[TSL] Scenic Railroad
(Published on 23. December 2024, 09:24 by Myxo)
A puzzle made for Turn 2 of the Skunkworks League. The prompt was to set a puzzle loosely based on the song "The Boy" by Tom Rosenthal.
Rules:
Draw a one-cell-wide railroad into the grid. The railroad doesn't branch, and its ends are in the cells pointed to by the arrows. The railroad cannot touch itself, not even diagonally, and it cannot pass through any mountains or trees.
Additionally, draw a hiking trail along cell edges, which forms a closed loop. Hiking trail and railroad may cross, but neither hiking trail nor railroad may turn adjacent to a crossing. Except for those crossings, the hiking trail cannot touch the railroad, not even at corners.
Orthogonally connected groups of cells that are entirely bounded by the railroad and the hiking trail (ie. not directly connected to the border of the grid) form areas. Every mountain or tree must be part of an area. Each area contains either
A) 1 mountain and 0 trees,
B) 0 mountains and 2 trees, or
C) 0 mountains and 0 trees.
Solution code: the diagonal from bottom left to top right (13 letters). R for railroad, T for area with trees, M for area with mountains, E for empty area, X for empty cells that are not part of an area
Comments
on 2. February 2025, 00:24 by Myxo
small rule clarification
on 24. January 2025, 17:05 by Christounet
Awesome ! Super original ruleset and excellent solve path. Thanks :)
on 11. January 2025, 12:15 by Piatato
Great fun, lovely ruleset and a very cleverly executed puzzle!
on 10. January 2025, 21:45 by Jesper
Cool and quite different, enjoyed it a lot!
on 30. December 2024, 21:01 by dumediat
Better lucky than good, I always say...
on 28. December 2024, 07:15 by askaksaksask
I was originally stymied by this puzzle for failing to understand the implications of the rules. The word 'entirely' putting in quite the work! Once I understood the restrictions induced by the rule set, this was a smooth solve--still tricky--and quite fun! Thank you for this wonderful puzzle.
on 23. December 2024, 17:17 by Agent
This is a great ruleset with fascinating implications, and very precisely constructed!
on 23. December 2024, 15:37 by Myxo
@Agent Yes.
on 23. December 2024, 13:22 by Agent
Are the orthogonally connected groups of cells considered "bounded" by the hiking trail even if they are outside the hiking trail?
on 23. December 2024, 13:18 by Niverio
Very neat idea executed pretty well!
on 23. December 2024, 11:10 by lmdemasi
Loved solving this as part of the TSL. It was my favourite puzzle of the round.
