Setup and Rule Diagrams

[Adam Tyson]

Because the 4th rule of the game says "Exactly one set of January tickets is red." That's the rule I said you were overlooking in my previous post.

[rozewiczp1]

Oh man. I don't know what I was thinking.

Thanks for the help,

Peter

[rita02]

Hi, for this game I used J/F as my base with 3 lines above them for the 3 railway lines. I now realize that a better set up would have been placing J/F on the side and 1/2/3 as the base. However, I am having trouble realizing what in the stimulus forces one set up as opposed to the other? Any advice helps, thanks!

[Paul Marsh]

Hi Rita! Generally we want the variable set with the greatest inherent sense of order to be the base. Lines 1, 2, and 3 are very naturally ordered as they are numbered that way already! Jan/Feb of course have some order to them as well, but I almost always want my numbers on the bottom wherever possible. I think this game is probably still doable by having the months as the base, but it does seem easier with the Lines down there.

Hope that helps!

[alylespier]

Hi-- having difficulty with the set up on this one! How did you initially know that sets didn't mean two and it just meant one color?

[KelseyWoods]

Hi alylespier!

The first rule states: "Each of the six sets of tickets is exactly one of the following colors: green, purple, red, yellow."

There are six sets of tickets because there is one set for each of the three lines in each of the two months. ("The company prints three sets of tickets for January and three sets of tickets for February: one set for each of its lines for each of the two months.") And the first rule tells us that each set of tickets is exactly one color.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[LS2021]

Hello. Question...how exactly was it determined that using the lines as the base, is better than using the months as the base? I understand that the numbers have an inherent order in this game, but so do the months. When faced with variable sets that all have an inherent order or no inherent order at all, what should I look for to determine the best and most efficient base?Thank you in advance.

[Adam Tyson]

The months are a part of the base, LS2021! When we talk about "the base" in a logic game, we are referring not only to the horizontal set of blank spaces, but also to the vertical one. The "base" means the set of blank spaces into which we will be inserting one or more variable sets that can move around within that framework of blank spaces. Think of the base as being the things that do not move. That's both the lines and the months in this game.

We could just as easily have put January and February next to each other at the bottom of our diagram and had rows for each line. We would still have had the colors as the moving set of variables.

And interestingly, even though both of the variables sets that make up the base have a natural order to them, there is nothing at all in this game about order! There are no rules about "an earlier month" or "consecutive lines," no "before/after" aspect at all. One could conceivably think of this game as a grouping game, with the lines as the groups, or the months as the groups, but within those groups you would still have to deal with which color goes in which specific space. That's why it fits more neatly into our idea of an Advanced Linear game. In the end, though, it doesn't matter what label you put on it. It only matters that you get a good setup and reflect the rules accurately.

So, if you chose to put J and F at the bottom, and had rows for 1-2-3, you did just fine!