Repetition Legitimizes (Dynamic FOW)
(Published on 7. January 2025, 18:59 by gdc)
This week's setting challenge by Scojo was about german whispers, palindromes and deconstruction. I decided to add Dynamic Fog since I think the 11x11 layout offers nice opportunities for remote fog clearance. Difficulty should be right between 3* and 4*. Thanks to the testers. Hope you enjoy!
- Deconstruction: Place 9 non-overlapping 3x3 boxes in the grid. Fill each cell in a box with a digit from 1-9 such that digits don't repeat in rows, columns or boxes.
- Dynamic Fog: The grid is covered in fog. Placing a correct digit in a cell lifts fog from that cell and possibly other cells; revealing new clues.
- Values: The value of a cell is its digit if it is in a box and zero otherwise.
- Whisper Loop: Draw an orthogonal loop through the centers of some cells. The loop may touch itself diagonally, but not orthogonally. Adjacent values along the loop differ by 5 or more.
- Circles: Circles are on the loop and in boxes. Their digit counts the number of loop-cells in their box.
- Palindromes: Cells an equal distance to the circled center of a line have the same value.
Example Puzzle
An example puzzle (left) and its solution (right). The boxes, the whisper loop and the digits can be deduced by the clues. Digits outside boxes act as zero both for palindromes and german whispers. This whisper loop only requires a difference of 2 or more because of the reduced grid size. you can play the example here.
Solution code: Digits in column 8 top to bottom (leaving out empty cells). Then the same digits again.
Comments
on 17. January 2025, 12:25 by cbossut
Hi, I wonder reading the rules if it implies that there’s only one loop in the whole grid ?
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gdc: yes, there is only one loop
on 11. January 2025, 23:49 by Suxamethonium
Incredible puzzle. Beautiful.
on 11. January 2025, 14:46 by nunc
Thanks for this one! I got stuck several times, but then I got by with a little help from my friend (Simon's uploaded video) twice. But in the end, I managed to do it. Very nice. Really beautiful logic!
on 11. January 2025, 00:06 by wuc
Awesome. How clever dfog is used wow. Loved every step. Thx a lot.
on 10. January 2025, 14:30 by Christounet
Great fun ! Thanks :)
on 8. January 2025, 21:01 by Franjo
Amazing FOW-puzzle featuring some beautiful steps on the solving path and using really all of the possibilities for the German whispers loop. Thank you very much for creating and sharing another of your masterpieces.
on 8. January 2025, 19:41 by LehanLehan
Enjoyed every step, thank you very much,gdc
on 8. January 2025, 14:34 by davidemsa
Very good puzzle. I rarely manage to solve deconstruction puzzles, but I think this ruleset helped make the deconstruction aspect less difficult. I think I'd put it at a low 4 stars.
on 8. January 2025, 08:39 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 80:86
I rated this 4/5 difficulty.
This was both an excellent dynamic FoW puzzle and an excellent deconstruction puzzle. The fog reveals were very clever and rewarding, and it was cool to see how the palindromes gave insight into the box placements. Every fog clue felt like it had an intended 'direction' it was leading to, which was very cool and made the solve very enjoyable. The dynamic reveals were set masterfully.
The final palindrome reveal was my favorite clue, and the whole whisper loop + deconstruction combo was very well executed and a very enjoyable ruleset.
I'm not particularly good at deconstruction puzzles, but found this puzzle surprisingly approachable (once I figured out how the rules actually worked) - especially for a 4* difficulty puzzle. The hardest part for me was definitely the first couple of steps (the first few circles) after I placed the first digit. I for whatever reason took maybe 25 minutes to fully grasp what the circles meant and how that interacted with the LOOP - but once I did it just 'clicked' and the rest of the solve was brilliant. This break-in phase felt around 4/5 difficulty. The midgame until the end (basically everything after the first palindome gets revealed) felt between 3-4/5 difficulty.
Overall the puzzle felt like a hard 3* to easier 4* difficulty, leaning towards 4* difficulty. Great setting, and thanks for sharing!
on 8. January 2025, 00:42 by mathpesto
Very fun!
on 7. January 2025, 23:22 by Fool on Hill
This is a puzzle filled with fresh cool ideas.
on 7. January 2025, 22:52 by ViKingPrime
It's always a shame that Fog-of-War takes a hit to its rating; this is beautiful construction.
on 7. January 2025, 22:49 by xocolatl
Can the loop move diagonally? It doesn't in the example, but that doesn't mean it can't.
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gdc: The loop can't move diagonally because it is an "orthogonal loop".
