#A49: LITS (Classic, SLICY, Double, Inverse LITSO)

 I'm glad I wrapped up the megapuzzle yesterday because I spent practically all day working on these.

LITS is a fairly common puzzle type in online databases despite not being present in any puzzle books that I can think of, other than Nikoli collections. The ruleset is very versatile, allowing for minimums, maximums, impossible patterns and forced connections and disconnections between regions, all without number-oriented clues.

https://puzz.link/p?lits/12/12/pk9tmd3i1j00g081cucun4jokp8651hm6vhg3s0007vqso4690ue60

https://puzz.link/p?lits/12/12/ki9nnrkjo10007hbp9f0602840g2qp04l3fqvvv51g7k5e343vv670

SLICY shows that transferring the rules of LITS onto a hexagonal grid shakes up the logic more so than most other shading puzzle types. I find that vertices matter more than long-distance connections, compared to LITS.

https://pedros.works/paper-puzzle-player?W=6x6x1&SIE=3ERERERDR7EREREUERDWDWDWD49ERDRE17ULULUL&G=slicy

https://pedros.works/paper-puzzle-player?W=8x8x1&SIE=15EULULULU21EULUEU16DRDWDRERDWLWLULUEULWLU23RERDRDWDRERD14ULUEULWLU31LULUEULWDWLWD31ULULWLULUERDRE&G=slicy

Double LITS feels like it leans heavily into maximal packing ideas, though it could still be used in minimal settings given seas of regions.

https://pedros.works/paper-puzzle-player.html?W=12x12&SIE=1RUUUUUUUUUUU14RRRURR2RRRRUULU21DRRDLLDDDRRRULLURRUUU33RRRUULUUURU7UUURRULLURRRRRDDDDD39ULLURRUUUUUUURDDDRUUR9UUU&G=lits&V=double

Inverse LITSO, like Litherslink, inverts all the rules of its inspiration and, in doing so, creates a completely new puzzle type with different concepts and patterns.

https://puzz.link/p?invlitso/12/12/p49i6bvhfih42m1a9k1t2c5ggi8601mk68hgjvoo1gvjvhfshhm3c0