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The forum for everyone who solves sudokus @ paulspages!
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Paul
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 84
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 Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 7:55 am Post subject: NEW - more puzzles and short Nice Loops! |
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Hi Everyone,
I've updated the SudokuXP puzzles database with lots of new puzzles, and added a new Short Nice Loop feature for fans of Extreme puzzles.
The puzzles database now has 20,633 puzzles, up from 11,120 - and that includes 1,006 Outlaws (up from 277), which means the return of Outlaw Puzzles of the Day. I'm sorry that Outlaw POTDs ran out - Outlaws have become increasingly rare as the SudokuXP solver has got better (and rarer still with the new Short Nice Loops), but I left my puzzle generator running for A Very Long Time to produce this batch, which will keep us going for a couple of years at least until I need to generate some more.
Here are the full counts:
| Code: |
Type Previously Now
easy 2615 4022
moderate 2836 4538
hard 1907 5367
extreme 3182 5397
outlaw 277 1006
Total: 11120 20633
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As you can see, I've also added a lot more puzzles in the 'hard' category, which are good for solvers taking steps into candidate elimination techniques with patterns like pairs and triples.
To make it clear, things like puzzles of the day and Gallery page puzzles are all drawn from the pool of 20,633, so are just ways of organising the puzzle library. You don't need to use the Gallery pages to get puzzles - instead, in the 9X9 puzzle page, press 'Get a Puzzle!', then choose 'Gallery Puzzle' and the category (moderate, extreme etc) you want.
If you want to browse through all the puzzles for a category, go to the full Advanced Puzzle Finder page (http://www.paulspages.co.uk/sudokuxp/sdxppzchooser.php), check just the category(s) you want in 'Choose puzzle categories', then press 'Get my puzzles!'.
Don't forget that you can also type puzzles in (for example, from newspapers), paste them in from forums etc, and generate random puzzles from scratch.
Short Nice Loops
Nice Loops (inference chains) are SudokuXP's main way of dealing with super-extreme puzzles, and the loops themselves can get pretty extreme, extending up to 12 squares long. These long loops are very effective, but in real life only genius-level human solvers can find them (I certainly can't, although GreenLantern seems able to rattle them off with ease!).
Until now, SudokuXP might find a long loop beginning near the start (top left) of the puzzle when there had, in fact, been a shorter loop waiting to be found further down the grid. Now, it goes through the puzzle looking for Nice Loops up to 6 squares long first, and only looks for longer ones if it can't find any.
This way, a super-extreme puzzle might be solved using two short loops instead of a single long one. This gives a more realistic solving path for most people - and, it turns out, is more efficient, as it redefined a number of outlaws to extreme when I applied it to the puzzle database.
If you really like long loops, don't worry - you can remove Short Loops using a custom solving string (Puzzle Info -> Hint/Analyser options).
I hope you enjoy the new puzzles!
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- Paul. |
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GreenLantern
Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Posts: 91
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| Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2010 3:53 am Post subject: |
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| Great job with the new Short Nice Loop feature, Paul! With the handful of puzzles I have fed into SudokuXP, I have noticed both shorter nice loops and lower toughness ratings. I'm glad to see you've also replenished the outlaw puzzle supply in the wake of the new solver feature. |
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Paul
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:31 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, GreenLantern - of course my ambition remains to eradicate outlaws altogether by making the SudokuXP solver capable of solving all puzzles by logic, but being realistic that may have to remain a dream.
Almost Locked Sets and Aligned Pair Exclusion would help though - must have another think about them!
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GreenLantern
Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Posts: 91
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| Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:03 am Post subject: |
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Almost Locked Sets and Aligned Pair Exclusion would be nice additions to the set of techniques supported by SudokuXP. It would also be great if the solver recognized Finned Fish.
But I still think that Grouped Nodes would be the most useful new feature for the solver. This would extend the reach of the Nice Loops found by SudokuXP and also be useful for manual solvers who already consider grouped nodes when looking for nice loops. |
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Paul
Site Admin
Joined: 01 Jan 1970
Posts: 84
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| Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:19 am Post subject: |
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I'd dearly love to do group nodes, and in fact put some code in SudokuXP to prepare for them. However I think they may be too much for my programming skills and, still, for most browsers (even super-fast ones like Chrome).
One day, perhaps!
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