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.