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how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?
https://www.calcudoku.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=172
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Author:  babarosa  [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:46 am ]
Post subject:  how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

with some kind of special software?

Author:  pnm  [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

babarosa wrote:
with some kind of special software?

No, it is actually possible to do a 6x6 in 37 seconds (my best time is in fact 37.275).

It's a combination of luck and skill.
(for example, most of the really fast 4x4's are the ones with a lot of "fixed" 3-cell cages,
like 32x and 3:).

I've put in quite a bit of checking code to ensure that the times you see are valid.

So far, about once every 2-3 months I have to remove someone from the listings because
they're using an automatic solver (which is fine with me, as long as people don't use it
to get an unfair advantage)(there's also a thread describe your solver on the forum).

And, you'll find that with practice, your best time will go down considerably.

Patrick

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

pnm wrote:
No, it is actually possible to do a 6x6 in 37 seconds (my best time is in fact 37.275).

It's a combination of luck and skill.
(for example, most of the really fast 4x4's are the ones with a lot of "fixed" 3-cell cages,
like 32x and 3:).

I've put in quite a bit of checking code to ensure that the times you see are valid.

So far, about once every 2-3 months I have to remove someone from the listings because
they're using an automatic solver (which is fine with me, as long as people don't use it
to get an unfair advantage)(there's also a thread describe your solver on the forum).

And, you'll find that with practice, your best time will go down considerably.

Patrick


Can an automatic solver do timed puzzles fast enough though? I don't really know how an automatic solver works... does it read off the page and enter numbers?

Author:  pnm  [ Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

sneaklyfox wrote:
Can an automatic solver do timed puzzles fast enough though? I don't really know how an automatic solver works... does it read off the page and enter numbers?

I think the fastest would be to do every with a program:
1) read the web page and parse out the puzzle
2) solve the puzzle
3) submit the puzzle (you'd have to figure out the protocol from the code in the web page)

In this way, I think you could submit a 6x6 solution within 5 seconds or so.

Author:  starling  [ Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:37 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

At this point, attributing a 37 second 6x6 to luck is a little odd, since with 3 puzzles/day, I usually hit at least one sub-40/day, and I'm in second.

As for the OP, as the guy with the 38 second one right behind sheldolina, the earlier statement that "the more of these you do, the better you'll get" is true to a point.

I keep in my head a good day/bad day standard, but it's a fairly flexible standard.

Shortly after timed puzzles started, my 6x6 standard time -- that is, if I didn't get at least one time better than it per day, it was a bad day -- was 1 min 10 seconds, but I had a lot of days where I didn't solve any 6x6 timed at all.

Now, after a while doing the timed puzzles, I solve all 3 puzzles most days and the "good time" standard is at 40 seconds.

And I'm not the only one like that. My 24.638 second 6x6 had an 8 second lead on the next best for a very long time, and sheldolina got better. Now that time is something like the 7th fastest time on the site, and 5 of the times better than it are hers.

So yeah, you get better at the puzzles and those times start looking fast, but reasonable.

Edit: Today's 11 second: That was luck. That was a lot of luck. And so I forgive myself for the 45 second 6x6.

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

Well starling, speaking of luck, I thought you do use a measure of guessing for the 6x6s and if you guess right then you get really good times. So there is some luck involved. Otherwise are the other times over a minute due to mistakes? Some puzzles have more set cages that fill easier.

Speaking of 6x6 in 37 seconds, coincidentally, I just nabbed one of those today! I think I should be able to get at least a 2nd place... I'm just waiting for sheldolina to get a faster time haha.

There is some luck involved, but definitely skill is also a big factor. Or else we wouldn't have the same people at the top of the rankings all the time.

Author:  starling  [ Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

sneaklyfox wrote:
Well starling, speaking of luck, I thought you do use a measure of guessing for the 6x6s and if you guess right then you get really good times. So there is some luck involved. Otherwise are the other times over a minute due to mistakes? Some puzzles have more set cages that fill easier.


I end up guessing most of the time, but usually it's little minor things that work or test right.

Like, by now my 6x6 times look something like
<35ish seconds, I didn't have to guess, everything was really clean.
35-50 seconds, I guessed, and it worked right.
50-90 seconds, I either guessed wrong or made a typing error.
>90 seconds, I had trouble finding the right spot to guess at, or I made a significant typing error.

Also, I'm at home right now, so I'm being bothered a lot more by external factors, which is causing a lot more errors. And by external factors, I mean my 7 year old brother.

So I guess there's an element of luck, but at this point it's much more likely that I get a 37 second one, since I'm usually going to work with binary guessing points, which makes each puzzle almost a coin flip as to a really good time, and that means that any given day I have an 87.5% chance of at least 1 solid puzzle, not adjusting for the exceptional and the terrible.

Author:  sneaklyfox  [ Tue Mar 20, 2012 6:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

I've been "jinxed" since this thread started. Of the four days this has been up, I've gotten a 37-sec 6x6 for three days.

... And now that I've mentioned that odd coincidence, I will probably be unjinxed.

Author:  babarosa  [ Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

Thank you all!
This is a wonderful game.

Author:  picklepep  [ Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: how could people finish 6*6 in 37 seconds?

grrrrrr just posted my best time on 6x6 (40....) and still only third

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