A few feature requests and improvements

[Tiger21820]

I have a few features and improvements for this extension:

Feature 1, which might probably not be integrated into the extension itself if taken into consideration, but would be nice to have access to one way or another:
The ability to create your own puzzle pack easily! I've actually made my own puzzles by editing the xml files by hand and installed them onto my forum, but it's very tricky and takes a VERY long time to do it manually (Especially a Samurai or Ninja puzzle), and I have NO idea what you did to create your puzzle packs, so if there was an easy way for people to generate xml files of their own puzzles using your mot formats, please make that public! (Also, let me know if you would like to see these puzzles!)

Feature 2: Choosing any installed unsolved puzzle from a list, rather than, or in addition to the extension picking one randomly, since there are nearly 5000 puzzles, and finding your own packs takes a long time unless you modify the sql database!

Feature 3: Abandoning an already started puzzle, or suspending an already started puzzle to solve at a later time, and choosing a different puzzle without having to suffer a negative point penalty (which requires deleting the entry row from the phpbb_mot_sudoku_games table manually) by having to solve a puzzle through digit purchases! This could be done by allowing multiple rows of the same puzzle type by the same user, and the user being able to switch between any of those from a list without any form of a point penalty!

Feature 4: If feature request 2 is accepted, then another feature that can be added provided that solved puzzles are not replayable in the current version is that each solved puzzle has a top score that a user can try to beat if that puzzle was solved with penalties, and since each puzzle has a 'perfect score' as defined by the current score settings, any improved score from any replayed puzzle can be added to a user's overall total score!

An example for this proposed feature:
Classic Puzzle ID 192 (Which could be pack 14, game 3) has a maximum score of 620 points with what the point settings could be configured with, but was solved with a penalty of -192 points resulting in a score of 428 being added to your overall total score and that score being saved to that specific user and puzzle ID as 428 out of 620, and solving it again with no penalties would update that puzzle's high score to 620, and add 192 points to the overall score rather than 620 points!

I can also post my puzzles, and if you want to add these to the site, you're free to do so!

[Mike-on-Tour]

Thanks for your suggestions.

I am planning on implementing a Sudoku puzzle generator here, right now I do have a working solution for Classic Sudoku puzzles but developing it further into a generator for Samurai and Ninja puzzles isn't at the moment something I would call a piece of cake. So please be patient, something will be available in the future.
To answer your question how I managed to create the existing game packs: I transferred them from the puzzles for a former Sudoku Mod which worked in phpBB 3.0.x but has not been rewritten as an extension for newer versions of phpBB - at least not to my knowledge.

Picking a specific puzzle should be feasible, perhaps with a switch in the ACP to enable the admin to choose how their members will be presented with new puzzles.

Abandoning an unsolved puzzle should be feasible, too although this seems to be a little bit harder to code, I will definitly look into this.

Right now I have no idea whether and how your proposed feature #4 might be accomplished, it sounds interesting though.

In any case I want to complete the puzzle generator first and after that (and some other ideas I have for Usermap) I will look into your suggestions #2 and 3.

Thanks for your puzzles, since you've posted them here they already are available to the public.

[Tiger21820]

Hey, no problem! Always happy to contribute to a great extension! You do what you gotta do!
Anyway, thanks for the reply! Also, thanks for adding the puzzles!

[Mike-on-Tour]

You are very welcome

[Tiger21820]

I have a quick question: What happened to Sudoku packs 141 to 149? They don't seem to be around... Are you working on those, or have they just been lost to time? Just curious!

[Mike-on-Tour]

I left them open to future Samurai Packs.

[Tiger21820]

So they're reserved for future use? I started my set of packs at 200 to 300, the Brain Age (The DS Games, I'm recreating the sudoku puzzles from Brain Age and Brain Age 2 to use for the extension) packs are 301 to 306 leaving 307 to 349 unassigned, and 350-400 for additional packs! 350 and 351 are bizarre packs!

[Tiger21820]

I came up with another idea you could add in a future release:

I think a better idea than what I originally suggested for my 4th suggestion on my first post is to add a leaderboard (once sudoku puzzle selection is added) for each of the different sudoku puzzles that are currently installed with their best scores they solved it with!

An example of the structure for a database table could go like this (It's similar to how the extension handles Hall of Fame entries):
Name of the table: phpbb_mot_sudoku_leaderboard

A row:
Leaderboard ID (lb_id) (one for each user per game type per game ID)
User ID (user_id)
Game type (game_type, could be c, s, or n)
Game ID (game_id)
Score (points)

I'll throw this out there for a future addition!

[Mike-on-Tour]

I noted that and will review it when I do the proposed changes.

[Tiger21820]

Thank you very much!