I'm sorry, but the third puzzle doesn't work. Not only are puzzle and (intended) answer perfectly symmetrical, but the answer is not unique.
I would have started using hex digits with RC notation, but let's just look at the black pearl in R3C2. Part of the path obviously points right, but the other part might travel DDL, or UULDDDD, or UULDDDRDL. With this ambiguity in all four corners, there are 3^4 = 81 solutions currently.
I will add that I'd be fine with a puzzle that didn't start with symmetric clues but revealed its answer as symmetric. (For a symmetric puzzle with a non-symmetric answer, I'd like to point readers to my Slitherlink puzzle here.)
>> Not only are puzzle and (intended) answer perfectly symmetrical To me, that's not a problem. Or at any rate, there's nothing in the "official rules of puzzle construction" to prevent it.
>> I will add that I'd be fine with a puzzle that didn't start with symmetric clues but revealed its answer as symmetric. The clues are rotationally symmetric, but the solution has (in addition to rotational symmetry) reflectional symmetry.
>> but the answer is not unique. That is a problem. I've added some white pearls in the problem regions. Thanks for pointing this out.
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I would have started using hex digits with RC notation, but let's just look at the black pearl in R3C2. Part of the path obviously points right, but the other part might travel DDL, or UULDDDD, or UULDDDRDL. With this ambiguity in all four corners, there are 3^4 = 81 solutions currently.
I will add that I'd be fine with a puzzle that didn't start with symmetric clues but revealed its answer as symmetric. (For a symmetric puzzle with a non-symmetric answer, I'd like to point readers to my Slitherlink puzzle here.)
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To me, that's not a problem. Or at any rate, there's nothing in the "official rules of puzzle construction" to prevent it.
>> I will add that I'd be fine with a puzzle that didn't start with symmetric clues but revealed its answer as symmetric.
The clues are rotationally symmetric, but the solution has (in addition to rotational symmetry) reflectional symmetry.
>> but the answer is not unique.
That is a problem. I've added some white pearls in the problem regions. Thanks for pointing this out.
Reply
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