The ongoing question of 'bots'

I haven't been reading the Discussion Board for quite some time so I don't know if this subject has come up recently, but I just had a real world explanation of this idea that people who can solve a game in 36 seconds must be somehow 'cheating.' I used to play Free Cell on my PC with a touch screen and would regularly get the highest score, sometimes logging a time of less than 50 seconds. I even beat Bonnie Bonz on occasion. Well, my PC recently died and I had to begin playing on my MacBook with a touchpad. Now I never get the highest score. Not even close. Even if there are only three players. For me it's not about winning, so I keep playing, but as far as my real world experience goes, the 'magic' is not in bots but in playing on a machine with a touch screen. Once you have to use either a trackpad or a mouse, your time will never be as fast, no matter how good a player you are or how you work the super moves. It may be different for others, but that's how it worked out for me.

Comments

  • jimjim REGISTERED, ADMINISTRATORS

    Your theory that the secret to speed on Green Felt is a touch screen seem correct to me. All the demonstration videos in the F.A.Q are on a touch screen. I suspect you need something bigger than a phone as well.

  • fcnewuserfcnewuser REGISTERED
    edited November 2021 108.6.24.7

    I got 9 seconds with a mouse on game 2121774882. There was absolutely no strategy or intelligence involved. I clicked the bases of the piles, and if none of the piles responded to super moves, I clicked cards in the free cells to move them back. I probably only saw 7 cards. I tried 10 tableaus before finding this game that this strategy worked on. I could have clicked twice as fast if I took it seriously. I'm also a relatively new player, having started FreeCell Oct 28, and played ~15 games of Double FreeCell before that, and about 7 hours of FreeCell in total. So maybe FreeCell is easier than everyone thinks?

    In regular games, without using this absurd strategy that usually fails, I get 30-60 sec on 40% of levels, and 60 sec - 5 minutes on another 40%. I'm usually not the first place, but I've only noticed one player faster than me on average (he takes about half Bonnie's time). I only look at cards when I get stuck, and at least half my moves come about because a super move discovered them for me. A significant part of my play is clicking blindly before I can see what is going on. I would not classify my play as intelligent or well-practiced.

  • Hey Monzie,

    I play on a 2015 MacBook Pro. I do best when i play soberish :)
    BonnieBonz

  • @Bonz2580, imagine what you could do with a touch screen!

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