I am very much looking forward to this - I'm sure the puzzles will be top-notch and some of the mutants seem really intriguing. Also, the bonus system looks like a lot of fun, it would definitely encourage solvers to try out puzzle types that they would have otherwise avoided during the time limit.

Thomas, I am curious as to how many points you think the winner will have earned. Assuming that it's unlikely that someone solves everything.

The test booklet has 20 puzzle pages (+ 1 cover page). Each type has a single page with the Easy and Hard (labeled as such and with 15/30 on it). There is also a single page with the Mutant puzzle, formatted in a way it will be obvious you are looking at the "mutant" and not the "normal" page, particularly for a type like say tents where the grid itself won't look different between the two types aside from tree density.

There is a 3x10 grid on the title page that may help you track progress.

The test was written with the range of LMI solvers in mind (everyone from world champion uvo to new competitors who may have never done a competition or who may be most familiar with sudoku). I expect that there will be a few solvers that can finish everything, in accord with our play-test results, but that the majority of solvers will be in a situation where they are picking which puzzles in a type to solve either to finish out an intermediate bonus. Starting with the harder examples will be worth more points in general, and then as time runs short solvers can turn to "easy" reliably to finish out a group, or people can start by clearing everything at "easy" and then choosing between "hard" or "mutant" for the second. Knowing strengths/weaknesses and budgeting time accordingly will be important for most since finishing the test will not be possible for everyone.

The bonus system was inspired by WPC Brazil which tried to achieve a similar goal (diverse solving) but in what I felt was a less effective way. Basically, each round there was split into 3/4 sections and the first puzzle solved in a section was worth more than the second which was worth more than the third and so on. The problem was that the first puzzle was often worth 30 points, the fourth puzzle worth 3 points, and score bunching happened so the overall scores were dominated by rounds where solvers earned placement/time bonuses, often worth 100x the amount of the "last puzzle" solved. Instead of being logarithmic in score, here there are exponential increases in score based on completing some number of goals. It also gives good goals for solvers at all levels. Earning even the first 150 point bonus is a great achievement for many solvers, and is something to aim for by trying some new styles instead of just doing, say, the Battleships.

According to the example for Big Tent Party, the numbers outside the grid are the number of cells covered by tents, not the number of tents as stated in the rules.

Your observation is correct, and the abbreviated instructions for the variation have not corrected for the difference. All cases should be read as "number of cells covered by tents" which happens to equal the number of tents in the normal form but does not in the mutant. The example images for both types use numbers in the intended way, as does the answer entry.

though Im not a great fan( read solver) of puzzles, this is one test I am definitely going to attempt .... not everyday we get a chance to attempt puzzles by Thomas

Rishi

In Simple Loop Mutant :
Rule says : All cells need not be visited.
and the answer key says : Starting from "A"..........

Can we assume that the cell with "A" in it will definitely be visited?

Perhaps not every day, but certainly every week :)

I must say I'm looking forward to this one and have no doubts at all this will make up for the failings of the last test! Especially the Numberlink. Although I'm a little disappointed to see that 0 is definitely out of the set for the mutant "TomTom" ;)

This is a safe assumption, but you'll realize when you see the puzzle that knowing A is visited is not really a benefit over a version of the puzzle with no letters inside.

Here's a question about the mutant nurikabe.
Quote from the IB: Each shape represents exactly one white area in the grid and each white area is represented by exactly one shape outside the grid"
Does this mean that there will be no more than 1 "1" / 1 "2" / 2 "3"s / 5 "4"s / etc in the puzzle, due to the limited number of possible n-ominoes?

There will be no repeated shapes outside the grid in this puzzle, so your "limits" are correct for what you might expect. Note that just like the example each island still maintains its correct number so if there is just 1 "3" island outside, say the bent one, then you know the 3 in the grid must adopt the bent shape and not the linear shape, which would not be the case in the regular puzzle.

How about this? (Answer is here: Figonometry)

Thanks so much. Very interesting use of white cells.

Very nice puzzle figonometry

I post (at least) one puzzle on my blog every week, and this week's Friday Puzzle will be an example of one of the mutants I've made for the test. I'm running a poll on my blog for the next day to determine what that example will be, so please make your opinion heard. I'll link to the puzzle here when it is posted, around 8 AM GMT on Friday.

Edited by motris 2010-10-14 7:37 AM

Please consider posting top 2 or 3 most voted puzzles

If anyone is in Bangalore and want to take this test offline with some of us, please read here. Sorry about hijacking this thread.

The password protected puzzle booklet is uploaded. motris has already explained the layout of the pdf is already explained here.

Also, the cover page has a points table that can also be used to keep track of solved puzzles.

Like every other test, we'll be displaying the results as soon as a player finishes the test. So please stick to the answer format.

The submission site is designed such that it will warn when an answer is typed in an unexpected format.
For example see image below,

[ In the top box commas are unexpected. In the bottom box, 6 is unexpected. ]

Before submitting, please make sure that you don't have any warnings in red color.
However, even if you have warnings, your submission will be successful, your answer will be recorded without any issues.

About submission time recording -
Please note that there is only one "Submit Answers" button for all 30 puzzles.
When you click on "Submit Answers", all the modified answers will be submitted. ('modified' meaning 'modified since you last submitted')
So individual submission time for each puzzle is stored in our database.

You can submit as many times as you want, before you time ends.
At any point in time, you can look at the message below "Submit Answers" button and see how many submissions are recorded.

Many of you voted, and I wrote a Shape Nurikabe example to introduce one of the new mutants. Here is a Shape Nurikabe that follows the rules outlined in the IB; a similarly sized puzzle willl be in the Decathlon.



Find the answer here: Shape Nurikabe Answer.

Best of luck and skill to all the competitors this weekend!

Fun! You say similarly sized, will it also be similar difficulty level?

The Instructions for the Big Tent say:
1. The numbers outside the grid indicate the number of tents in
that row or column.
2. ... each (Big) tent occupies two adjacent squares instead of just
one square.

In the Big Tent example, there is one row and one column that denote the number 3 (meaning 3 tents), but there are only 2 tents in each taking up 3 cells. Therefore, on the Big Tent puzzle, the numbers outside the grid are actually supposed to indicate the number of cells that have tents in that row or column.

I have not done the test yet, but I feel that this instruction and example discrepancy should be clarified or corrected. I see that you have addressed it in the forum, but many will not have read the forum and will struggle unnecessarily with the mutant, so you should probably update the .pdf.

Thanks.

Ken Levine
"TheSubro"

Hi Ken, as you mentioned, from the example image in the Big Tents Party it is pretty clear that the numbers represent the number of cells.

motris has already fixed these in his local copy, but we don't plan to upload the latest version in the server. Lot of players have already downloaded the IB, they won't download again unless we make an announcement. Making an announcement is always confusing, and we would like to avoid it since it is only an obvious mistake in the IB.

The test was sooo much fun, Thanks Thomas Snyder!! The bad thing though, is I've had my first submission error... forgot a line on a skyscrapers... Oh well, thanks again!!

If you are stupid and enter the Tents Mutant solution into the Tents Hard box, is there any chance of getting credit anyway? :) (which, erm, I did... oops)