BrowserUk,
Ah, I see. I am not entirely convinced smart brute forcing is entirely out of the question. The maximum number of iterations that you could possibly have to check is 186!. If you were dynamically generating your dials, the number goes way down. 
dial 1 - any of the 186 indices (say 311)
dial 2 - any of the 186 indices that isn't dial 1's current (say 296)
dial 3 - any of the 186 indices that isn't dial 1 or 2's current (say 
+257)
dial 4 - can't be anything because the sum of 1-3 is 864.

[download]

This is extremely messy to do in C though I have done it. Once you get to dial 7 you treat it as though it were dial 1 as far as sum goes. Doing it this way though cuts the possible paths down early and considerably assuming the data isn't designed for worst case.

I have no idea when I will have anything resembling free time again though so this is just an idea.

Cheers - L~R

In reply to Re^5: Bin packing problem variation repost (see[834245]) by Limbic~Region
in thread Bin packing problem variation repost (see[834245]) by BrowserUk

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