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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
  
Country : India | The object placement round was hard in 2016 and it ended up on the harder side in 2017 as well. The results also look similar - The top 3 (among those who participated, from last year's list) are the same as well.
And, yes, the answer keys for akari and minesweeper do need improvement. |
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rakesh_rai
Posts: 774
Country : India | rob - 2017-03-18 2:54 AM
...Worse, the example is uniquely solvable with the given solution with the following rules: Normal battleships. Equals sign between cells means both cells are filled or both are empty. Less than sign between cells means that if the "smaller" cell is filled, then also the "greater" cell must be filled. That sounds more "thermo" than "inequality".
For me, the example was good enough and since all the signs were placed in the centre row/column, it was quite apparent that the inequality relation applies to the two vertical/horizontal halves. |
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greenhorn
Posts: 164
Country : Slovakia | rakesh_rai - 2017-03-21 9:17 PM
For me, the example was good enough and since all the signs were placed in the centre row/column, it was quite apparent that the inequality relation applies to the two vertical/horizontal halves.
Agree, the example was fine. However I get confused by the Observer instructions. I am probably to lazy to read (or understand ) the rules carefully, but it took me few minutes to realize that the numbers are always excluding the cell itself. I am not sure whether it is usual or not, but most of the puzzles like Cave or Kuromasu operate with "including" rule. I can not see any reason why to change the rules from time to time.
Anyway, this test was great and even though I was disappointed by my performance, I really enjoyed solving the puzzles. Just after the test, I am quite surprised by my ranking. I would never guess, that incomplete solution may lead to 11th position. However the difficulty of tests within a series should be more balanced in the future. |
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chaotic_iak
Posts: 241
Country : Indonesia | greenhorn - 2017-03-22 12:50 AM
I get confused by the Observer instructions. I am probably to lazy to read (or understand) the rules carefully, but it took me few minutes to realize that the numbers are always excluding the cell itself. I am not sure whether it is usual or not, but most of the puzzles like Cave or Kuromasu operate with "including" rule. I can not see any reason why to change the rules from time to time.
Some puzzles (I can't remember which ones; I think Doors is one, but I know there are more ) normally don't count the cell itself. Different genres develop differently. |
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chaotic_iak
Posts: 241
Country : Indonesia | rakesh_rai - 2017-03-22 12:17 AM
rob - 2017-03-18 2:54 AM
...Worse, the example is uniquely solvable with the given solution with the following rules: Normal battleships. Equals sign between cells means both cells are filled or both are empty. Less than sign between cells means that if the "smaller" cell is filled, then also the "greater" cell must be filled. That sounds more "thermo" than "inequality".
For me, the example was good enough and since all the signs were placed in the centre row/column, it was quite apparent that the inequality relation applies to the two vertical/horizontal halves.
That's the problem with instructionless puzzles; when the variant idea gets unusual enough, it might be easier to come up with other unrelated rules. I would have just used the inequality signs on the row/column numbers to make it clear. |
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mstang
Posts: 74
Country : United States | mstang posted @ 2017-03-22 5:05 AM Why not a simple one-per-column extraction for Akari and Minesweeper (one circle in each column, then write O for bulb/mine, X for none)? |
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Nikola
Posts: 103
Country : Serbia | Nikola posted @ 2017-03-22 6:09 AM Congratulations to the top solvers and thank you all for your participation, feedback and comments. We know that test wasn't so easy for beginners, even if it is solvable for the best players in almost an hour. |
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natapi
Posts: 2
Country : Thailand | natapi posted @ 2017-03-22 8:05 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 | | | Which set of puzzles did you like the most? | Minesweeper | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
I have enter the answer correctly, but the score isn't shown up |
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ABcDexter
Posts: 50
Country : India | | 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? | Minesweeper | | | What was your opinion about the answer key extraction? | Mostly perfect answer keys | | | 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 | |
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@ 2017-03-21 9:10 PM (#22706 - in reply to #22705) (#22706) Top