| Colouring for simplicity and for speed |
procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2007.12.04 22:46:34
Quote: Originally Posted by naivoj I personally need Color(Shading) Rules to do this. |
Interesting. I went through without using highlander or colouring and it wasn't too bad, though highlander certainly makes it quicker. How far do you get, Naivoj?
A while back when the colouring feature was first proposed, noone was quite able to provide an example of where colouring made things faster, which was a shame for those of us who don't understand its benefits yet. I should think people have been using colouring on live puzzles for long enough now that some examples must have cropped up - it'd be great if someone could show us one here. |
Naivoj
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 314
Best Total: 33m 50s | Posted - 2007.12.05 09:19:45
I have been using coloring a lot. It helps me with the more difficult puzzles (especially hard week-end ones): so I usually get a better rank on hard puzzles. But there is the obvious cost of taking precious time to color each square which is not helping getting real fast time, like the club 19-29 times. In addition on a regular basis I have to make clicking corrections, because when you have shading on you must be more precise with the mouse:
- Sometimes I get a Color instead of a Line/Cross and vice-versa.
- If the Kwon-Tom puzzle frame was bigger (or even better RESIZABLE  ) it would be less of a problem.
I will post separate topics to show how I resolve user puzzle #251 (only one very simple color rule is required for me) and another one of your choice: so Procrastinator tell me which one you would like, out of the nine I posted.
Last edited by Naivoj - 2007.12.05 10:13:56 |
Naivoj
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 314
Best Total: 33m 50s | Posted - 2007.12.09 12:40:24
Procrastinator, or any club 19-29 members, can you indicate one of the user puzzlers 252-256 that you can not solved without using FP, Highlander or Color rules (if any), and I will post a separate topic to explain how it can be solved with color rule(s). |
djpohly
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 390
Best Total: 25m 1s | Posted - 2008.01.07 23:22:14
I had to do some what-ifs in my head, but I managed to solve each of 252-256 without Highlander or shading.
I am interested in how your color rules work though... it seems that, if there's any mathematical proof or possible simplification for these puzzles, it would come from that approach. |
Naivoj
Kwon-Tom Addict
Puzzles: 314
Best Total: 33m 50s | Posted - 2008.01.08 09:04:07
I will describe #253 since it is the one with less solvers in that series. See topic "SPOILERS for User Puzzle #251,#253 using Color Rules". |
Dizzy
Kwon-Tom Noob
Puzzles: 9 | Posted - 2008.01.24 13:18:03
How can anyone solve these puzzles without shading!?
Shading is essential to me. I don't think I could do it without shading.
Here are some examples of why shading is important to me:
(NB: this is by no means a comprehensive list of uses, it's just a quick "top of my head" rough idea of some uses that come to mind.)
1. With shading, you can see at a glance which sections of blocks must join up. If you look at the grid as a whole, you can easily see what is inside and what is outside, and it's more obvious where sections of blocks must join up together.
2. Suppose you have a load of crosses (like around "0"s) — you can shade all those interconnecting squares quickly and easily see them as an inpenetrable block, which is far harder to see with crosses.
3. Suppose you have a "3" square, and two of the adjacent squares are shaded pink. You know that the "3" square must therefore be yellow, and you can draw lines on the two sides between the pink and yellow. The same kind of principle applies with "2" and "1" squares, in certain situations.
4. Suppose you have a "3" square with just one line on it. If the other side of the line is shaded, then you know the inside is shaded the other colour.
5. Suppose you have a square shaded yellow, and a line on one side of it. The square at the other side of that line must be pink. And you can go on like this alternating. This can give you vital information.
6. Suppose you have two squares diagonal from each other with the same shaded colour. You know that one of the intermediate squares must also be that colour, and often it will be obvious which one.
7. A line reaches the edge of the grid. If there is "outside" shading on one side of it, you know that the line must head the other way, without even having to think.
8. In many situations, shading saves you having to bother with "×"s. You just shade around a line and you know there's nothing can peentrate that shading.
OK. I guess many of these are just to help speed things up. But there are definitely times when I feel shading has been crucial to solving parts of the puzzle. I remember them clearly. |
prj
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 2356
Best Total: 18m 20s | Posted - 2008.01.25 02:13:48
Quote: Originally Posted by dizzy How can anyone solve these puzzles without shading!? |
Any deduction made by shading could also be made by counting. (Trace a separate loop through the puzzle - it must cross the puzzle loop an even number of times.) The spots where you can make progress from these deductions become more visible with shading (like Xs do for other deductions), but you can get by with just counting. |
