(9x9) Chaos Construction: X-sums Doubled Limit
(Published on 16. March 2023, 04:14 by Playmaker6174)
The following puzzle is my very first attempt at setting a 9x9 Chaos Construction type of puzzle, and this one particularly uses one of the ideas from my latest 6x6 pack.
After being stuck for a long while, I only decided to add some more elements to help me on forcing some parts and eventually I got a result after like days. The later half took much more efforts than the first half, but overall I'm really satisfied at this final result. The entire solve shouldn't be too challenging, but let's see how it goes:
(note that I also changed the wording of that original idea a bit so that the concept would be easier to digest)
Rules:
- Divide the grid into 9 orthogonally connected regions such that each row, column and region contain digits from 1-9 each once.
- A clue outside the grid shows the sum of the first X cells from that clue's direction PLUS the value of the Xth cell from that direction also, where X is the value of the cell next to that clue. Moreover, those X cells must belong to the same region and the (X+1)th cell must be in different region.
An 'O' stands for odd digit (1,3,5,7,9), an 'E' stands for even digit (0,2,4,6,8), a '?' stands for any digit from 0-9. For the sake of two-digit number, the first digit is never a zero (0).
- A number in a cell with an arrow shows the MINIMAL amount of consecutive cells right from the arrow's direction that share the same region with that arrow cell.
For a cell with multiple arrows, each arrow works individually and doesn't depend on other arrow[s].
For example, if R9C2 is a 2 then R78C2 must belong to the same region as R9C2, and R6C2 or above cells may or may not belong to the same region as R9C2.
To demonstrate how the X-sum rule works, here's an example below: 16 clue is evaluated as 16 = (3+9+2)+2, those 3 cells containing 3,9,2 belong to the same region and the 4th cell after that belong to different region.
Puzzle: (For f-puzzle link, turning off conflict checker is required)
Good luck and have fun solving!
Solution code: Row 5 (9 digits, left to right) with a hyphen '-' for a region border, not counting the 9x9 border. For example: 123-456-789
Comments
on 28. July 2023, 15:15 by AnnaTh
This was great fun! It looked more complicated than it actually was.Once I kept all rules in mind it was a fluent solve.
on 13. April 2023, 22:33 by marcmees
nice one. thanks
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Thank you Marc! Happy to see you enjoy this one :)
on 20. March 2023, 07:24 by Playmaker6174
Changed the solution code's form so access would be better
on 20. March 2023, 07:22 by Playmaker6174
Thank you all for the solves and great feedback!
@henrypijames: it's actually funny that, at a certain point during writing this post, I only considered two main different ways for the region border for the code: either 'capital I' or the hyphen '-', and then I thought capital I would resemble the border more so I followed the choice of prior one; but then when you stated that fact, I only realized that the choice might actually backfire since not everyone solves puzzles mainly on computer and hyphen '-' is much more straightforward in lots of cases. Consider this as a mistake from myself then :/
on 19. March 2023, 16:24 by henrypijames
Can we please stop using I or X or any letter in the solution code, and use -+*/ (in some other cases also 0, but generally things that are on the numpad) instead? Entering a mix of digits and letters - especially uppercase letters - on a mobile device is almost more work than solving the puzzle.
on 17. March 2023, 12:46 by Snookerfan
Great puzzle! Thank you
on 17. March 2023, 02:19 by wenchang
Very Nice setup. Confused in the beginning because mis-read the rules. Spoiler alert!
https://youtu.be/OwukWYwJdnI
on 16. March 2023, 21:49 by peacherwu2
Loving chaos, loving you!
on 16. March 2023, 16:32 by sirtramola
Now that I'm actually finished with the puzzle I'm typing another comment to say that this was the most fun I've had with a puzzle in some time. Lovely work.
on 16. March 2023, 16:25 by Niverio
Fascinating CC debut! Loved it.
on 16. March 2023, 15:31 by Playmaker6174
Minor changes for f-puzzle link according to feedback.
Also, thanks everyone for the lovely feedback, I'm really glad to hear the enjoyment from all of you! To be honest, I'm not so sure when I'll think of planning to try a second one :C
on 16. March 2023, 15:25 by Piatato
Lovely puzzle! It feels true to your style, with very nice interactions and all in all a very fun solve path. Thanks for sharing!
on 16. March 2023, 14:37 by sirtramola
Was wondering how I broke the puzzle twice already. The provided f-puzzles link has an incorrect arrow at R5C7. It's supposed to point straight left but points diagonally.
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Oh dear, I didn’t catch that earlier when making a new f-puzzle link, I’ll fix it later when I’m free from work, thank you for pointing out the error and I’m also sorry for this issue!
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Setter note: I've updated the link, you can switch to the new one and continue from your latest progress!
on 16. March 2023, 13:37 by Jesper
Lovely, thanks Playmaker!
on 16. March 2023, 13:33 by Steven R
Very nice!
on 16. March 2023, 11:35 by lerroyy
Very nice puzzle!
on 16. March 2023, 11:10 by abed hawila
Excellent puzzle! the ruleset led to lots of refreshing logic!
on 16. March 2023, 10:03 by thoughtbyte
Weird ruleset, and I loved it! Lots of fun little aha moments in here. Thanks Playmaker6174!
on 16. March 2023, 09:46 by Vebby
Thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the latter half of the solve. Great CC debut, Playmaker! Would love to see more in the future :)
