Any thoughts?

[Sam]

So you'd end up losing out if you had made lots of changes then?

I'm a tad confused

[jamesthegill]

Yeah, it's whether to plan the optimum route with a lot of stations that may lose you points, or hedge your bets, be lazy, and stay on the same train and hope others make changes to lower their average.

I may not have thought this through properly.

[Wanstead]

Yeah, it's whether to plan the optimum route with a lot of stations that may lose you points, or hedge your bets, be lazy, and stay on the same train and hope others make changes to lower their average.

I may not have thought this through properly.

Perhaps not because you simply start at one end of a line with a lot of stations on and just sit on the train to the other end. Easily cover off 50 stations on one of the longer lines with no changes. Then you could do the next best line, and so on, to get best ratio of stations against changes... Er, do you see how this is ultimately the same as an FNC?

[jamesthegill]

Yeah, it's whether to plan the optimum route with a lot of stations that may lose you points, or hedge your bets, be lazy, and stay on the same train and hope others make changes to lower their average.

I may not have thought this through properly.

Perhaps not because you simply start at one end of a line with a lot of stations on and just sit on the train to the other end. Easily cover off 50 stations on one of the longer lines with no changes. Then you could do the next best line, and so on, to get best ratio of stations against changes... Er, do you see how this is ultimately the same as an FNC?

Well, that was where the randomly drawn starting station and the time limit come in. If you're starting centrally and head out to Heathrow then you'll have to come back through stations you've already counted off wasting time.

[Wanstead]

Well, that was where the randomly drawn starting station and the time limit come in. If you're starting centrally and head out to Heathrow then you'll have to come back through stations you've already counted off wasting time.

So you'd therefore want to limit the starting station to Zone 1?

[Root]

This could work, but only with lots of restrictions. Such as:

Only Zones 1 & 2 are involved
The starting station will also be the finishing station and will be drawn randomly
You must visit as many different stations as possible within two hours (I say "different" so you can't just go back and forth on the same line)
If you're not back at the finishing point within the time limit then you suffer a penalty

Or something like that. I'm not sure how fun it'd be though.

[Edgemaster]

Sit on the circle line for the whole time?

Oh.. wait...

[Wanstead]

Sit on the circle line for the whole time?

Oh.. wait...

That'd work. Just change at Edgware Road.

[al]

How about instead of a penalty for changing trains, it is a bonus? That would then act as a disincentive to just sit on a long line. You would need to only count any one individual station just once, however, to prevent the shuttling situation James describes.

[mps247]

This could work, but only with lots of restrictions. Such as:

Only Zones 1 & 2 are involved
The starting station will also be the finishing station and will be drawn randomly
You must visit as many different stations as possible within two hours (I say "different" so you can't just go back and forth on the same line)
If you're not back at the finishing point within the time limit then you suffer a penalty

Or something like that. I'm not sure how fun it'd be though.

This sounds good, although I would argue that the zone restriction should be removed (or at least loosened to zones 1-6) and the starting station should be the finishing point. Perhaps the penalty should be of one station per minute over the time limit.

How about instead of a penalty for changing trains, it is a bonus? That would then act as a disincentive to just sit on a long line. You would need to only count any one individual station just once, however, to prevent the shuttling situation James describes.

Sounds good too. Perhaps an extra bonus if you have to take a bus or run over a kilometre to the next station.

Any plans to try this out? (Of course, once the rules are set in stone.) Sounds like something that could fit quite well into the Tube Olympics.

[jamesthegill]

This is why I wanted to broach it on here first, I knew you'd all rip it to pieces objectively suggest improvements. I like the idea of making the end station the same as the starting one, and also the penalty for not arriving back in time. I should've made it clear to begin with that I meant individual stations

(To return to Matt's off topic ramblings myself, Jack Bynoe, Olli Billiness and my girlfriend at the time once had a picnic on the Circle line to kill time before a gig near Great Portland Street station in a freezing cold February. Before Boris's ban came in, we got some grub and alcohol from the Tesco by GPS and sat on the tube, stopping at Liverpool Street for a wee and more cider, Aldgate because it suddenly terminated there, and Paddington for another pint at the Mad Bishop and Bear.)

[Starkey7]

Sounds good to me. I like the idea of being back at the starting station in time else a penalty. I'm not sure about all these extra bonus points. I reckon that we should keep the rules and scoring as simple as possible.

[tubeguru]

Isn't this how it always works though?

[Edgemaster]

<sigh>

I just don't get this challenge.

Although the Z1 Interchange Challenge is on the cards soon, right? And this'd be pretty much as insane, if everyone goes for the interchange points...