QuickRoute - Traveling Salesman problem implemented as a game... Very cool! – Quick Route — A Puzzle That Requires Thought To Solve Review

Fun & educational! It would be nice if hints, strategies & tutorials were available. I'm currently stuck on Level 5-12. For less frustrating & more accessible game play, a user control setting could allow the user to reveal 0, 1, 2, (or more) of the start/stop points. If the user chooses 3 (or higher) - then a one (or more) incorrect points could be added to the list as "red herrings". The selected number of possible start points could be shown as light green. To be completely thorough - you could provide a separate user setting / hint to re earl 1 (or more) stop points. The game could also "remember" the 3 closest to optimum routes so they could be recalled to continue optimizing a solution at a later gaming session. (Also a good teaching tool.) Use of color coding should enhance the game. Once a start point is chosen, it could turn GREEN to indicate the start point. Most CAR DASHBOARDS feature two "TRIP METERS" & one "ODOMETER". As the user optimizes their solution, the path could (optionally) turn a warning YELLOW once they exceed the 100% solution. The ODOMETER could keep track of how many attempts & total distance travelled trying to save that last 0.5%. To expedite the search, the path could progressively turn RED as soon as the best remaining solution is worse than the current three "current best solutions". Give the user the option of labeling each point with standard A, B, C letters and/or Cartesian coordinates would be helpful. Optionally you could turn on a MAP MODE that shows distance to all nearby points. You could also add a ROAD SIGN mode that shows distances to nearby points for only the point you are currently visiting. That way people could try various algorithms. Naming the levels might be fun as well. It could incorporate a clue - if the solution path resembles a hammer, dolphin, cross, etc. For introducing math & teaching programming problems, it would be nice to be able to view & print a list of (X,Y) coordinates for each point. Or send that info directly to Excel or Numbers apps. A user setting could determine what quadrants are used. Easiest to visualize might be all positive coordinates (Quadrant 1), with the origin (0,0) at the lower left corner. More advanced users might want to use quadrants 1 & 2, or all four quadrants with the origin in the center. Can't wait to see the next versions and levels! You could easily come up with a 3-D version - and... add complexity by requiring two separate paths.
Review by GCUSA gmail on Quick Route — A Puzzle That Requires Thought To Solve.