Tapa Variations Contest XV

Date: 14th - 16th September 2013

Length: 75+5 minutes

IB and Submission Link : http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/XV/

Does the Double Tapa (#29) example have two solutions? (R2C5 can be white or grey)

Edited by kiwijam 2013-08-27 2:44 AM

Please note that voting ends on Friday (i.e. before TVC XIV starts). So little less than 4 days as I post this.

Voting is closed now.

[Although the forum will allow you to vote, you will notice that your options are not being stored, but you will not see any warnings.]

Link to original post : TVC XV Practise: Introduction

This weekend is TVC XV at Logicmasters India. It features five variants new to the TVC. The other five have appeared before. Many of the new variants have been posted on blogs before though. I will again try to write a practise puzzle for each variant. But here's again a collection of links to examples of these Tapa variants. If someone else knows of more exaples, feel free to add some links to them in the comments.

You will also again be able to vote for some of the variants which will appear in TVC XVI. I think this might be because some of the variants are getting a bit sketchy and Serkan wants to judge if people like the idea of certain variants or not in advance. Sometimes it's tricky to make a variant idea work, especially if you don't have any examples of it yet.
I would have found it interesting that TVC XVI would have featured a single variant as the main focus and make double variant puzzles. My best suggestion would have been Pata as that only changes what the clues indicate. So a Pata Islands or Pata Elimination is easily possible. I think that might be fun too.

Links to puzzles:

Tapa Regional:
http://mellowmelon.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/puzzle-389/
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201209P
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/tvc-xiv-practise-part-2.html
http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/XIV/

Hexa Tapa:
http://oapc.wpc2009.org/archive.php?id=52
http://valezius.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/nr-992-hexa-tapa.html

Outside Tapa:
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=TVC8

Total False Tapa:
http://valezius.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/nr-989-total-false-tapa.html
http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/IX/
http://logicmastersindia.com/TVC/X
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/tvc-ix-practise.html
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/tvc-x-practise.html

Tapa [Skyscrapers]:
http://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/puzzle-28-tapa-skyscrapers/
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/puzzle-no-172-tapa-skyscrapers/
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/puzzle-no-316-336-polish-championship-set/
 
Tapa Doubleback:
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/puzzle-70-tapa-double-back.html
http://valezius.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/aa.html (without Tapa clues)
http://inabapuzzle.com/honkaku/disco.html (without Tapa clues)

Compass Tapa:
http://buyaketa.blogspot.com/2012/02/compass-tapa.html
http://mellowmelon.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tvc12-practice.pdf
http://puzzleparasite.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/tvc-xii-practise-part-3.html
http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=TVC12
http://yureklis.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/puzzle-10-compass-tapa/

Kakuro-Style Tapa:
http://anuragthefirst.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/kakuro-style-tapa_2575.html
http://anuragthefirst.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/kakuro-style-tapa_3.html

Twopa:
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/puzzle-no-111-two-pa/
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/puzzle-no-113-two-pa-part-two/
http://prasannaseshadri.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/puzzle-no-115-two-pa2/


Posted in TVC, Puzzleless, LMI

Practice puzzles from Bram - Part 1

In total false Tapa pl clarify the follwing.
1. If a single digit be divided in to two. Can the sum of the two digits equal to the given number.

Edited by devarajand 2013-09-12 2:07 PM

Yes, the rules allow for that.
In one of the examples created by Bram you can see a 2 clue in the corner which has to become a 1-1 clue in the final solution.

Yes. If the false clue is '3'.
The real clue can be: 11 / 12 / 14 / 15 / 22 / 24 / 111 / 112 / 122 / 1111
Two cases ( 12 / 111) the sum is 3 which is possible.

Part 2

Puzzle Points 1. Tapa [Regional] 108 2. Hexa Tapa 94 3. Outside Tapa 89 4. Total False Tapa 33 5. Tapa [Skyscrapers] 72 + 77 6. Tapa Double Back 48 + 63 7. Compass Tapa 57 + 106 8. Kakuro-Style Tapa 59 + 60 9. No-Islands Tapa 72 10. Twopa 31 + 31

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 : 5 points per minute saved (Computed upto seconds) Grace Period : 5 minutes Penalty : 11 points per minute used (Computed upto seconds)

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 their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

In Compass TAPA is it a must to have a white cell below the arrow mark.

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?	Average
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 their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

In Compass TAPA is it a must to have a white cell below the arrow mark.

I assume you're mentioning this for arrows pointing upward. If so, then no. You could have a shaded cell below the arrow mark that could be a dead-end right? The rule is only that, that cell can reach the star only in the direction of the arrow.

Problems with the printer at the start, and one of the papers tearing on the way out isn't a good way to start off. Thankfully just lost about 2-3 minutes in this. The frustrations went away soon.

Its a good thing the Hexa Tapa was easy, if it was big plus hard, that'd be too much for a time-solving environment I think. As it is, it fitted in well and I really liked it. A big compass Tapa is scary. Really scary. Quite a relief when I saw that was right. The Double Back bottom was probably my favorite, just a few little double back deductions needed before the Tapa takes over, with a nice theme. The top one with the 3-3s affecting the ring around the middle was cool too. I usually am horrible at No Islands, but thankfully it went smoothly here.

Thanks for another fun test, Serkan.

How can you be "usually horrible" at a new variant?

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?	A bit too few puzzles
Of the puzzles you solved/attempted, how well did their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	Most puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right

Well I took an hour on the example in the IB and about 25 minutes on your practice puzzle

In Twopa there are two solutions but either solution could be 10a or 10b. Does this mean that when submitting answers there are two correct options for entering 10a and 10b?

Yes, it works exactly as you mention

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 their point values reflect the difficulty/time spent?	All puzzles were worth the right amount
What was your opinion of the booklet formatting and printing?	Just right