croco-puzzle

[berni]

Today Ü-Rätsel 2 had to be replaced due to a posting of the puzzle in the Logic Masters Forum . All highscores that have been recorded before 10:30 am have been removed.

[deu]

Today Ü-Rätsel 2 had to be replaced due to a posting of the puzzle in the Logic Masters Forum . All highscores that have been recorded before 10:30 am have been removed.

Really sad . I didn't know that replaced U2 is the real competition puzzle before visiting here. I guess this applies to some other participants. I think today's Masyu should be removed from ratings.

[PuzzleScot]

I remember having to make a choice on which way to tie the loop together, and it worked. I'm guessing that my other option would have worked too?

[berni]

Really sad . I didn't know that replaced U2 is the real competition puzzle before visiting here. I guess this applies to some other participants. I think today's Masyu should be removed from ratings.

You are not the only one... So finally, tomorrow I'll remove it. Everything else would be unfair. And sorry to all who managed to get a good time...

[detuned]

I had a good time on the old puzzle, and a nightmare on the new one - I'm not so fussed!

[dickoon]

Congratulations to kiwijam for being the first UK solver to reach 1st dan! At last we have a black belt among our ranks, as well as a 1st kyu, two 2nd kyus, a 3rd kyu, a 5th kyu, a 6th kyu and more. Looking strong!

My 200-Durchsnitt (red line!) has crawled up to 1193, but I have this horrible suspicion it'll get up to 1198 or 1199 but never actually reach 1200 to tip me into being a single-figure kyu, especially as I appear to have stagnated around the high-1100s and have dragged my 50-Durchsnitt (green line!) down below the red one. We shall see, but I fear that before long the only way for me is down...

[kiwijam]

Cheers Chris, a black belt you say?
Now I can go and protect the streets from the petty gangsters of the puzzle world...
Anyway, thanks to you and the UK croco-puzzlers for helping push me up...

[dickoon]

OK. So you might be wondering how someone can get 15 Fehlversuches on a single puzzle. The problem is that I kept pressing "Testen" and seeing an error message, but without seeing what it was actually referring to, because I have a slightly small window which does not show the whole of the puzzle window (long, boring story; this computer runs very hot, and I haven't changed the size preference to reflect this computer...) and so did not actually see the 2 and the 4 above the puzzle. My solution was perfect if those extra constraints weren't there, so I was very mystified. That probably accounted for between 10 and 12 of the Fehlversuches at a guess, but the rest were legit.

Yes, I do check my work before I press the Testen button, unless it's a 30-second puzzle, but evidently not very well!

[PuzzleScot]

Good grief! One for the cv - I beat Mr McNeill on a sudoku puzzle!

[kiwijam]

Is there any logic to solving a Doppel Block puzzle?
I've just tried yesterday's 7x7 puzzle (top-clues = 8,6,0,6,0,0,3; left-clues = 8,12,3,0,1,5,0).
I put a circle in R2C4 and that was all I could do. Then I tried every combination of black blocks, until 12 minutes later I found the one that fit. I'd gone through about 90% of my options at that point.
I think in general my good times have come from lucky guessing, and poor times from unlucky guesses. Is there something more to this puzzle type that I'm missing?

[david mcneill]

James,

There was no logic apart from R2C4. Probably would have been possible to find a quick guessing path, but I didn't find it.

Alan,

Enjoy your success. I hope it won't be happening again soon!!

[PuzzleScot]

Alan, Enjoy your success. I hope it won't be happening again soon!!

Agreed

In the meantime, Slalom - there's one to be avoided. Frustration has clearly got the better of someone, setting (what I believe is) a new FVS record:

199. Madla 10 std, 41 min, 59 sek 110 Fehlversuche

Also, presently over 50% of solvers have at least 1 FVS against them.

[PuzzleScot]

I just noticed that uvo and mars are missing from the ratingsliste. Most surprised at the former's absence!
While I'm here - Is Neil on croco?

[detuned]

Presumably that's an inactivity thing, which is fair enough in my opinion.

[berni]

Presumably that's an inactivity thing, which is fair enough in my opinion.

Indeed. People who are inactive for more than 1/2 year do not show up in the rating list. Their rating is of course still saved and will be reused when they participate the next time.

[nickdeller]

I just wanted to give a shout-out to this week's Japanische Summen Preisratsel - it's an absolutely lovely construction, probably as beautiful a puzzle as I've seen for ages. Assuming that it surely MUST be human-made, my congratulations to the puzzle-maker!

[kiwijam]

I also was quite amused by the Japanese Sums, obviously handmade and fun to do.
I thought most of croco-puzzle was computer-generated, I suppose that is just the daily puzzles.

[berni]

I also was quite amused by the Japanese Sums, obviously handmade and fun to do.
I thought most of croco-puzzle was computer-generated, I suppose that is just the daily puzzles.

Since 9/2012 the price puzzles are handmade. I've decided to try out if this is too much work. But it doesn't look like yet.

[PuzzleScot]

Was today's 'laser' the easiest puzzle ever published? Over 300 people solving under 1 minute (180+ < 30s).
The most notable aspect of the scoresheet being gorogoro attaining a '-1' (current) ranking change for a 15s solve!

[berni]

Was today's 'laser' the easiest puzzle ever published? Over 300 people solving under 1 minute (180+ < 30s).
The most notable aspect of the scoresheet being gorogoro attaining a '-1' (current) ranking change for a 15s solve!

Indeed a very fast one, but there where even a few faster puzzles (sortet by median):

Code: Select all

Ü1/2   date         type      min   med   pen
1    2010-08-21    heyawake    4    20    19
2    2011-04-05    pyramid    7    22    20
1    2011-11-14    arukone    9    23    23
2    2011-05-02    pyramid    8    25    23
2    2011-07-09    pyramid    7    27    26
2    2011-03-10    arukone    9    28    27
2    2011-07-08    pyramid    8    29    28
2    2012-06-25    laser    9    29    27
...


Have a look at the highscore table of the fastest.

[PuzzleScot]

Have a look at the highscore table of the fastest.

Wow!

[kiwijam]

Every week I complete the prize-puzzle, but never win anything. Then I was looking in the CrocoPuzzle online shop, and decided to buy the magazine of Hard puzzles (2.50 euro for ~150 puzzles should keep me quiet for a while ). Anyway, I clicked through the checkout process but couldn't figure out how to enter my credit card details. And then my purchase arrived in my Inbox, surprise!
I looked back through my email Inbox and found lots of emails with the subject "CrocoPuzzle: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Beförderung" which means I'd gone up a grade so I don't normally open them to read more, but also one with the similar subject "Herzlichen Glückwunsch!" which I hadn't opened, it turned out I'd won a prize-puzzle a year ago and so I had store credit - which had been used to pay for my purchase.
So my point is this: Next time you log in to CrocoPuzzle, click Onlineshop and look in the lower-left corner. If the Warenkorb box has a Guthaben (=Store Credit) > 0 then you too can go buy something for free. (PS and if that happens, share the good news here...)

[berni]

I looked back through my email Inbox and found lots of emails with the subject "CrocoPuzzle: Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Beförderung" which means I'd gone up a grade

If you wanna get rid of this mails you can go to "Benutzerkonto" and remove the tick at "E-Mail Benachrichtigung bei Beförderungen".

[kiwijam]

If you wanna get rid of this mails you can go to "Benutzerkonto" and remove the tick at "E-Mail Benachrichtigung bei Beförderungen".

When I was going up a rank every 10/11 days I didn't read them. But now I'd be very happy to receive another one

[dickoon]

Congratulations to Liane on making 8th kyu today! I haven't looked at people's ratings for a while, but it does appear that the UK contingent are broadly in pretty good form right now. Long may it continue!