Every kilometre counts
How MapZa scores a guess
Closer guesses earn more. There is no all-or-nothing radius: points decline smoothly as you move away from the target.
What is a half-life distance?
It is the distance at which you earn half the available points. At twice that distance you earn a quarter; at three times it you earn an eighth. The distance scale depends on the mode and target. Special events use the administrator’s chosen half-life for all their cities.
| Distance | Points |
|---|---|
| 0 km | 300 |
| 400 km | 150 |
| 800 km | 75 |
| 1,200 km | 38 |
Why are some cities worth more?
The catalog orders cities using familiarity and population signals. Harder-ranked cities have higher point budgets, ordered consistently across difficulty groups. These are target difficulty groups, separate from the four named playing modes that select different mixes of cities.
Clues and confidence combine before rounding
The formula is: city points × clue factor × confidence factor × 2−distance / half-life. A clue sets the clue factor to 0.9; otherwise it is 1. Confidence at level 10 gives a factor of 1.2 inside or exactly at the half-life distance and 0.8 outside it. Lower confidence reduces the size of that adjustment.
For the same 300-point example, a guess at 400 km with a clue and maximum confidence earns 300 × 0.9 × 1.2 × 0.5 = 162 points. At 800 km it earns 300 × 0.9 × 0.8 × 0.25 = 54 points. Rounding happens once, at the end; scores never fall below zero.
Kids flags reward learning
In new Kids games, a correct flag answer after a geography score below half the available points recovers half the missed points. At half or above, it adds 10% of the geography points earned. A wrong flag answer adds nothing and takes nothing away. Older saved games keep their original scoring rules.
A fair comparison
Official attempts are checked on the server. Compare like-for-like modes and challenges; a practice score is not an official Daily entry. Public competitive rankings may remain unavailable while calibration is reviewed.