Second Sight
(Eingestellt am 25. Januar 2025, 02:10 Uhr von Kafkapharnaum)
I was hesitant at first to make a puzzle using all of these at once, but in his Secret Santa form, Matt also shared something that I found both very touching and very impressive: that he coaches baseball for the blind. Reading that, I knew I had to do something with it, and that baseball analogy, with the coach in the center, plus lack of one of the senses helped me get something going really quickly. And while the puzzle advertises itself as a Two Truths & a Lie, or a variant thereof, what you will find, with the Doublers and S-cells, is that the so-called lying ones, actually work perfectly well in their context – just like normal sudoku in fact. I quite liked that, and I hope you will enjoy the puzzle as much as I enjoyed making it. Big thanks to Matt for encouraging me to share it!
RULES
S-CELLS
• The grid must be filled with the digits 0-9 such that no digit repeats in a row, column, or box.
• Each row, column, and box must contain exactly one S-cell. S-cells contain two digits instead of one, and their value is the sum of those digits.
DOUBLERS
• Each row, column and box must also contain exactly one Doubler. These Doublers must form a complete set of the digits 1 to 9, and cannot overlap with S-cells. Their value is twice the value of the digit they contain.
REGION SUM LINES (RSL)
• The 3x3 box borders divide each line into segments of the same sums. The sums may differ from line to line.
TWO TRUTHS & A (WHITE) LIE
• In this puzzle are "Lying Elements" (LE). Each box, row and column must contain exactly one LE.
• In the finished grid, there must be exactly:
– Three nonworking Doublers, which will not double the value of their digit, but must still help fulfill the 1 to 9 set requirement.
– Three S-cells containing a 0 as one of their two digits.
– Three RSL's containing a segment with a different sum than each of their other two segments. Such lying segments will as a whole only count as a single LE, but will count as such in every row and column that they touch.
• LE Doublers and LE S-cells can appear on truthful RSL segments, and vice-versa.
KROPKI TRUTHTELLERS
• The white dots work as regular Kropki dots, indicating pairs of values that are consecutive. These dots are always truthful.
Play the puzzle on Sudokupad
Lösungscode: Row 1, from left to right (for the S-cell, enter the smaller digit first)
Kommentare
am 7. Februar 2025, 07:26 Uhr von bodemeister
Amazing puzzle! The LEs are quite interesting as they are both relaxing and restrictive. I'm sure Simon would enjoy solving this one.
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Thank you for the kind words! Glad you liked the puzzle, and yes, even though I've mostly come to terms with the fact that a lot of my puzzles aren't CTC material, I think you're right that this one could make a good feature, since it's reminiscing of Bodysnatchers, which Simon certainly seemed to have enjoyed!
am 27. Januar 2025, 21:32 Uhr von wullemuus
Welcome back!
This puzzle looks more frightening as it actually is. The break-in started first with a doubt, but after my idea worked the solving path was beautiful and elegant. Playing around with all this elements was quite fun!
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Thank you! For sure I was quite happy with how I managed to have all the different elements play a part after I'd been hesitant to concoct something with such a mix -- glad you enjoyed and had fun with it!
I learn immediately after that Matt had himself published a Two Truths and a Lie here on LMD (see the link), and I greatly recommend it. Also, if you haven't seen, I published a new Instructionless/Mystery puzzle, and I have another one in the works, that will hopefully be easier this time. Stay tuned!
am 26. Januar 2025, 21:15 Uhr von gfoot
Thanks that was a great puzzle, really well put together with a fairly natural logical solution path I think. I like the way these mechanics work together, and as usual you did a great job maintaining the difficulty throughout most of the solve.
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Thank you so much for the kind words and feedback, and for the continued support, that means a lot -- glad you enjoyed the puzzle! :D
am 25. Januar 2025, 23:01 Uhr von giladooshlon
It's a brain breaker no doubt! Thanks for setting and sharing
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My pleasure! Thanks a lot for giving it a shot and commenting, much appreciated!
am 25. Januar 2025, 02:16 Uhr von MattYDdraig
This was an incredible and thoughtful gift (along with the other smaller puzzles) and an intricate and impressive puzzle.
I suspect I'll be re-solving this in a few months time to enjoy it again once I've forgotten the path.
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I am very glad you enjoyed it Matt, and it was a rare pleasure working from what you shared. Also big thanks for encouraging me to share it!
