Geroge's Original Base Proposal


Hi Frank!

I heard you are interested in re-doing the BASE for D2SG, and I
agree this is long overdue.  Here I describe a "scientific" technique
I have devised for ranking the levels in the SG sense.

Method: I used the current best time for the level in the COMPET-N
competition.  Granted this time is for UV rather than HMP, but I will
be comparing these best times with each other, and also with the par.
It is rather remarkable that every single level has been completed in UV
in under 50% of the par time (except 29)!!

Now, for each level I calculate the percentage of the par that the
best COMPET-N time is, and rank the levels according to this.
In the table below, this is the column "%Par Rank".  Second, it seems
to me that the longer overall that a level takes the harder it is
as there is more chance to be killed.  So I also cumpute a rank based
on the best COMPET-N time itself, called "Length Rank".  In general,
these two ranks are usually not too different.  I add the ranks together
to give the "Overall Score", a higher number meaning the level is
harder to do under par.

The table enclosed below shows the results.  The final task is dividing the
ranking into groups.  Rather than search for gaps in the Overall Score 
I used my intuition to guide me.  The final think I did was move
two maps by one overall ranking based on my intuition, Map30 was moved
from easiest to easy, and map07 was moved down from hard to medium.

The overall ranking I come up with is this:

Easiest: 01 03 08 15 16 18 27 28
Easy:    04 05 10 20 21 25 30 31 32
Medium:  06 07 11 12 19 23 26
Hard:    02 09 13 14 17 22 24
Hardest: 29

Level 29 appears considerably harder than the rest.  It has actually
never been recorded by a person finishing a D2SG exam (although probably
this is just a coincidence).  I have not tried it myself.  Another surprise
is 02, which has moved from "Easiest" in the old ranking system to "hard".
Because of it's old ranking, no D2SG has ever done this level either but if
you try it I think you will agree it is pretty hard to do in under 1:30.

Other levels are greatly demoted by the new system, 08 16 18 27 28 and 30
have all moved from "hard" to "easiest" or "easy"!  If you look at
the .txt files of D2SG, you will find that they agree with this
(at least all I've looked at).

Comments??  Too many "easiest" levels??  My overall divisions could be
moved around quite a bit ...  Also, one could move some more levels up
or down a notch based on individual arguments.

-George




THE MASTER TABLE:

                              Par   UV   Best  Under        Length %Par Overall
Map Name                Par   Sec   Best  Sec  Sec   %Par   Rank  Rank  Score
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01 Entryways            0:30   30   0:06    6   24  20.00%    1    5      6
18 The Courtyard        2:30   150  0:25   25  125  16.67%    3    3      6
30 Icon of Sin          3:00   180  0:32   32  148  17.78%    7    4     11
03 The Gantlet          2:00   120  0:30   30   90  25.00%    4   10     14
28 The Spirit World     7:00   420  0:50   50  370  11.90%   14    1     15
08 Tricks and Traps     2:00   120  0:31   31   89  25.83%    6   11     17
15 The Industrial Zone  3:30   210  0:44   44  166  20.95%   12    6     18
16 Suburbs              2:30   150  0:36   36  114  24.00%    9    9     18
27 Monster Condo        5:30   330  0:54   54  276  16.36%   17    2     19
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05 The Waste Tunnels    1:30   90   0:31   31   59  34.44%    5   15     20
31 Wolfenstein          2:00   120  0:33   33   87  27.50%    8   13     21
21 Nirvana              4:00   240  0:53   53  187  22.08%   15    7     22
20 Gotcha!              2:30   150  0:41   41  109  27.33%   11   12     23
32 Grosse               0:30   30   0:14   14   16  46.67%    2   27     29
04 The Focus            2:00   120  0:48   48   72  40.00%   13   21     34
10 Refueling Base       1:30   90   0:40   40   50  44.44%   10   24     34
25 Bloodfalls           2:30   150  0:54   54   96  36.00%   16   18     34
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26 The Abandoned Mines  5:00   300  1:11   71  229  23.67%   27   8      35
12 The Factory          2:30   150  0:55   55   95  36.67%   18   19     37
11 'O' Of Destruction   3:30   210  1:10   70  140  33.33%   26   14     40
23 Barrels O Fun        3:00   180  1:04   64  116  35.56%   23   17     40
06 The Crusher          2:30   150  1:02   62   88  41.33%   21   22     43
19 The Citadel          3:30   210  1:13   73  137  34.76%   28   16     44
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 The Catacombs        2:30   150  1:02   62   88  41.33%   22   23     45
07 Dead Simple          2:00   120  0:59   59   61  49.17%   20   29     49
14 The Inmost Dens      2:30   150  1:08   68   82  45.33%   24   25     49
02 Underhalls           1:30   90   0:57   57   33  63.33%   19   31     50
09 The Pit              4:30   270  1:43  103  167  38.15%   30   20     50
24 The Chasm            2:30   150  1:08   68   82  45.33%   25   26     51
13 Downtown             2:30   150  1:15   75   75  50.00%   29   30     59
17 Tenements            7:00   420  3:26  206  214  49.05%   31   28     59
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29 The Living End       5:00   300  3:34  214   86  71.33%   32   32     64



Written by Mike Pratt on 1996 08 11. Footer, and nothing else, edited by fms. Online on the DHT site since 1996 08 14.