Puzzles 34-35: It’s Now Regiothmetics Class!

New genre! Regiothmetics Yajilin. I need a good name for “Regiothmetics”.

Follow usual Yajilin rules (draw a loop and shade all the remaining non-given cells black; black cells may not be adjacent). In addition, there are two types of clues:
– Blue, no sign, size-12: The number indicates the number of black cells in the region plus in the line of sight (from the arrow following the direction of the arrow up to the edge of the grid). Black cells that are in both the region and the line of sight are counted twice.
– Brown, sign (+ or -), size-10: The number indicates the number of black cells in the region minus in the line of sight (from the arrow following the direction of the arrow up to the edge of the grid). Black cells that are in both the region and the line of sight cancel each other.

Everybody! It’s the beginning of Regiothmetics class! To become a genius like me, do your best!
Our class begins, with a simple medium 7×7 puzzle,
If you’re done and you still want to be more genius like me, try this easy-medium 10×10 puzzle!
But wait! Did I just reverse the difficulty?
The answer is, the answer is, I didn’t, I didn’t, that’s because, that’s because,
The smaller is indeed the harder one!

Puzzle 34: Regiothmetics Class! Assignment 1!
Regiothmetics Yajilin

Puzzle 35: Regiothmetics Class! Assignment 2!
Regiothmetics Yajilin

UPDATE (20-Nov-2012, 18.36 UTC+7): Fixed Puzzle 34 (R7C1 to make it solvable) and replaced Puzzle 35 (the former is utterly broken).

If you are one of the top three, you get extra points!

But seriously. I offer this thing again. Be one of the first three people to submit the correct solutions to both grids, and you get a puzzle as a gift. You can choose the genre and stuffs like that.

Yes, even if you’re colorblind you should be able to distinguish non-signed givens and signed givens. And their sizes differ by 2 points. Should be sufficient. Although when I add more clue types (possible seeing recent Surveyors Heyawake) I need more non-color cues.

Yay. Did I say today (and yesterday) is one of my most productive blogging and puzzling days ever?

Puzzle 33: Nope, There’s Totally Nothing Odd Here

Fillomino Warp. Note the orange squares? They act as teleporters. So R2C3, the square above the top-left orange square, is connected to R9C8, the square below the bottom-right orange square, since one can “walk” downward from R2C3 to the orange square, gets teleported, and continues walking downward to R9C8. Similarly, R3C2 is connected to R8C7, R4C3 is connected to R7C8, and R3C4 is connected to R8C7. Note that the orange square itself is not actually a square and cannot have a number. Otherwise follow Fillomino rules.

“The teleportation machine is now complete. With this, one can warp anything from one of the machines to the other.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Yes, totally.”
“Nothing buggy?”
“None at all.”
“Make a Fillocity with some buildings warped around?”
“That’s…hell.”
“But that will be fun! I promise.”
“Okay whatever. Just make sure nothing goes odd.”

Yes, nothing goes odd. Literally…maybe. Complete the plan. Rated easy-medium.

Puzzle 33: Nope, There’s Totally Nothing Odd Here
Warp Fillomino

Gift to Yoshiap, whose recent Cipher Fillomino is a pretty great piece. You should check his blog out, or at least that particular puzzle. As the prize of solving Puzzle 25, he wanted a Fillomino with an unusual twist. He suggested a Fillomino where each number can only appear in one region (aka all identical numbers must be in a region), but that has been done, sort of.

This one is also a proof of concept. Almost. I tried to play with the 2s at the opening, covering an edge of an orange square to limit the options of some other 2 in the neighborhood of the other orange square, but apparently I didn’t quite get it right. But this one is pretty satisfactory (logically; aesthetically it certainly reaches my standards). Maybe next time I play with Warp Fillomino, I’ll try to make some fun tricks. Or maybe you remember my old piece about a Fillomino put on the surface of a cube? That’s aesthetically pleasing, but if I remember correctly, the tricks are usual for a normal Fillomino. I think I need holes instead of simply several grids connected together somehow to do something fun.

Finally, it’s only one week towards my semester exams. You might not see puzzles for a few days. I’d cap it at 14, but since I’m not a good promise holder, I won’t promise anything. Although maybe non-puzzle posts appear once in a while.

Puzzle 32: Two New Recruits

Surveyors Heyawake, now with additional two types of clues and a change in rules. Read.

Shade some cells black such that:
– No two black cells are orthogonally adjacent
– All white cells form a single polyomino
– No line of contiguous white cells span over 2 or more room borders (thick borders)

Additionally, there are two types of clues: in-grid and out-grid. (Names in brackets tell the name of the clues. Yes, they are now canonized.)
– In-grid clues may refer to the number of black squares in the room (region bordered by thick border) (Heyawake) or the number of black squares in the 3×3 square centered at the square containing the clue (Minesweeper). There can be at most 1 Heyawake clue in a region.
– Out-grid clues may refer to the number of black squares in the row/column (Tents) or the length of some line of maximum contiguous white cells in the row/column (Freedom). There can be at most 1 Tents clue in a row/column.

By maximum contiguous white cells I mean that it cannot be extended; it’s bounded by either the grid’s boundary or some black cell.

Note that it’s possible for a region to have clues but none of them are Heyawake, and for a row/column to have clues but none of them are Tents.

As the popularity of the surveyor job skyrockets, new positions appear. As reported in the headlines, two new positions that work from outside the complex are now available; one reports the number of obstructions in the line of sight and the other reports one of the freedoms instead. As usual, they mix together, making it pretty much impossible to tell them apart.

Your task stays the same. Our surveyors have done their jobs dutifully; now your task is to reveal the traps. Rated medium-hard.

Puzzle 32: Two New Recruits
Surveyors Heyawake v2

A gift for David Millar (thegriddle.net), as the second person to complete Puzzle 25 (linked above). He wanted Surveyors Heyawake with a new twist. I added several (depending on how you define a “twist”). Enjoy!

The next puzzle (okay, one of Puzzle 33-35) will be the gift to the third solver. Yes, Puzzle 25’s offer has ended. Time to make a new offer 😛

Puzzle 31: Hey People Redux

Akari. Put light bulbs. A light bulb illuminates unobstructed white cells in the four cardinal directions (up, down, left, right). A light bulb may not be illuminated by another light bulb. A number means that there are that many light bulbs in the four cells orthogonally adjacent to that cell.

Because Yoshi is bored, he decides to make a blog and post puzzles in it. However, his first puzzle is aesthetically unpleasant, so this Shaymin decides to fix it a bit… “Rated medium!” the Shaymin exclaims.

Puzzle 31: Hey People Redux
Akari

Employing a very unusual opening allows this puzzle to have both great aesthetics (intended) and a tough-looking puzzle (not intended). Well, good luck. Bifurcation (aka trial-and-error) will easily destroy this apart, but can you get that cool opening?

Puzzle 29: Invisible Fillocity

Fillomino Skyscrapers. Follow regular Fillomino rules. In addition, if each number is represented by a building which height is equal to the number, each number outside the grid represents the number of visible buildings when looking into the grid in that direction. A building blocks all buildings behind it which height is less than or equal to the height of this building.

Welcome to Fillocity,  city whose buildings’ heights follow Fillomino rules. The city is known for several unusually large buildings. However, we don’t quite have a map of the city yet, although we have 11 entrances into the city and reports of the number of visible buildings from each of these entrances are consistent. I hope you can figure out where things are. We would consider the difficulty of locating the buildings here medium.

Puzzle 29: Invisible Fillocity
Fillomino Skyscrapers

Story. So I now learn making short stories of 1-2 paragraphs for every puzzle. Hopefully this trend will be sustained for all next puzzles…maybe. Hm.

Also, two people have solved Puzzle 25 and have taken their rewards; Puzzle 31 or 32 will be for this second solver. One more slot to go!

Also, Puzzle 28’s ambiguity, if you get it, has been clarified. I think that’s the only ambiguity, but if there is more, tell me. Now that I’ve said that, I think this puzzle might still have some ambiguity; someone can check it?

Puzzle 28: Mashed Fillomino and Special Puzzle 6: Just Can’t Get A Clear Sky

UPDATE: Here is a new Puzzle 28, 5 months after the original. Yeah.

After a smoothie, I serve a mashed potato—err, a mashed Fillomino.

Fillomino Epic Variation. No less than four variations that made an appearance in the original Fillomino Fillia are in this puzzle: Shape, Even-Odd, Greater Than, and Sum. Follow usual Fillomino rules. In addition, the given shapes must appear in the grid without rotation (because I apparently forgot this rule when constructing, let be so), all even numbers are connected in a single polyomino and so are for odd numbers, all inequality signs must be followed by the numbers in the respective cells, and the sum of the numbers in each cage must match the given. Calling MellowMelon for a better presentation.

Puzzle 28: Mashed Fillomino
Fillomino (Epic Variation)
(click to enlarge)

UPDATE: Ambiguity acknowledged. Assume R2C2 and R3C2 have different numbers. I will soon replace the puzzle with another one which should be similar (S,H,A,P,E shapes and a certain gimmick) but better made. Most likely I’ll use givens as opposed to sum cages and greater than signs…maybe.

So, yeah. My take at a Potpourri; MellowMelon made an extremely hard one that I haven’t solved 1.5 years ago and the post is linked above.

ksun48 solved Puzzle 25, and he asked for a “hard Fillomino variation”. I hope this is sufficiently hard, since otherwise I have a harder puzzle…

Special Puzzle 6: Just Can’t Get A Clear Sky
Fillomino Epic Variation [Count Solutions]

So, what’s the puzzle? You are given a 11×11 grid of Fillomino, and the five shapes as above. The only variations applied are Shape and Star (each row/column must have two stars occupying the space of a monomino each; no two stars are adjacent even diagonally). Count the solutions, and prove it.

I guess the title helps you in some way, but you still need to prove it. Yay.

In case you missed it, I served a smoothie (Puzzle 27) a few seconds ago.

Puzzle 27: Yajilin Smoothie

Because I begin to title my puzzles, I start serving smoothies.

Yajilin, Smooth Turn variation: The loop cannot have two adjacent turns facing the same direction (aka a small U-turn).

Puzzle 27: Yajilin Smoothie
Yajilin (Smooth Variation)

Puzzle 28 should be already out by the time anyone besides me reads this.

mathgrant and MellowMelon are at it again: Fillomino Fillia 2. I will post a few Fillomino puzzles until the test ends (save for Puzzle 30, which if it’s a Fillomino will create some bad repetition (Puzzle 10 was a 17×17 Fillomino)), but not necessarily practice puzzles for the event. EDIT (05-Dec-2012): Fail. Only one Potpourri posted within time. The two authors will be posting Fillomino puzzles which will be practice puzzles. Let’s see.

Puzzle 25: Surveyors Heyawake

Surveyors Heyawake, also known as my favorite original genre (as of the time of post). Medium, a little bit toward hard.

Puzzle 25: Surveyors Heyawake

Apparently it’s not a small-grid puzzles batch!

Who says I can’t commemorate my 25th puzzle with something special? Antisymmetry, if you look closer (opposite givens add up to 5). The regions somewhat form a windmill, although that is not really intended. Weird regions, but I believe I don’t need to instate the “white contiguous region may not span over two boundaries” rule because it’s equivalent.

So… I’m running low on ideas. The first three people who e-mail me the correct solution to this puzzle may pick a genre, to be posted before Puzzle 40.

Puzzle 22: Slalom

If you know Slalom (or Suraromu) before, this one is a bit different. The gates, as opposed to be connected to black squares, are now connected to borders (you won’t be entering a gate from its side will you). Otherwise, the rules are same: draw a closed loop passing through some of the squares’ centers, passing each gate straightly exactly once each (so it passes exactly one cell of each gate). The path must start and end on the circle. Numbered gates tell the order of when the gate is passed; 1 means that it must be visited first. The circle’s number simply tell you the number of gates to save you some trouble. This one would be rated easy.

Puzzle 22: Slalom

Fun theme combined with a particular style in the closed area in R3-4C6.

I have Puzzle 23-25 prepared, but I must sort out a few things first.

Puzzle 21: Nonconsecutive Fillomino

Nonconsecutive Fillomino. Follow regular Fillomino rules. In addition, no two orthogonally adjacent cells may have consecutive numbers. Meaty and difficult, at least for me.

Puzzle 21: Nonconsecutive Fillomino

Booya. Pretty killer stuffs here. But that also gives less guarantee that it’s unique. Hm…

And so all puzzles I’ve scheduled on Tuesday have been posted. Now for more puzzles…or maybe not. That IMO post series haven’t been completed. Why this blog starts to become an exclusively puzzle blog again while apparently I can’t maintain my previous puzzle blog…