Kuarantine Qnights / Quarantäne-Springer
(Published on 24. April 2023, 18:43 by Ryx)
My apologies to those that found displeasure with the initial version of this puzzle. In setting it, when I got to the end and needed one last thing to resolve it, I opted for (what I thought was) a more aesthetic solution. I am sorry that left a deadly pattern that I did not catch.
In my own solving of the puzzle, I rationalized that the thermometers paths were fairly evident, but I see now that I was wrong, since it did leave a deadly pattern.
Normal Sudoku rules apply
Thermometers - numbers must increase from the bulb end
Killer Cages - numbers in cages must sum to the cage total. Numbers may not repeat in a cage
Anti-Knight (variant) - Cages that see each other by a Knight's move may not share any of the same digits. Digits outside of cages have no anti-knight restrictions. For example, r1c2 (in the 13 cage) is a Knight's move away from r3c1 (in the 28 cage), so those two cages cannot contain any of the same digits.
Play on F-Puzzles
Play on CTC App
Solution code: Digits from row 1 then column 1
Comments
on 25. April 2023, 16:16 by Orpheus
Don't let the naysayers get you down. People can be pretty brutal around here when you post with a mistake. I've totally been there, and it's not fair. You might even consider deleting and reposting to get a fair rating. I'm not a fan of gatekeeping like that. I'm glad you fixed the problem and I very much enjoyed myself in the solving. Thank you for sharing. I look forward to more from you.
@ Orpheus - Thank you for that. Yeah, I was a bit taken aback by a few initial responses ;-) I'm glad you enjoyed it, for what it was meant to be: an easier entry to what (I believe) was a new use of existing constraints.
As to remove/republish, I felt it was better to leave it, so people can see the history (and maybe learn something from it). The rating, I don't think, is very much impacted by a few early low marks. It's really about an 80% puzzle (not the 90%+ that my last three rated puzzles are enjoying).
on 25. April 2023, 10:33 by cegie
I enjoyed the puzzle but reading the comments it's clear it had some fairly notable changes.
Might be late now but it I believe it would have been better to re-upload the edited version as it has an implicitly changed ruleset (anti-knight does nothing in this version) as well as a notably higher difficulty.
@ cegie - Thank you for the input. The change may be less drastic than you expect. You can see the original puzzle here: https://f-puzzles.com/?id=259xtw6y
Basically I had an ambiguous thermo chain in box 2. I am curious as to how you solved the puzzle without the anti-knight variant constraint. If you don't mind, I'd appreciate the details in a hidden comment.
With that constraint, I believe the 1 star difficulty is fairly accurate (looking at the profiles of the solvers, there are several solvers who have solved very few puzzles and only lower rated puzzles)
on 25. April 2023, 10:20 by T1geR
Fun puzzle, I personally struggled to finish it after the break in so not sure if it's really a 1 star difficulty.
on 25. April 2023, 09:03 by VitP
This puzzle is considerably harder than a 1/5 would indicate. Definitely not a beginner puzzle !
The key is in the bends !
However, the knight's move constraint isn't needed.
@ VitP - I am curious why you say the "knight's move constraint isn't needed", when you did not solve the puzzle. With that constraint in effect, I believe the 1 star difficulty is fairly accurate (looking at the profiles of the solvers, there are several solvers who have solved very few puzzles and only lower rated puzzles).
on 24. April 2023, 21:28 by DarrenBurnett
I enjoyed this. Thanks for putting it together.
@ DarrenBurnett - I am glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for the kind words.
on 24. April 2023, 19:50 by Ryx
Adjusted thermos based on feedback
Angepasste Thermometer aufgrund von Rückmeldungen
on 24. April 2023, 19:07 by h5663454
Sucks...I can't understand what the thermometer in box 2 means...
Also, towards the end of the puzzle, I found a fatal structure. Combined with this messy thermometer... I still can't decide which answer is correct...
But it seems that this fatal structure has no effect on the solution code...
I can only say that I hope that when you design puzzles next time, DON’T design these parts that make it difficult for solvers...
@ h5663454 - I'm sorry you found such displeasure with this puzzle. Please leave a hidden comment with the fatal structure details, I would like to address that. As for the messy thermo, I thought it would be evident enough which one of the three bulbs would be the origin and the increase in numbers would be clear from there. But, I will look at doing something to clear that up.
on 24. April 2023, 19:07 by 28righthand
I am a bit confused about the 3 joined bulbs in box 2 ?
@ 28righthand - I'm sorry about that. I thought it would be evident enough which one of the three bulbs would be the origin and the increase in numbers would be clear from there. But, I will look at doing something to clear that up.
