Making Explainable Minesweeper • Hacker News Board

Re: Making Explainable Minesweeper

#41

Post by yifanl » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #24

Many many years ago I remember playing a free minesweeper that had, among other things, hexagonal maps as an option, but the big thing was that it guaranteed that you would never need to guess. You could always figure out the answer, and I believe there was a mode where if you clicked in a way where you couldn't have deduced the answer it would put a mine in there to punish you. Anyone know what minesweeper software…

Likely not what you're thinking of, but there's a lot of variant modes in the Minesveeper advent calendars: https://heptaveegesimal.com/2022/minesveeper-zero/

Re: Making Explainable Minesweeper

#42

Post by Matthias247 » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 6:26 PM UTC

tylervigen wrote: post #36

_9ptr wrote: post #5

In minesweeper online there's also a "no guessing" mode which, in my opinion, is much more interesting than the normal mode. It means that if you guess in a situation where you could have deduced the mines, you always get a mine. Conversely, if you really are in a guessing situation, you will never get a mine. I'm pretty sure the game calculates the unknown part of the map after each click anew.

How would the game know you are guessing?

I think the only guessing situation in the game is the starting point (first click). after that, everything can be solved by deduction.

Re: Making Explainable Minesweeper

#43

Post by _9ptr » Thu, Jul 10, 2025, 6:55 PM UTC

Matthias247 wrote: post #42

tylervigen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the game know you are guessing?

I think the only guessing situation in the game is the starting point (first click). after that, everything can be solved by deduction.

That's not the case. I have come to such situations. And I suppose the program can identify those as well and put the bomb where you didn't click.

Re: Making Explainable Minesweeper

#44

Post by Matthias247 » Fri, Jul 11, 2025, 5:06 PM UTC

_9ptr wrote: post #43

Matthias247 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the only guessing situation in the game is the starting point (first click). after that, everything can be solved by deduction.

That's not the case. I have come to such situations. And I suppose the program can identify those as well and put the bomb where you didn't click.

I've played that one a lot (hundreds of games on Evil difficulty). So far there's no guessing required after the initial click. Everything can be deducted. Even though some deductions are really hard (you have to go through mine blocks from multiple starting points and multiple hops in order to determine the next safe block).