Search found 141 matches

by sknight
Sun 21 Jul, 2019 12:38 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2019 USPC
Replies: 6
Views: 14913

Re: 2019 USPC

Definitely challenging puzzles this year. It's worth noting that I think the individual puzzles are worth about 5 fewer points each this year, more or less uniformly across the board. I feel like a score of 155 this year is more like a score of 220 or something in previous years -- it just feels bad...
by sknight
Thu 02 Feb, 2017 1:09 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2017 Puzzle GP
Replies: 41
Views: 85947

Re: 2017 Puzzle GP

A competition like this does have to be pretty strict on correct answer keys. You'll see some leeway occasionally on things like asking for capital letters and getting lowercase, asking for comma delimited answers and getting space-delimited answers etc, but that's about it. My only complaint with t...
by sknight
Sat 28 Jan, 2017 4:27 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2017 Puzzle GP
Replies: 41
Views: 85947

Re: 2017 Puzzle GP

I do think there should be some sort of display when you log in telling you what puzzle rank you're officially competing as. I scrounged around to find previous year's results and am definitely a B at least to start with, which is about what I figured, but it wasn't easy/transparent. Anyway, the par...
by sknight
Sat 18 Jun, 2016 12:51 pm
Forum: General Puzzle Discussions
Topic: Narrow cave or tight cave?
Replies: 8
Views: 24282

Re: Narrow cave or tight cave?

"Narrow" definitely seems preferable to "tight". I think when this issue first cropped up, "Corridors" was suggested for the narrow cave variant, and that still seems good (though not a direct translation of the German). "Twisty Passages" would be a fun refere...
by sknight
Fri 05 Feb, 2016 8:02 pm
Forum: General Puzzle Discussions
Topic: GCHQ Christmas puzzle
Replies: 7
Views: 24935

Re: GCHQ Christmas puzzle

Can an answer to a puzzle of "this puzzle has two possible answers" be as satisfying as a single answer to a puzzle where you are satisfied that it is correct? Yes, but only rarely, and only if the double solution is particularly clever. The classic example from the New York Times Crosswo...
by sknight
Sun 06 Sep, 2015 11:47 am
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test
Replies: 10
Views: 26343

Re: 2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test

Provisionally about 167, which is respectable but 1-2 puzzles short of what I was hoping for. Incidentally, that's 2 on the STD, not 7, because I just ignored it until I finished the big Masyu-Crossword thing with 3 minutes to spare, and was thinking "Well, I don't really have time to start ano...
by sknight
Fri 04 Sep, 2015 8:49 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test
Replies: 10
Views: 26343

Re: 2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test

Preview instructions are available for the USPC.
A lot from Serkan this year, which sounds promising.
by sknight
Sun 30 Aug, 2015 2:14 pm
Forum: General Puzzle Discussions
Topic: Nonogram / Tsunami / Picross help needed
Replies: 6
Views: 17686

Re: Nonogram / Tsunami / Picross help needed

My immediate reaction is that you can do a lot to nail down where that "5" in the left column is, based on what has to happen in the second column. For example, if the 5 started in that topmost blank space, the fact that the first entries across go "1, 2, 1, 2, 1" in each of thos...
by sknight
Wed 26 Aug, 2015 10:26 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test
Replies: 10
Views: 26343

2015 USPC and Sudoku Team Qualifying Test

The email went around today. The USPC will be Saturday, Sept 5 and the US Sudoku Team Qualifying Test will be Sunday Sept 6. Both tests are at 1pm EDT The actual website will be updated on 8/31. Once the site is updated, the links will be: USPC: wpc.puzzles.com/uspc2015 Sudoku Test: wpc.puzzles.com/...
by sknight
Sat 07 Feb, 2015 11:55 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

I'm wondering if today's daily puzzle has a broken key?
I can't find anything wrong with my solution, and nobody has officially solved it yet (only up for about an hour, but even for a fairly tricky puzzle I'd expect a handful by now).
by sknight
Sun 07 Dec, 2014 2:50 pm
Forum: General Puzzle Discussions
Topic: Difficult Sudoku
Replies: 5
Views: 17833

Re: Difficult Sudoku

I'm not one of the really fast ones on this board, but I can get things rolling. 1) Many beginners at Sudoku don't strike a good balance on how much information to notate (putting little numbers in cells to indicate possibilities and so forth). If you notate everything for every cell, it takes forev...
by sknight
Mon 04 Aug, 2014 10:23 am
Forum: Daily Puzzles
Topic: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?
Replies: 592
Views: 1207491

Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Yeah, once I figured out what the solution set was, I entered one of the infinitely many valid solutions and called it a night.
But it was sort of fun figuring out exactly what the constraints on the solution were, I guess :P
by sknight
Thu 08 May, 2014 12:03 am
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

A note for anyone else who had a hard time figuring out the rules for the Navigation Sudoku (which I definitely did): In the example, columns 2 and 6 are highlighted. Column 2 gives the position of all the 2's in the puzzle (so a "4" in column 2 of the first row tells you that the fourth e...
by sknight
Wed 07 May, 2014 4:11 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 USPC and USSQ
Replies: 4
Views: 15309

Re: 2014 USPC and USSQ

The results of the Sudoku test are in, and Jason Zuffranieri (Ziti) won again, narrowly edging out Jonathan Rivet. (They've swapped the title back and forth for the past few years) I was a bit surprised and disappointed at the low turn-out for this year, though. There were only 83 scores posted from...
by sknight
Tue 15 Apr, 2014 3:40 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix
Replies: 54
Views: 120077

Re: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix

One note for those who (like me) have most of their Pyramid experience on Croco-Puzzle: On this test, the shaded rows are the ones which MUST repeat and the white rows are the CAN'T repeat. (Also, the example in the booklet has two solutions, I think...) Definitely worth familiarizing yourself with ...
by sknight
Wed 26 Mar, 2014 10:52 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix
Replies: 54
Views: 120077

Re: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix

So, it must be time for Round 3 of the Puzzle Grand Prix. The first 17 are 'common' types, with 3 variants at the end: Afternoon Skyscrapers, Count Number, and Box of 2 or 3. (I'm curious if anyone has seen any of these 3 previously?) They're unfamiliar to me, although I'm not the most experienced ...
by sknight
Fri 14 Mar, 2014 1:02 am
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 WPF Sudoku Grand Prix
Replies: 19
Views: 39215

Re: 2014 WPF Sudoku Grand Prix

Bump: the 3rd round of Sudoku competition begins in about 10 hours, as I write this.
This is the Swiss round, with puzzles by Fred Stalder (Fred76).
I always enjoy his Sudoku rounds, personally, so I'm looking forward to it.
by sknight
Sun 09 Mar, 2014 3:43 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

Another entry key the English speakers have to be a little careful of for the Arrows puzzle. U = down, not up. I think I took about 15-20 extra seconds entering my key carefully saying "unter/ober" to myself and still nearly messed up. At least "L and R" are the same in both lang...
by sknight
Wed 05 Mar, 2014 3:49 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix
Replies: 54
Views: 120077

Re: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix

I'm pretty sure I'm just terrible at entering the codes for some of these contests. I only had credit for 6/8 puzzles, and I'm pretty sure it was just the answer key. It would help if they had the little "correct/incorrect" feedback you get on many LMI contests, but also the keys were sort...
by sknight
Mon 24 Feb, 2014 11:02 pm
Forum: Puzzle Competitions
Topic: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix
Replies: 54
Views: 120077

Re: 2014 WPF Puzzle Grand Prix

The Slovakian round is coming up this weekend.
The IB is up.
As with the sudoku competition the other week, it doesn't
look like we're getting reminder emails.
by sknight
Wed 12 Feb, 2014 1:47 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: nikoli.com
Replies: 23
Views: 61741

Re: nikoli.com

Hitori is one of those puzzle I want to like more than I actually do. I like the relative simplicity of the rules, and I appreciate the elegant design of a good puzzle. But the signal to noise ratio drives me nuts. Computer-generated Hitori are the worst, but I often end up resenting any time spent ...
by sknight
Thu 23 Jan, 2014 6:19 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

On the question of increased ratings after the change in format, I'm actually not sure, but I don't think it's an influx of less-experienced solvers alone. I mean, I definitely see that if you're the 75th best solver in a day, you get a higher rating when its out of 500 solvers than 300. But the thi...
by sknight
Thu 16 Jan, 2014 2:24 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

With my computer (Firefox, Win7), it wasn't letting me simply add croco-puzzle to the exceptions list for some reason, even though I had dialed down the security on Java to "medium" (the lowest setting, where it claims it will prompt you about unverified Java stuff). On the other hand, in ...
by sknight
Wed 04 Dec, 2013 11:39 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

Berni et al: I like the theme you've got going in the advent calendar puzzles. I feel a little slow on the uptake, but today's expression of the theme was obvious enough that I finally noticed.
by sknight
Mon 02 Dec, 2013 4:11 pm
Forum: Puzzle Links
Topic: croco-puzzle
Replies: 696
Views: 1350181

Re: croco-puzzle

I'm really enjoying the switch over to hand-constructed puzzles over on Croco-Puzzle. The "Twopa" that went up today is a particularly nice example of the sort of thing that couldn't have been done under the old system. The thematic sets are a little like having a good puzzle test spread o...