WPF Puzzle GP 2020

[Nilz]

Fwiw, I wouldn't describe this discussion as 'controversy', so I don't think you have anything to be concerned about, Tom.

[detuned]

Maybe things are getting to me, but it’s beginning to get more than a little wearing to seemingly get into arguments like this every time I have the temerity to suggest how things might be improved. It’s almost as if people think I’m coming from a position of sour grapes or bad faith towards whoever it might be that was responsible for the thing I think might be improved.

Would people prefer if I just shut up? Perhaps I’m deluding myself into thinking I have any kind of useful contribution to make on these issues.

[Feadoor]

It doesn't read to me, Tom, as if anyone is shooting down your ideas or trying to have an argument. Just like you have expressed your views on the matter, so have others. No bad faith to my eyes.

[pinkagape]

What's happening with Round 6? I can't see the Competition Puzzles? Has the glitch mentioned on the site not been resolved yet?

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Server problems still persist. My expectation is that the competition will be postponed to next weekend.

[pinkagape]

Postponed until after the last round now.

Gives me a chance to see if anyone could do the Honey Islands and Easy As Japanese Railway examples from the IB.

I couldn't work out how to get started at all in the Honey Islands. What are we supposed to be looking for to break in?

Easy As Japanese Railways I could start on the top row but then struggled. Given the huge points score, I can't imagine I'll be doing the competition one either, but is there a technique I'm missing for making further progress?

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Honey Islands doesn't tend to be very logical; it's very much an intuitive type. I can draw a parallel with numberlink here; both are examples of 'efficient packing' puzzles, which don't tend to be particularly prone to logic.

As for Easy As Japanese Railways, I also found the example rather difficult; I think the size of the puzzle is deceptive. A general bit of advice is to keep in mind that every row must contain the set of letters; coupled with Japanese clues, this can quite severely restrict where the railway can go. This also means you should look at rows/columns which only have a few cells not occupied by the railway. For the example specifically, I found resolving the leftmost columns and the rightmost columns to be the key, though both sides were fairly tricky.

[Puzzle_Maestro]

I've made a couple of practice puzzles, which I will share here:

Japanese Tren: https://tinyurl.com/y9ae7996. I've used question marks inside the grid here; these simply mean the respective automobiles can move any number of squares (including 0).

Japanese Column Dance: https://tinyurl.com/y9pcy269. Each question mark represent some non-zero number. The IB implies that these won't be present in the competition puzzle, but I couldn't reach a unique puzzle without them.

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Preliminary results for round 6 (EDIT: a lot of people have been awarded points for previously incorrect answers to the 159-pointer)

2. Freddie Hand 988.5 (70:27)
20. Neil Zussman 719
24. James McGowan 692

Pretty frustrating to come second with such a high score, but there were quite a few over-valued puzzles in that round (the Easy as Japanese Railways and second Railways come to mind).

I'd never realised the trick with 3x3 sums before; namely that if you sum the middle row, middle column and two diagonals, and subtract 45, the result is triple the central cell. Would have saved a lot of time; I ended up having to systematically bash the second Sums.

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Preliminary results for Round 7:

2. Freddie Hand 1120.7 (57:56)
19. Neil Zussman 681
37. James McGowan 608

Another frustrating loss to Ken, though understandable given the amount of time I burned on the Sudokus. Higher scores across the board as expected, with a lot of familiar genres (or because of dodgy point values?)

[pinkagape]

I had a horrendous time. Not sure what went wrong but I must have broken more than I solved.

[pinkagape]

It’s the last round of Puzzle GP this weekend, in case anyone’s missed it.

Also, I was trying to work through Round 7 after my abysmal mess and can’t get started on the larger Heyawake. Can anyone give me a start on it?

[puzzlemad]

Anyone else getting problems getting onto the GP pages? I'm getting error messages saying that the connection isn't private and someone might be trying to steal information. I did manage to get on yesterday.

[Hausigel]

I received a message that the GP website uses a certificate which has expired on August 22, but told the browser (Firefox) to continue and accept the risk, which worked for me.

[puzzlemad]

I received a message that the GP website uses a certificate which has expired on August 22, but told the browser (Firefox) to continue and accept the risk, which worked for me.

Thank you. I have managed to get in now.

[puzzlemad]

It’s the last round of Puzzle GP this weekend, in case anyone’s missed it.

Also, I was trying to work through Round 7 after my abysmal mess and can’t get started on the larger Heyawake. Can anyone give me a start on it?

I think I've done it, but not convinced I've not missed a step.

Anyway, start: 2 bottom left - can be completed.
1s in the top right - you can work out which of the cells of each of those areas need to be shaded.
3x3 single cells bottom right - Rule out the centre cell being shaded, then you should be able to work out that the cell above the 0 is shaded.

Column 5 row 8 can then be determined.
See if this helps.

[Puzzle_Maestro]

Preliminary results for round 8:

2. Freddie Hand 860.5
7. Neil Zussman 663.5
36. James McGowan 496

And thus, this year’s series has concluded, with the unfortunate lack of playoffs.

Preliminary final standings:

3. Freddie Hand 4678.7
11. Neil Zussman 3998.5
29. James McGowan 3533

[pinkagape]

Perfect Liane. It was the bottom right centre square that I hadn’t seen but that helped me to go through. A very nice puzzle once that was opened. Thank you.