New Badge Idea: Geocaching Territory

Question

I'd love a new badge that evaluates your geocaching territory, based on this challenge checker: https://project-gc.com/Challenges//47926

Is this possible?

Comments

What does the challenge checker actually check for? From a look at the tag am I right that it is number of regions x km in diameter at least y km apart?

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It checks the area covered when you connect all your geocaches that are at most 5km apart.

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A region is displayed, when it is at least is 100km^2 large

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Is there a challenge cache that uses this checker?

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Checker is:

Cache chains(by arisoft) 

Number of tags: 28

Find the widest area, longest perimeter or distance between endpoints of chains of linked caches.

"filter":{} Generic GetFinds filter, optional
"exclude":gccode[s] Excluded caches, optional, default is gccode
"unit":"km" Unit name for measurements and parameters
"unitsize":1000.0 Unit size, meters (one mile is 1609.344 meters)
"separation":5 Maximum allowed separation between links (longer distance takes more time)
"required":150 Minimum distance between farthest caches to pass challenge
"displayed":50 Minimum size for additional chains on map (may be disabled using a huge number)
"scantime":20 Time-out seconds for polygon area scanning (qualifying), optional, default max-15
"routetime":28 Time-out seconds for the shortest route calculating, optional, default max-10
"property":"area" Type of the challenge: "distance" (default), "area" or "perimeter"
"polygon":"concave" Type of area polygon. "convex" (default) or "concave"

Keywords: chain trail route area perimeter

Edit/Tag scriptView source

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As far as I know the challenge cache was not accepted.

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I think this is nice idea for statistics, but not sure how good it would work for badges as it is quite hard to gasp, improve and extend without a nice graphical representation. In far end, it could make cachers create more meaningless caches on non-interesting places (read power trails) just to get this one badge or statistics bumped ...

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It's my idea from the start, and Arisoft made the checker-code. I didn't manage to make it fast enough myself.

There are a few Challenges published using a similar concept, but it's about getting a long distance with caches with a max distance in between then. For example: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7HAHJ_challenge-my-trail-50020-km

There are plenty of screenshots in the description and logs showing how it works. You can also run the checker with my name, I have a fairly long trail.

I also had a plan to use the concept for logging a big enough area in region Skåne in Sweden. But reviewers and HQ disagreed. I still don't think it broke any rule, but they didn't like it for some reason. They believed it was "self defined polygons", I would say it definitely wasn't.

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Oh My - Took a minute to understand what this is, but I am now probably headed into a very dark alley, this is exactly the kind of challenge I love.

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I have been trying to add the output from this checker to a virtual-gps using the map tool to highlight then add highlighted cache functionality... But it is not working.

I have done this with many other checkers that output a map - particularly 360 challenges...

Is something different about this checker? My idea was to create a virtual gps of all the edge caches, then export to csv and paste all the point coordinates into a KML creator with a 5 KM radius and then upload those edge points to Google Earth that will show caches with 5KM that will extend my territory and to identify areas where I cannot push any further at this time...

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@diorex There is definitely something weird, and this has been working before. But it's not the code of the challenge checker causing it. All it's doing is asking Project-GC to create a map with a list of geocaches.

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Found the issue, seems like it has never worked for Challenge checkers actually. The fix will be released next week.

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An update - I can now add individual caches to the VGPS from the results pages, but I cannot use the select tool, draw a circle around them and then add all of them in one shot... I use this method to build lots of VGPS lists - odd that it would work on other maps but not this one...

Answer 1

As the inventor of the idea behind that checker script I would love it. But I believe there are two issues:

1. It's a bit too resource heavy to calculate.
2. It would be hard to explain and/or show a representation of.

Personally I would prefer a badge based on the trail concept described in this Challenge: https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC7HAHJ_challenge-my-trail-50020-km

But it's the same there, it's a bit too resource heavy to actually use on a more global scale. Also, it would be very hard to define reasonable parameters for the badge (max distance between finds).

Comments

I think this is a great challenge for seasoned cachers - few have concentrated on something like this, but it is a get out and explore some new areas type of challenge.

I cant comment on the resources required, but I would say that you have the opportunity to standardize the data since the only people really seeing it at this point are in the forums.

I played around with a number of different checkers and distances and found that I liked these the best:

5KM perimeter encircling an area - far enough apart that it does not require a huge cache density outside of cities, but close enough that it just does not build on its own unless you are a prolific cacher.

20KM chains - again not so close that highways would be impossible to chain, but also far enough that it would be a good road trip type challenge to cache your way to a destination.

I have been actively planning on extending both of these challenges since I learned about them.

If you were to add them under the tools section and standardize the distances (as opposed to allowing other checker writers to introduce many variations - which is a nightmare) I think this would catch on with many cachers as a new way to explore their home area.