UNDERSTANDING THE FORMULAS OF THE SCORING & GAME SPECIFICATIONS
The scoring system of every game and card set are specifically formulated
Although every game is skill based and all of them use sorting, math, speed, logic, deductive reasoning, continuity and memory management to some degree or another, there are practical strategies to obtaining a higher score, fewer moves and faster times. Those strategies require knowing, studying and maximizing the game's specifications and scoring systems to make highly efficient moves in order to top the leaderboard or win in a multiplayer game competition.
Our scoring systems were specifically designed to penalize a player for wasted moves and time while using strategies with extra moves that require extra time to unlock cards and win. Each pathway requires a certain level of strategy to identify when to employ them and when to restrain yourself.
Our scoring system is also designed to award proportional bonuses for winning a game and in the case of "perfect games", double bonuses on the rare occasions they occur.
In order to be fully empowered in every game, you need to be aware all of these parameters to understand it, when teaching the games to others in educational settings as well as in competitions.
We have published the full Scoring and Game Specifications for each game format you are going to teach, play or compete with to make sure you are fully empowered.
If you haven't been there yet, please click these two links below to jump to the full specifications on every game. They can also be found in the sidebar navigational menus under Scoring & Statistics or these direct links below
GAME SCORING CALCULATIONS
The number of cards in a game and the bonuses for winning them do not make up the final score.
Let's examine some of the tips and tricks that can help you obtain the highest possible scores and beat your competitors or get beaten by them if you don't employ them.
The key is to make the most efficient decisions in the games. Collectively there are four multiplying factors that make up a final game score. They are
Total number of cards in a game as detailed in the Game Specifications
Total number of moves made in a game as detailed in the Scoring Specifications
Total time to complete a game as limited in Multiplayer games
Total number of White Cards™ that you move into the Any White Card™ foundation
The values for all movements, all cards, all bonuses are found in the Scoring Section and are quintessential to be taught before playing to educate the student on the value or penalties associated with their decisions be it too fast to make a mistake they have to undo or too slow trying to overthink it and losing points in time deductions.
This article provides a quick overview of Klondike Draw 3. Take a look below at the game and scoring specifications for Klondike Draw 3 games to do some quick math review how they multiple themselves out.
GAME SPECIFICATIONS
The number of cards in a game are only one component in your final game score!
SCORING SPECIFICATIONS
The value of each card, second spent and number of card movements are a second factor in your final secore.
MAXIMUM TIME LIMITS AND GAME ENDING RULES FOR MULTIPLAYER GAMES
*Each player must complete their game before their scores are compared & the player with the highest score is the winner
All game winners in a Multiplayer Game Center competition game get a double score BONUS posted to their Game Center accounts and their leaderboards!
THE COMBINED EFFECT OF KNOWLEDGE, STRATEGY AND SKILL
As you can see, there a multitude of moving parts that make up the overall game.
It may feel a bit confusing at first, but its not, it's only a deluge of information all at once because you are see the master chats of all games, all card sets, all time limits and all values across the entire spectrum.
If you narrow it down to just one game, it's easy to understand and then just apply it to each one you want to master.
Looking at the tabletop of Klondike we see all of the scoring components
TABLETOP SCORING COMPONENTS
Every Card starts in the stock, is moved to the waste at least once, then all White Cards™ are moved to the Any White Card™ foundation, all color cards are ultimately moved to their foundations.
What becomes a complex math model is how many cards go direct to the foundation? How many cards go directly from the stock the tableaus, tableau to tableau, tableau to foundation or back and forth between any of them, especially in an undo situation where you have to reverse an enormous amount of cards to access one that is blocking you. When all of this is factored in, your scores can have a wild range based on the shuffle in which cards end up in the stock, which cards end up in the tableaus, what order they are in and which tableau they are in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7.
More importantly all of these become exponentially move complex as you move to the 16, 19, 22 & 25 card sets. What these math models and formulas do, and do extremely well, is reward skill and strategy on a thought by thought and execution by execution basis that takes skill based gaming to an entirely new level that's never been seen before in a card game because it was never possible before a deck of Full Color® Cards was invented.
| KLONDIKE DRAW 3 • 13 | LEVEL 1 |
LEVEL 2 |
| EVENT | POINTS |
POINTS |
| Points / Second of Time | -5 |
-5 |
| Stock to Waste | -1 |
-1 |
| Waste to Stock | -1 |
N/A |
| Stock to Tableau | -2 |
-2 |
| Stock to Foundation | 100 |
100 |
| Tableau to Tableau | -3 |
-3 |
| Tableau to Waste | -5 |
N/A |
| Tableau to Foundation | 100 |
100 |
| Foundation to Tableau | -110 |
-110 |
| Foundation to Waste | 110 |
N/A |
| Bonus for Win | 50 |
50 |
CARDS IN A GAME |
IF AVG. MOVES = |
IF AVG. TIME SECONDS = |
65 |
141 |
108 |
TOTAL POINTS |
-AVG POINTS |
-AVG POINTS |
6,500 |
-282 |
-540 |
Every game has a "point per event" deduction. The loss of -5 points per second of time is universal. A player doesn't have to memorize the exact value of every point event across every one of them, they just need to be conscious of the fact that every unnecessary move they have to take back costs them points in both directions, in the "do and undo" of the event. This is the value of the "no undo" games, it truly slows a player down and forces them to truly apply logic and deductive reasoning because there is no coming back in that game. Its restrictions are oddly enough the greatest training grounds if you want to be a competitive player!
Most people just play for fun and they love to experiment. So it's really about your style of play and happiness that matters most! But if your goal is to be the best you can be, our goal is to help you understand the subtle nuances to everything so you can!
What the player has to do strategically, is make quick assessments, pay close attention to the deal make efficient decisions along the way.
There are very specific tips and tricks for each and every game format that you can employ in order to make fewer moves to obtain higher scores, while the polar opposite can also turn out to be true and work against you if you don't make extra moves because you can't solve the game otherwise.
KLONDIKE 1/3 & PYRAMID
These events happen in cycling through stock piles in games like Klondike and Pyramid to get a necessary card that is trapped in a draw three or a set of cards to line up in Pyramid to get all cards removed from both the tabletop and the stock pile and get double bonuses for a Perfect Pyramid.
SPIDER 1, 2 & 4
There are times in Spider games where you want to stack cards and keep things in order when it's a waste of time because a few cards are holding you up and it's more efficient to just deal out another set of cards that will stack up that inherently make you believe that it would be harder to sort, when in fact it will make it easier because the card or cards you need to complete a stack will ultimately reveal themselves and once they do you can sort faster by having the combinations of cards necessary to move a stack and or unlock hidden cards underneath of its high card that is waiting to move.
There are times you move cards back and forth to the foundations and back to a tableau or a free cell simply to unlock a card or string of cards you need to get out of a jam and progress the stacking.
Near the ends of games, excessive stacking or sorting for organization can cost you a move or two or an undo or two and that costs you points and time and time costs you more points, which in a competition, costs you awards, achievements and cash prizes, so you learn to make logical stacking that only unlocks cards above a necessary card to clear off the tabletops. These strategies, once seen, once explained then become self-improving after the awareness. Play enough games and it will start to reveal itself to you!
GOLF
In games of Golf, you can be moving too fast and miss a card and have to undo your movements because you discovered a card hiding in the stock that could create a much better continuous chain with the left over setup for the next card in stock. If you replay the game, you'll know where it is at and can obtain an even higher score because you know what to do or more importantly what not to do the next time, but then that requires memory management under pressure of a ticking clock to recall when and where to do it. Sounds easy until you hit 16, 19, 22 and 25 card sets and you end up with 250 cards scattered across 21 tableaus and then you realize, there is everything from beginner to genius level games of skill and they will most certainly, without any doubt, challenge you until the end of time!
As you can see from above if you study it, there are points assessed for decision you make make.
The combinations are infinite and the possibilities are endless, but the logic, strategies and deductive reasoning are finite. What decisions will you make? Before you draw your conclusions to develope your final strategies of each game, you must learn about the power of the White Card™ and how to harness it. Read about it in the next article in Tips & Tricks.