Author Topic: Lemmings Doublets  (Read 7387 times)

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Offline Proxima

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Lemmings Doublets
« on: March 21, 2017, 03:24:05 PM »
"Doublets" is a word game where you try to transform one word into another (of the same length), changing a single letter at a time, with the proviso that all the intermediate steps must be valid words: for example, cat, cot, cog, dog. The goal is to complete the chain in as few steps as possible (the final word counts as a step but the starting word does not, so the above chain scores 3).

See if you can equal or beat my scores:

BASH to MINE (5)
BOMB to CUBE (14)
BUILD to STACK (13) (hint: the chain contains another Lemmings-related word)

Offline Simon

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2017, 03:32:41 PM »
Very nice idea. I remember this puzzle from childrens' puzzle books with 4 letters, and the solution was always known to be length 3 or 4. It's far more interesting when there is no obvious 3- or 4-letter solution, but we can never be perfectly sure.

BASH to MINE in 4 (click to show/hide)

BOMB to CUBE in 5 (click to show/hide)

BUILD to STACK in 9 (click to show/hide)

BUILD to STACK is hard if you don't know the exact Lemmings-related intermediate word in the center. I haven't found a shorter route even when that intermediate word isn't required.

New puzzle:
DISK to BALL in 6 (click to show/hide)

Now I want to play a game of Scrabble with Proxima. :lix-grin:

-- Simon
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 03:58:45 PM by Simon »

Offline Proxima

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2017, 05:18:20 PM »
I suspect you'd beat me 8-) Here's a solution for disk-ball in 8, I'll see if I can come up with a shorter one.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Got it in 6! :D
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 05:44:36 PM by Proxima »

Offline Proxima

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2017, 06:44:28 PM »
CLIMB to FLOAT is very hard. I have a solution in 7, but it uses obscure words. According to an online solver, the best solution with only common words is 16!

My solution:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A better puzzle: WALK to TRAP (10). This uses one rather obscure word, but nowhere near as bad as the climb-float puzzle. The online solver finds a solution in 11 with only common words.

My solution:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 07:36:09 PM by Proxima »

Offline Gronkling

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2017, 11:26:51 PM »

Offline ccexplore

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2017, 05:17:43 AM »
BUILD to STACK is hard if you don't know the exact Lemmings-related intermediate word in the center. I haven't found a shorter route even when that intermediate word isn't required.

According to an online solver, an 8-step solution exists, not using the Lemmings-related word either but instead rely upon an obscure word near the center:

(solution: http://ceptimus.co.uk/wordladder.php?w1=BUILD&w2=STACK)

According to an online solver, the best solution with only common words is 16!

If it's the same solver I'm using above, based on its explanation page, the common-word solver seems to minimize sum of rareness instead of length, rather than say basing on just a threshold of rareness (but otherwise still minimizing length, even if it means using more relatively rarer words still below the threshold), so it may tend to produce longer solutions just so the words used are more common, so to speak.  For example it seems to prefer a 10-step solution over Simon's 9 for BUILD -> STACK, apparently not liking the first step in Simon's solution for some reason, even though effectively all the rest of the steps are identical to Simon's.  (And no, it fails to elaborate on exactly how rareness scores are assigned to words in the dictionary it is using.)

Offline ccexplore

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2017, 10:56:19 AM »
WALK->TRAP in 8, using lots of obscure words.

I finally managed 7 with much more common words, and w/o the solver's help.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(For reference: the solver yields 6 with obscure words, and 11 for its sum-based "common".   I guess it thinks that color word in my solution as "rare", even though I think it's not so rare nowadays?)

Offline ccexplore

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2017, 11:10:18 AM »
FAIL to NUKE in 8 or better (click to show/hide)

(solver gives 6 with obscure and 8 for "common".  As you can see in the spoiler mine's actually 7, but one of the words used, while valid, was not as common as I thought (it is part of a common compound word that relates to funerals, but by itself I guess it's not as common).

Offline Gronkling

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2017, 01:41:21 PM »
FAIL->NUKE in 6 (click to show/hide)

Offline Simon

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2017, 06:18:52 AM »
FAIL -> NUKE in 6 (click to show/hide)

I like how these grow from both sides in promising style, and then I google for the missing link in the center until I get lucky. Googling wouldn't be allowed during Scrabble, Proxima doesn't have to be afraid. 8-)

Walk -> Trap looks harder, I don't have anything good yet.

-- Simon

Offline Apjjm

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #10 on: March 26, 2017, 02:07:48 PM »
I got walk->trap in the same way as ccexplore.

How about BLOCK to MINER? I found this really hard and 12 was the best i could manage.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My Level Packs: Quartet

Offline LemSteven

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Re: Lemmings Doublets
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2017, 03:45:54 AM »
BLOCK -> MINER in 9 (click to show/hide)

Here's one using a couple of Lemmings 2 skills: FILL -> GLUE  The best I could come up with on my own is 7.  The solver managed to find a 6-step solution using an obscure word.

FILL -> GLUE in 7 (click to show/hide)