Machiavellian Bach [JSS With Portals]
(Eingestellt am 15. Juli 2024, 01:50 Uhr von wisty)
Warning: this is the hardest puzzle I have posted here.
With that out of the way, this was a gift for fjam for last year's Secret Satan event (hosted by Gliperal on discord), which was a wonderful chance for people to explore and enjoy creative, crazy, super in depth ideas. I highly recommend fjam's puzzles, which inspired this one, and I also recommend trying some of the other puzzles from Secret Satans of the past and future!
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Rules:
• Shade some cells of the grid such that all unshaded cells are connected and all shaded cells are connected to the edge of the grid.
• Place a digit from 1-6 into each cell such that no number appears more than twice in any box or line of sight.
• A line of sight begins and ends at an edge of the grid, and passes through at most one set of portals. If a line of sight passes through a portal from the left or top, it will exit right or down, and vice versa. If a cell is seen twice by a line of sight, it is counted twice in that line of sight.
• Portals may only exist on thick bold edges, and ONLY on a border between unshaded and shaded cells. Each set of portals is consistent and distinct. Portals may not repeat in a row/column or create infinite loops (including infinite loops not seen by an edge of the grid).
• Clues outside the grid give the sums of all continuous groups of unshaded cells, with at least one shaded cell separating them, in the corresponding line of sight. Such continuous groups may pass through portals uninterrupted. Clues and their sums always appear left to right, top to bottom. All of such outside clues are written in an unknown consistent number base, to be determined by the solver.
• The letters in PORTAL each represent a single unique digit in the unknown number base. The letter F represents a different digit each time it appears. A bomb represents any positive integer. Question marks represent a single digit, but double digit clues may not have leading 0s. Ellipses represent any number of clues, including none.
• Red lines are palindromes. Portals do not affect them.
• Flat orange dots separate consecutive digits. Outlined green dots do not.
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And here is a visual example of how portals and lines of sight work for the sudoku and jsum clues:
Lösungscode: Starting from the top/left, digits along the lines of sight starting in row 7 followed by column 7
Kommentare
am 27. August 2024, 17:45 Uhr von Silverstep
The satanic aspect of this puzzle is twofold: First there are seventeen different rules, and then there are all the notational nightmares associated with said rules (not the least of which is figuring out how to notate which portal leads where).
It is quite a pleasant puzzle after I got through those small inconveniences. Overall I don't think this is on the top end of last year's Satan, especially considering the existence of "Throes of Chaos" which is the most difficult puzzle I've ever solved on LMD. (I'd say this is harder than fjam's satan, though!)
If this is the hardest puzzle you've ever made, I imagine your other puzzles must be gentle and refreshing and nice. Looking forward to trying your Clockwork Yajilin series... someday.
am 25. August 2024, 13:19 Uhr von wisty
rule clarification
am 25. August 2024, 13:07 Uhr von Silverstep
Sorry, one more clarification: "Sets of portals may not *repeat* in a row or column"
Does that mean two portals "in the same set" cannot be in the same row, or that "two different sets" cannot be in the same row?
Obviously I can't put four portals in the same row, there aren't enough thick borders; but "sets" in that sentence was plural so I don't think it's the first interpretation. Feels ambiguous though
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Portals cannot "see" each other. Revised this sentence to be "Portals may not repeat in a row/column or create infinite loops (including infinite loops not seen by an edge of the grid)." for additional clarity. Thanks for commenting.
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Haha, thanks for the quick answer! I would suggest the simple "There is at most one portal in each row/column". This should save some lines by double-duty the "[each] line of sight ... passes through at most one set of portals" and the "infinite loops not seen by an edge of the grid" at the same time.
am 22. August 2024, 02:01 Uhr von wisty
rule clarification
am 22. August 2024, 01:11 Uhr von Silverstep
Rules clarification: "The letters in PORTAL each represent a single unique digit." Are the "digits" bounded from zero to nine, or are they "digits" from the "unknown consistent number base"? In other words, can P be twenty-seven if the outside clues are in base twenty-eight?
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There is no upper bound on the cipher, and the ciphered digits are always given in the unknown number base. P could very well be 27 if the outside clues were in base 28. P could not be 8 if the outside clues were in base 8. Hope this answers your question :) -wisty
am 16. Juli 2024, 02:20 Uhr von zzw
Sick!! It's certainly satanically difficult, but a great execution of a great idea.
am 15. Juli 2024, 01:52 Uhr von ClashCode
A satanically marvellous creation!
