gemcraft and math: survey

Infomal survey: gemcraft ability, and mathmatical ability, is there a correlation?

1. Do you think gemcraft chapter 1 is hard, easy, or just right?
2. Do you think the first epic level in chapter 1 is hard, easy, or just right?
3. Do you think gemcraft chapter 0 is hard, easy, or just right?
4. What is your mathematical ability? (what math are you taking)

easy
easy
just right, especially as it can always be made more difficult by angering etc.
took calculus

about: I used to be completely bewildered by all the people who thought the first epic of chapter 1 was hard. I basically assumed that chapter 1 ability might correlate weakly with math ability, for I made a few calculations to give myself a little extra mana (mana pool spell), but for the most part, I remained unaware of extensive calculations, so I did not suspect a strong one.
in chatper 0, I figured out pretty quickly that the correlation was stronger-I had to make detailed calculations fairly frequently.
However, only when I found out that at least 2/10 of the more vocal experts had/were taken/taking calculus at age 15 did I wonder if there might be an intense correlation.
still, 2/10 is within statistical bounds; hence the survey.

I don’t necessarily mean that learning math will help you play gemcraft, though that’s probably true.
what I was hunting for, was: “do people who struggle with math also tend to struggle with the first epic”, the contrapositive of “Are people who are good at math also good at chapter 1”.
I now have enough evidence for the time being. The data is admittedly skewed too much for formal usage, but I now have a way to perceive how some people could, potentially, struggle with the first epic.

For the time being, I am content.

easy
easy
easy
15 calc 2

how do you like those 2 min responces

easy; glowing frame finish all.
easy; glowing frame finish all.
easy; even though I’m not as good as you guys, except 228 challenge, easy for the most part.

Depends:
MATH 152, 2nd university level math course for calculus.
MACM 150, 2nd university level of discrete math (comp sci logics math).
MATH 260, 3D geometry for computing science degree.

They’re very different things if you haven’t already figured out yet… and they’re all annoyingly hard for me (IE: I’m glad I’m not a math major, but now my masters degree might require more math later :S)

Easy, Glowing frame on all
Just right, but its a joke after that
Just right, at least till you can start super geming
Highschool geometry and algebra

Pretty easy.
Easy.
Pretty easy.
Took calculus in high school. Done calc 2, differential equations, and now calc 3 in college.

i think this survey is going to turn out exactly the way we discussed it fractal

yeah, I’m just looking to confirm that there is a strong correlation between math ability and gemcraft ability, even without using the angering system, which can be hazardous even with math. thing is, chapter 1 doesn’t seem to need numbers.

Most people stating this game is easy in fact consulted guides on gem combos and mana farming methods.
Just because a game mechanic can be abused doesn’t mean the game in itself is easy. All in all, what’s the fun of R/Y comboing every single level ? I personally find it way more enjoyable to look at the available gems, study the coming waves and devise a path of pure gems that weakens the monsters progressively as efficient as possible.

I’d say the game is just right, the boss battles aren’t particularly challenging but some of the game modes will definitely have you play a map multiple times in order to complete it. I can’t really comment on my math level as you can’t opt for individual math courses over, you just get the complete package.

TL;DR: Farming points on a startermap after reading a guide doesn’t make you pro at gemcraft.

Paruza has a good point. People who post in this topic are sure to have seen strategies posted, and while complete morons may not be able to figure them out, the average guy could.
I think you had a good idea in thinking that there is probably a correlation, but it is most likely untestable. This correlation would probably exist in any strategy game, as math, logic, and critical thinking are all closely related.

@Paruza
Actually, I stumbled upon the R/O mana trap technique, and then mana farming technique myself… I only started to look on these forums after I’ve beaten all levels and started pushing > 120 waves on level 78 regularly and ending game early due to excess repetitions. I’m pretty sure Conner and Fractal have similar track history before hand as well. As such, it is not “most” in this case here.

On the other hand, I do agree, that there is quite a large handful of people who looked at the strategies we’ve shared and discussed, and consider themselves pro. But I’d imagine they’re the ones that remained silent and didn’t post a whole lot to expose themselves ;)

Also, one thing to have taken from stats class is that correlation does not imply causation. Just because there’s a strong correlation between math, logics, critical thinking, and gem craft abilities, doesn’t mean so. It may very likely just be that we are all just obsessed with the game, and so we became good at it over time, and knowing math and what nots have nothing to do with it :D

using r/o gems may help you score a billion but scoring into the trillions takes skill, you have to know how much to anger what grade where to put the firepowr and everything, i got 3 full pages of numbers on this game for angering calculations and how much dmg my firepower does

easy
easy
just right

8th grade math pre algrebra

Medium
Medium-Hard
Medium-Hard
Just passed G7 mathamatics

1. Do you think gemcraft chapter 1 is hard, easy, or just right?
2. Do you think the first epic level in chapter 1 is hard, easy, or just right?
3. Do you think gemcraft chapter 0 is hard, easy, or just right?
4. What is your mathematical ability? (what math are you taking)

1. Incredibly easy, even more so now that I’ve played GC0 extensively. I went back to replay GC1 and mauled the entire thing in a few hours.
2. Easy.
3. Closer to easy than just right, but there is some ‘just right’ in there, mainly due to angering. (I.E., choose your difficulty)
4. Honors math in high school a million years ago, back in school now, taking prob and stat. I would say my fundamental grasp of the type of mathematics that apply to GC0 is pretty solid.

1. just right
2.epic level first is just right
3. Gemcraft 0:
hard until you get enough points for skills, which is fairly easy to do.
Math level: Honors, precalculus. This seems more of a strategy than mathematics, especially due to unclear strengths and weaknesses (in most cases)

my first time playing gemcraft was about the time GC0 came out. after completing the first chapter i went on with the second and found it fairly hard at the beginning. i also did not use a guide and just played without trying to calculate anything, so:

1: easy
took me only a few levels to get how to play the game, tried various tactics and almost all of them worked; i’ve never been stuck at any point in the game
2: just right
one of the few levels i did not win the first time i tried them; wasn’t prepared for the guardian and it killed me; won the second time; all epic levels after that were just way too easy
3: something between just right and hard
was stuck when i used pure gem tactics but after a few levels and tries it worked out; the game also gets a lot easier over time (never used super gems)
4: above average, but surely not a genius

@ConnerC “using r/o gems may help you score a billion but scoring into the trillions takes skill” is a matter of how you see skill… having all the neccessary numbers (and the time :D) even someone like me who isn’t addicted to GC will be able to score a trillion points after a few tries, just being fast enough is the hardest part, i think…

well thers brute force, and old favorite where you get some gems to millions of firepower

however thers more than that

i took out a wave totaling 1.2 TRILLION hp, thats 1,200,000,000,000 hp with a single trap at 50k trap dmg

thats a litttle bit more strategy and skill than brute force, 1t isnt too bad me and much are curently putting out brains together to score 1 quadrillion, my best bet so far is the levels with leaked giants on beyond corruption, super anger 4 twin waves and get them overlapping, triple flash them, hit the slower gems hard and stand teh whole board nearly still, wait a few hundred waves, get 1k+ multiplier then put down the artillery, id say use a gem transmute shrine to turn 35 pure 100ks into 35 pure limes at 300k with the gem transmute shrine using grade 20s, do the same turning into red, then have the 2 prue 300ks fuze into a 500-550k with the dual bonus added it.

you now have 35 good traps/towers(depending if thers more or less than 20 monst/space) at 500k+, nearing 20m firepower u let loose on those 4000 giants who just went from 1q hp a piece to 1b hp a piece, after 100 waves they should be nice and ready to pop all at once(these 100 waves can take place during the mana pool building, assuming teh anger drops from 60-90 and the building happens from 90-150 then this happens from 150-250, by 300(not 250 cuz firepower will be working on the other waves besides giants, also you may not be at wave 300 bc but its a hypothetical time unit even if thers about 230 wavs) going say 4(shorter path but tower mana is good) mult per wave starting at wave 20 then by 300 you could reach abuot 1200 mult, take the x 1.4 thats 1.7kish. assume u angered the giants with grade 28 20s each to 1q hp thats 4495x scoreish with base of 40k this is about 200m per, 4k mosnters at 200m x 1.7k is 3400b per kill at 3k monsters then boom you got it, now hour wise lets say the 84 grade 20s for anger(if gameinabottle made buyable 10s this would be amazing) is 80ish fast hours, not munch will be troubled on this so he may have to anger 4 waves with 18s/19s rather than 3 with 20s its just as good but messier where my comp has more lag so i cant afford it, speedhack helps like i said but the mana pooling can be done overnight, its about 100 hours in total doing 200 pools per our(1 per 18 seconds) just anger the next 10/11 waves for cannon fodder then sleep well, the firepower making pure 100ks takes about….well lets see buying 36 6s, then transmuting 1 color for about 25 of them, 25 at 60 per is abuot 1500, a whole pack of this takes say 15 seconds, now 60 packs is 15 mins per 100k if ur realy fast but lets cut it to a half hour per 100k, so making 70 is 35 hours, making 2 pure 20s is 4 hours lets say

this brings us to 219 hours, count in 6 horus for building a good starting path of mana farm and mana towers(half that on lvl id 74 but thers only 1 flash, 73 has no giants but 3 flashes and rol but were still looking for the perfect path on armorgames so well let you konw)

assuming you play 5 hours, sleep 9 while u mana or whatever, this could be 3 weeks possibly

as for you dont use math, well the angering forumla is sorta basic where grade is 20, number of times angered u divide by is n, well if you look at it with a bit of calc 2 this is just a telescoping infinite sum, plug in 20 times angered lets say, and using my foumrla(n+1 x n+2 x n+3)/6 is the grade 20 forumla i made using this, thats hwo i got 4495x score using 28 grade 20s

if you say now hold on 28 grade 20s on a twin wave, u wont kill that in your lifetime, well your freind conner knows a way to do 1 quadrillion damage in 10 seconds, yup 1,000,000,000,000,000 damge in 10 seconds hehe now im not sure if you call that strategy, brute force, a secret, or armageddon but its real nice plan

of course, all of this needs a lot of planning and also a lot of maths… and even more, there surely aren’t many who could pull this off (even if they wanted and had the time), but still i think the most important part is determination and patience… well, and a good computer ^^

anyways, i wish you good luck, especially regarding your pc’s stability :P

quite an easy game but im just too board to spent 72+howers on a badge

um 8th grade math?(above that but thats what i took)