motris ([info]motris) wrote,
@ 2008-03-07 00:05:00
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Sudoku - Now in Full LOGICOLOR!!!
Earlier this week I got an author's copy of Battleship Sudoku. To build excitement for this book that I can now see is real and about to be published, I've decided to start posting some new puzzle ideas each week until the time of the release of the book. So, without further ado, here is a kind of sudoku I've had in mind since before Mystery Hunt 2007. It got turned in part into my color maze (Splits and Mergers) since I couldn't do it as a sudoku in that Hunt, but colors are a great gimmick to work with in so many different kinds of overlayed puzzles. I actually wrote these last summer while at a chemistry conference at Duke, about the same time as the Mastermindoku, so these have been on the shelf for far too long for such a fun idea.


Color Sudoku:
Solve the following sets of 3 puzzles using the given clues. The puzzles themselves are red, yellow, and blue, and the clues you receive may be in these primary colors, in the secondary colors (orange, purple, green), or in the color black. A number in a secondary color represents the sum of the two digits in the corresponding puzzles (green 4 could mean yellow 1 + blue 3) while a number in black represents the sum over all three puzzles (black 7 could mean red 1 + yellow 2 + blue 4). The standard sudoku rules of 1 to 6 in each row/column/box apply, but NO NUMBER IS REPEATED in the same place in two puzzles. A green 4 cannot mean yellow 2 + blue 2 as this would have two 2's in the same cell.

As the only examples of this puzzle type, it might seem odd to already be burying themes in them, but this is how I work. There are some good graphical themes in the form of rainbow colorings in the first two, and a secret "meta"-like theme in the last. If you can give me a clear, succinct identification and rationale behind my favorite color, you win. Enjoy (at least until next week's new puzzles).



Puzzle 1 (Bright Sunny Day)







Puzzle 2 (Serious Rain)







Puzzle 3 (Some Showers Early, Then Clearing)




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[info]knightwizard
2008-03-07 08:33 am UTC (link)
Looks like fun! The "can't use two of the same number in the same spot" sound kind of kakuro-ish.

I will give it a try at some point over this weekend.

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[info]motris
2008-03-07 08:42 am UTC (link)
Indeed, and it is a good constraint as it allows fewer clues to be used and connects the puzzles even more strongly once you get going.

Also, once you start thinking a 7 in three squares must be 1 + 2 + 4 in a kakuro, I should reward those people solving my sudoku. This is a way of doing that.

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[info]lardarsegreg
2008-03-07 02:21 pm UTC (link)
That's an impressive looking puzzle.

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[info]rpipuzzleguy
2008-03-07 03:53 pm UTC (link)
Bloody brilliant idea; printing them now. Although I have to put on my Word Jerk hat and say that you mean "ado". ;-)

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[info]motris
2008-03-07 04:45 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I didn't mean to accidentally retire there. I've edited the horrible french goodbye out.

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Looks like fun, but...
[info]stigant
2008-03-07 09:00 pm UTC (link)
Sadly my printer seems to be out of yellow. I'll have to wait until I get home :(

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Re: Looks like fun, but...
[info]motris
2008-03-07 09:33 pm UTC (link)
Interesting you mention this. Of my many sudoku variant ideas, this is one of my favorites and I've wanted to have it somewhere for awhile. The color however makes it a challenge to send to GAMES or use in a book with Sterling even though it is a fun and important part of these puzzles. I hope you can find that yellow sooner rather than later.

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Re: Looks like fun, but...
[info]stigant
2008-03-08 02:49 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm not a fan of using color to convey important information, though in this case it makes sense. There's so much information floating around, its hard to find the right foothold from which to analyze it, and its very easy to get stuck working on one board only to miss an important clue on one of the other boards. I managed to solve the first two, but the third one is kicking my butt. I enjoyed the 2nd one more than the first. I don't know if I was getting better, but it seemed to have more varied interplay between the three boards (frustrating, but more satisfying when you see the next step)

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Re: Looks like fun, but...
[info]motris
2008-03-08 05:27 pm UTC (link)
Well, a simplification to two boards could work with say an outlined "white" number, black numbers, and grey clues that are shared, and maybe just 2 boards would limit the confusion of the interplay.

One reason I like three colors though, and why the second is much better, is because it has black clues and therefore links things between all three boards in a much more interesting way than just the pairs. I would tend to write more puzzles that look like 2 than 1 although 1 is a nice, easy introduction to how you have to think.

Knowing the right place to look to make progress in a large puzzle is always the challenge a solver faces. I picked the 6x6 grids here even though 9x9 could work so that the search space was not that much bigger than a normal 81 cell sudoku (as well as so the addition wasn't too complicated).

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[info]decand
2008-03-08 08:30 pm UTC (link)
Great puzzles! A very interesting solve.

Of course, I'm still staring at the 3 solved grids on the last one, with no idea of your favorite color....

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[info]motris
2008-03-08 09:02 pm UTC (link)
No one seems to be getting it without a bit of a nudge, so I'll add this hint. Look at the original puzzle (upper-left). What is missing?

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oh! I see SPOILER
(Anonymous)
2008-03-08 11:50 pm UTC (link)
Red.
The upper left-hand clue is a 2x3 sudoku on the digits 456789.
The missing digit in each case is the digit(4 or 6, no 5 for some reason, is that your favorite number?) that goes in that spot in the red grid.
I enjoyed the puzzles, but it might be nice to make the green/orange/yellow in a different font (bold? italic?) as well so that I could give these to colorblind friends. [braille would be an even more difficult problem]
-sabrmath (no LJ ID)

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Re: oh! I see SPOILER
[info]stigant
2008-03-09 03:27 am UTC (link)
Oh, man, I was on a slightly different path. I was looking at what color was missing for the row/col/2x3 for each blank square, then use the corresponding number from the color grids (add two or more if the missing color was a secondary number) and then use the results as a hex RGB number, but that wasn't working out.

I did finally manage to at least finish the 3rd puzzle, but I had to guess and backtrack. Specifically, I had narrowed R6, C3 and C4 in the red grid to be 2/6, and just guessed from there.

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Re: oh! I see SPOILER
[info]motris
2008-03-09 06:18 am UTC (link)
No reason behind the lack of 5's. I just liked the pattern left behind by removing the 6 digits where I did. I could have removed the red 5's from rows 2/5 and put in the red 4's, but I found this pattern "reasonable" to solve so I kept it once I had the "red" property going.

I probably really grew to like red in college as it was my Hovse's color, and you will certainly see me sporting it during any playoff round at a puzzle championship.

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Took me a while, but...
[info]knightwizard
2008-03-09 07:42 pm UTC (link)
...I managed to solve them. That last one was tough. The One thing that helped me was the orange 4 in the lower left hand quadrant. Not only does that mean that Yellow needs to be 1 or 3 and Red also need to be 1 or 3, but Blue CANNOT be 1 or 3 - a revalation that finally struck me at a critical point.

I was clueless on the favorite color bit. Kudos to the person that solved it. I did notice the "6,6,6,4,4,4" red pattern in the original empty spots but failed to make a connection with it.

Keep up the good work!

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Re: Took me a while, but...
[info]motris
2008-03-09 08:36 pm UTC (link)
Good summary of one of the interesting interplays that develops in these puzzles. I had a clear path in the first puzzle, but in the last you had a lot of choices and had to learn how to use the info you had to make some putative eliminations. I personally love how an orange 4 implies both a 1/3 somewhere, as well as not a 1/3 at the same time.

Maybe the meta-puzzle wasn't hidden as cleanly as it could have been but I'm glad three people through email or on the lj got there without a tremendous spoiler.

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