Instructions booklet published, with some basic steps for solving the puzzle types.

Thanks Prasanna for the tips to solve given in the IB

Interesting types. Looking Forward to attempt.

I love this puzzle set. :)

You're welcome :)

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?	Maxi Loop
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

Easily the best PR set so far. Perfectly balanced, great puzzles, wonderful themes, and a very smooth solve. A little on the easier side after seeing my score, but thats alright.

MaxiLoop-3, Railroads-4, Linesweeper-4 were my favourites.

Thanks Prasanna!

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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Linesweeper
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

Thanks Prasanna, fun as expected. It was funny how I managed to discover the identical 4-in-the-corner deduction on the hard Maxi Loop three times individually. I really struggled with the Linesweeper puzzles.

Hi. I believe I have valid answers for the Railroad Tracks #2 and #3 that resulted in incorrect answers when submitting. Be happy to take picture and send for checking.

Since Instant Grading is enabled, players are expected to fix their typos after seeing the cross mark on the submission page. If typos are not fixed, we will not be able to award points.

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
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Masyu
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

Hi Deb.
I know that, but I think I have legitimate answers, that when submitted, the website marks them as incorrect.
So, not a typo, a legitimate solution that appears to be different.

Can I send a picture to you for review?

Yes, please .. send them at deb.mohanty@gmail.com

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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Linesweeper
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 ?	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?	Linesweeper
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

Excellent Set of Puzzles. Among all the tests, this one went very smoothly for me. Not much time waste and not much stops. I enjoyed Maxiloop 16 pointer and Linesweeper Variant very much. Linesweeper Variant was very tricky, was lucky to get that solved intuitively. A nice round for me.
1 more to go :)

I did rather poorly this time around. I can solve the puzzles quickly just fine, but 4 errors!

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 easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Railroad Tracks
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

Easy and fun puzzles. I enjoyed this test so much.

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?	Maxi Loop
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

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?	Railroad Tracks
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 ?	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?	Linesweeper
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 ?	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?	Masyu
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 ?	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?	Masyu
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Railroad Tracks
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

I didn't much care for the formatting of the Maxi-Loop; I think the half-bolded dividers were very confusing. Would either have looked for a different formatting, or an example with that formatting in the instruction book.

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?	Maxi Loop
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 fun puzzle set. Drawing a loop seems to add a little artistic spice to a puzzle makiing it a little more fun than a sudoku of similar difficulty.
The linesweeper puzzles were difficult for me...I spent almost as much time on the first linesweeper as the hard maxi-loop. My brain kept wanting to apply snake rules (or Bosnian road rules) wherein the loop cannot touch itself and I couldn't visualize the sharp U-turns required by the solution.

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?	Linesweeper
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 ?	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?	Railroad Tracks
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Masyu
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Fairly Nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Railroad Tracks
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

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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Masyu
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 ?	variations represented the theme well
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Too many easy puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Railroad Tracks
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

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?	Maxi Loop
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

Somehow the Railroad tracks were my nemesis in this one, although I usually love them. Anyway, this was a really nice set of puzzles :)

I think all PR's should aim for this balance. Very nice.
Should've intuited out more answers than wasting time on convincing myself with logical deductions ;)

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?	Maxi Loop
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

Perfect!

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?	Maxi Loop
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

The only complaint I had with the formatting is that I found it somewhat irritating for new genres to start at the bottom of a page with new puzzles. It mostly bothered me during the answer keys. I just instinctively went to te next page when entering the last puzzle in a genre.

I enjoyed the set. It went pretty well. For the mystery linesweeper I feel I took longer figuring out the rules than solving the puzzle. Instructionless is not my thing.

Also: Japan, sigh. ;)

We have been using this format for last 3 episodes, to have 10 pages instead of 12 pages in the puzzle booklet.

Will it help if the submission tabs are "by pages", and "not by puzzle types"?

Please help us to understand more, as far as I can see the formatting is same in IB and PB.

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?	Maxi Loop
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 ?	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?	Railroad Tracks
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did the point values reflect the difficulty?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount

I'd like the tabs grouped by pages instead of puzzle types.

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?	Railroad Tracks
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 ?	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?	Maxi Loop
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

password removed. Solutions appended.

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?	Maxi Loop
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

Thanks, this was fun. Made it totally worth waking up at an un-godly 3AM time to participate.

Well, we had extended based on your request.

Thanks for that. But I am not complaining. ;-)
It was totally my fault that I didn't notice the extension until I logged in early to participate.

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?	Linesweeper
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

Loops are not normally my thing, but these were very nice, thanks!! Some nice deductions, and I was very happy to be able finish within the time limit, which always feels good. Interestingly, I broke only 2 puzzles, and 1 of them was Simple Loop 1! :)

I think that was something weird in my drivers/printers/something downstream. I saw that the printout looked weird (I'll attempt to attach a picture of how it printed out), and didn't check to see how the .PDF looked. I guess it was a technical issue here, that did make it much more difficult to solve the maxi-loop (can I use that as an excuse for not finishing that one puzzle?)

I think that was something weird in my drivers/printers/something downstream. I saw that the printout looked weird (see below), and didn't check to see how the .PDF looked. I guess it was a technical issue here, that did make it much more difficult to solve the maxi-loop (can I use that as an excuse for not finishing that one puzzle?)

The above kind of errors come when you print directly from browser. Can I ask you to save the file on your computer and then open/print using acrobat reader? I'm pretty certain the error will go away. We discussed about the in this post.


[ Warning while you download pdf]

If that still does not solve the problem, please let us know.

Shoot, I remembered seeing that and testing it on my last LMI test, which was probably two years ago, and forgot that I have a different computer now. It worked fine, sorry about the false comment.

Thank you everyone for participating in the Puzzle Ramayan - Loops round. This was a round where I was generally pleased with how the puzzles turned out so I'm glad to see that the general feedback has been positive both in terms of puzzle quality and in terms of difficulty distribution. The puzzles were definitely on the easy side, but I think that's expected going into it for a contest geared towards encouraging newcomers and beginners. Plus, as an author I always consider it a welcome challenge to put in nice themes and fun solves into easy puzzles :)

We tried something new in this round with the Instruction booklet. Firstly, I'd just like to be honest and say this takes some significant effort, and continuing it in other rounds really depends on the motivation to do so. The sole motivation to do this is so that more people participate, solve and enjoy more puzzles. I'm not sure if this happened in this round enough to push other authors to continue with this scheme. There were 34 Indian participants with 28 non-zero scores. This isn't a significant increase from the previous round, and is less than most of the earlier rounds. We want to encourage more than just solving in the contest. The ideal 'participation' is to also discuss puzzles and solving techniques in the forum. How many did the new IB scheme actually help, and to those people, would it be enough if we just wrote a few lines in the forum for approaching each puzzle instead of going through detailed steps? These are things we need to consider if we're to decide its worth it, and it would really help if some Indian solvers let us know their thoughts on the matter.

Anyway, moving to the results, congrats to EKBM for winning the round, and finishing the set in a stunning 23 minutes and 48 seconds. He really is on a roll this year. Congrats to deu and nyuta who finished at 2nd and 3rd respectively and completed an all-Japan podium (the fact that that isn't so surprising says a lot about the depth of quality in Japan). Congrats to Para for getting the Rest-of-the-World first place ;) Among Indians, I was personally pleased to see 6 finishers. Congrats to Rohan, Swaroop, Amit, Ashish, Rajesh and Rakesh. Swaroop and Ashish especially were impressive in this round, I think. The Indian standings are shaping up nicely as far as the top 10 solvers go.

I hope everyone enjoyed participating, thank you once again!

Attention Indian Solvers

We need to know your feedback on this scheme.

Please continue with the new kind if UB

New Kind of IB with detailed steps helps to remove all basic confusions about the puzzles rather than discussing in the forum when the puzzle types are new to me.

Thanks for the reply.

We want to encourage discussing puzzles in the forum. I've always valued the forum discussion as a powerful tool to know new things. If I put full walkthroughs in the IB, you know how I personally approach the puzzles, but if you ask in the forum you will get replies from a variety of different solvers. I found that particularly helpful when I was a beginner because I could take an approach which suited me best. There is some value to taking away the confusion at the start with the IB, but my point is, if that is at the level that you do not need to discuss in the forum, then its not necessarily a huge positive.