Total Masyu

[motris]

So, in a pre-preview of the USPC, which I expect will have a Masyu on it again this year, I thought I'd post a Masyu variant I was experimenting with over the weekend. The concept was suggested to me by rpipuzzleguy actually, and is a really good idea (although I still have my own Masyu variant ideas on the backburner for when/if I start to work on a logic

Comments

[motris]

My difficulty ratings for these were based on the "newness" of rules you'd need for them, and 2/3 seemed to have two different kinds of rules to use in places although 3 is more masyu-like in the sense of using global loop closure rules.

I actually find the pentomino/tetris fences puzzles to be rather hard and rather unlike normal fences puzzles as most constructors don't give you a lot of fence information to work with. So I almost give them their own category as my joy of slitherlink is far removed from a tetris fences puzzle.

Still, your suggestion intrigued me and before your second comment I mapped out the 12 pentominos in this way to think about a masyu form. Without some relaxation of the rules, the presence of black circles will give you the L, V, U, P, and Z pentominoes immediately. Then pattern matching can likely get the N, Y, I very easily including orientation, and the T, F, and W can be identified but not necessarily yet placed as each has two rotational placements (barring reflections which takes the F up to 4). X gets no circles, so it is fit by edge toughing constraints I suppose for uniqueness.

I'm actually thinking a "caves" pentomino packing puzzle is due, if it hasn't been done by somebody yet, as that kind of "how many cells do you see from here" info is orthogonal to what the fences form gives you but should have similar intellectual depth to make a satisfying puzzle.