some ways i place dots sometimes:
- set up "this one place can only be this one shape, so no other places can have this shape"
- or set up a more advanced version, "these two places can only be these two shapes (though i'm not sure which is which yet)"
- from the other perspective, "i have this many shapes that need to fit in these places, and there's only one way to fit enough shapes in" (e.g. 12 particular black dots are far enough apart that the 12 pentominoes must each take one)
- or more advanced, focus on a specific set of shapes (e.g. what i did with the Is in stiv's puzzle. notice t…