Little Killer X-Sums
(Published on 4. November 2020, 00:37 by Tom1i)
Ruleset:
- Basic: Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Quadruples: A square partially covered by a circle, must hold one of the digits in the circle..
- Anti-Knight: No two cells containing the same digit can be a knight's move apart.
- Little Killer X: Little killer clues are X-sums, describing the sum of the first X digits along the killer diagonal, where X is the first digit from the arrow (for instance the X-sum of the diagonal ->34567 is 12).
Link to puzzle in the Fox editor: PUZZLE
Best of luck :)
Solution code: Column 1 followed by column 9 without spaces.
Comments
on 29. November 2020, 10:24 by Qodec
What a fun puzzle! Thank you very much for creating it!
on 4. November 2020, 17:50 by Tom1i
@all: Thank you for your kind words.
on 4. November 2020, 17:16 by SudokuExplorer
Fun puzzle! Don't get disheartened by the subjective rating system.
The only critique I will give is that I didn't need the top-right quadruple in box 3 or the bottom-left quadruple in box 7. This will still maintain your symmetric design, which I like.
@SudokuExplorer: I deliberately made it somewhat easier than my earlier puzzles. Several of them didn't even get enough solves to get a rating. Don't worry - I will make harder ones :)
on 4. November 2020, 16:58 by glum_hippo
I hope you will reactivate your puzzles. The rating system is extremely capricious and should not be taken as a sign of anything meaningful. A 100% rating is nice but it takes just one person giving 0% to knock that rating down. No use in guessing their motivations.
I was hoping to solve your Yin-Yang anti-knight, which I hope you'll re-activate as well.
@glum_hippo: I will code it into f-puzzle and post a link, when I get a bit of time. Meanwhile, if you have an hour of free time at some point, I highly recommend "Plato's Primes" by steelwool. I simply cannot understand a puzzle of that high quality has only 4 solves (it is time-consuming though). I think you of all people with your intricate logical puzzles will appreciate the work that went into it. It has ID=0004MS, in case I've peaked your interest.
Yin-Yang is ID=0003ET.
on 4. November 2020, 15:49 by udukos
I liked this puzzle and the idea of combining x-sums with little killers.
Do not get too discouraged with the rating. Just keep doing your thing.
:)
^
I agree with glum_hippo and hope that you reactivate your other puzzles.
Don't let the rating knock you down.
on 4. November 2020, 13:57 by Tom1i
Had to deactivate and reactivate. Got a bit sad and felt the need to reflect a bit before posting something rash.
on 4. November 2020, 11:09 by cdwg2000
@Tom1i
I have no intention of offending, but I have done 3 puzzles of the same type in the past week, and I have given a rating of "5 stars + very good". The ID of these puzzles is: 0004ND、0004FZ、00041M.
@cdwg2000: Deactivated the puzzle a while - had to take a little while before posting, as I might have said something I would regret.
What you are saying is, that these 3 puzzles are very good and that mine is average, because it is somewhat derivative of them. The only common denominator is the word X-sum as far as I can tell. I'm not disputing, that my puzzle is indeed average. But if my puzzle is judged by you to be average based on a similarity to puzzles you've played the last week and the fact that is has 3 additional rules to normal sudoku, you could've rated it average before even beginning the solve. That type of rating is not very helpful imho.
on 4. November 2020, 10:51 by cdwg2000
@Tom1i
Another reason is that variant Sudoku with more than two variant rule combinations are appearing more and more on portals. This may be one of the reasons why I am unwilling to give a higher evaluation. Too many different types of rules are mixed together, and if the interaction is not enough, it is easy to lose the logic of the original variant rules. This is my personal opinion, Please forgive me for being direct.
@cdwg2000: I don't mind you being direct at all. I prefer an opinion, so that I can improve as a setter. The 'no-comment' average grade, I don't like. The 'average grade' with reason why, I really appreciate.
on 4. November 2020, 10:39 by cdwg2000
@Tom1i
Recently, portals are flooded with lots of puzzles combining various little killer Sudoku and other variants of Sudoku. I think this may be the reason why this puzzle cannot be evaluated with high scores. Objectively speaking, I have completed at least 20 similar problems in the past two months, and in the end I gave this problem an "average" evaluation.
@cdwg2000: I don't mind an average rating at all, if the average puzzle gets an average rating. But that this is the very bottom of a recent flood makes me really sad. I took time making it and tested it 5 or 6 times to make sure it had a logical path and no mistakes. I like the design and the idea - who else have posted dual end little killer X-sums? I'm at a loss of what to do to improve.
on 4. November 2020, 10:05 by primovera
Nice puzzle, I enjoyed it :)
Though the rating might seem comparatively low I think it pretty much reflects your words. People think it's an average to nice puzzle with a tendency to nice. I wouldn't get too hung up on it.
on 4. November 2020, 08:32 by Tom1i
Just noticed that the 65% rating, people gave this, makes it the worst puzzle of the top 7 pages of sudokus. If someone could please tell me, what is so inherently bad about it, I would be grateful. It has a nice symmetry, is easy to solve, has a not often seen mechanic and an easily spotted logic path. I am aware it's not a masterpiece - nor did I intend it to be, but the worst of the most recent 150 sudokus? I'd really like to know, what I'm doing wrong here.
