| ferkel's puzzles | procrastinator
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 1083
Best Total: 12m 56s | Posted - 2008.01.22 22:42:44
The first one is excellent. The second is trivial but only because of its size: it's always pretty obvious where to look next, and at this size there are no visualization dead-ends - I can solve it in my head before I do any clicking.
Great work, ferkel. It would be interesting to see a collaborative puzzle-creator project, though I dare say everyone will have incompatible pattern formats at the moment. | Brian
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 4907
Best Total: 9m 6s | Posted - 2008.01.23 03:03:10
I'd at least be interested in how your solver/generator works. Mine first generates the solution path, next fills in all the clues, and lastly removes the clues two by two (for symmetry) while it's still solvable. The rules I use for solving are the basic ones (two or zero lines at each vertex, correct number of lines surrounding clues), only one closed loop, inside-outside reasoning (i.e. color), plus slightly sophisticated "edge-pair" reasoning (for the two edges composing the corner of a square, they can be one of four combinations of lines or crosses) and one simple brute-force step (suppose an edge is a line, if it leads to a contradiction then it must be a cross, and vice-versa). Relatively simple, but it seems to make good puzzles. | ferkel
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 536
Best Total: 39m 18s | Posted - 2008.01.25 14:10:11
Thankyou for the kind words.
procrastinator, I'm totally amazed that you can solve #286 in your head, that is some serious brain wiring.
For #285 and #286 the solver method isn't relevant - the computer just removed entries while it still gave a unique solution. These were actually rejects because (for me) they're too hard to solve on paper. But the Kwon-Tom community has shown me a whole new level of sophistication in slitherlink puzzles, so they found a home.
More recently I've been working on making easier puzzles by using a set of patterns. Currently my computer is deriving all the patterns for 4 entries or fewer. Despite me thinking there were only 30 or so, it has found over 100. I'll post them here when it is finished, and we can compare notes.
Brian, your puzzles are excellent but even the Medium ones are beyond my abilities for deduction. I don't have enough patterns in my head, perhaps. I was just about to post the point at which I'd got stuck in #283 but got hit by that 1x1.gif thing... <disappointment>
Ferkel | Jankonyex
Kwon-Tom Obsessive
Puzzles: 5680
Best Total: 9m 35s | Posted - 2008.01.26 03:13:05
Quote: Originally Posted by ferkel Tl |
#283 solution
Last edited by Jankonyex - 2008.01.26 03:34:35 |
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