The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Commenting here so people know that Round 3 is in effect and this thread appears on the main forum preview page...

So many good options for extrapolation....

I think I have the correct way of extrapolating, but I'm not sure how far to extrapolate.

Dang, I might have actually gotten this right. I hope no one else got it first.

Second clue: Use a ruler.

+250 points if you get the answer correct before I issue the next clue.
+100 points for the first correct answer.

Now I'm even more confident my answer was right!

These are my favorite rounds for scoring, btw...

more points for getting it right with fewer clues... but future clues make you second guess your original answer and you can lose all those points if you change.

keep up the good work, ian

Thanks. I've indicated before that the big challenge for me is to "calibrate" the difficulty of the problems. The problems can't be so easy that everybody gets it right, but not so hard that nobody does.

Next clue: NaCl

+200 points if you get the answer correct.
+99 points for the first correct answer.

Ahh... 99 points so maybe the future runner-up will be 2nd because of just ONE point...
I like the way you keep things interesting.

damnit... sent in my final guess

Round closes in 8 hours.

Lisa was the first to answer correctly with "Salzburg" after the third clue. Gerund, Cheese, and Methodical weren't far behind.

Gerund had a really good guess after the second clue - Ingolstadt. Pull out a straightedge and map, and you'll see that Frankfurt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Ingolstadt are just about perfectly collinear, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber sits almost in the middle. I simply overlooked Ingolstadt as a possible answer when deriving this problem. Gerund gets an extra point for outsmarting me.

Here are the points for this round:
Gerund - 201
Cheese - 200
Methodical - 200
Lisa - 299

Here are the overall standings:
Phi - 500
Gerund - 801
Cheese - 600
Methodical - 600
Aurel - 200
Lisa - 399

Good thing you came with Clue #3. The prominent mathematicians whose work is cited for extrapolation all studied in Berlin, and it's also a city where Germany's "ruler" might reside.

Dang, I thought it was Munich. It seemed to line up good with the others.

I, too, had Munich until the final clue.

I don't feel so bad now. Although I don't really get that last clue.

NaCl is the chemical formula for salt. Salz (as in Salzburg) is the German translation of salt.

you can tell that no one had it until the final clue... as someone got 99 points. haha

When first I came up with this problem, I thought that most people would pick Munich, and that 1 or 2 would go out on a limb and pick Salzburg. I was sort of right - Gerund picked Ingolstadt, and Cheese *almost* picked Salzburg after clue 2. As I said, the challenge in creating these problems is calibrating them for the right level of difficulty.

stabguy needed to find a way to infiltrate the Templar stronghold of Hohensalzburg Castle,
situated atop the Festungsberg mountain in Salzburg. Fortunately there was an unguarded gap in the perimeter wall.

Double McStab with Cheese posted a map above of the shortest driving route from Rothenburg to Salzburg. We actually took this route instead, partially to avoid Friday afternoon traffic on the Autobahn around Munich but mostly to stop at Ulm and visit the Ulm Minster. It's still the tallest church in the world and was actually the tallest building in the world from 1890 until 1901. I didn't even try to get an exterior photo because you need both a good lens and vantage point to capture the whole thing. Here's a professional photo.

Salzburg was definitely a highlight of the trip. It helped that we stayed at the famous Hotel Goldener Hirsch which is located right in old town among the top attractions. Unfortunately I left my camera in valet parking the first day and didn't get any pictures. We spent part of the day in Mozart's birthplace where his childhood violin is on display along with many other memorabilia from his life. The next day the Salzburg Marathon was held, so many of the downtown streets were closed. We spent the day clowning around at the Museum of Natural History and Technology.

Please tell me there were plenty of hay carts near the base of the church ... for safety reasons.