|
|
| | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
Classics & Regions (PR 2016/17) Author
Posts: 170
 
Location: Germany | Great concept, and pretty good test, thanks Prasanna!
I tripped up a bit on the first Twopa, thinking I couldn't get out under the 13s in both puzzles. I feel like they were quite tricky anyway, an easier starting type would have felt more friendly.
The Fillomino relay types are really fun ideas. Some of the types were a bit low on interaction, with the connection rule mostly coming in towards the end of the solve. But keeping them easy seems appropriate for the PR.
* The Twopa disambiguation via shaded cells late in the solve were a bit of a pain. If you want to do it like this, at least ask for the same rows/columns in both grids, so it's easy to read off if you've solved the other way around? Or ideally just accept both combinations.
* The code order and direction on the right grids in the 4-by-4 types is confusing. Intuitively, I'd want to fill the "top" codes before the "right" codes, and read the "right" codes right-to-left. Improvement (but not perfect): point the arrows on the right and below the grid right and down, respectively.
|
| |
|
  
Location: India | * The Twopa disambiguation via shaded cells late in the solve were a bit of a pain. If you want to do it like this, at least ask for the same rows/columns in both grids, so it's easy to read off if you've solved the other way around? Or ideally just accept both combinations.
Valid point. If a solver ended up solving the other way around, answer keys for 1 go into 2, and answer keys for 2 go into 1. Of course, you would have to select the correct rows/columns. But that should not be a big constraint (we thought so). We had a discussion on this exact point before the contest and then decided to go ahead with the current approach. If it was an offline contest, there would be no issue but this adjustment was only because the contest is "online."
* The code order and direction on the right grids in the 4-by-4 types is confusing. Intuitively, I'd want to fill the "top" codes before the "right" codes, and read the "right" codes right-to-left. Improvement (but not perfect): point the arrows on the right and below the grid right and down, respectively.
If someone enters top code before right code (that is intuitive), it will still be marked correct (although it is not mentioned anywhere). We have emphasized left-to-right and top-to-bottom wherever possible. And the IB examples also illustrate that. We just wanted to stick to the "rows before columns" mentioned under the generic section ("If one row and one column is marked, enter the row first and then the column"). Your idea about the arrows' direction is also a good one, perhaps better than the current depiction. We did not want the arrow to point outside the grid, as that may have also introduced some confusion.
Thanks for the useful suggestions! |
| |
|
| | 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? | Fillomino-Norinori Relay | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 102
Location: United States | | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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? | I have a different complaint | |
Regarding answer keys I think backward arrows are confusing.
I would also prefer if Twopa did not have shaded squares to force each solution to go in a specific grid, since that gives a potentially undesired break-in, and it makes it hard to plan answer drawing. I don't know if the scoring setup allows for multiple possible answers though.
I also don't like that the answer keys were separate for each grid, since if you guess to finish one piece of the puzzle I don't think you should be able to confirm that it's right until you finish the other grids.
Otherwise, I loved this contest though! I think connected puzzles are always really fun, and it's cool to see a full contest of them.
EDIT: Looks like rob already said a lot of the same things.
Edited by ghirsch 2019-01-25 11:14 PM
|
| |
|
Location: India | I also don't like that the answer keys were separate for each grid, since if you guess to finish one piece of the puzzle I don't think you should be able to confirm that it's right until you finish the other grids.
Your point may be valid. But we were very clear that we wanted to encourage partial points, especially for more beginner kind of solvers. |
| |
|
Posts: 3
Location: United States | ghirsch - 2019-01-26 11:13 AM
Regarding answer keys I think backward arrows are confusing.
Very! In some of the puzzles the answer key instructions made it clear that the reading order was still left-to-right and top-to-bottom but not in all, and I happened to start with Norinori which did not include those instructions so I lost points because of this. I hope admins will consider retroactively awarding points for backwards answers on those - I'm sure I'm not the only one!
EDIT: other than that this was great :D
Edited by boing 2019-01-26 12:33 AM
|
| |
|
| | 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? | Linked Minesweeper-Nanro | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Answer keys could have been better | | | 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 | |
Answer key arrrows poiinting left were slightly confusing. |
| |
|
Posts: 3
Location: France | | 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? | Linked Skyscrapers-Easy as 123 | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
| | 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? | Linked Skyscrapers-Easy as 123 | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Answer keys could have been better | | | 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 | |
Mostly the same comments as ghirsch. I got tripped up by the left arrow in the norinori (like boing) and found the twopas confusing because of the one shaded cell.
In the twopa rules: "This means, in a multi-digit clue, some of the digits can have the same behavior, but not all," I would have liked the example puzzle to clarify whether a single-digit clue could have identical behaviour between two grids (I guessed not but couldn't solve the puzzle).
With partial marks I noticed one of my mistakes by submitting an incorrect subpart which you wouldn't usually be able to notice, so I felt like having separate answer keys was bad - perhaps you could still submit separate answer keys but only mark them individually at the end of the contest / when all other subgrids have also been submitted.
A very nice test though - the logic was nicer than I was expecting in the puzzles I did solve (especially the linked skyscrapers-easy as 123).
|
| |
|
Posts: 74
Location: United States | | 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? | Twopa | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Answer keys could have been better | | | 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 also got tripped up by some backwards arrows, and I couldn't finish the harder Linked Maxi Loop! Still, nice puzzles overall.
Personally, I think the Fillomino/Star Battle relay was worth (a lot) more than 2+2 points.
Edited by mstang 2019-01-26 10:48 AM
|
| |
|
Posts: 74
Location: United States | @2 above:
Yes, the rules for Twopa as I would state them are: "for any pair of corresponding clues in the two grids, the arrangements of shaded/unshaded cells in the (usually 8) neighboring squares cannot be exactly the same." So that applies to single-digit clues equally well.
Edited by mstang 2019-01-26 10:47 AM
|
| |
|
Posts: 7
Location: South Korea | | 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? | Below Average | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Twopa | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
| | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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? | I have a different complaint | |
Grid for Cave(17) was too thinly coloured
|
| |
|
Typed Logic Author
Posts: 241
Location: Indonesia | | 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? | Fillomino-Norinori Relay | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
Very interesting, novel theme. Many interesting uses of connected puzzles. I'm not sure if it fits for PR, but seeing the many easy puzzles I think it works well enough. Some problems:
- Connected puzzles should be considered as a single puzzle. Answer keys should span over the many grids, otherwise solvers can check partial work by submitting the answer for a grid, and if it's correct work from it for the other grids. Unless this is intentional.
- Some grids are (mostly) solvable without using the connected gimmick. Again, this might be intentional due to this being PR, but I see that as a downside.
But overall trying a new mechanic like this is interesting and I'd like to see more. Maybe variants like "liar" or something as a theme?
Edit: Apparently this echoes a lot of similar comments. Well.
Edited by chaotic_iak 2019-01-26 2:26 PM
|
| |
|
Posts: 22
Location: Germany | | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | |
For some reason I kept making mistakes, especially on the large Maxi Loops, which I printed out again. Still happy to have finished the round.
There were some great puzzles here, and I generally enjoy linked or relay puzzles. I hope this becomes a regular round in PR. Thanks Prasanna for the very enjoyable set! |
| |
|
Location: India | boing ->...I happened to start with Norinori which did not include those instructions so I lost points because of this. I hope admins will consider retroactively awarding points for backwards answers on those...
Yes |
| |
|
Location: India | An LMI PLayer -> In the twopa rules: "This means, in a multi-digit clue, some of the digits can have the same behavior, but not all," I would have liked the example puzzle to clarify whether a single-digit clue could have identical behaviour between two grids (I guessed not but couldn't solve the puzzle).
Instead of guessing you could have read the rules where it mentions "every clue must behave at least a little bit differently." and a single digit is also a clue. Ideally it should have been in the example too, but the forum was open for questions/clarifications |
| |
|
| | 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? | Twopa | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 7
Location: Poland | | 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? | Shaded Cave-Kurotto Mastermind | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Answer keys could have been better | | | 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 have also been confused by the right-to-left arrows with the left-to-right key.
Nevertheless, these puzzles really gave me some kind of flow. Good job! |
| |
|
Posts: 4
Location: France | | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
Very enjoyable test, I really liked the way the connected logic was weaved into the puzzles.
|
| |
|
Shading and Loops (PR 2016/17) Author
Posts: 63
Location: United States | | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
Thank you!
Favorite puzzles:
3-4 Twopa
11-12 Maxi Loop |
| |
|
PR 2020 (MII and Regions) Author
Posts: 47
Location: India | | 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? | Linked Maxi Loop | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
|
| |
|
Posts: 136
Location: India | Dear Admin,
Twopa: I believe behaving differently is only limited to the fact that cells that are shaded may partially differ for the same clue between two grids. OR, do I also need to consider the shape of the shaded block?? As I see in the example, the shapes are identical! that's why I am a little unsure.
Also, just curious,
Ep 1 was PR201901.
'PR2019012' follows the same nomenclature? Or was it supposed to be PR201902?
|
| |
|
Location: India | anurag - 2019-01-27 2:16 PM
Twopa: I believe behaving differently is only limited to the fact that cells that are shaded may partially differ for the same clue between two grids. OR, do I also need to consider the shape of the shaded block?? As I see in the example, the shapes are identical! that's why I am a little unsure.
Cells that are shaded should partially differ. If you compare all eight cells surrounding a clue, at least one cell should differ in the shading between the two grids. Shape(s) may or may not be the same.
Also, just curious,
Ep 1 was PR201901.
'PR2019012' follows the same nomenclature? Or was it supposed to be PR201902?
You should have been able to figure this out. Nomenclature is PR2019XX where X denotes the month in which the test starts. If there are 2 PR tests in a month, the second test has a 2 appended.
|
| |
WSPC 2017 • Schedule • Participation • Location • WSC • WPC • Contact •Search •Recent
Connected Puzzles - 25th - 29th Jan 2019 - Puzzle Ramayan & IPC Qualifier
