7166137's blog: "Treasure Hunts"

I have been successful with completing all the big achievements for both the 2017 Valentines Candy Hearts and Love Potion, and 2017 Mardi Gras Beads and Coins. Previously there has bee a similar thing for Christmas Naughy or Nice 2016 and Halloween Trick or Treat 2016 and 2015. This will give some basic information they all have in common, with ideas how more people can complete more achievements the next time. St. Patricks Day could have a search for the end of the rainbow with the gift being a Leprachaun Hat and the rare bling being a lucky Shamrock.  Easter could have a mashmallow chick as a gift and an Easter Egg as the rare bling. Independence Day could have have a firecracker as a gift, and a Liberty Bell as the rare bling. These are just thoughts I came up with thinking on my own.

For each set of achievements, they are randomly placed on the achievements page, so I'll sort them out here.

Receive gifts, receive nothing, 1, 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 10,000. Twelve achievements
Receive rare bling. 1, 3, 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 10,000. Seven achievements
Your profile gives gifts, gives nothings, 1, 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 10,000. Twelve achievements
Your profile gives rare blings. 1, 3, 10, 100, 500, 1000 and 10,000. Seven achievements.

Total possible: 38 Achievemeents

Most users should be able to get to the 10 point for receiving gifts and nothings with very little effort. To get to 100 each, would only take about 200 to 250 profiles and by this point, most people should have their first rare bling. Some would get lucky and get two or more, others would not have their first one.

Gettting to the 500 each gifts and nothings, people should have to hit no less than 1100 profiles and by average, should have at least 3 and most people would have 5. 
I think that 1000 each of the gifts and nothings (12 achievements) and 10 rare (3 achievements), should be a reasonable goal for most people. That's about 2200 profiles, maybe a few more to get the 10th rare bling, but some would get the 10 early of course.

Since the Valentines and Mardi Gras treasure hunts ran 5 full days plus the first "Half" day, I was able to put in the time to hit enough to get the 10,000 each for both and the 100 rare for both. I divided it into SIXES to have a goal for each day. The first day, I would have less time, so as long as I made good progress, I worked it a little more each of the following days. 10,000 each plus 100 rare = 20,100 profiles in six days, or just fewer than 3400 each day. My goal on day one was to at least get the 1000 each plus ten rare, which is about 2100 profiles. That was fifteen achievements, not including the achievements for my profile giving anything.

In order to have a better chance to have my profile give at least 1,000 gifts and nothings, and give at least 10 rare, I was determined to rate and like every profile I went to without exception. I started each day with my morning rounds, people in my ShoutBox, Notifications, then all of those who commented on my profile overnight, which could be as many as 200. Then I did my family and another group I am part of with another 50 or so users. Up to this point, everyone got a profile rate, like and comment, because these are the ones who are the most likely to come to my page daily.

I then got the top 1000 guys and girls. That alone is 2000 of the 3400 pages, but you have to skip any profiles you can't view or have you blocked. I know by this point, why would anyone block a Snuffallufagus? The remainder of the time, I would choose online people using the setting in the Hotness Box, (Block of 42 profiles) and since I'm a guy, I hit up only ladies after this point. Only profiles that you have not liked will show up, unless they start a STAR or Likenado. Eventually I would run out of ladies to get this way, and only those who have me blocked will show.

The other option would be to go to only newbie pages and click only the treasure hunt link and go on to the next. I did that for several during Valentines Day, but I did not for Mardi Gras. Sure, a newbie lady would show up on the online page, but even so, I would still like and rate them all, regardless.

I believe that it's the like and rates that people see coming in that got people to my page. Most days, I was getting more than 1000 likes and not running any powerups, meaning they were all different people liking me. Some days I could have had green name. Every day, I could have had purple name. One day I was the Number 1 Most active, I had rated and liked more than 4600 profiles.

To do the math for what I think the average user should be able to accomplish. Receive 1000 gifts and 1000 nothings, and at least TEN rare bling, With perfect averages, that would take 2010 profile hits in six days, which is 340 per day. The average person should have no problem doing at least this many each day, and they can decide to try on the first day to do 2100 to get these achevements, then decide if they want to venture beyond to the 10,000 and 100 rare, which only I have completed for the past two. 

So, for the Mardi Gras Treasure Hunts, I got both 10,000 received, 12 achievements, 100 rare bling received, 4 achievements each, my profile gave both 1000, 10 achievements, and my profile gave 10 rare bling, 3 achievements. Grand total 29 of 38. 

How I think they program this stuff

I try to put myself into the seat of a programmer. How could I program this so that overall the GIFT and NO GIFT are 50/50 and the rare bling is one for every 200. The server that handles this receives thousands of "hits" every second. Each time it gives out one of three things. I would add a "counter" that would increment by ONE each time. If the counter is even, a gift is given, if it's odd, a NOTHING is given. When the counter equals 200, a rare bling is given, and reset back to zero to start over. This can explain how some times I went more than 1500 between blings, or I got two or three in a very short period of time. A friend I won't name hit a lot of profiles, clicked the Treasure Hunt on every page, and got the 100 rare bling achievements, with about 7300 of 10,000 gifts and nothings. This was well above average, and some will get it like that. For myself, I was close to 1 every 200 until I got to 97. I had about 9700 gifts and nothings. It took about 600 to complete both 10,000 achievements, a total of more than 20,000 profiles. I didn't count beyond that point, but I had to get about 1500 more to get the last three blings.
This method would make writing the code for the next treasure hunt only need the creating of the images for every item involved, and a few substitutions so it's probably already set to run for St. Patrick's Day. If this one is scheduled like the past two, keep your eyes open at Noon Fubar time on March 12th.