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View Full Version : City Wordsearch Puzzle

QuikSand
03-01-2005, 12:53 PM
No, silly, I don't want you to solve a word search, I want you to make one...


Here are the rules:

Your grid may only be 8 x 8 letters

You are to include names of US Cities, from this list:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108676.html

They may be in any direction, including diagonals

Your grid must include at least one city name in each possible direction

City names may overlap or imbed in the puzzle (e.g. NEWYORK would count you both "New York" and "York" if the latter were a scoring city)

Your score for each city you include will be its population (from the link above) divided by 100,000, rounded down, up to a maxium of 10 points per city.



Have at it.
Radii
03-01-2005, 01:43 PM
48 points on a first attempt, but i don't think i did a very good job at all(i was trying to fit as many cities as possible at first then re-read the rules about population and how its scored...).
Radii
03-01-2005, 01:49 PM
dola, just throwing all the 10 point possible words across, and then once you run out of those, putting the next two highest possible scores across with no overlapping of any kind, nets you 76 points. Now to see if those can be arranged to squeeze out a few extra points... so I've got 76 and working on that, my first post was just dumb :)
QuikSand
03-01-2005, 01:51 PM
Presumably, one could get a fair number of points pretty easily by just lining up eight million-person cities side by side. I hope the top score does not use such a simple route.

We may need to install another rule -- like "there must be at least one city in each of eight directions."

In fact - before we get too far along, I think I'll add that to the rules above...
QuikSand
03-01-2005, 01:53 PM
Honestly, I posted the new rule before you posted your "solution" -- wasn't reacting to your solution, but rather seeing ahead to this being an obvious easy score. We want this to be something of a challenge, after all.
Radii
03-01-2005, 01:59 PM
EDIT: Never mind, re-reading above posts answered my question :P Sheesh, i'm having problems following directions today.
Radii
03-01-2005, 02:20 PM
I have a 62 with words going in all 8 directions, but am convinced that can be beat reasonably easily so I won't post it unless I get stuck and can't beat it during the work day today
Lonnie
03-01-2005, 02:42 PM
I'm at 67 so far.
Lonnie
03-01-2005, 02:53 PM
Dola, scratch that I missed a direction.
MIJB#19
03-01-2005, 04:20 PM
Is 69 good?
Wolfpack
03-02-2005, 11:02 AM
Shoot. Thougth I was doing good with 57. So much for that.
Wolfpack
03-02-2005, 11:03 AM
Dola...I just realized I shortchanged myself a letter row. I was working with an 8x7 grid. #$*&!!
Wolfpack
03-02-2005, 11:32 AM
Second crack with the right grid this time nets 71 points.
Huckleberry
03-02-2005, 01:31 PM
Stuck at 68. Guess I'll be the first to share.

o n e w y o r k
_ g m i a m i h
b s a l l a d o
a o _ c u h s u
s e s s i a w s
e r t t p h a t
m i _ l o _ c o
n e e r e n o n
Wolfpack
03-02-2005, 05:26 PM
Here's how I got 71 (I thought I goofed and didn't have one backwards, but I figured out I could reverse one without disturbing anything else):


KROYWENS
XT#DWMIA
I#UAE#MN
N#CLS#AD
EOALSEII
OS#A#AME
HOUSTONG
PCHICAGO
MIJB#19
03-03-2005, 01:48 AM
Hmm... 69 points with12 empty spots, I think I can do better than that 71.
MIJB#19
03-03-2005, 03:50 AM
I got 75 with:

n e w y o r k c
b o s t o n h a
d e t r o i t t
e a - s c - a n
n - l a u s - a
v - g l e o - l
e o - m a - h t
r - n i t s u a