|
|
Posts: 1
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many medium difficult puzzles | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 102
Location: United States | auroux - 2015-11-01 12:35 PM
Arrows #3: I spent over 15 minutes on it and never found the solution or even a reasonable solve path.
If you're still looking for how to start it, I think the break-in is meant to be the 3 in the middle. There are only four possible arrows that can point to it (no diagonals), and you can quickly find that two horizontal arrows doesn't work, so you need to do two vertical arrows. From there I don't remember running into many difficulties. |
| |
|
PR 2020 (Casual and Word) Author
Posts: 349
Location: India | auroux - 2015-11-02 11:35 AM
Arrows #3: I spent over 15 minutes on it and never found the solution or even a reasonable solve path.
That said, it was still fun. Apart from Arrows #3.
For Arrows #3, the "3" in the center is the starting point. |
| |
|
Posts: 187
Location: New Zealand | I have learnt that I find it surprisingly difficult to (correctly) count the number of line corners in a row or column... :)
Thanks Amit! |
| |
|
Posts: 187
Location: New Zealand | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Just right | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Hashi | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
I liked the (new to me) 5s interaction logic in the Hashis.
I thought Magnets 3 was hard/undervalued. |
| |
|
| | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Dominos | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth too much or too little | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 45
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Fairly Nice | |
|
| |
|
Mean Minis (2020) Author
Posts: 774
Location: India | ExtensionBased on requests from more than one player, this test is being extended till Tuesday 12PM IST. See submission page for exact timing.
|
| |
|
| | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Fairly Nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Dominos | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 6
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Magnets | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
A good set of puzzles ! |
| |
|
SM 2020 (Converse and Odd Even) Author
Posts: 51
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many medium difficult puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Fairly Nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Magnets | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
| | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Just right | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Fairly Nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Anglers | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
Hex Slitherlink Author
Posts: 145
Location: France | Thanks -- yesterday I just didn't see that 3 in the middle. I was obsessing over the 4's on the diagonals for exactly the same reason, but somehow didn't think of the 3 even though it's obviously a better place to start. Okay then, I have to take back some of my negative comments about the puzzle difficulties. I was just being stupid. (I still found Hashi and Arrows to be huge time sinks compared to other puzzle types for equal point values, but possibly it's because I'm just not good at those. My answering timeline doesn't quite reflect solve times due to my computer crashing partway through and needing to be rebooted twice). |
| |
|
Posts: 114
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | representation could have been better | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Anglers | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
Very good set of puzzles. I liked Multi Anglers most. |
| |
|
Posts: 57
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many medium difficult puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Magnets | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Many puzzles were worth too much or too little | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
This was a hard test, and my performance was terrible.
But I really enjoyed solving the puzzles after the test. Even though these are 'standard' types, many of the techniques needed to solve the puzzles in the set were unfamiliar to me. Figuring them out was an enjoyable experience. |
| |
|
WSPC Organizer
Posts: 542
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many medium difficult puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Dominos | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
| | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | representation could have been better | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Anglers | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth too much or too little | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
PR 2020 (Casual and Word) Author
Posts: 349
Location: India | Congratulations to Ulrich, Michael and Bram for topping the international chart, and to Rohan, Rajesh and Swaroop for topping the Indian chart.
Here is the result of voting for puzzle types : Anglers > Magnets > Dominos > Hashi > Arrows
The most consistent feedback is that the test contained a large percentage of hard puzzles. We had realized this before the test and in an attempt to balance the difficulty of the puzzles replaced one arrow and magnets puzzle with easier ones. The difficult ones might get used elsewhere (2017?) One option which would have helped is to reduce the grid sizes, especially for magnets.
Another concern was with regarding the distribution of points which becomes difficult when the puzzles have narrow solving paths. Also the fact that all the dominos were created by Deb and the rest of the puzzles by me added to the complexity. A little more extensive testing including solvers having varying levels of solving speed might have helped.
Thanks to Deb and Prasanna for helping with the organization of this test. Special thanks to Zrinka and Bram for test solving the puzzles at a short notice.
Thank you everyone for participating.
I will be posting a set of hints to help the beginners on some of the harder puzzles separately. |
| |
|
PR 2020 (Casual and Word) Author
Posts: 349
Location: India | Hashi -1 : Use the "No islands" rule throughout the grid - inspired by a comment from Prasanna that very few Hashi puzzles use this rule extensively
Hashi -2 : Masyu like chain which goes from top left to bottom right
Hashi -3 : Interaction of two 5's near the center
Hashi -4 : Interaction of the 4 and the 5's at the center. This one was my personal favorite for the entire set
Magnets 1 : Easy puzzle used to replace a harder magnets puzzle
Magnets 2 : Existence of half the grid size (8/2 =4) in one of the polarities forces a few bars to be magnets
Magnets 3 : Min max - A less loaded column surrounded by two heavily loaded columns.
Magnets 4 : Transfer of polarities across rows
Arrows 3: 3 in the center gives good starting point
Arrows 4: Interaction of two large numbers in the corners (4 and 5) along with the smaller numbers int he remaining two corners (2 and 3)
Anglers 2: Parity - Only one angler can reach the fish on bottom left as it has different parity compared to all other fish
Anglers 4: Reach ability of top left fish to an angler
Multi-anglers- Count of total number of anglers and how many anglers can reach each fish. |
| |
|
2021 World Sudoku+Puzzle Convention Organizer
Posts: 1784
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many hard puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Hashi | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
PR 2020 (Shading and Loops) Author
Posts: 668
Location: India | | How well did the variants represent the theme of the test ? | variations represented the theme well | | | What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles? | Too many medium difficult puzzles | | | What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test? | Very nice | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Arrows | | | Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty? | Most puzzles were worth the right amount | | | What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing? | Just right | |
|
| |
|
Location: India | Solutions booklet uploaded. |
| |
WSPC 2017 • Schedule • Participation • Location • WSC • WPC • Contact •Search •Recent
Evergreens - 31st Oct - 2nd Nov - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier
