Rene's Puzzles

[jf]

If you are still working on it, please continue and don't look at my solution  And, JF, my solution to Glass Floor Returns does not give any hints for Glass Floor Vengeance  . Even though no other solutions have been posted for both, I still think Glass Floor Returns is substantially easier than Vengeance.

Oh yes, I won't be looking at either solution yet! I really need some Rubicon time to concentrate on Glass Floor Vengeance, and I want to get past that before Returns (which I've looked at, but have not really tried to solve yet). I've been stuck on Vengeance for some time, because I can't tell if what I'm hitting is just an exotic timing issue, or if the design I've been working on really can't work. Still, it's an enjoyable puzzle, and I'll see it through to the bitter end . And, I look forward then to Returns.

[Rene]

Here are two new challenges. They are inspired by Bucky's Oscillate, in which you have to match two crates that oscillate under a gate. See if you can do the same for more than two crates - with a twist.

    Swift Cycle 6: hybahon
    Swift Cycle 8: bacixig

[jf]

My solution to Swift Cycle 6: kopodor. This is quite a challenging puzzle.

[Rene]

Good work on Swift Cycle 6, JF! I particularly like your way of slowing down the dozer cycle one tick between digits.
I agree it is quite a hard puzzle to crack. Swift Cycle 8 is even harder, so I rated that one "experts only". Feel free to vote on the difficulty of these puzzles (and the other ones). That would give me a better idea whether my judgement is correct.

Here is my solution to Swift Cycle 6 (hybahon): ruvodes

   

[jf]

Swift Cycle 8 is much more difficult, in both the mechanisms needed, and also, in the solving of the "meta-puzzle", which you need to do before you can get to solving the mechanical puzzle.

I could re-use my Swift Cycle 6 solution, but it would need to be really, really slowed down. So, I adopted your detection mechanism from kopodor, and added some more complex timing structures, and here it is, my solution to Swift Cycle 8: bexegob.

Edit: I just tweaked the ending, for a prettier display of lights: jedelen.

[Bucky]

my solution to Swift Cycle 8: bexegob.

This failed the first time I watched it.  It misidentified an A as an 8.

[jf]

my solution to Swift Cycle 8: bexegob.

This failed the first time I watched it.  It misidentified an A as an 8.

While working on a puzzle a while back, I was seeing what appeared to be a timing-related failure of a gate, specifically, it turns out, matching on A, but I eventually turned to a different design and forgot about it. This particular solution is completely tick-based, from the start, and the solution values themselves do not affect the overall timing, so if you did see a failure on A, then I would suspect a Rubicon bug, and not a bug in my solution. 

[jf]

Rene, when I first opened up Glass Floor Vengeance, long ago, I thought a better name would have been, "Diabolical"! 

What follows could be construed as somewhat of a * * * SPOILER * * *, but I'll try to be careful...

What a tough, tough puzzle, and yet, so simple. I had two previous designs, which, due to some early success, I thought would, each in turn, eventually, prove to work, if I could just figure out the timing. I was always just one tick away, in one direction or the other, for various kinds of clever manipulations and transpositions. And so this false illusion of being close to solving it kept me trudging down the wrong path for so very long.

I've been picking this puzzle up, and putting it back down, off and on, for some time now. Finally, today, a new idea came to me, completely out of the blue, and so, yet again, I double-clicked on nubusix, and there is was, waiting for me, my nemesis, Glass Floor Vengeance. What a delight, then, when the pieces starting falling into place effortlessly, and, amazingly, I was able to detect the value! Once I reached that point, I finished up hastily, so perhaps I'll come back to this and clean it up, to make it more presentable, but here it is, finally, at long last, my solution to Glass Flood Vengeance: midyroc.

Edit: Wow, I just looked at your solution. In fact, that's the first design I gave up on. I had almost the same configuration as your first line, which of course, you know, works for a subset of values right away. What I couldn't handle were the outside cases. When I got one subset working, another would fail. So, I'll have to study your solution and find my blind spots. I eventually gave up that, but my second design was also trying to subset the possibilities. I'm sure you'll be interested to see that my eventual solution (above) has absolutely nothing in common with yours -- so there is an alternative for those of you out there still suffering with this puzzle.

[jf]

Did I really write so much in that last post? 

And here is my solution to Glass Floor Returns: hyxunyf. That was fun. At first it looks quite difficult, but then, compared to Glass Floor Vengeance, there is all the time in the world.

[jf]

My Solution to Italian Traffic Warden 3 tudugys: soradar. That puzzle is not for the faint-hearted.

[Rene]

Wow, JF, you have been busy!

First of all, excellent, excellent solution to Glass Floor Vengeance! Your solution is quite straight-forward and easy to understand. It's the type of solution that makes you wonder, "why didn't I think of that". With some adaptation it would even work if the crate was moving from right to left! Also, it seems that you have some glass to spare.
I am very happy to see that you found a completely different solution than mine. After all this time, I was convinced that no other approach was possible, and then you come up with such a pearl!
I am also relieved that you found a solution at all. It is somewhat unsatisfactory to have created a puzzle that nobody solves.

I am not sure which of my solutions to Glass Floor Vengeance you looked at. rymymub is my original solution posted in this thread. Two small improvements to that solution enabled me to drastically reduce the post-processing logic, which resulted in  pamifux which is in the topic-starting post. As you say, some crate values solve themselves in my approach. I had most problems with 4-7. In the end I resorted to special logic to detect that case early, and drop the right barrel in place accordingly.

Secondly, very fine solution to Glass Floor Returns. As you can see, your solution is much simpler than mine!

Finally, good solution to Italian Traffic Warden 3. You use "The Sieve" in the same way as jnz and me, although a slightly different version of it.

Now that you have solved both Glass Floors, I guess you are ready for my new puzzle: "Glass Floor Vengeance Returns" 
........................ just kidding  , I do not have such a puzzle..................... yet  .

[Rene]

JF - very good solution to Swift Cycle 8 as well. You really worked out how the crates in the puzzle cycle themselves, and created your solution around that! I never managed to do that, I only calculated the slow overall repeat cycle. Then I used a template in my solution, but had to introduce a random element to avoid fixed cycles in the template read-out. That made it all much messier:

     Solution to Swift Cycle 8 (bacixig): sahuxur

It seems that you solved all my "hard" and "expert" level puzzles in one go this week!

[Rene]

OK then, here it is!
After all the abuse of the glass floor by JF, the construction workers needed to come again and repair the damage. And of course, they still did not order any of the proper glass tiles  . I should really fire these guys one day. Anyway, they did some repairs, and now the glass floor is back...... with only 3 of the original 15 glass tiles. Can you still make out the crate moving beneath ?

    Glass Floor Diabolo: kelepyv

[jf]

Rene -- I did look at both of your Vengeance solutions. The one at the top of the thread I found by accident, when I wanted to go back and study in more detail, and used the top of the thread as a shortcut to find the solution again. That is quite a clever mechanism to begin with, and then, a substantial optimization. I myself could just not figure out the timing for all cases. But, the time spent working on that puzzle did yield lots of useful information for other puzzles, and I plan to study your Vengeance solution thoroughly. 

Also, Glass Floor Vengeance Returns had me laughing!  But now here comes Glass Floor Diabolo, which I look forward to. I do have some leftover ideas from my Vengeance work which may apply here.

For Swift Cycle 8, I actually doubled the shorter cycle, which in my solution appears as the longer cycle, because it was too short to use in my implementation. That meant stretching the auxiliary cycle on the far right a bit more to cover a complete span of 16 inner cycles, which actually turns out for the best because it becomes a multiple of 16 -- a convenient number in Rubicon. So the solution does not run an "optimum speed", but still, at an acceptable rate. Those of you reading this and scratching your heads, I think it all becomes clear when you watch the solution running. Also, if you go to the sandbox and clip out the furnace up on top (of my solution) that prevents overflow, you can get a longer readout of the output to look over.

[jf]

Despite all the heavy equipment, the last few clear glass tiles are holding up well, and there is just enough room to catch a glimpse of the crate sliding by underfoot, in my solution to Glass Floor Diabolo: dovesad.

Fantastic series of puzzles, Rene.