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Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March
Reply    LMI Tests -> Daily Puzzles Contest171 posts • Page 5 of 7 • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
prasanna16391
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-20 2:55 AM (#6971 - in reply to #6970) (#6971)Quote Reply Top


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MellowMelon - 2012-03-20 2:05 AM

Re Prasanna: I'm coming late to the party and assuming that Tablesaw's comment means the server's solution treated R8C8 as a 5, but actually the puzzle as presented (with a 6) is the only one that's unique. With a 5 there, many other solutions exist. That is a pretty nice puzzle too.


You're right on your assumption(according to Deb). As for the multiple solutions, since the solution is treated as a 5, I assumed that to be correct and forming a valid puzzle, and didn't really check it out. Having looked back, I agree my assumption was wrong, and that only the one with a 6 gives a unique solution.
Para
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-20 1:27 PM (#6981 - in reply to #6966) (#6981)Quote Reply Top




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Administrator - 2012-03-20 12:58 AM

Announcement - 20-Mar puzzle is wrong

As many of you have found out by now, 20-Mar puzzle is wrong. (It is wrong by a digit, ah well). At this point, we are cancelling this puzzle and there will NOT be any replacement puzzle.




Will there be a 50th puzzle added at the end or will the competition last for 49 puzzles now? I was just wondering as there seems to be a possibility developing that Valezius can catch up to places 2 and 3 as the gap has shortened considerably in the last few days. It might not make a difference but it could. Also I've been closing the gap to place 4 again, but the top 3 change would of course be a bigger development as that's been the same three people for well as long as I've been keeping track.
debmohanty
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-20 1:38 PM (#6982 - in reply to #6970) (#6982)Quote Reply Top



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MellowMelon - 2012-03-20 2:05 AM

Re Prasanna: I'm coming late to the party and assuming that Tablesaw's comment means the server's solution treated R8C8 as a 5, but actually the puzzle as presented (with a 6) is the only one that's unique. With a 5 there, many other solutions exist. That is a pretty nice puzzle too.
Yeah, the problem was the recorded solution was wrong. The puzzle itself was valid.
We could have fixed the recorded solution, but by that time 2 players (Psyho and wielki_m) had submitted the wrong solution, which the system flagged as right and (possibly) had left the scene.


Para - 2012-03-20 1:27 PM
Will there be a 50th puzzle added at the end or will the competition last for 49 puzzles now?
We will most likely have 50 puzzles, so the last one appearing on 1st April. But I need to get it confirmed from Serkan. So a concrete answer is pending.


Edited by debmohanty 2012-03-20 1:44 PM
Valezius
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-21 5:23 PM (#6990 - in reply to #6982) (#6990)Quote Reply Top


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With this one day break we will solve the 50th puzzle on 30th of March.
And the TVC XII will finish on 2nd of April.
Is this accurate?
prasanna16391
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-21 6:14 PM (#6991 - in reply to #6990) (#6991)Quote Reply Top


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Valezius - 2012-03-21 5:23 PM

With this one day break we will solve the 50th puzzle on 30th of March.
And the TVC XII will finish on 2nd of April.
Is this accurate?


Seeing that today is day number 39, I think 50 will come on 1st April.
Valezius
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-21 6:18 PM (#6992 - in reply to #6991) (#6992)Quote Reply Top


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prasanna16391 - 2012-03-21 6:14 PM

Valezius - 2012-03-21 5:23 PM

With this one day break we will solve the 50th puzzle on 30th of March.
And the TVC XII will finish on 2nd of April.
Is this accurate?


Seeing that today is day number 39, I think 50 will come on 1st April.


Okey, I see.
Tablesaw
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-22 3:38 AM (#6993 - in reply to #6970) (#6993)Quote Reply Top




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I took a screenshot of the answer that was accepted. After the correct answer wasn't accepted, I tried redoing it to see if I missed something. Then I made the "correct" mistake.
Valezius
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-22 3:52 AM (#6994 - in reply to #6993) (#6994)Quote Reply Top


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I deleted the picture. Please do not share information about the current puzzle in public...

Use the Private message function.


(I sent your picture to Deb)

Edited by Valezius 2012-03-22 3:57 AM
Tablesaw
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-22 4:25 AM (#6995 - in reply to #6994) (#6995)Quote Reply Top




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Valezius - 2012-03-21 1:52 PM

I deleted the picture. Please do not share information about the current puzzle in public...

Use the Private message function.


(I sent your picture to Deb)


Sorry if I was not clear, but that was not a screenshot of the current puzzle. It was the "correct" answer to the now-canceled, but much talked about puzzle from March 20.
debmohanty
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-22 9:35 PM (#6998 - in reply to #6982) (#6998)Quote Reply Top



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debmohanty - 2012-03-20 1:38 PM

Para - 2012-03-20 1:27 PM
Will there be a 50th puzzle added at the end or will the competition last for 49 puzzles now?
We will most likely have 50 puzzles, so the last one appearing on 1st April. But I need to get it confirmed from Serkan. So a concrete answer is pending.
This is to confirm that a 50th puzzle will be added at the end.
PuzzleScott
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-23 4:01 AM (#6999 - in reply to #6622) (#6999)Quote Reply Top




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What does a "0" clue mean in standard tapa??? (23 Mar puzzle) Does it constrain anything (I don't see that it can in today's layout), or just add confusion?
MellowMelon
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-23 4:27 AM (#7000 - in reply to #6999) (#7000)Quote Reply Top


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In a clue with multiple numbers 0 can be ignored.
Para
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-25 2:42 AM (#7005 - in reply to #6622) (#7005)Quote Reply Top




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There's been a lot of hard puzzles at the end. It's causing a lot of big point jumps.
Nikola
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-25 5:44 PM (#7006 - in reply to #7005) (#7006)Quote Reply Top


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Yes, I just want to say that I'm a bit disappointed in classic tapa because there is no standard 10x10 puzzle which is not solved in less than two minutes by best players. If you want to keep 120 seconds limit unbroken, you must enlarge the grid size. I'm not sure that would be the case with any other puzzle type, except maybe ABC connection puzzle. Such contests are fun, but it seems they discover the real truth about the puzzle types.

Nikola
Para
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-25 11:23 PM (#7010 - in reply to #7006) (#7010)Quote Reply Top




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Nikola - 2012-03-25 5:44 PM

Yes, I just want to say that I'm a bit disappointed in classic tapa because there is no standard 10x10 puzzle which is not solved in less than two minutes by best players.


Well February 18th had a top 10% average of over 2 minutes, so that one comes close.
yureklis
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-27 2:11 PM (#7020 - in reply to #7006) (#7020)Quote Reply Top


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Nikola - 2012-03-25 5:44 PM

Yes, I just want to say that I'm a bit disappointed in classic tapa because there is no standard 10x10 puzzle which is not solved in less than two minutes by best players. If you want to keep 120 seconds limit unbroken, you must enlarge the grid size. I'm not sure that would be the case with any other puzzle type, except maybe ABC connection puzzle. Such contests are fun, but it seems they discover the real truth about the puzzle types.

Nikola


:)
Real truth is the function of "undo" button. Providing this button was a mistake (Deb didn't want to use it but i insisted) because solving with this button does not truly represent the action of Tapa solving. I made a lot of hard puzzles but this button makes everything so easy, it is so easy to make many trials and erase them.

I think what is discovered is how well a solver uses the undo button. It is not much related with Tapa.
flk
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-27 5:11 PM (#7021 - in reply to #6622) (#7021)Quote Reply Top




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Wow - somehow I managed to completely overlook the fact that there is an undo button. Could have saved me a lot of time! :p
vopani
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-27 7:22 PM (#7022 - in reply to #7021) (#7022)Quote Reply Top


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With 5 days to go, its an interesting fight between 2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th/7th :-)
prasanna16391
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-27 9:49 PM (#7023 - in reply to #7021) (#7023)Quote Reply Top


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flk - 2012-03-27 5:11 PM

Wow - somehow I managed to completely overlook the fact that there is an undo button. Could have saved me a lot of time! :p


I'm yet to use the undo button myself but thats more to do with the fact that I just prefer a full clear and start over when I go wrong :P

I think the undo button is necessary though. Mis-clicks are always possible. The color changes are not as necessary IMO.
MellowMelon
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-27 10:36 PM (#7024 - in reply to #7023) (#7024)Quote Reply Top


Fillomino-Fillia 2 Author

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As we've found the unfortunate fact about doing Tapa of this size online is that guessing becomes a preferred strategy in many cases. I've kind of been worried that with the ability to make other solves viewable by anyone for this particular contest that it will give the illusion of "guessing is how good solvers get good times". That might be true for 10 by 10 Tapa, but absolutely not in general. Even for the 12 by 12 sizes I avoid just guessing my way through it, at least too early, because there's too large a search space, and my better performances on those have usually been with logic. My total inability to figure out what was going on for March 25th was a notable exception to that, and I did have to rely on luck/"tapa sense" there. I think there's a sweet spot for the difficulty of the larger puzzles that makes them hard but still preferable to do with logic from a speed-solving perspective. March 23rd was dead on in my opinion, and March 25th overshot it a bit.

That said, I don't think it's necessarily the Undo button itself that harms things. I typically forget about it and waste time erasing things manually when a guess screws up, which is still faster than erasing on paper, and online it doesn't leave distracting stray marks too.

Also, I have been going back after the days I bifurcate and solving these logically. Almost every puzzle is fantastically designed, even if it ends up that guessing is the fastest way to get through them, so it's more just a issue with this being a contest than a matter of puzzle quality. However there have been a few days where I've had trouble getting a logical solution without minor T&E. The ones that come to mind are February 25th, March 22nd, and March 25th.
Manu
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-28 12:13 AM (#7025 - in reply to #6622) (#7025)Quote Reply Top




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Hmm. Ich würde sagen, im heutigen Tapa ist ein Fehler. Und zwar links unten das Feld 1/1 - da gehört nur ein Einser rein. Oder?
MellowMelon
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-28 12:18 AM (#7026 - in reply to #7025) (#7026)Quote Reply Top


Fillomino-Fillia 2 Author

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Yeah, I think we have another goof. Judging from the lack of symmetry a clue near the bottom was misplaced.
Administrator
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-28 12:18 AM (#7027 - in reply to #6622) (#7027)Quote Reply Top


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Announcement - 28-Mar puzzle is wrong

As some of you have found out by now, 28-Mar puzzle is wrong. We are cancelling this puzzle and there will NOT be any replacement puzzle today.


MellowMelon
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-28 1:49 AM (#7028 - in reply to #7027) (#7028)Quote Reply Top


Fillomino-Fillia 2 Author

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For what it's worth, here's what today's puzzle almost certainly was intended to be. It's pretty nicely made and worth doing.
http://mellowmelon.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ctc-march27.png
(just noticed the filename is off from the date on LMI; blame time zones)

For extra fun, the solution remains unique and the puzzle gets a bit harder and nicer when you remove the four clues at the center of each cross.

Edited by MellowMelon 2012-03-28 1:50 AM
yureklis
Subject: Re: Classic Tapa Contest — 11th Feb to 31st March @ 2012-03-28 3:00 AM (#7029 - in reply to #7028) (#7029)Quote Reply Top


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I am sorry for wrong puzzles. I have not so much time recently, really i have not. Actually i uploaded today's puzzle in last hour, i checked two times, but i missed. For example, yestarday's puzzle i uploaded in the car (same like today, in last hour) :) I hope that remaining puzzles will be good.
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