Yes, that is allowed.

As I have written in the IB, here is a list of links to more practise material in the puzzle portal of Logic Masters Germany.

Here we go:
Killer Skyscrapers: easy; easy
Regional Yajilin: medium; easy
Capsules: very easy; medium
Masyu Battleships: very easy; easy
Easy as Chaos ABC: easy
City construction: hard; medium; hard
Easy as no ABC – No Touch: medium
Spiral City Construction: medium; medium
Filled Loop: medium; very hard; hard; medium
Pentomino in the Box: hard; hard
Japanese Sums Pentominos: very easy; very easy
Sudokakuro: easy
X-Sums Sudoku: easy
Domino Loop: medium; medium
Prime domino: easy; easy
Blackout Domino: hard; medium

In June all my puzzles in the portal were XL; same rules but larger grids. All these puzzles are (much) harder than in the real test. Still, they can be interesting from a practise point of view:
Regional Yajilin
Capsules
Masyu Battleships
Blackout Domino

If you have any questions about these extra practise puzzles, don’t hesitate to ask. Either here or in the portal.
In the coming days I will publish a few more practise puzzles. I will keep you all informed about it.
Have fun and good luck!

Meanwhile two extra practise puzzles are published in the portal:

X-Sums Sudoku
Capsules

I received a question about Japanese sums Pentominos:

"Is the sum in both different 'legs' of the U-pentomino presented as one sum or as two different sums?"

The answer is that both different 'legs' have their own sum (of one digit).
By choosing the phrase '... blocks of cells ...' I have tried to take away doubts on this issue.

Later I will try to attach a small image to this message that should make it even more clear.



Administrator edited to add the image

Hi Richard,

For puzzle 16 Sudokakuro, the answer key should be 235146, 261543 (and a matching solution grid).

Looks like a good collection of puzzles! :)

Also a question about Filled Loop:
In the example the loop is always one cell wide where the pentominoes touch.
Is it possible for three pentominoes to meet at a point that is not on the loop-edge?
e.g. meeting like this:

I
I
I
I
ILLLL
YL
Y
YY
Y

Edited by kiwijam 2013-09-03 9:55 AM

Oops, you are absolutely right.
I feel pretty silly...

New IB will be uploaded.

No, this is not possible. Pentominos don't touch each other diagonally.

Hi Richard,

I'm definitly looking forward to this. Just printed the practice material, there are some puzzles, I wanted to do for a long time. Unfortunately my solving percentage in the puzzle portal dropped a lot during the last years, there are just too many puzzles out there to keep up everywhere.

However, I'm a little bit confused about your answer to kiwijam. His example seems valid according to the rules in the instruction booklet.

Now something funny is happening.
Of all the puzzles of this type that I published in the puzzle portal so far, none had a question like this in the comments. Also the test solvers didn't mention something about it.

But in fact you (and kiwijam) are right. Following the instructions, some 'unwanted' positioning of pentos is possible.
This type is getting incredible hard if pentos are allowed to 'fit together like jigsaw pieces'. That was not my intention when I developed the first puzzle of this type a few years ago.

I think it is wise to rephrase the instructions or add a sentence.
Something like: 'each pentomino can touch one or more other pentominos, but a pentomino segment can touch only one other pentomino'.
Is that a phrase that makes it all more clear or does anyone have a better alternative?

I remember a discussion whether or not three pentominos can met at a point, but I can't find the particular puzzle right now. It might also be one of your "Pentominoschleifen" or one of Luigis puzzles. I also solved two of these, but I can't remember that I had problems with the description. However, as far as I remember, I found them much harder than other solvers difficulty rating intended. Maybe the ones I solved are unique even without it, and it makes them much easier to use this additional rule.

I think "There is no point where three or more pentominos met." is a short addition that makes everything clear. This also excludes the case of diagonally touching pentominos, because only two would violate the loop rule, and more is not allowed.

Edited by Realshaggy 2013-09-03 5:09 PM

Added this to the instructions.
New IB is uploaded.

Two more links to extra practise puzzles:

As easy as ABC - No Touch
Sudokakuro

Before the test starts I will publish the last two practise puzzles:
As easy as Chaos ABC (Thursday)
Pentomino in the Box (Friday)

Enjoy!

Another question about Prime Domino. If there are no shaded squares in a domino, is the total necessarily non-prime?

According to the instructions it is possible that two white cells in one domino add to a prime number.

Today the Easy as Chaos ABC was published.

Wow, can't find the break in any killer skyscrapers, not even in the one from the booklet ...
Can someone give me a nudge on any of the three please ?

And here is the last practise puzzle: Pentomino in the Box

The test starts in less than two hours.

Good luck to all participants!
Have fun!

Richard

Ugh. Not pleased with my performance, but the puzzles were great. However, I did lose about 10 minutes on an error in the instructions for 12 (Spiral City). Instructions claim the numbers go from 1 to 32, but there are only 30 segments. My math on the two center rows just refused to work until I threw out the 31 and 32 segments. Probably could have figured out one or two other puzzles in the time, but it still would've been awful. :)

Regardless, thanks for the entertaining set!

You are right. Just added a note in the Submission page about this typo.

The puzzles were indeed really really good -- one of my favorite recent tests. But I had terrible luck with timing, finishing the Sudokakuro just 5 seconds too late (of course it'd have taken another 10 seconds to copy down the answer key). Sigh.

Link to score page : http://logicmastersindia.com/2013/09P/score.asp

Great puzzles Richard, thank you! I'm glad they were easier than most of your portal ones.

One comment on the submission page: Is it possible to have the puzzle numbers (1-20) included as well as the names? It would be much faster to find the correct location to enter the answer, especially as some of the puzzles had similar names.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Mostly perfect answer keys
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
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 balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Fairly balanced
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
What was your opinion about the answer key extraction?	Perfect answer keys
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
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