Cagey Architects (Dynamic FoW)
(Published on 20. December 2024, 15:17 by gdc)
A collaboration with ChinStrap. We decided to create a two truths and a lie puzzle with dynamic fog. Thanks to the testers. Hope you enjoy!
- Normal sudoku rules apply in the main 9x9 grid.
- Dynamic Fog: The grid is covered in fog. Placing a correct digit in a cell lifts fog from that cell an possibly other cells; revealing new clues.
- Skyscraper: Digits outside the grid (excl. the corners) must be filled and count how many digits are 'seen' looking into the grid in the row/column. Digits are visible when they are larger than all digits before them.
- 2T1L Killer: Digits in cages never repeat. For each total (in the top-left corner) exactly 3 cages display that total. Two of them sum to that total, one does not.
Video Solve
Click here to watch simon form CtC solving this puzzle on youtube.
Solution code: column 6 top to bottom (9 digits)
Comments
on 19. January 2025, 20:51 by Deino42
Loved this puzzle, but the last step made me mad because of my own ignorance. Overall, I thought most of the puzzle was a relatively linear solve despite a few bumps, but I don’t know why the last step stumped me for so long. (I’ve used similar logic on other puzzles.
on 5. January 2025, 19:58 by Geb
This one took me an embarrassingly long time to solve, but I had to stick with it. The subtle little disambiguation tricks were just too good. I had to see them through!
on 4. January 2025, 05:27 by bigmortz
What an amazing puzzle! It costed me 155:55 to solve it. The 2T1L rule is annoying but the moment when you found the wrong cage is also extremely joyful.
on 3. January 2025, 15:27 by gdc
add link to CtC solve video
on 2. January 2025, 23:24 by Fool on Hill
What a cunning puzzle - beautiful to solve, crazy logic: mind officially blown.
on 2. January 2025, 22:29 by ViKingPrime
It's very dangerous putting the two of you setters together... keeping my eyes peeled for your next collaboration.
on 1. January 2025, 09:22 by Geb
404 puzzle not found? Has the link changed?
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gdc: Thanks for reporting! I don't know what happened. I found that opening the puzzle in alpha.sudokupad.app still works and updated the link to point there. I reported this to the sudokupad developer and will report back when I know more.
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gdc: The puzzle has now been updated to be compatible with a recent change in SudokuPad. Thanks again for reporting!
on 31. December 2024, 22:13 by madhupt
Wonderful puzzle! A most deserving candidate for CtC.
on 27. December 2024, 11:20 by Yerel88
What a great puzzle, it was hard but not impossible, the last part was excellent and a very nice usage of the dfow mechanism.
3.5/5 for difficulty in my opinion.
on 27. December 2024, 06:30 by Gnosis66
Loved it. I also got stuck on last step, but if I had read the comments prior to solving, I might not have.
on 26. December 2024, 10:08 by GoodMorningCallum
A superb puzzle with some really nice pieces of logic in there! Like others, I found the ending brutally hard. It had me stumped for a while, and I kicked myself when I realised what I'd missed!
on 24. December 2024, 00:06 by vorash00
Everyone says the last step was the hardest - I disagree when I was expecting that to come into play. I found other steps much more conplex.
Given I completed Consecutive Architecture by Scruffamudda the other week and found that incredibly challenging but rewarding that really helped me persevere as every step in that was clear but also really challenging and I found this the same. Every step clear when you get the right questions but also very challenging at the same time. No steps had to be guessed and I picked up tricks on that puzzle that helped out here!
on 22. December 2024, 20:20 by Da Letter El
Took me an hour to recognize the last step. Fun puzzle
on 22. December 2024, 09:23 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 127:38
I rated this 5/5 difficulty
Wow, this puzzle was BRUTAL but very nice with some really clever ideas and a creative overall concept.
I thought the T21L killer logic was very cool, and I haven't solved a puzzle with that exact constraint before. All of the killer 'liar' cages had quite nice disambiguations/logic, but that wasn't really the most difficult part of the puzzle for me. The lying killer cages' logic felt somewhere around 4/5 difficulty. However, the skyscraper logic was VERY difficult in several places, and spotting eliminations or making deductions was definitely 5/5 difficulty for me.
I got stuck several times throughout the puzzle and would spend 10+ minutes just looking for the next idea/elimination/deduction. I don't think I am particularly proficient in skyscraper puzzles and this puzzle was FAR harder than any skyscraper puzzles I've solved in the past.
The 'break in' was honestly fairly approachable (at least for a 5* puzzle) and the fog limiting the amount of visible information made it easier for me to know where to look next, so I began solving with some momentum. About 1/3 of the way through the solve, I started struggling to find deductions - and this is probably a mix of 1) me being inexperienced in skyscraper puzzles, 2) having a lot of information/numbers to look at on the screen, and 3) this puzzle being difficult in genedal. Having to fill in the skyscraper clue numbers also caused me to make a few mistakes as I would sometimes perform classic sudoku (illegally) on those clues, but that is 100% user error.
Although I found the puzzle VERY difficult, I did enjoy working through the solve. Making progress on FoW puzzles is always rewarding and makes the deductions all the more satisfying. The whole concept of combining FoW & skyscrapers where you fill in the row/col numbers yourself was very cool and a puzzle variant I've never actually seen before. Plus with the recent development of dynamic FoW, this puzzle felt really creative and interesting - and is probably the most complex and unique dynamic FoW puzzle that I have seen so far.
Overall, excellent setting and fun concept! If you are a high-intermediate or expert level solver you should definitely give it a go! If you haven't solved at least a few 5* puzzles before, this puzzle may be a hard one to attempt - but if you're good at skyscraper logic or are looking for a challenge, this puzzle is certainly a great option!
Thanks for sharing!
on 21. December 2024, 17:31 by LehanLehan
What a fenomenal solve path and what a pleasure cruise! Thank you very much,guys.
on 21. December 2024, 16:09 by Myxo
Awesome!
on 21. December 2024, 12:27 by Snookerfan
Fantastic puzzle! Brilliant disambiguation of 2T1L! There were 2 steps that I found really great. Thank you
on 21. December 2024, 10:42 by Bankey
Brilliant puzzle. Thanks for sharing, @ gdc and @ ChinStrap :).
on 21. December 2024, 08:33 by giladooshlon
That final step was evil but genius!
on 21. December 2024, 04:40 by mathpesto
Struggled at points, but there was also something clever to look for! Very glad I stuck with this, it was a great puzzle.
on 20. December 2024, 21:40 by roflsalot
This was great fun! Extremely smooth solve path.
on 20. December 2024, 17:24 by aqjhs
the best *lying* puzzle i've seen so far!
on 20. December 2024, 16:13 by MattYDdraig
This was probably the best puzzle of the year so far.
