Zodiac Project: Star Chart
(Published on 17. June 2024, 15:00 by Flinty)
Chapter 1: Orion’s belt by ViKingPrime
Chapter 2: Counting Castles by marty_sears
Chapter 3: Derezzed by heliopolix
Chapter 4: Rodd Stevens by 99%Sneaky
Chapter 5: Phasal Shift by meggen033
Chapter 6: Cage Decoder by sujoyku
Thank you again to sujoyku for asking me to set the next puzzle in the series. I am delighted to be able to nominate the next setter in the Zodiac Project series: palpot
Here is the Extra Region that palpot will be working with:
Zodiac Project, Chapter 7: Star Chart
Commander Ukyo Jus sat at her computer, the newly unscrambled coordinates glowing on the screen.
"Computer, overlay the Zodiac Project parameters".
Star Systems began filling the display and the destination became clear.
Ukyo activated her communicator: "Pilot, set us on course for the Palpot system immediately!"
Through the communicator, Pilot Yt Nilf replied: "Understood Commander, we're under way!"
The weight of the Zodiac Project loomed large, Ukyo glanced at the display one last time, they were close and she could feel it!
Puzzle Rules
- Latin Square: Each row and column must contain all of the digits from 0-8.
- Extra Region: Zipper centres are a full set of digits 0-8.
- Zippers (Lavender): For each Zipper, the digits on the legs must sum to the digit in the centre.
- X-Sums: Digits outside the grid indicate the sum of the first N digits, where N is the digit in the closest cell to the clue.
- German Whispers (Green): Adjacent digits along the line must have a difference of at least 5.
Info and Accessibility
The extended grid lines, and the arrows outside the grid are purely cosmetic.
The constraint lines are all straight with the exception of those from R1C1.
There are two German Whispers, I have annotated with 'GW'
To play this puzzle, please click here: CTC Link
Hint available if it helps get started:
Solution code: Digits from Row 1
Comments
on 17. October 2024, 23:21 by Lenivaya_Joppa
Thank you for this really interesting puzzle, dear Flinty! :)
on 1. August 2024, 19:17 by lmdemasi
Niiiiiiiiiice
on 13. July 2024, 18:16 by Christounet
Fun puzzle ! Clever use of the disjoint set. Thanks :)
on 1. July 2024, 19:09 by SamuPiano
Super cool puzzle!
on 30. June 2024, 04:57 by QuiltyAsCharged
I've never solved a puzzle with a design quite like this, but it felt natural and had a great flow. Stars, so many stars!
on 22. June 2024, 18:04 by MartinR
Nice smooth path, but did take me a few tries as kept forgetting that digits 0-8 take up 9 rows/columns not 8 :)
on 20. June 2024, 14:03 by sorryimLate
Very elegant and interesting. It's not hard, but 0-8 always causes some extra headscratching. Thanks for sharing!
on 19. June 2024, 19:51 by ViKingPrime
This wasn't nearly as intimidating as it seemed at first glance. Once you start to wrap your head around the implications of the disjoint set, it really starts to unfold. Beautiful, beautiful puzzle.
on 17. June 2024, 15:17 by sujoyku
Thank you for this incredible contribution to the series, Flinty! Already looking at your grid made me smile. Continuing my trashy sci-fi backstory and shaping the grid as a coordinate system was a really fun idea. And the puzzle does not only look great, but has an amazing solve path. Thank you for setting and sharing this piece of art!
I wish palpot good luck with their puzzle.
Flinty: Thank you, it's not very popular though is it - haha.
