How Plain turns a close guess into altitude

A round’s altitude change is the points earned multiplied by 10, minus the altitude lost to the clock. The points combine a proximity score, a possible Dialed bonus and the Golden Round multiplier.

Altitude change = (base points + Dialed bonus) × round multiplier × 10 − time penalty.

Base points range from 0 to 100. Dialed adds 25 points. Round 3 is the Golden Round and doubles those points; the other six rounds use a multiplier of one. Your running balloon altitude cannot fall below zero.

For most values, the game compares your answer with the target by ratio. Being twice as large is the same scale error as being half as large. That makes the scoring usable for both small measurements and numbers in the millions: the relationship matters rather than the raw numerical gap.

For positive answer v and target t, the distance is |ln(v / t)|. Base points are round(100 × exp(−3.3 × distance)), limited to the range 0–100. You can play well without doing this calculation; the examples show its practical effect.

Notice that 90 and 110 do not receive identical scores. They have the same absolute gap, but their ratios differ. A value of 110 is a factor of 1.10 from 100, while getting from 90 back to 100 takes a factor of about 1.111.

Dialed means an answer is within 1% of the target, including the boundary. It earns the 25-point bonus on top of the base score. For other answers, the game uses the larger of answer ÷ target and target ÷ answer to choose a tier.

A tier is a feedback label, rather than a separate fixed points award. Two Warm answers can earn different base points. A Miss can still earn a few base points when a valid answer was submitted; a timeout has no accepted answer and earns zero points before the time penalty.

Questions asking for a calendar year use a different distance: the absolute year gap divided by 32. The exact year is required for Dialed, and an answer up to three years away is Close. This avoids treating an error of one year as a tiny percentage of a date such as 1969.

The first three seconds do not cost altitude. After that, the balloon loses four metres per second until the 30-second limit, with the final penalty rounded to the nearest metre. The maximum loss from one round’s clock is 108 metres. The Golden Round doubles earned points, but does not double the time penalty.

Suppose a normal round has a target of 100 and you answer 110 after eight seconds. That earns 73 base points and no Dialed bonus: 730 metres of climb. The five seconds after the grace period cost 20 metres, so the net change is +710 metres. On the Golden Round, the same answer and timing would earn 1,460 metres of climb minus the same 20-metre penalty: +1,440 metres.

The server measures elapsed time from the start of the round to receipt of the accepted answer. Leaving a round open does not pause it. An invalid name or number also leaves the timer running, so choose an accepted suggestion or correct the format promptly.

Ten thousand metres is the theoretical ceiling: seven exact answers, each worth 100 base points plus the 25-point Dialed bonus, with round 3 counting twice and no time lost. That creates eight weighted round scores of 125 points, multiplied by 10 metres.

A named-answer target may sit between the stored values in its category. The closest available answer can therefore be short of exact, and even short of Dialed. The best attainable score depends on the day’s targets and answer lists. When you review the reveal, distinguish “best available answer” from “exactly on target.”

Past results are easier to understand with concrete values in front of you. The archive lists prior targets and close answers; its displayed base points come before bonuses and the clock.