Thanks Swaroop. Yes. The Spiral Galaxies were a bit trickier compared to the rest of the puzzles. Good to see you completed the set, which I expected as well.

In the last puzzle, in the bottom right corner, one 'I' pentomino and one 'I' tetromino were obvious. The third one could be a 5 or a 4 length 'I'. If you make it 5 there is no solution in the center area. But I think this becomes clear once you proceed from the left area.

Yes you are correct, it becomes clear when approached from left. But the problem was I took it 5 by default , don't know what made me. Anyways waiting for others performances. :)

Edited by swaroop2011 2015-11-28 10:27 AM

I enjoyed this set. Thank you so much.
BTW, why did the author make a new rule "There cannot be a circle at the intersection of four cells." in Spiral Galaxies 4/5?
In original Spiral, I think it has no problem that there appear such circles.
In fact, The puzzle in this set has multiple solutions if it permits such circles...

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?	Fillomino
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?	Fillomino
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

A nice set of puzzles. I liked the Spiral Galaxies set as well, but the Fillomino set was also nice; since I like Fillomino puzzles in general, I go with that choice.

Particular favorites: Spiral Galaxies 4, Shikaku 4, No-Rectangles Fillomino, Spiral Galaxies 4/5.

I find Shikaku 4 to be overvalued (I did it in 2 minutes), and Spiral Galaxies 4/5 as well (6 minutes, compared to Spiral Glaxies 4 which took 14 minutes). Maybe that's just because I suck at Spiral Galaxies, and Spiral Galaxies 4/5 is closer to object placement (only 5 possible shapes) than region division.

Thanks Kota. Yes. The original spiral galaxies has no restriction but, even in the spiral galaxies set of four puzzles, I did not include any such circles. And, as you said, the spiral 4/5 may have multiple solutions if we allow the 2x2 shapes.

The main reason for me to exclude the 2x2 shapes was that, for some reason, I found it difficult to determine uniqueness with them as a possibility. Also, since this was an exploratory version, I took the liberty to set the rules as per my comfort level. I hope it did turn out ok in the end.

Thanks Ivan!

(1) The first three shikakus are straight forward. Shikaku 4 is also not difficult, but there are a couple of points where you need to take the right decision. Some of the testers also spent fair amount of time on this puzzle. But, if you get the right start, it flows smoothly.

(2) Most of the solvers are definitely taking more time on Spiral Galaxies 4/5. So, as of now, it seems to be rightly valued. The main reason is that after the initial givens, the way to proceed is not explicitly obvious. A decision needs to be made - top/left/bottom. Time is spent there. Also, this one should be little unfamiliar, so I expect people would again read the rules while solving.

(3) I would say you took a bit more time on Spiral Galaxies 4 (and Spiral Galaxies 3 as well). It is supposed to be easier than spiral galaxies 4/5.

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?	Area Division
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?	Yin Yang
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?	Domino + Coral + Japanese Sums
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Very nicely balanced round, after the hard Numbers round and very hard Evergreens.

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?	Spiral Galaxies
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

Neat set. Hard to choose between Fillomino and Spiral Galaxies. Loved both.
This is one of my better performances in puzzle tests, I was able to race through the puzzles without an error. Few of my guesses directly hit the solution, probably because they are very intuitive.

Thanks Rakesh, really enjoyed solving puzzles authored by you. I think its been a long time :-)

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?	Fillomino
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 grid lines in Fillomino, Area Division and Shikaku were missing from my print-outs. Yn Yang and Spiral galaxies were OK. Very strange.

Edited by peluri 2015-11-28 4:49 PM

How did you open the pdf file and print?
Directly from browser (like Chrome)?
OR
Saved the pdf file on your laptop/desktop and then open/print?

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?	Spiral Galaxies
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

That was fun, thank you! Most of this was just quickly drawing in the solution. I guessed on the large Yin Yang, and the 4/5 galaxies was an "exploratory" solve.

I could see that one being quite frustrating for players who breeze through everything and then get stuck...

Regarding the puzzle quality: I felt that for a lot of the types, the puzzles didn't really cover the available logic as well as on previous instances, but that may just be a consequence of the puzzles being so easy that they didn't all force a solving path.

I faced the exact same problem when I tried to print it directly which made me waste about 5 mins before I could solve the first Yin Yang.The problem can be avoided if you save it as a pdf file and then print it out .Atleast,this was the remedy in my case.

@peluri, It seems you have faced this kind problems earlier ( #post 16955 ) also.
I strongly feel the resolution is same as what kishy72 mentions. You should first save the file on your laptop/desktop, then double click to open and print from there.

The inbuilt browser in Google chrome is known to mess up pdf rendering among other things, you will find several links on how to disable the pdf viewer in chrome.

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 hard puzzles
What did you think about the puzzle quality of the test?	Very nice
Which set of puzzles did you like the most?	Fillomino
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

Had any expectations or predictions going for me ? :)




Indeed.This was exactly my first afterthought upon completion of the test.Seldom do I choose "Just Right" in the "What was your opinion of the distribution of easy/hard puzzles?" category.Mostly,my choice would be too many hard puzzles .Not that I have anything in particular against the test but just that the puzzles would be too hard, subjectively speaking.But this test was an exception.It ideally reflected the 50% easy, 40% medium, 10% hard concept .In my opinion, the Spiral Gal. accounted for the hard part ,Fillominoes and Yin yang taking the medium and the rest being easy.

On my personal experience,with about 30 mins left on the clock for 3 puzzles ,spiral Gal.(6 ,10 and 14), I was looking at a possible finish .But as luck would have it,I got stuck on spiral Galaxies 3 which according to me is the hardest of the set .Just kept going wrong repeatedly, until I finally completed it.I cursed myself for not attempting the 14 pointer being intimidated by its points .I completed it after the test in precisely 7 mins 53s.Ah!

Also, I noticed that I have taken a serious liking to Shikaku puzzles .I was surprised seeing my time that I completed all shikakus in a span of 7 mins. Too bad ,there is no PR round dedicated only to shikakus. :)

To conclude,this was one of those tests where I had a sense of satisfaction having completed 20/22 puzzles which I rarely get in a puzzle test with more half the puzzles left uncompleted.
Thanks Rakesh for a wonderful set!

Btw,refreshing to see Deb give a feedback or is it a new user with the ID debmohanty ? :-p :-p

I enjoy solving all the types Rakesh has selected in this test. So, this was one of the rare occasions where i solved all the puzzles before the test started. So I thought I'm eligible to give feedback this time :)

Thanks Rob!

Agree with your feedback. We will try to factor this input in future, and try to cover more available logic.

Thanks for your feedback. Does 'Neat' (in this context) mean OK?

Its not been a long time since this is my first puzzle test as an author. I think the 'region' puzzles in general work faster with intuitive solving.

No. Neat as in, it was crisp, good and overall a nice pleasant solve. Puzzles were not 'extraordinarily fantastic', but it is an excellent set for a PR round. I liked it better than Numbers, Evergreens and my own, Classics.

Yes, its your first puzzle test, but I meant in general... long after Prime Exotica and mock-tests!

@Puzlifouk, @rob: I agree that a high number of puzzles were on the easier side. Personally, I take the positive that most solvers will get a chance to try out all puzzles in the set, which rarely happens.

@wgryciuk: I didn't expect anyone would select "too many hard puzzles" but you have. Can you please share your thoughts about the hard puzzles?

Yes. I thought you would get 70. I thought you would miss out on SG3, SG4 and SG4/5 (exactly the three you did in the end). But you got 76. I am happy I was wrong.


Thanks Deb!

Well you were not wrong entirely.If you see my submission timings ,you will notice that I submitted SG3 in the dying moments!So...you predicted well :)