Displayed Word Strength
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I like it a lot. It's most useful for me towards the end of a close game. It's a little game in itself finding the higher scoring words. I think it should simply be renamed 'Score Strength' though to save confusion. It currently implies that the highest scoring move is the smartest move which often isn't the case (tactically, positionally etc). Of course, there are certainly times when it is.
@dan-mitchell, BINGO! As you said: the highest scoring move is not always the best move! How true that is. I learned years ago that this was a game of strategy, not a battle of vocabularies. Hence, sometimes, i forgo the 100% word for strategic reasons. (For those who seem to have a question on this there are 100% word(s) every play based on your rack and the status of the game board at that time.)
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@thatguythere202 You're right, there's always at least one 100% word.
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jrp32 wrote:
AND, when the play button turns green, it also has a colored edge on the right, which, when clicked, shows the word-to-be-played "strength" as a percentage. IOW, 100% is the best possible play determined and less than a 100%, not so much.
This is an interesting feature, but I don't know how interesting. Does it mean there is a built-in cheater that absolutely knows if there is or isn't a better word than the one presently entered? If it's showing, say, 50%, does that mean that a 100% word is definitely available and playable? Can you always get it to 100% if you're patient enough and shuffle the tiles long enough? Or is a 50% word sometimes the best that can be made, despite the suggestion that a better one is attainable? This feature changes the game in any event, but more drastically if it's always possible to get an entirely or almost-entirely green bar. Thanks.
Thanks to everyone for their interesting and helpful comments. In addition to these, what has cleared the question up for me has been (1) the announcement at the end of the game, and (2) the realization that Lexulous always has the highest-scoring possible word available, since it appears at the top of the list in the game analyses. Up until now I've generally been getting one 100% word per game while my opponent hasn't gotten any, but I'll try to improve that now that I finally know that the 100% words are always there. It remains curious, however, that though I've scored 100% words, I've never seen the vertical bar completely filled.
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@dan-mitchell, BINGO! As you said: the highest scoring move is not always the best move! How true that is. I learned years ago that this was a game of strategy, not a battle of vocabularies. Hence, sometimes, i forgo the 100% word for strategic reasons. (For those who seem to have a question on this there are 100% word(s) every play based on your rack and the status of the game board at that time.)
@jrp32 You are right to do what you do. Always playing words that are the the biggest or most points are not always best moves
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@roymccoy It seems the good folks at Lexulous have inadvertently created a new game. The heck with your opponent. Just find words with 100% strength.
@57chevvie said in Displayed Word Strength:
@roymccoy It seems the good folks at Lexulous have inadvertently created a new game. The heck with your opponent. Just find words with 100% strength.
I strongly remembered this comment as I was playing tonight. You nailed it: a new game and you're just looking for the big one. I had DEEIOSST, which looked like a likely bingo and there were various spots with room where I could start with just about any of those letters. Yet I couldn't bingo. Ordinarily I would have just played five or six letters and moved on, but this time I knew a bingo was available because the percentages indicated the possibility of a 75-point word. So I hassled with the rack for longer than I care to confess, finding two places where a 75-pointer was possible and trying everything I could imagine at these spots. But finally I had to give up and play the shorter word for far fewer points. When I checked the rack at https://www.wordplays.com/anagram-solver/deeiosst, it turned out there was no 8-letter bingo and the only 7-letter one was ISOETES, "sole extant genus of the order Isoetales". As I wrote to my friend and longtime opponent, I'll be beating myself up over this one for weeks, lol.
I note the upvotes for @Dan-Mitchell's suggestion that "Word Strength" be changed to "Score Strength" and that other players share his view. Nobody is defending "Word Strength", so I propose the change be made immediately, thanks.
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S sakamvari locked this topic on