Copycat Confusion
(Published on 19. August 2024, 18:03 by Phistomefel)
Here are the exact rules of this puzzle:
- Normal Sudoku rules apply.
- Divide the four lines in the grid into two pairs. The lines in a pair are copycats of each other, i.e. they have the same composition of digits. E.g. if one line has two 3s, five 4s and a 9, then the other one also has two 3s, five 4s and a 9. The order of the digits is not necessarily the same on the two lines.
- The two lines in the grid with a circle on one end are an average arrow and a thermometer. The two lines without a circle are a region sum line and a german whispers line. The solver has to find out which line obeys to which rule.
- Average Arrow: The digit in the circle is the average (exact, not rounded) of the digits on the line.
- Thermometer: The digits have to increase along the thermometer, starting from its bulb.
- Region Sum Line: The line is cut into multiple segments by the box borders, each summing to the same number.
- German Whisper: Two neighboring digits have a difference of 5 or more.
Solution code: 4th row
Comments
on 9. December 2024, 12:01 by TheNineElements
Very creative puzzle, and also very difficult for me (I rated 5/5 difficulty).
The break in was one of the hardest I've ever completed, but it was smooth sailing once I could assign each line its corresponding type and pair.
I thought that the logic for disambiguating the copycat pairs was very difficult and was interesting in how it relied on different cases of line-type assignments and cell arrangement geometry. The reason I found it so difficult is because I struggled to keep track of which lines could be copycats, given certain assignments of line types. By the time I figured out the copycat pairing, I had also deduced the required line types for both pairs, but I still wasn't able to assign the pairing to either of the two groups I determined.
Once I was able to assign one line type onto an unknown line, I was then able to use the determined group arrangements/line pairings to instantly place all other lines - but getting to that point was TOUGH. The break in was without a doubt a 5/5 difficulty for me. There is a chance that I missed some logic or an idea earlier on in the solve that would have made disambiguating the lines easier, but either way this was very hard for me.
Once they were assigned/placed, the remaining puzzle solve patb was more like 3/5 difficulty.
I am not sure how you were able to construct this puzzle, or even come up with this idea and somehow exexute it - but the fact that you did is extremely impressive. It is shocking that you were able to find an arrangement that 1) could allow each line type and pairing to be logically discovered, and 2) was still an interesting solve path after knowing the line types and their placements. Even now having solved this and gaining an understanding of how it works logically, and having had time to think about the ruleset, I would still have no idea on how to go about constructing this sort of puzzle, given such a crazy/complicated set of geometries and rules interacting with each other in many different ways simultaneously.
Even though the rules were a bit complex, the whole puzzle was fairly minimalist and it felt like I used every single cell of every given clue multiple times in the solve. The arrangement seems just so extremely intricate, that if any line was changed at all, the whole puzzle wouldn't be possible to solve. I am just amazed that you were able to balance all of these rules and ideas simultaneously.
Excellent setting, and very interesting puzzle & ruleset. From a setting point of view, this is one of the most impressive puzzles I've seen and solved.
on 21. August 2024, 12:56 by GeorgeTheToad2
Excellent construction. Very hard to determine which pairs are connected but it flowed very smoothly once the lines had been paired up. Thank you.
on 20. August 2024, 18:11 by Franjo
Not as hard as expected - 3 stars from me. The break-in was lovely. The trickiest part (for me) came later when I had to choose the right one from three options… Thank you so much for sharing another masterpiece.
on 20. August 2024, 08:22 by applesauce
beautiful break-in! thanks for another fantastic puzzle!
on 19. August 2024, 20:13 by anyeyeball
Very nice puzzle. Loved the Copycat lines.
on 19. August 2024, 19:04 by antiknight
Amazing idea and execution! The Copycat constraint produces new logic.
