An updated version of IB uploaded with following 2 changes.

Here is the second part of practise puzzles: http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/tvc-xviii-practise-pa...

I hope they are helpful. Enjoy.

I don't know how to answer Tapa-Like Loop. For example, if there is an answer key in Row 2 of the example in IB, which will be right, 212 or 23?

For the 4x4 tapa, if there is an arrow at the left of the grids, do I enter the number of cells from just the leftmost grid, or from the two grids all the way across?

Each of the grid will have own arrows. So for your example, just for the lefmost grid.

We missed the exception of this one in the IB. We'll update of the IB and we'll add it to PB with example to avoid any confussion. Thanks for your remark.

The answer format will be: "Write the lengths of the separate line segments lying towards the marked rows/columns."

Announcements Password protected puzzle has 11 pages (including a cover page with points table) Time bonus will be computed after you click 'Claim Bonus' Penalty will be given irrespective of correctness of submission Contest Length : 75 minutes Total Points : 1000 Bonus : 4 points per minute saved (Computed upto seconds) Grace Period : 5 minutes Penalty : 6 points per minute used (Computed upto seconds)

Contest has started.

Password is wrong. I can't open Puzzle Booklet

The captions of Not Alone Tapa(2) are printed "8A,8B,8C" instead of "8D,8E,8F"...

Fixed.

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
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 Fatih and Serkan for another great set of puzzles. I didn't quite manage to finish in time this time around, will have to wait for other results to judge that. It certainly felt like solving closer to the limit than on the previous contest.

One genuine mistake due to reading a 115 as 15 in the second Tapa-Like Loop, should have noticed it wasn't unique that way. Some of the logic on the hard Loop escaped me, but I really enjoyed it on the resolve.

The second Tapa LITS was a very satisfying solve, though considering my points/time, it seems it took me too long to see the classic Tapa connectivity break. Maybe there was a quicker way in via LITS? Scrabble was slow, Connection fast (one of my favourites).

I found the Not Alone Tapas to be quite strange but very fun to solve. I'm learning to really like Dissected Tapa, Black Hole had some very elegant logic of which I missed half... 4x4 is also really interesting, somewhat similar to Dissected. I wasted a bit of time on that one, having to restart after finding almost the correct solution.

A great set, thank you again!

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
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 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
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

For Black Hole, can a single cell contain multiple black holes? And if so, are they additive?

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
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?	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
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

Many thanks to the authors.
I found the second LITs was toughest (pointwise).

I'm lucky I didn't finish 5 minutes earlier, because then I would have clicked "Claim Bonus" and stopped.
But because there's no bonus to claim in the last 5 minutes, instead I thought I should double-check a couple of answer keys, specifically the 4x4 which I'd filled in on one grid only. And quickly spotted an answer entry error, so was able to fix it and avoid losing 40 points!

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
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?	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
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?	Perfectly 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?	A bit too many puzzles
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 hard puzzles
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)
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?	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
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

Tapa Connection, in particular, was a beautiful puzzle.

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
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

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

Got very lucky with Not Alone high pointer as well as 4x4 Tapa where I just completely intuited it. Made a huge mess of the Black Hole, and really didn't expect such a good result. My favorite was definitely Tapa Connection.

I did use the connectivity break forced by the 1-1-2, which meant the Tapa must travel via the last two columns. Knowing this, out of the two configurations for the 3-1-1 clue, the one where the "3" is "above" it basically forces the 1-2 clue to be used twice before it goes up which contradicts things for the 7.

Scrabble was quick for me because I took a gamble and mainly focused on drawing lines dependent on size of words, starting with 4 being minimum. This actually ends up solving most of the puzzle to a point where you get both the 4-length areas which means you can do two things, extend the others to at least 5, and also get some words in. I just filled in the letters in the connection spots and was able to complete it this way.