Cage Scraper
(Published on 24. January 2021, 06:00 by glum_hippo)
Standard Sudoku rules are in effect. Cages may not include repeated digits.
The clues along the edge are not 'skyscraper' clues, but 'cage scraper' clues. Think of each cage as a building, and the height of the building is equal to the sum of the digits in the cage. So a three-cell cage with digits 862 should be thought of as a building with 16 floors. Cells outside of cages have no height, block nothing, and are not counted by any edge clue.
The cage scraper clue gives the number of buildings that can be seen along that row or column, whereby (1) taller buildings obscure shorter buildings and (2) a cage scraper may never encounter two buildings of the same height. If a row/column contains two buildings of equal height, it cannot exhibit a cage scraper clue. Note that the inverse does not hold, however; i.e., a row/column without a clue does not necessarily have repeated building heights.
Solution code: The 6th row, then the 2nd column (18 digits total)
Comments
on 12. January 2023, 06:30 by Agent
Very nice! Some tricky deductions, but always fair. Also, the 2 is row 3 was very subtle :-)
on 16. February 2022, 15:21 by Vebby
Great idea and brilliantly executed!
——Thank you! I can't believe it's already over a year old.
on 14. September 2021, 16:46 by glum_hippo
added online solving tool tag
on 19. February 2021, 16:45 by StefanSch
Tolles Rätsel! Eine sehr filigrane Konstruktion. Möchte mal wissen, wie lange es gedauert hat, das zu konstruieren.
—— ich hatte viel Glück. Es gibt einen engen linearen Lösungsweg, und den habe ich von unten auf zusammengebastelt. Ich will aber nicht so tun, als ob es keine Holzwege zwischendurch gegeben hat. Als Vorarbeit habe ich ein Paar Zufallsoperationen benutzt, um Käfig-Konfigurationen durchzuschauen, um zu sehen was alles möglich ist. Das Ganze dauerte vielleicht 3 Stunden.
on 13. February 2021, 21:37 by DiMono
Wonderful puzzle. Is it considered cheating if I kept switching into Setting mode to add cage sums? :D
—— Nothing in the rules against that, but maybe I need to update them ;) g_h
on 13. February 2021, 02:44 by AsilG
Very nice idea!
on 29. January 2021, 01:36 by SudokuExplorer
Great puzzle! The cage sums being distinct (in those given directions) led to a smooth solve. Thanks :-)
on 27. January 2021, 11:59 by Garford
Ein so wundervolles Setting. Die Regel der ungleichen Größen empfand ich als spannende Ergänzung. Man muss eben komplett den Überblick behalten.
on 26. January 2021, 17:42 by glum_hippo
Da stimme ich Dir in jeder Hinsicht zu, @Statistica. Danke fürs lösen!
on 26. January 2021, 06:28 by bigger
Really nice
on 25. January 2021, 15:59 by glum_hippo
Thanks, Marc, Akash, and Magnus for your kind words!
on 25. January 2021, 15:48 by marcmees
indeed a nice and novel idea. Easy start, but as easy to get lost between the buildings after that. Glad to see my rating of this puzzle made the well deserved rating visible. :-)
on 25. January 2021, 15:16 by udukos
Lovely puzzle. Very nice idea.
on 25. January 2021, 00:21 by MagnusJosefsson
Great puzzle! Original and interesting!
on 24. January 2021, 20:50 by glum_hippo
That means a lot to me, RR, coming from you
on 24. January 2021, 20:11 by RockyRoer
That was really fun! Great idea!
on 24. January 2021, 15:23 by glum_hippo
Thanks for solving & for your comment, SirW
on 24. January 2021, 15:20 by SirWoezel
Wonderful puzzle!
