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The game in easy/intermediate is very fun and satisfying! However it doesn't seem to scale too well beyond this - it feels unless you get 'lucky' with one row/c

The game in easy/intermediate is very fun and satisfying! However it doesn't seem to scale too well beyond this - it feels unless you get 'lucky' with one row/column having a very low total, you end up with many many degrees of freedom for each move, which scale, I suppose, quadratically? Sudoku at the hardest difficulty also has this, but usually the errors manifest a bit more quickly. It feels in this mode you could end up finding your error 'at the end' and have an absolutely diabolical time debugging your error?

fsckboy 4y ago
don't tell us, tell chatGPT to incorporate your feedback!
Lewton 4y ago
> it feels unless you get 'lucky' with one row/column having a very low total, very large totals gives you enough information to validate/eliminate numbers too
xxs 4y ago
I tried advanced (7x7) three times, it was quite doable. An obvious optimization would be showing the current sum of the rows/columns. Master (9x9) features negative numbers too, which is quite funny.
- mavhc 4y ago
  Advanced can be easily solved with some logic, odd vs even, eliminating impossible combinations. Master I've no idea how to solve
  - yesenadam 4y ago
    I tried 9x9 and it seemed impossible at first but I solved it in 5-10 minutes. I want to try larger ones! Keep fixing digits one at a time with things like parity, e.g. if the numbers are all odd and sum to an odd number, you know an odd number of them are needed. If a total is very high or low, there's often obviously only one way to make it. For totals not quite so high, if you choose the few highest numbers, and by trying ways to reduce the total by the excess, it becomes evident what the numbers are. ("Get your hands dirty.") Often a row/column contains e.g. two 7s, and you know one of them is needed, but not which until other information comes in. (Having an "OR" label/symbol to mark those would be nice I guess.) e.g. One of the columns I had: total 46, column is 16,-2,12,-2,14,-2,14,16,1. Eliminate the 1 by parity. I try adding the largest numbers, 16,16,14, which add to 46...and somehow I can see/intuit that there's no other way of making 46, as the -2s can only adjust downwards. So you green-circle the two 16s, leave the two 14s blank, as you don't know which is needed yet, and cross out all the others.
once_inc 4y ago
People often forget that sudoku has a number of rules which make the game deterministic: Sudoku Rule: Don’t Guess Sudoku Rule: Unique Solution You aren't supposed to guess at any point, instead solving the puzzle by determining a number's position by logical deduction. You aren't supposed to just jot something down and hoping for the best. Each sudoku puzzle should have one single valid solution. This has been used in the past by a devious creator that built his sudoku in such a way that the final n numbers to be filled led to two deduction paths; one leading to a single solution, the other to two possible solutions. As such, the only valid solution is the path where uniqueness remained. I didn't look at the code for Sumplete, but using similar rules when building the puzzle seems obvious.
- cyborgx7 4y ago
  >This has been used in the past by a devious creator that built his sudoku in such a way that the final n numbers to be filled led to two deduction paths; one leading to a single solution, the other to two possible solutions. I don't see how this differs from there being three solutions, thereby not following the unique solution role. Like, what is functionally the difference between picking the path that leads to one solution rather than two, and just picking one of the two solutions at the end?
- PeterisP 4y ago
  A solution is not a "path" but the outcome i.e. a filled board. If there exist two options to write in the numbers which both fit the originally provided clues and the Sudoku criteria, then that puzzle has multiple solutions. It's worth noting that "don't guess" technically doesn't change anything at all - a full exhaustive search of all options starting from the top-left corner is a legitimate logical deduction tactic (and a legitimate proof in mathematics), even if suboptimal. If you eliminate all the possibilities of writing in numbers, you're supposed to be left only one way that fits the rules, the unique solution.

fsckboy 4y ago

don't tell us, tell chatGPT to incorporate your feedback!

Lewton 4y ago

> it feels unless you get 'lucky' with one row/column having a very low total, very large totals gives you enough information to validate/eliminate numbers too

xxs 4y ago

I tried advanced (7x7) three times, it was quite doable. An obvious optimization would be showing the current sum of the rows/columns. Master (9x9) features negative numbers too, which is quite funny.

mavhc 4y ago
Advanced can be easily solved with some logic, odd vs even, eliminating impossible combinations. Master I've no idea how to solve
- yesenadam 4y ago
  I tried 9x9 and it seemed impossible at first but I solved it in 5-10 minutes. I want to try larger ones! Keep fixing digits one at a time with things like parity, e.g. if the numbers are all odd and sum to an odd number, you know an odd number of them are needed. If a total is very high or low, there's often obviously only one way to make it. For totals not quite so high, if you choose the few highest numbers, and by trying ways to reduce the total by the excess, it becomes evident what the numbers are. ("Get your hands dirty.") Often a row/column contains e.g. two 7s, and you know one of them is needed, but not which until other information comes in. (Having an "OR" label/symbol to mark those would be nice I guess.) e.g. One of the columns I had: total 46, column is 16,-2,12,-2,14,-2,14,16,1. Eliminate the 1 by parity. I try adding the largest numbers, 16,16,14, which add to 46...and somehow I can see/intuit that there's no other way of making 46, as the -2s can only adjust downwards. So you green-circle the two 16s, leave the two 14s blank, as you don't know which is needed yet, and cross out all the others.

once_inc 4y ago

People often forget that sudoku has a number of rules which make the game deterministic: Sudoku Rule: Don’t Guess Sudoku Rule: Unique Solution You aren't supposed to guess at any point, instead solving the puzzle by determining a number's position by logical deduction. You aren't supposed to just jot something down and hoping for the best. Each sudoku puzzle should have one single valid solution. This has been used in the past by a devious creator that built his sudoku in such a way that the final n numbers to be filled led to two deduction paths; one leading to a single solution, the other to two possible solutions. As such, the only valid solution is the path where uniqueness remained. I didn't look at the code for Sumplete, but using similar rules when building the puzzle seems obvious.

cyborgx7 4y ago
>This has been used in the past by a devious creator that built his sudoku in such a way that the final n numbers to be filled led to two deduction paths; one leading to a single solution, the other to two possible solutions. I don't see how this differs from there being three solutions, thereby not following the unique solution role. Like, what is functionally the difference between picking the path that leads to one solution rather than two, and just picking one of the two solutions at the end?
PeterisP 4y ago
A solution is not a "path" but the outcome i.e. a filled board. If there exist two options to write in the numbers which both fit the originally provided clues and the Sudoku criteria, then that puzzle has multiple solutions. It's worth noting that "don't guess" technically doesn't change anything at all - a full exhaustive search of all options starting from the top-left corner is a legitimate logical deduction tactic (and a legitimate proof in mathematics), even if suboptimal. If you eliminate all the possibilities of writing in numbers, you're supposed to be left only one way that fits the rules, the unique solution.