Thursday 28 June 2012

Puzzle #118: Pentopia

This is the first 12x12 Pentopia puzzle I've made that only has 10 clues. Most of my puzzles have 12 given clues. That just seems the total that's mostly needed to make the puzzle unique. Just like that most my 10x10 Yajilin puzzles use 10 clues. The opening to this puzzle is tricky, but after that it shouldn't cause too many problems.

Rules for Pentopia


Click to enlarge

12 comments:

  1. Got in well, but had trouble later... Fun, thanks!

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  2. Great puzzles. I have now solved all 7 of your Pentopia puzzles (including the example) and realized one strange thing: one particular pentomino shape never appears (I will leave for the readers to figure out which one it is)!

    Is it possible to include that one shape in the next puzzle? Another pending question is, is it possible to include 11 or 12 shapes in a puzzle?

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    1. By "puzzle" I mean a 12x12 one of course. I am sure you can pack in all 12 shapes in a 13x13 grid etc...

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    2. It is of course possible to put all 12 in. There was a Pentopia puzzle on the WPC which used all shapes. I think the reason I prefer not to use all of them, is that this allows me to use clues to indicate bigger distances.

      It could be that one shape hasn't appeared in the puzzles on my blog. I'd have to check, it's mere coincidence. But I submitted 4 of these puzzles to Breinbrekers and in those each shape appears at least once.
      You can try the puzzle in my LMI test: http://logicmastersindia.com/lmitests/?test=M201103P . I think the one that doesn't appear in the puzzles here, does appear in that one.

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    3. Thanks, downloaded your test files and will try it soon!

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    4. Yep, solved the 4 puzzles in section E in your LMI test (as well as the 3 examples). Nice ones again! The missing shape in your blog puzzles did cause me a little trouble in your puzzle E4 (I got overzealous and placed it too early in a wrong region). Of course all your puzzles can be solved via pure logic (no T&E).

      Which Pentopia puzzle do you think is most difficult so far (can be yours or others)? I'd like to choose one to document all the logical steps required to solve it. May as well pick the toughest nut to crack...

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    5. In my opinion that would be Puzzle #15. I don't think I've matched that afterwards.

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  3. That would be Pentopia #2, which I also think is probably the toughest one among the Pentopia puzzles on your blog.

    While we are at it, which puzzle (of all genres) do you think is the most difficult one on your blog?

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    1. I'm guessing puzzle #32(Castle Wall), puzzle #38 (Yajilin) or maybe Puzzle #69 (Four Colour Loop). Although the Four Colour Loop is probably more tricky because of it's complexer rules. I think it's more gentle than the other 2. But that's just my opinion. I feel those 2 puzzles are just more tricky from a purely logical standpoint, not taking into account if you're more familiar with a genre. I think the more I know about a genre, the harder I can make them.

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    2. Thanks, will look into them next time.

      Should I assume you prefer loop puzzle more than binary/number ones? For me is the direct opposite, so I will undoubtedly find your challenging loop puzzles much much tougher than your challenging puzzles of other genres.

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    3. I think I'm better at designing loop puzzles, but I like to solve all sorts. A bit hard to really indicate my favourite sort. Among my favourite puzzle types are Tapa, Magnets, Slitherlink, Skyscrapers, Japanese Sums, Pentomino related puzzles. As you can see there's a lot of variety in that.

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  4. I'm sure as a frequent competitor in logic puzzle tournaments you must be fluent and keen on solving all types of puzzles. But from the list of genres covered in your blog I have the impression that you hava a big passion on puzzles with loops and links. Probably it is my personal illusion because those are the types I struggle the most (lol)...

    I don't know normally in tournaments (e.g. World Puzzle Championship) what is the approximate ratio of these loop/link puzzles compared to other ones?

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