Para - 2013-03-04 10:24 PM
Nanro was really fun. I had never seen it before this contest. Would love to see solve some more.

PuzzleScott - 2013-03-05 8:42 AM

My correct nanro submission was rejected because of lower case x instead of upper case. Really??? Please fix this.

sbeck - 2013-03-05 9:03 PM

In Maxi Loop, is the number indicated only the maximum number of consecutive cells or is it a requirement that there be a segment with that length in the marked areas?

Thanks.

kishy72 - 2013-03-05 11:08 PM

I am not clear about the rules in a Gapped Kakuro
* Can there be numbers which are not part of the sums (of any clues which are given at the top or the left)
* Can a number which is a part of the sum of the clue given at the left be immediately under a black shaded cell or should that cell be Xed out ??
* Is there any other restriction other than the no number repeating in a sum and no blank cells adjacent rule?

Administrator - 2013-03-05 9:51 PM

It is a requirement that there be at least one segment with the given length in the outlined region.

PuzzleScott - 2013-03-06 8:57 AM

It would be nice to have some way to start a new puzzle without having to wait an hour on an unsolved puzzle. I even tried to run up the clock with bad submissions, but the clock didn't jump.

witty - 2013-03-06 10:42 AM

Can the submission deadline be extended by a few days?

Para - 2013-03-03 11:31 PM



Everyone who finishes within the alotted time gets bonus for rank, not just the fastest. So in your situation, B gets a bonus for 1st and 3rd, A gets bonus for finishing second twice.

Nilz - 2013-03-07 2:33 AM



Ah, thanks, that makes a bit more sense. Still not sure I agree with the scoring system though; it means that the relative final positions of any two solvers may be affected by how a third, separate solver does, which seems a bit odd to me (see http://rangevoting.org/GutermanCHE.html for more about this phenomenom- particularly the paragraph about halfway down starting "A dramatic flaunting..."). But at least it does make sense!

Para - 2013-03-06 11:16 PM



The ranking system last year was purely based on time left to solve. Just as this year, the worst solves are discarded. But this caused a problem because not all puzzles are the same difficulty and take the same average or fastest time to solve. This caused for most people last year to have the same puzzle discarded, even if their relative performance was really good compared to others. As the same time on different puzzles might not actually be equally good, it was suggested the scoring system could be improved. So that's why there was a discussion on how to make it fairer, to rank players for each puzzle on their relative performance in each puzzle, instead of their purely time related performance. This eventually led to a bonus system that is similar to the LMI rankings, where each test is scored relatively to the performance of the best solver. In this test instead of top score and ranking, there are fastest time and ranking. And all solvers who finish a puzzle fast enough to qualify for a bonus are included in this calculation.
I'm not saying this is a perfect scoring system, but it's fairer than last year's. And if you have any suggestions on what you think might be a better way, I think they are always welcome. There's always room for discussion here.