Very pleasant time. I usually don't play Sudoku contests, but this one was very attractive. It would have been better for me to unterstand what "Converse rule applies" meant...

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly 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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly balanced
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit easy
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too few puzzles
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

Overall it's a fairly nice test, I enjoyed it.

It's a bit unfortunate that there was no JOC example in the test case. For submitting, after ten puzzles without popup I was pretty sure I had done something very very bad when there was a popup after the eleventh puzzle. I was confused and read the popup twice very carefully, just to more than double my solving time.

And another little thing that I don't understand: Why is there an automatic submission after 5 minutes? There are so many situations where this is bad. Can you tell me one situation where this is good?

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	A bit skewed
What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

I finally got to participate in an LMI screen test! (after co-authoring the first, authoring the second and testing the third).

Even though the B2: Repeated Neighbours has issues, I wanted to share what I did.
'3' cannot occur in R5C1, R5C2, R5C3, R6C2 due to the puzzle rules. If '3' is in R6C3, it also has to be in R5C4 but since it is a 'Just One Cell' sudoku (so, non-unique), I submitted R6C1 as '3'.

Pretty cheeky huh? Did anyone else get this weird funda? ;-)
Also, an interesting thought about using 'uniqueness' in Just One Cell, it sounds funny though.

Edited by Rohan Rao 2013-11-18 2:30 AM

Hey my friend-despite-the-fact-you took-part-in-WPC,

Interesting reasoning, although it is wrong.

"...If '3' is in R6C3, it also has to be in R5C4..." you can conclude that 3 in R6C3 is not the answer of the JOC sudoku, but you can't conclude that 3 cannot be placed in R6C3 (it can be one of the multiple solution).

I was in such a hurry about submitting my solution after having found the 3 in R5C4 that I didn't thought that it could not be possible, as it has to be in R6C3 as well (what I've seen however).

Fred

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly 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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Way too many puzzles (too little time)
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

Lots of fun! Some of them were pretty darn hard, but most of them were perfect for the quick online solve. It was definitely in reach even for someone like me to finish within the time limit.

A few of them were a lot harder to do without a pencil! A good memory exercise for me to see how much of that I could keep in my head.

The colors interface would have been nice for bifurcating at times if I could have figured out how to make it work for me instead of changing the color of everything when I clicked on a color.

Oh, forgot to mention: the popup warning about just one cell was very confusing because I had filled in just one cell! So I worried that somehow the interface thought that I had submitted a puzzle with a non-1 number of filled-in cells. It would be nice to be warned about the warning.

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?	A bit hard
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

(Semax's point too) I agree, we should've said that this will happen. That'll be noted for next time (if at all we do variant JOCs again, that requires a think through in itself), and having a JOC in the example series on interface is also a good idea.

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly 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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	A bit too many puzzles
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Fairly Nice

In the solving interface, it would have to better if we could have been given different colors for backtracking the puzzles.

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
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

How balanced do you think the puzzle types of this test were?	Perfectly 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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

Yes, I am also an 'exception' B-) B-)



I know, I feel so stupid. I had a hearty laugh after I realized what I did.

Can't remember if I made this point before - I think I did for a previous screen test - but having an "undo" button seems to take away the whole point of doing things in your head. I certainly made liberal (ab)use of it...

I'd also like to know what is "incorrect" with my E5 - JOC5 - Killer solution.

I entered R1C4 as a 6. The reasoning goes like this: 13 in the bottom right is either 256 or 346 - either way we certainly can't have R6C4 as 6. By the law of leftovers this means R1C3 cannot be a 6. The 6 in R1 must therefore go in C4 because it can't be part of a 7 or 8 cage...

edit: n/m I see e5 seems to be missing on the results page, i assume it's a bad puzzle...

Edited by detuned 2013-11-18 6:26 PM

What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?	Just right
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Average
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Average

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?	Very nice
How did you feel about the length / time limit for this test?	Just right
What is your opinion about rules, points and scoring for this test?	Very fair
What is your opinion about the solving interface?	Very nice

A nice set of puzzles. I underestimated myself and decided to skip two of the JOCs and end up finishing 20 minutes early. :(

I agree, felt a lot faster on the harder puzzles once I started trying out things. Maybe one or two levels of undo to deal with actual typos?

Hi. I completed the test. But my name is not in the scoresheet.

Sorry guys. The ST 4 Page had this link after finishing the test. This was for ST 3.

You have completed the test. Check score page at http://logicmastersindia.com/ST/ST3/score.asp



Edited by rvarun 2013-11-19 12:24 AM

We actually discussed a lot about this, and it is the reason why we ensured that if you change color, it'll change throughout, meaning color changes are only for player preference rather than guesswork. With undo, we're not sure what is a great way of doing things. My point is someone solving could honestly make a mistake and it'd help to undo to retrace. So the only use isn't guesswork, and I'm always in favor of keeping things that help normal solving even if they could be used towards shortcuts, so we decided to keep it. Maybe restricting to one or two levels is a good idea, but I personally am still non-committal to the same. Would love to hear more views on it.

I'll read back now to other points and queries. I only addressed the more pressing ones while I was away conducting a puzzle event here simultaneously over the weekend.