Corrections on the instructions are stated below. Meiosis Tapa will have a new example puzzle, edited version of the IB will be posted soon.

1. Combined Tapa:
Digital Tapa: Any digit has the possibility of being zero.
Ir-irregular Tapa: Each irregular shape counts as many cells as the unit squares it contains.

10. Meiosis Tapa:
Some of the given clue digits may be divided in half. This may happen in two different ways: Digit splits into two and creates two identical digits; or digit is only divided by two and results in a single number. Multi-digit clue cells may have divided and undivided digits together. If a digit divides in half and results in a decimal, each digit in the result counts as a new Tapa clue (e.g. if the original clue is 3, it becomes 1-5 after the division). Resulting digit of a division cannot be divided again.

So if I get it right a 22 clue can be a either of the following:
22 (no division)
21 (one divided by two)
211 (one divided in two)
11 (two divided by two)
111 (one divided by two, one divided in two)
1111 (two divided in two)

Edited version of the IB is uploaded.

Yes, all cases are possible.

Sorry,this is a bit ridiculous,in my opinion.Having so many possibilities for a clue may only increase confusion.Its hard to figure out possibilities from the large mappings during the test.I believe it should be as simple as possible.

Maybe there should be a small clarification to the ir-iregular Tapa rules. Currently it reads that each shape counts as as many cells it contains. But that's not exactly correct as it could be interpretted that a 3 cell area which touch the Tapa clue with 1 cell is counted as 3 cells, even though it's only meant to be counted as 1 cell.
It's supposed to mean each cell in a shape counts towards a tapa clue if it's touching the clue.


On a side note. Can anyone explain how to approach the Full Tapa example? I don't see a way to get started.

Second set of practise puzzles have now been posted. Hope they help.

http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com/2012/03/tvc-xi-practise-part-2.h...

How exactly does the answer key work for Fractional cells? If you look at row 4 or row 7 for example,it can get a bit confusing.


For row 7 is it
1,2,4 (count all squares that are touching as 1)
1,2,3 (the bottom of the fractional cell only)
1,2,1,1 (the top of the fractional cells only)
1,2,2.75 (all cells touching, but fractional cells counted as fractions like in the clues)

For row 4 it's even so that the fractioned cell has two seperate pathways running off the same cell.

Deb edited to add the solution image.

Edited by Para 2012-03-16 12:13 PM

If R6C6 is used by a vertical word,it can be One ,zero,two,six or four.One,two,six fail as it leaves a white space of 2 cells in the top-right corner.Four or zero leave R6C3-4 white,so they fail too.that leaves r6C6 with a horizontal word,which is atleast 4 long to satisfy the black block in the last row.A 4-letter word would leave a V-shaped 5 which leaves a white space in R5 that cant be filled.So only three can use the 6th row.This completes 6 and the entire right half.R1C6 must be black.Done!

Edited by anurag 2012-03-16 5:52 PM

Correct, the rules are badly written

Puzzle Points Group 1. Combined Tapa 154 Puzzles 1-3 2a. Mad Max Tapa 13 Puzzles 1-3 2b. Mad Max Tapa 136 Puzzles 1-3 3. Fractional Tapa 55 Puzzles 1-3 4. Dissected Tapa 63 Puzzles 4-7 5. Visionary Tapa 138 Puzzles 4-7 6. Full Tapa 146 Puzzles 4-7 7. Modern Tapa 43 Puzzles 4-7 8. Power of Tapa 192 Puzzles 8-10 9. Tapa Balance 47 Puzzles 8-10 10. Meiosis Tapa 64 Puzzles 8-10

Announcements Password protected pdf is uploaded. It has 10 pages (including a cover page) 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 : 1051 Bonus : 10 points per minute saved Grace Period : 5 minutes Penalty : 8 points per minute used (Computed upto seconds)

Last set of practise puzzles are posted. I hope they have been helpful.

http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com/2012/03/tvc-xi-practise-part-3.h...

Can this question be answered, please? It seems kinda important for the test to know how the answer key works for this particular type. If it's irrelevant because no fractional cells will be in the answer rows and columns that would also help to know.

Edited by Para 2012-03-17 6:37 AM

Para: The test's puzzle did not mark rows or columns with a divided cell, so it's fine. (edit: ok'd to say this by Deb in an email)

Thanks for the great test. As my post in this topic suggested and as my comment on motris's blog made more explicit, I was really worried about the set of variations here, but the test turned out to be the load of fun a TVC usually is. Happy with how I did, but taking it so early means it's a long wait to see how I compare with others...

Edited by MellowMelon 2012-03-17 7:52 AM

Hey it was a wonderful test , after series of screwed performances.
I liked combined tapa and visionary tapa the most.
Thanks for this wonderfull puzzles to LMI and authors.
Initially i was even not able to understand rules of the puzzles, but thanks to Prasanna for clearing doubts and also to Para for practice puzzles..
:) :)

You're welcome.
Well done on the test. Its my turn to have a series of messed up performances now. Hopefully that ends in TVC XII but I guess this puts me back quite a bit. :\ Ah well.

I'm still uncertain about the Ir-irregular Tapa. Especially as the unofficial test puzzle by Para seems to follow different rules!?

Is the following correct: I blacken some areas. Each area has to be either completely black or completely white. When checking the clues and the 2x2-condition the blackened areas are treated as separate black squares.


Regards,

Calavera

Yes, thats right. A 2x1 area for example shall be counted as two cells for clue-counting purposes and a L-shaped Trimino that gets shaded means that 3 cells out of a 2x2 region are shaded. Hope that clears it up.

A beautiful set of puzzles again... Thanks Serkan, you really have the skill of transforming any Tapa variant into a fantastic puzzle grid.

Very enjoyable puzzles, thanks Serkan!

Beautiful puzzles. Wasn't excited when the IB came out but these puzzles were fantastic.

Congratulations again to MellowMelon for winning TVC XI by a huge margin. xevs and deu take 2nd and 3rd position respectively. EKBM also played really well, but had a mistake in one puzzle. Out of 126 players, 109 players got non-zero scores. The table on the right shows cumulative normalized scores of top 10 players.

TVC IX TVC X TVC XI Total MellowMelon 748.2 1000 1000 2748.2 motris 1000 651.5 840.1 2491.6 deu 857.9 643.1 848.1 2349.1 Para 857.9 721 693.8 2272.8 Kota 726.2 836.9 635.5 2198.6 tomek_s 720 586.9 826.9 2133.8 nyuta 681.3 622.4 717 2020.7 xevs 791 313.2 912.1 2016.3 misko 742.2 586.9 684 2013.1 anderson 711.1 589.1 686.7 1986.9

With Serkan not around, I'll put some remarks like he does every time.

There were lot of discomfort among players when the IB was released, must be because of so many new types and some unfamiliar rules. MellowMelon was one of the first players to participate, he had a great performance, but he also posted in forum immediately that the puzzles were nice. Thanks and congratulations for yet another superb performance.

- The puzzle solved by least competitors was Power of Tapa. It was solved by 20 competitors.
- The puzzle solved by most competitors was Fractional Tapa. It was solved by 96 competitors.
- The puzzle with the highest rating was Visionary Tapa (9.28) and the puzzle with the lowest rating was Mad Max Tapa (Top) (6.16).
- The puzzle submitted with the highest accuracy was Dissected Tapa (100%), 64 competitors), lowest was Mad Max Tapa (Bottom) (48.89%, 22/45 competitors)

Here is the link to Cumulative results table - http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/2012.asp

See you all in the next and final round.

So as I said a few days ago, the test did turn out to be really great. One suggestion I have that would scare everyone less is to not complicate the IB more than it needs to be. Specifically, say up front that the test's Meiosis Tapa would have only even numbers and no multi-number clues. I guess it's possible the IB was released before the puzzle was ready and/or finalized, but that variation as it was in the IB was just plain unwieldy. It's intimidating as hell to have a clue like 1 2 that can function as 1 2, 1 1 1, 1 1, or 1 5 (this possibility eliminates a lot of connectivity logic the clue might have otherwise). The test puzzle itself was great though.

Still not a fan of Mad Max. One good thing about logic puzzles like these is that as hard as solving them can be, checking them is usually easy and straightforward. But for a type like Mad Max, it's almost impossible to be totally sure you have the right answer; computationally, verifying a solution is as hard as solving the puzzle. I think the low success rate on that second puzzle is both not surprising and not a good thing.

I wasn't really enthusiastic at first when I saw the IB, but found enough interesting variants to fill my 75+ minutes after taking a closer look to all the puzzles.
Unfortunately I spent a lot of time on the meiosis tapa, running into contradictions at the same place all the time. I thought to have understand the rules properly, but obviously it's not. So I am very much interested in the solution. If someone can post it here in the forum I would be happy.

Because of the time spent on the meiosis, I just missed the Visionary tapa by a minute. It was a wonderful puzzle, with a brilliant start. Thanks Serkan!