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Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

hexapipes.vercel.app

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Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#21

Post by mbusheikin »

Syzygies wrote: post #3

Wow! What fun. You have to make this a phone/tablet app...

Well, this seems an appropriate place to plug the phone/tablet app we made with these puzzles, called Noodles 2.

It's the same puzzle style, with square, triangle and hex shapes, with some extra mechanics - disappearing pieces, infinite grid (it wraps around).

gereleth, great job on the puzzles - I played a few of the bigger hex puzzles and it was real smooth. :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lummoxlabs... https://apps.apple.com/us/app/noodles-2/id1520711405

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#22

Post by nathancahill »

mbusheikin wrote: post #21
Syzygies wrote: post #3

Wow! What fun. You have to make this a phone/tablet app...

Well, this seems an appropriate place to plug the phone/tablet app we made with these puzzles, called Noodles 2. It's the same puzzle style, with square, triangle and hex shapes, with some extra mechanics - disappearing pieces, infinite grid (it wraps around). gereleth, great job on the puzzles - I played a few of the bigger hex puzzles and it was real smooth. :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumm…

That's awesome. Really slick app.

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#23

Post by TOMDM »

swayvil wrote: post #5

My first, a 5x5, in 3:08 It was fun, but on the edge of annoying, which seems appropriate.

I finished my first on 1:33, starting from the edge and working in, moving to a different spot when I noticed too much flex was my strategy.

Given the authors note in this thread about each puzzle only having one solution probably means I stumbled onto a decent strategy

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#24

Post by emadehsan »

gereleth wrote: post #15
emadehsan wrote: post #9

Captivating! So, while generating the puzzle, you are essentially creating a random Spanning Tree for the given nodes (hexagon) arrangement? Then you randomize each pipe piece's direction within a hexagon? What algorithm are you using for it Spanning Tree? I have been working on Maze Generation[0] and found randomized Prim's, Kruskal's to be useful for Spanning Tree creation but the good old Depth First Search increa…

Well the way I wrote my pipes solver was to keep a set of possible orientations of every tile and gradually remove impossible options by using border conditions and some heuristics like avoiding islands and loops. And when this doesn't turn up any new info I resort to depth-first search. The generator basically does the same but every tile starts out with a full set of possible orientations - every rotation of every…

My understanding is that since the game mentions:

"Rotate the tiles so that all pipes are connected with no loops."

These is exactly what a Spanning Tree is. So, any spanning tree generation algorithm would do. You just generate a random ST each time and cut this tree where the hexagon borders intersect with it (to get pipe pieces) and randomize their orientation.

These algorithms are not going to disappoint you in terms of performance.

I made tutorials on the topic as well. Might help me clear my point: https://youtu.be/d5yzKkG1n1U?t=36

Apologies for spamming. Sorry, if I'm suggesting premature optimization.

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#25

Post by gereleth »

mbusheikin wrote: post #21
Syzygies wrote: post #3

Wow! What fun. You have to make this a phone/tablet app...

Well, this seems an appropriate place to plug the phone/tablet app we made with these puzzles, called Noodles 2. It's the same puzzle style, with square, triangle and hex shapes, with some extra mechanics - disappearing pieces, infinite grid (it wraps around). gereleth, great job on the puzzles - I played a few of the bigger hex puzzles and it was real smooth. :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumm…

Nice graphics, I love the soft lines.

I have wrapping infinite grid variants too, but disappearing pieces? Intriguing =)).

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#26

Post by swayvil »

TOMDM wrote: post #23
swayvil wrote: post #5

My first, a 5x5, in 3:08 It was fun, but on the edge of annoying, which seems appropriate.

I finished my first on 1:33, starting from the edge and working in, moving to a different spot when I noticed too much flex was my strategy. Given the authors note in this thread about each puzzle only having one solution probably means I stumbled onto a decent strategy

Ya, the edge is key. So are hexes that have minimal possible positions.

I did my second 5 in 3:08 too. Which is weird.

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#27

Post by harpersealtako »

Solved my first 5x5 in 1:54. At first I thought it would be really difficult but then I found a hex which could only go one way (a corner hex with V shape) and then from there the adjacent pipes could only orient one way. There were a few times where I had to think down a tree of possibilities (if this hex goes like this, then this hex can't possibly fit here because of a previously solved hex, therefore it must go like this instead), but never more than one or two steps. All in all it's a very satisfying puzzle format.

Re: Show HN: Pipes puzzle (a.k.a. Net) on a hexagonal grid

#28

Post by gereleth »

TOMDM wrote: post #23
swayvil wrote: post #5

My first, a 5x5, in 3:08 It was fun, but on the edge of annoying, which seems appropriate.

I finished my first on 1:33, starting from the edge and working in, moving to a different spot when I noticed too much flex was my strategy. Given the authors note in this thread about each puzzle only having one solution probably means I stumbled onto a decent strategy

This is pretty much how I solve regular puzzles too. I can do most 5x5s in under 20 seconds. Too often did my debugging sessions devolve into puzzle marathons =).

Wrap variants are another story as they have no outer edges. Discovering which tile groups give initial clues there is pretty fun too (when the regular puzzles aren't much of a challenge any more).

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