A Totally Balanced Approach
(Eingestellt am 19. Oktober 2023, 19:52 Uhr von gdc)
There is a new ruleset in town: the Zipper Line! This has been invented by Jaze on the CtC fan discord server. You can find more Zipper Line puzzles by Jaze there. I decided to also give this a try and had a blast setting with these lines. Hope you enjoy!
- Normal sudoku rules apply.
- Digits an equal distance from the center of a lavender 'Zipper Line' must sum to the digit in the middle of that line.
Play Online: CtC, CtC (alt. link), f-puzzles
The alternative link above contains shapes that are meant to assist in matching up pairs summing to the central cell of the line. Those shapes are only there to simplify scanning and have no additional meaning besides that.
Example Puzzle
Here is a 4 by 4 example from Jaze (left) and it's solution (right). Notice how the ends of each line sum to the digit in the center of the line. Additionally, the long line also contains two more sums 4=1+3=1+3=2+2. You can play the example here.
Difficulty
I am rather unsure on how to evaluate the difficulty on this one. The Zipper Lines puzzle by Jaze got a rated 2/5 in the discord puzzle archive so I'll use this as a starting point. However, some testers on the CtC discord (thanks everyone!) said that my take on the ruleset was slightly harder, so I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be a 3 star when the user ratings come in.
Lösungscode: Row 1 from left to right (9 digits, no spaces)
Kommentare
am 3. Mai 2024, 00:13 Uhr von chain.reader
1st restart: Wait what?
2nd restart: no, that's not solvable.. am I crazy?
3rd restart: ooohhhhhhhhh, right.
am 2. April 2024, 18:06 Uhr von Agent
Very easy and smooth!
am 20. Januar 2024, 04:35 Uhr von PinkNickels
not a huge fan of zipper puzzles in general, but i really enjoyed this one. well done!
am 10. Januar 2024, 12:11 Uhr von marty_sears
I am very late to the party here but this was awesome! Lovely to go back and see your first zipper line puzzle. What a brilliant way to showcase the pure zipper ruleset. There were so many satisfying sneaky bits
am 23. November 2023, 15:15 Uhr von KingIsulgard
Ooff that last disambiguitation was rough. I think this maybe deserves 3 stars :D.
I even restarted it, thinking I made a mistake or something, only to end up at the exact same spot and got stuck for a while.
am 6. November 2023, 19:11 Uhr von Flinty
Excellent Puzzle.
am 26. Oktober 2023, 23:59 Uhr von zondebok
One of the first puzzles I've managed to choose from here and then actually complete. A fantastic puzzle and a cool new line!
am 23. Oktober 2023, 00:02 Uhr von Schma
Great puzzle and very nice ruleset indeed!
am 21. Oktober 2023, 19:38 Uhr von WildEnte
Very nice! I very much like this new line type!
am 20. Oktober 2023, 20:48 Uhr von gdc
Add alt. link with shapes that simplify scanning
am 20. Oktober 2023, 18:22 Uhr von gdc
@saddem: the solution code is in a hidden comment, otherwise I would've hidden it so it's only visible after solving. But yeah, there are quite some spoilers on the breakin logic and I'm totally fine with that.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 18:02 Uhr von saddem
Wow nice puzzle, i broke it the first 3 times at the break-in because ** SPOILER** there was a scenario that i didn't consider.
Edit: When i read the comments then were a ton of spoilers, even the solution code, so ignore my spoiler warning
am 20. Oktober 2023, 17:51 Uhr von Blashyrkh
This is how I like new rulesets! Simple, but opening up lots of interesting logic possibilities.
Skillful implementation as well, with the way it starts off very easy and then ramps up the difficulty.
Hats off to Jaze and gdc, I smell a CtC feature coming your way ;)
am 20. Oktober 2023, 16:39 Uhr von 28righthand
Wow, just wow!
am 20. Oktober 2023, 15:53 Uhr von Caconym
Had to restart several times because I kept accidentally doing arrow logic in box 5 ruling out the correct candidate in box 8, but once I realized the logic was really fun and I enjoyed the puzzle a lot
am 20. Oktober 2023, 15:32 Uhr von ViKingPrime
Lovely bit of logic here! I think Zipper lines could definitely become a common constraint.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 14:37 Uhr von Rollo
Very nice new concept :-)!
am 20. Oktober 2023, 14:19 Uhr von WeakSolver
Great puzzle! Really fun ruleset.
Based on my time I'd say 2 star
am 20. Oktober 2023, 14:01 Uhr von vorash00
smoooooooooth loved it
am 20. Oktober 2023, 10:29 Uhr von barakinio
Incredible, great rule set. Can't wait to see more puzzles use it
am 20. Oktober 2023, 08:40 Uhr von fitzie
the innovation never stops. great ruleset and a wonderful setting to introduce it (to me at least). i like how these purple lines seem to grow in power as the solve continues.
For stramosk: i hit that struggle but it was because I kept thinking about neighboring cells summing and not ends of lines summing. also, think about what r7c5 could be.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 07:07 Uhr von Sinuit
I liked that ruleset and the puzzle a lot. For me, there was at least one point in the midsolve that was definitely harder than two stars.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 05:24 Uhr von Dermerlin
On difficulty rating:
I guess it's 3 stars, if it's the solver's first puzzle with this ruleset. If the solver is familiar with the ruleset, it should be 2 stars.
Once i cracked the logic on the ruleset (took some time) i solved it with a good flow.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 02:22 Uhr von gdc
@stramosk since you've solved this now, I think you found your answer. The digit you are talking about is very restricted but there is a (singular) home for it in the central box.
am 20. Oktober 2023, 01:02 Uhr von stramosk
I have to admit, I have restarted the puzzle about 10 times and I cannot get it to work. I'm placing a 9 in box 5 that forces an 8 in box 4 and then a 4. But then there is no spot for a 4 in box 5. Maybe I'm going insane ¯_(ツ)_/¯
am 19. Oktober 2023, 23:53 Uhr von mihil99
Took me a bit longer than I would've liked, but loved exploring a totally new ruleset! Started of quite smooth, made an error so I restarted, then I got stuck for a while on one part but eventually I figured it out. Thanks for the great puzzle! :)
am 19. Oktober 2023, 23:05 Uhr von Soothsayer
Nice setting. Thank you!
I too, like Silverscree, fell to using arrow logic a couple of times
am 19. Oktober 2023, 21:39 Uhr von Silverscree
This had some nice, fresh-feeling logic! I broke the puzzle at one point by incorrectly pencil marking, and I think it was one of the (many) times that I had used arrow logic instead of zipper logic. Thankfully I caught it. Thank you!
am 19. Oktober 2023, 20:39 Uhr von gdc
@theParad0x Glad you enjoyed! There are a total of 4 puzzles at the moment from the inventor with different sizes (9x9,8x8,6x6,4x4). Only the 9x9 is archived but the others can be found in the testing thread.
am 19. Oktober 2023, 20:19 Uhr von theParad0x
This is an awesome rule set!! Really enjoyed it, I will definitely check out the discord to check Jaze's puzzle. Thanks for sharing
