« first day (2338 days earlier)      last day (1286 days later) » 
00:00 - 20:0020:00 - 00:00

12:15 AM
1
Q: Trichain: Introduction

BubblerTrichain is a new puzzle type I invented. It is somewhat similar to Nurikabe, but it uses a chain of L-trominoes instead of a continuous wall. Example puzzle with solution: Rules: Numbers must be white, and match the size of their white islands. Each white island can only contain at most one n...

 
CCCC hint: The first letter is S.
 
12:34 AM
My next puzzle is ready, but I'm holding off posting for now as Bubbler's grid-deduction has not been solved yet
... and it's solved
 
Avi
oh nooooo
 
Got you covered...
 
Avi
i didn't realize that you could cover a 1 square
in 2 different ways
 
Should I just post mine? Or still wait?
 
@Avi Yes, it's one of the fun parts of the puzzle
 
Avi
12:36 AM
so I tricked myself
 
If I post now, Jeremy will be less able to solve it, giving others more of a chance
 
Avi
otherwise I had the 2 pattern figured out
jeremy has already solved it
idk
do what you want
 
post now, I guess. Time for final grammar check
 
@Avi I originally had the lower left and top right corners like that, but it was a red herring.
 
2
Q: 4x4 grid equations version 2

Dmitry KamenetskyI decided to make another one of these, because they are fun and this one is rather different. Can you place all numbers from 1 to 16 into cells, such that the following 8 equations hold? Note that the operator "/" only works for non-remainder division, i.e. you can have "8 / 4" but not "8 / 3". ...

0
Q: Tetromino minesweeper: the Amphitheater

bobbleThis is a minesweeper puzzle with a tetromino twist. The goal is to place mines in the grid, following a few constraints. Rules: A number indicates how many adjacent (including diagonally adjacent) cells have mines in them. Mines cannot go in numbered cells. Mines must be grouped into tetromino ...

 
12:40 AM
that went into chat quick
 
Avi
Fake soap is found all over! Extremely repulsive to begin with - some of them are even labelled soap? (6)
 
user478740
Hi again?
 
hi hi hi hi
 
ello
 
Avi
btw, the clue is SOAP* over E_ R_ for OP(ER)AS*
 
user478740
12:47 AM
wow
 
user478740
that's smart
 
CCs are hard, yes, but also very fun (when you get them)
I am proud to say I have solved exactly 1 cryptic crossword, only checking the key once :)
 
user478740
That's also smart ;D
 
Avi
i'm gonna have to poof
 
what color smoke?
 
user478740
12:54 AM
Wish Deusovi was here, that puzzle solving master
2
 
@GarethMcCaughan oh no.. seclusive ain't correct, secluded is closer but has only eight letters..
"right letters"???
 
letters that are not on the left
I'll be off for a bit as well.
 
1:37 AM
@JeremyDover, @WhatsUp, what did you think of my tetromino minesweeper? Were the deductions interesting and/or hard?
 
I liked it! Was doable, but definitely had to put my thinking cap on. Thanks!
 
I was pleased that WhatsUp followed my intended solution path almost exactly. Not sure how your path differed.
 
^ Same for Jeremy's solving path for mine
 
@bobble looks like Avi just poofed without smoke
 
that's no good. smoke is very important
 
1:45 AM
@Bubbler Seems new to me! Reminds me of the puzzle type Dominion:
@Anonymus25 hello!
 
@Deusovi image isn't working
 
how about now
 
now works
 
@bobble indeed
 
Oh, that's pretty cool.
(without the knowledge) I did consider using dominoes too, but it seemed too hard to set up with the white areas, so I went ahead with L trominoes.
 
1:51 AM
I think domino Nurikabe might be more logically interesting (but harder to construct)?
seems to me like it could allow for larger deductions
 
Look! We're using the Puzzling.SE main chat for chat about Puzzling.SE! This is weird.
For my tetronomino minesweeper: I liked how many deductions I could force that were just "can't re-use a tetromino". There's a LOT of those that are in the intended path.
 
just did your puzzle, Bubbler - I wonder if there are any interesting global break-ins you could make with this ruleset? it seems to rely a lot on 1s and 2s
 
@bobble Sorry, I just see your message. It was interesting (which is the reason that I solved it), not very hard. It mostly feels like a usual minesweeper game.
 
I'll try to make a harder one. Thing is, I don't have much experience with this genre, which limits the kind of deductions I can force.
 
However I wonder whether this kind of puzzle could be made in larger scales. With tetronomios, the scales seems to be limited, as there are not so many of them...
 
1:57 AM
@Deusovi I'm trying to come up with one that uses fewer 1's and 2's.
 
@WhatsUp I considered pentominos, but that would make the grid really big
 
you could also do two of each tetromino (with reflection)
 
That would sound very exciting!
 
That's an idea. The grid would still be bigger, but hopefully manageable.
 
I'd also be interested in seeing a Statue Park puzzle that used minesweeper clues... that could be interesting too
 
2:00 AM
The puzzle started as me being stuck during making a pun crossword. I'm happy to keep procrastinating on that :)
 
4*14 = 56 ~= 5*12 = 60, but you could duplicate only a few of them, like some Battleships with different number of ships
 
you could also do 4×10?
just use the 5 tetrominoes, not counting reflections as different
that's the usual piece bank for statue park puzzles at least
 
user478740
Is anyone still interested with the Falcon Circus series by @iiiidk?
 
user478740
I found it and it still seemed unfinished
 
@bobble truly truly
 
2:03 AM
I think I'll take Deus's suggestion. Does a 12x12 grid seem like a good size?
 
@Anonymus25 That seems to be a very old series, and they haven't been online for over two years - I wouldn't expect it to suddenly revive
 
Avi
I think the answer to the cccc may be SOMETIMES ("only occasionally") but not sure on the wordplay
deusovi pls save
 
don't see any way that could work at the moment
not saying it's wrong, just that I'm not seeing anything
 
Avi
fair
it was worth a shot, though
 
I thought of that too (also you're back)
 
Avi
2:06 AM
yes i have unpoofed
 
in case you don't wanna backread, bobble wants you to choose a type of color smoke whenever you poof again
Which color will it be
 
I poof with yellow smoke because I'm a yellow crown
 
Avi
purple smoke of course
 
makes sense
 
(also, it's been months since I worked on making this crossword. Hopefully it will be finally released this month.)
 
Avi
2:08 AM
want help?
sneakily notes down the answers
 
lol
 
2:38 AM
Question: does tense matter for verb cryptic indicators? Specifically, is "Broke, I leaving Iran (3)" preferred over "Broke, I left Iran (3)"?
(not in terms of surface but the correctness of the wordplay)
 
From a wordplay perspective I think both are considered fair game. But the former has surface problems.
You can't fix it as "I leave Iran", because you would want to interpret as "the letter I leaves Iran"...but then "I leaves Iran" has surface problems too.
 
Avi
also not sure how the definition("broke", I presume) would match up with ran
 
I kinda see it in the "broke away" sense.
 
Avi
breaking away I guess
as in, running away
 
2:43 AM
But I think it would be too stretchy for me.
 
Avi
but it's a super uncommon use of the word
 
^ what Avi said
 
hmm never knew about that hahah
I'm only basing on the thesaurus since I don't know (and in fact it has an example using "broke" instead of "broke away"). But again, I myself ain't that knowledgeable there
In any case, I'd love to hear what @Deusovi thinks about my question as well (if you have the time :0)
 
as for the grammar of the indicator... I would prefer the former, yes, but I don't think I'd be too picky about seeing the latter
 
yay
thx for all the inputs too
I just want to put this unfinished crossword to rest
I started in June, and... yeah, my laziness got the better of me :P
 
2:54 AM
My idea for statue park-tetromino minesweeper hybrid: whenever a mine is on a statue park dot, that dot switches color
I am nowhere near experienced enough with either puzzle type to make this happen, so I will leave it for later.
 
oh, I was just talking about regular Statue park rules, but there are also Minesweeper clues in the same puzzle - not two separate puzzles
 
hmm, also an idea
too many ideas!
 
I just got a (seemingly) working Trichain without any 1s and 2s, though the logic is IMO not as clean as the first one
 
you can always ask for a test-solver
 
3:44 AM
1
Q: Trichain: Going Higher

BubblerPrevious: Trichain: Introduction Trichain is a new puzzle type I invented. It is somewhat similar to Nurikabe, but it uses a chain of L-trominoes instead of a continuous wall. Example puzzle with solution: Rules: Numbers must be white, and match the size of their white islands. Each white isl...

 
Avi
hopefully people will solve my Trichain the way I solved it
and not by taking icky sticky shortcuts
 
right now is Grid Deduction Bonanza
 
Avi
I'm not gonna check the answer till tomorrow morning
that means you have way too much time on your hands to solve it
 
Avi
4:08 AM
And this is why you don't leave your bowls upside down
 
1
Q: Trichain: Three Times Ten

AviThis is a Trichain puzzle. The rules of Trichain are as follows: Numbers must be white, and match the size of their white islands. Each white island can only contain at most one number. Some white islands may have no numbers. Black squares must be part of L-trominoes. Black L-trominoes cannot b...

 
@bobble ikr
@Avi I do not understand, but I am weirdly enlightened
 
4:37 AM
@Avi It seems like I'm hitting a contradiction in every possible branch...
 
5:02 AM
Is this a valid state? I did a pretty thorough case analysis on the cell on the left of the bottom 10, and I couldn't find any path that completes the board
Gave up the grid equations and Avi's trichain. Time to do some real life job...
 
6:07 AM
0
Q: Should we continue the Fortnightly Topic Challenges?

Anonymus25I am someone you know as the creator of the Ice cream puzzle, in which you can search it. But, I noticed, on meta, that the Fortnightly Topic Challenges have stopped on number 40: Retrograde Analysis. That one, of course, is part of the rerun. I would like you to vote in this question, if maybe y...

 
w l
6:37 AM
@Bubbler I solved yours just fine but I seem to get (at least) two possible solutions for Avi's.
 
@wl Do your solutions to Avi's agree with my partial solution above?
 
w l
Looks like it.
 
6:53 AM
Hmm. OK, I think I got the two solutions too, with a lot of trial and error (flipping trominoes around and around until the left lower 10 is satisfied)
 
w l
Bottom right is underclued for me.
 
The bottom right tromino can be flipped, right?
 
w l
Yes
 
Maybe I was unconsciously applying the uniqueness predicate and didn't properly check the branch at the first try...
 
7:32 AM
0
Q: Who commit the murder?

WanAmong six suspects (C, D, G, H, J, T), two commit a murder. H said C and G did it. J said D and T did it. D said T and C did it. G said H and C did it. C said D and J did it. T refused to say anything. Four of the suspects named one person correctly and one person incorrectly. The fifth s...

 
8:27 AM
@Avi Your new profile pic looks nice!
 
design by alconja, no less!
 
user478740
9:10 AM
Hi again
 
9:29 AM
Applied two bounties so far, both of them ran out :( (or rather, one of them will in 6 hours)
 
 
1 hour later…
10:51 AM
For the C4, I wonder if the definition could be "only occasionally composed", for something meaning "half-mad" and starting with SEMI. But I'm not (yet) seeing anything along those lines in the rest of the clue.
 
coincidentally, the reverse of semi is imes, which are the last four letters of avi's suggestion ("sometimes"), but i don't think there are reversal indicators in the clue
wait hold on
im hoping gareth isn't pulling a pun in this clue and that my thoughts are wrong
 
11:45 AM
1
Q: Nutakapa: A Nurikabe-Tapa Hybrid

Jeremy DoverNurikabe and Tapa puzzles have the interesting property that the target shading is identical for both: a fully-connected shaded region with no 2-by-2 blocks. The difference is the cluing, so there seems no reason you can't use both Nurikabe and Tapa clues in a single grid to clue a single shaded ...

 
user478740
12:28 PM
Please check my new post on meta. Happy puzzling!
 
1:18 PM
0
Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenge #42: Visual

Anonymus25And here it is. After I posted the question concerning the Fortnightly Topic Challenge, I found a chat where many people miss these challenges. And, the last challenge was in 2018, so since we have the pandemic, this is the perfect way to kill some time during lockdown. @Lukas rotter has agreed t...

 
 
1 hour later…
2:30 PM
I just got back online after waking up. Are we actually having Topic Challenges again?
 
what’s a topic challenge?
 
There's a theme, and people create puzzles around that theme for 2 weeks
This one's my favorite, where all the puzzles had to have xkcd titles
 
@bobble I guess so. But I don't know if the current post by anon will go through since they just decided the topic on their own and the format is really non-standard.
And the post was pretty impulsive, considering the discussion thread about whether or not we should bring them back was posted 8 hours ago...
 
hm
anyone up for c4 solving?
 
3:07 PM
Calling @/c4 solving experts cuz I'm not one of them heh
 
@PuzzlingMeta Seriously?
 
I've already put a complaining comment saying to wait a day out of respect for timezonse
 
@bobble I mean, can you do that? Just propose one and right afterwards declare it as the topic challenge with no community consensus?
 
It's not how it has ever (ever ever) gone
 
you can make that meta post, but it won't likely be accepted as an actual thing
 
3:12 PM
I think they thought that since 2 other people gave supportive comments on the first post there was "community consensus"
 
@bobble Yeah, pretty sure that's NOT how it works?
 
I'm pretty sure as well
 
@Lukas rotter, you will have the job of giving the candidate questions that join the competitions. I will give out the challenges. — Anonymus25 3 hours ago
 
@Deusovi yea same
 
Well, the next one will be all in @LukasRotter's hands. I just wanted to get things started, because now basically us three, we are the Fortnightly Challenge Trio. ;) — Anonymus25 2 hours ago
 
3:13 PM
I downvoted the Topic Challenge post
 
yeah it seems they have a misunderstanding about how FTCs generally work
 
Apparently I'm his employee :P
 
@Deusovi Interesting. I saw that
 
also, competitions? not sure there's really any competitive element
 
@LukasRotter Congrats Lukas! You were hired without um ever being hired
3
 
3:13 PM
(but that could be a language barrier thing)
 
Maybe
@Deusovi I think perhaps they misinterpreted Jeremy Dover's comment?
If you've got @Stiv on-board, you know you'll get at least one quality puzzle. If you have an idea for a topic and are willing to do the legwork, I suggest you just send it. I'd rather spend time trying to write a puzzle than talking about whether I should be thinking about writing a puzzle. — Jeremy Dover 2 hours ago
 
possibly
 
But then Stiv clarified in the following comment so I don't know
 
Stivs comment was after it already happened
 
3:17 PM
we're playing catch-up on the news
 
Honestly
I came from zero period to this?
 
I'm half-listening to a college app workshop
 
I should be paying attention in math
Key word being should
Wait what's the rational roots theorem?
 
Each rational root of a polynomino is in a certain set
of p/q
where p is a factor of the highest power term's coefficient
 
Right
Thank you
 
3:26 PM
and q is a factor of the constant term
 
@LukasRotter Weirdly though, I hadn't spotted the other post at the point I commented, so my comment was written after the event whilst thinking it was before the event... (confused yet??) I also think an arbitrary choice of Wednesday-Wednesday dates is not the best idea. Wasn't it Sunday to Sunday last time? A much more natural way to divide up the calendar...
 
oh wait switch p and q
 
@bobble No, I know what you meant
I just needed a quick refresher on which theorem that was
I have my driver's test today
Don't ask me how trees drive
 
they drive very well
 
Exactly
I'm so scared tho~
 
3:29 PM
I will send you bobbling crown magic
 
thank you
 
@bobble polynomino?
 
sends ball of yellow smoke
 
@bobble May I add the crown to my profile picture
 
@oAlt heh. spellcheck
@NorthLæraðr if you wish
 
3:30 PM
oh I'm dumb that must have been a typo
ah
 
@bobble Hexonomino?
Oops, I meant to ping oAlt about that
 
3:44 PM
@bobble Done
 
wonderful
 
It might take a bit to reload
hmm
 
I can see it in your profile page
 
That's good
I'm Prince Tree-arming
 
4:07 PM
@NorthLæraðr yeah i dont see it in here yet
in fact i only see it on puzzling
try hitting the "save to all communities" button
also my unit converter completely fell apart
 
I don't know how much time I'll have afterschool - I'll ping you if I do
 
Hmm...appears I may have been too encouraging about moving forward with the fortnightly challenge.
 
alright @bobble ... i thought "surely js could make this easier?" i was wrong
 
I mean it could. but it makes it more complicated
 
right, and i failed to realize that
 
4:18 PM
But serious question, since the post is out there: if you agree with the idea of reinstating fortnightly challenges, why not use this one to get it started, and then refine the selection process for the next one? It's not like the proposed topic is pickles or anything.
 
> it's not like the proposed topic is pickles
of course it's not, the meme is basically retired now
 
That's what makes it funny?
;-)
 
i see now
 
I don't have any ideas for this topic - if it had gone through the normal process I would've been able to participate. As it stands I probably can't.
 
Fair enough, and I'm not saying that this should be a model for the future...but it can be impetus to get started (often the hardest step). Maybe in parallel, we can work on how to generate the next one with a broader consensus.
 
4:34 PM
I guess we should use the Rerun Thread again. A Re-Rerun might be a bit confusing ;) But of course we have a view "outdated" suggestions...
 
a *few?
 
sry, yes
 
Avi
4:48 PM
@Bubbler yikes!
it could be fixed by moving the 10 1 space to the right
but not sure if that makes deductions fail
is it better to fix it now? or just post another one that's not incorrect :(
hmmmm
probably better to just accept it the way it is
and do better next time >:c
 
When I've had mistakes on puzzles in the past, I always make sure to leave the old version and post a corrected version. Someone may well want to solve it in the future!
 
5:07 PM
i give up w/ my converter ... just too much for me
leaves universe
@bobble ^^
 
got it.
 
:(
 
one fun thing I did was make a command-line calculator in python
you have to split an input into numbers & operators and then resolve the operators in order
you can try!
 
i mean you could just put it into eval()
 
the point is to make it work by yourself
 
5:21 PM
so something like (typing...)
eq = input("type an expression with +-*/\n")
# fancy stuff
 
yeah
 
i'm really a novice pythoner though so uh
blegh
 
you can make two functions, one that processes the string input into a better form (a list, for example), and one that processes the array into a result
 
so like i'd have to separate the operators from the digits
 
yes
and get rid of spaces
 
5:25 PM
bfhdrnedrftte
i've only been pythoning for like a week
and then "hey matt, make a math thingy without using `eval()`"
"i'm sorry dave, i'm afraid i can't do that"
 
my name ain't dave, it's bobble
 
reference to 2001: a space odyssey
i'm not here to rant, though
hits "leave all" button
 
 
2 hours later…
7:20 PM
This North-Bobble profile picture is oddly unsettling
 
The crown is very small, but it's there :)
 
It's like you, and then you again but on a tree
 
How did I get on the tree? o_O
 
How does this intuitively work? Like are you dual-existing?
 
Clones. Obviously
Life Model Decoy!
</SHIELD fangirling>
should be made a synonym of ?
someone else would have to do this, as I haven't directly participated in the tag much.
 
7:39 PM
hm
 
You have said "hm" in 53 chat messages
"hmm" in 46
"hmmm" in 8
"hmmmm" in 2
 
oh wow
 
"hmmmmm" in 2
and I think that's it, you don't seem to have added extra "m"s after that
 
"hmmmmm" in 2
Oops, wrong account
 
i'm the Puzzling version of @paulocereda in TeX
famous for his "ooh"s
of which he has >8000
 
7:44 PM
After further consideration, I believe that the person who answered "Dish Soap" just forgot to write the rest of the sentence.
 
??
 
@bobble Ah
 
@bobble how many standalone "hm"s?
 
I'm too lazy to check
 
well then uh
 
7:50 PM
@bobble Yes
@bobble It can only be synonymized with someone with five or more scores in the tag. Unfortunately, isn't an actual tag
 
that's cause no one has used it yet
 
Well ya
So why would we synonymize it?
 
shrug being proactive?
I don't know much about the synonymization process
 
@bobble just got an idea. it's rather a nerdy idea though so it might take a while to explain
 
I can do this all day
 
7:54 PM
ok good.
hold on a sec...
^ that is the IPA.
 
okay
 
Why isn't the alphabet in that^ order? :(
 
my idea is, given a list of those fancy symbols, make a chart similar to it that contains all those fancy symbols.
@JohnDvorak because that's only the consonants.
 
with what constraints?
 
sure, then stick vowels at the end
 
7:57 PM
@bobble only include the rows and columns that are necessary.
 
?? explain
 
e.g. for english you could take out the entire retroflex and palatal columns
because the sounds in them aren't in english
 
no idea what you're talking about
 
it's complicated
umm
how do i explain this
 
why don't you do something easier then?
 
00:00 - 20:0020:00 - 00:00

« first day (2338 days earlier)      last day (1286 days later) »