I would like to suggest some ideas for expanding the SixCells editor in a way that provides flexibility and convenience for those who create Hexcells puzzles. Feel free to suggest other ideas for the editor you'd like to see.
• Undo moves in playtest. Sometimes when I'm in the middle of a particular theme, I want to playtest it just to see where it leads, but would like to be able to backtrack as if I never took that path. I know you can click the cells to cover them again, but it isn't practical when you've made dozens of moves all over the puzzle and can't remember which ones were clicked, or in which order.
• One Step, Random Step, Global Step. When using the Solve function in the playtest, One Step reveals all known hexes based on clues from the whole puzzle. For large puzzles this results in the solver revealing a big chunk of the puzzle on the first step. I would like to suggest that One Step literally means "one step", meaning the very next hex the solver intends to click, making it function more like a human. And because for some puzzles you want the player to go in a certain direction, it helps to see exactly which hexes the solver clicks, and in which order.
And sometimes, you want to know if there are other approaches to your puzzle that you haven't seen, or didn't intend. Random Step forces the solver to find and reveal hexes other than the one it intended to do with One Step. It basically tells the solver, "Find another section of the puzzle where you can reveal known hexes." So One Step is like the primary path the solver takes, while Random Step is like a side quest.
Global Step would function the way One Step does now, revealing all known hexes based on clues from the entire puzzle.
• Clue Generator. Generates clues to solving the puzzle based on its layout. The user designs the puzzle, the generator provides the clues to solving it. You can choose a difficulty, where "Easy" generates many clues, "Medium" generates fewer clues, and "Hard" generates even fewer clues, like this. This one feature will increase community participation because I feel there are people who want to create a good puzzle, but don't know how to assign good clues, so they don't attempt to create a puzzle at all. A clue generator solves this issue.
• Custom Rule Parameters. Because many puzzles submitted by the community have custom rules, I think it would be convenient to program the solver and clue generator to account for puzzles that have custom rules. So if the user wants to create a puzzle in which each column has a unique number of blue cells, he can enable that parameter in the editor. Then when he uses the solver or clue generator, those tools will make decisions based on the custom rule. Other parameters include:
Each column has a unique number of blue cells.
Each group has a unique number of blue cells.
Blue cells form cycles.
Puzzle is symmetrical.
• Show grid boundary. Displays the borders of the grid for those who want to make large/wide puzzles and want a visual indicator for how far they can they go before crossing over any UI elements. Example
• Snap hexes to grid. This is turned on by default, but when turned off, it allows cells to touch sideways and at angles, which helps create word puzzles. Example
• Snap outside numbers to grid. This is turned on by default, but when turned off, it allows outside numbers to be put sideways or even under the cells, which allows for flexibility in displaying numbers outside the cells. Example
