Puzzle Generator Hard

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Today I reinstalled Hexcells Infinite and I tried several puzzles with the puzzle generator on the new setting "hard". In all cases I wasn't able to solve it. Many times I did not even see a first move.

Of the last puzzle I made a printscreen https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3453348717

Questions:
Are really all puzzles with this new settings "hard" solvable without guessing?
What am I missing?

[JorgeJunior]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Questions:
Are really all puzzles with this new settings "hard" solvable without guessing?

Yes, they are.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3453353075

[Blueberry Muffins!]

They are. The hard puzzles can get *hard*. They pick up where the main puzzle set leaves off and get harder from there, there's always enough to solve with. I'm over a thousand puzzles in and slowly got better, I'm to the point where it usually takes me 5-20 minutes to do one, but still there are some I can't find a handle on before I'm out of available time. Sometimes they descend into what I call brute-enumeration hell, where you just have to work out the possibilities for every constraint you can identify and look for cells that are always full or always empty. I hate those ones, they feel more tedious than hard, but funnily enough they seem to have gotten rarer over time. This is a damn good puzzle game.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

First off: Thank you for the answers. I am very glad to hear that they are all solvable The old puzzle generator made too easy puzzles, that's why I stpped years ago. Now I just played Hexcells and Hexcells Plus again. Strange enough I didn't remember the flowers. If that is no update I must have a serious memory malfunction ... sheesh.

Originally posted by JorgeJunior:

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Questions:
Are really all puzzles with this new settings "hard" solvable without guessing?

Yes, they are.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3453353075

I see the X. I see the it's the junction of the 4-row and the 3-diagonal. But I see no reason why this cell must be blue.

[JorgeJunior]

I never said what color it must be.
I marked it because it's your next move. 🙂

[Blueberry Muffins!]

Haha yeah, you posted a promise-not-to-kick-yourself-when-you-see-it one. Been there. An immediate consequence forces a constraint violation elsewhere, not far, it's not subtle.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

blue or not blue: I dont see the *slightest* clue for that particular cell. neither the row nor the diagonal ...

Pointing out the involved logical steps for that cell seems to be necessary to make me understanding.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

It's a bit like a mathematical calculation. You pointed out where the result has to be, but I am completely missing the steps to get there.

[Noop]

If the cell is blue, what does that mean for the rest of the cells in the 4 column and the 3 diagonal that cell sits within?

What does that then mean for the nearby 2 diagonal?

If the marked cell is blue, then the cell directly below and below right must be black because the blue count constraints on the 4 column and 3 diagonal are satisfied. However, this creates a conflict because the blue count constraint on the 2 diagonal cannot be satisfied since there is only one unknown cell left. Therefore, the marked cell must be black.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Originally posted by Noop:

If the cell is blue, what does that mean for the rest of the cells in the 4 column and the 3 diagonal that cell sits within?

What does that then mean for the nearby 2 diagonal?

If the marked cell is blue, then the cell directly below and below right must be black because the blue count constraints on the 4 column and 3 diagonal are satisfied. However, this creates a conflict because the blue count constraint on the 2 diagonal cannot be satisfied since there is only one unknown cell left. Therefore, the marked cell must be black.

That helped

Good man!

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Originally posted by JorgeJunior:

I never said what color it must be.
I marked it because it's your next move. 🙂

How did you get to this cell? Did you start with all junctions of lines, rows and diagonals?

Originally posted by Blueberry Muffins!:

Sometimes they descend into what I call brute-enumeration hell, where you just have to work out the possibilities for every constraint you can identify and look for cells that are always full or always empty. I hate those ones, they feel more tedious than hard

Yes, that is for sure no fun to brute force all possibilities. Dumb CPU's are better suited for brute force calculations.

Though I am a bit peeved that software is now not only better than us in chess, but also in Hexcells :-/

If they get better in modern warfare too, good night gentlemen!

[JorgeJunior]

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

Originally posted by JorgeJunior:

I never said what color it must be.
I marked it because it's your next move. 🙂

How did you get to this cell? Did you start with all junctions of lines, rows and diagonals?

I start with the junctions.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Originally posted by JorgeJunior:

Originally posted by Gordon✪Gekko:

How did you get to this cell? Did you start with all junctions of lines, rows and diagonals?

I start with the junctions.

Muito bom. Aprendi alguma coisa!

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Update:

I think that people who can solve this puzzle without any greater problems must be half human, half machine. An embedded co-processor surely helps.

... or maybe a mutation. Supra natural intelligence.

[Berahlen]

It's just practice. When I looked at the picture in the initial post my eyes pretty much beelined to that area because it's a confluence of three line clues that each have only one degree of freedom left (3 and 4 each having a single blue remaining, 2 having a single black remaining). It's not just about junctions, but specifically ones nearby multiple logical fracture points most likely to cause a violation.

I usually click the guideline display on a column/diagonal clue when there's one blue remaining. It helps me more quickly identify these logically fragile areas to look for contradictions.

[Doc✪Hollywood]

Originally posted by Berahlen:

It's just practice. When I looked at the picture in the initial post my eyes pretty much beelined to that area because it's a confluence of three line clues that each have only one degree of freedom left (3 and 4 each having a single blue remaining, 2 having a single black remaining). It's not just about junctions, but specifically ones nearby multiple logical fracture points most likely to cause a violation.

I usually click the guideline display on a column/diagonal clue when there's one blue remaining. It helps me more quickly identify these logically fragile areas to look for contradictions.

Interesting.

But then all super intelligent guys would say something like "it's easier than it looks" or "it's just practice" or "it was intuition". That's *exactly* what smart people say

I need to keep your sentence: "identifying logically fragile areas to look for contradictions".
Do you mean the same with "logical fracture points"?