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Round 5: Clarification on entry keys

For puzzle 5, Snaky Keys, the answer key is described: "Use ‘O’ for a cell occupied by the snake and ‘X’ for a cell not occupied by the snake. (If you wish, you may reverse O and X, but you must be consistent within the same puzzle.)" For puzzle 15, Coral, the answer key is described: "Use ‘O’ for an unshaded (white) cell and ‘X’ for a shaded (black) cell."

Will the same "you may reverse O and X" disclaimer apply to the Coral? It is more intuitive for me to remember X=unshaded and O=shaded, but it's going to be especially confusing to remember during the test given that the written instructions for these two puzzles apply X and O in an opposite fashion.

I'd also like to extend the clarification to include #1, Minesweeper (Pills), which also uses the O=shaded / X=unshaded format (and additionally has no note about reversing O/X).

Formally, the answer is "no", it will not apply to the Coral or Minesweeper. I hope you were careful when entering the code.

More generally, the problem is that alternate valid answers are difficult to submit into the system in a way that ensures lack of errors. I make an exception for Snake puzzles because the field is very divided over the intuition. I might make an exception for Coral puzzles in the future (they haven't appeared on a GP before), based on how this round goes.

Long-term-wise, I've requested that the server be written to allow any characters, not just "O" and "X", which hopefully will decrease these problems in the future, but I've been told it would take a while to implement.

This is really terrible. For minesweeper - empty cells marked as X, while for coral it marked as O.
Was this made especially to confuse participants?

No, it was not made especially to confuse participants.

qyz's picture

I always look up the sample puzzle before entering answers. I don't think it's a problem, but I don't enjoy entering hexagonal rows. It's so confusing for me that I have to use a ruler whenever answering such a puzzle.