Second Rodeo (collab. with Tallcat)
(Eingestellt am 17. Oktober 2024, 23:06 Uhr von jwsinclair)
Second Rodeo, by James Sinclair and Tallcat
Divide the grid into nine orthogonally connected nine-cell regions, and place the digits 1-9 once in each row, column, and region.
A digit inside a circle indicates the sum of all digits in the same region that see that cell by knight's move.
A digit inside a square indicates the total number of cells in the same region that see that cell by knight's move.
A digit inside a diamond indicates the total number of *other* regions with at least one cell seen by knight's move from that cell.
SudokuPad
Some backstory:
A few weeks ago I published my first-ever chaos construction, First Rodeo. Tallcat reached out to say some nice things about it, and, like a maniac, I was like "I'm working on an even better follow-up but can't get past the break-in, want to help?!?" Inexplicably, he did want to help, and continued helping even after he found the fundamental flaw in my break-in.
Some very interesting ideas emerged from that initial exchange, and we made some slight changes and kept working. Eventually we scrapped my original break-in altogether (this was my suggestion, and I'd argue my single most important contribution to the project), allowing us to more freely use all the bits of logic we'd found that refused to play nicely in the earlier drafts.
I won't say much more about the resulting puzzle, but it's very difficult, and we're both very proud of it. Hope you enjoy :)
Lösungscode: row six, with a dash ("-") to indicate each region border
Kommentare
am 25. Oktober 2024, 23:28 Uhr von Fool on Hill
Brilliantly constructed: I enjoyed the solve a lot - a really finely tuned challenge at the hard end of puzzles I have solved.
am 25. Oktober 2024, 06:18 Uhr von Norkas
That was ahard puzzle. And also really fun. Thank you two for setting
am 22. Oktober 2024, 17:43 Uhr von henrypijames
Quite brilliant but really hard, astonished it's got so many solves.
am 18. Oktober 2024, 21:56 Uhr von marcmees
great CC. thanks
am 18. Oktober 2024, 10:50 Uhr von Snookerfan
Great puzzle! Loved every minute of the solve. Thank you
am 18. Oktober 2024, 04:59 Uhr von bansalsaab
3 hrs of pure fun. Amazing construction.
am 18. Oktober 2024, 03:45 Uhr von MSDOS
Took a couple of days on and off to work through this one, but thouroughly enjoyed the solve! Definitely some pretty tricky spots, but I did really like the logic that the extra clue type (diamonds) brings, especially for the break in! Great construction from the both of you!
am 18. Oktober 2024, 03:25 Uhr von MaizeGator
I love James's self-deprecation; it's highly amusing coming from such an accomplished setter.
Anyway, this puzzle is a ton of fun, featuring sublime region-building and tricky-to-spot yet satisfying sudoku deductions.
am 17. Oktober 2024, 23:48 Uhr von tallcat
@bansalsaab. The diamond only counts other regions that it sees. For example, if it sees three cells and one of the cells is in the same region as the diamond but the other two are in a different region (but the same one), the count would be 1. Hope this helps. In your example, the count would also be 1 (as it sees 1 other region)
am 17. Oktober 2024, 23:42 Uhr von bansalsaab
Hello, For the diamond clue, if there are 2 other cells but they belong to same other region, will that be counted as 1 or 2?
--
Yes, what Tallcat said. If the diamond cell sees two (or more) cells from the same region,* it only counts as one.
*Assuming those cells are in a different region from the diamond cell; if they're in the same region, they aren't counted at all.
