Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

on 30. March 2025, 19:39 by Mr Toffee
Change to ruleset

on 28. March 2025, 22:07 by TheNineElements
Solve Time: 9:45

I rated this 1/5 difficulty.

Very nice & approachable slow thermo puzzle! I really enjoyed the puzzle, and found it quite approachable and fun to work through.

I think this is probably on the slightly harder end of 1* puzzles (and not quite 2* difficulty). At first glance, it seems like there is a lot going on (making it look sort of hard/complex upon first viewing), but once I started pencilmarking and analyzing the geometry, it became fairly straightforward how to begin placing digits and to understand how digits were restricted. I don't think any logical step was too difficult, and I believe a beginner solver would be able to approach this puzzle successfully - hence my 1* difficulty rating.

The overall thermo geometry was very nice, and this is an excellent "easy" puzzle. This puzzle would be great as a candidate for being in the "GAS" puzzle series/collections.

Overall, the puzzle was great & I definitely recommend giving it a go! Thanks for sharing!

P.S.:
After some consideration, I have a recommendation/suggestion for modifying this logicmasters puzzle page. When I first clicked onto this puzzle and viewed the description and thumbnail, I found the layout & phrasing of everything to be pretty confusing - and I did not think this was a standard "slow thermo" puzzle until I actually clicked onto the puzzle link and viewed the actual puzzle on sudokupad.

The thumbnail image for the puzzle was a bit unusual/abnormal due to the line markings & thermos exiting the grid. Additionally, the phrasing and formatting of the description/rules was a bit weird, particularly the "(O) Bulbs ≤ Tips ( I )" line. The modified thumbnail image isn't an issue on its own, but the combined image and rule description made for a pretty confusing initial impression.

My "suggestion" would be to consider rephrasing and reformatting the logicmasters puzzle description and rules to be more "standard". This could be something like:

"
Normal Sudoku rules apply.

Slow Thermos: Digits along a thermometer must not decrease (but may repeat the same value) moving away from the bulb to the tip.

Try the puzzle here
"
(To be clear, I don't think you should to change the thumbnail image if that is your intended puzzle image/design though)

Within the Sudokupad link, the actual rule description/phrasing for Slow Thermos is totally fine, although it did not mention in those rules that "Normal Sudoku rules apply". The actual appearance of the puzzle on the sudokupad link is standard, which implies that it is a "normal sudoku", but I think it is definitely worth specifying this on both the logicmasters puzzle page (here) AND in the rules on sudokupad - so that the sudokupad link has a standalone ruleset that doesn't require the solver to view the logicmasters page as a reference for the rules as well.

Either way, the puzzle itself was great - and this is more of a presentation/clarity suggestion. Some solvers might not care about this aspect of the presentation, but I nearly skipped past this page before clicking the sudokupad puzzle link because of it. I was unsure about the actual rules and was looking for a quicker solve with a familiar ruleset - and my first impression had me fairly confused/uncertain about it. I'm definitely glad I ended up solving the puzzle as it was very enjoyable - but I wouldn't want someone to overlook the puzzle because of the presentation and/or a minor misinterpretation (which I nearly did). Apologies if this was too wordy, but I hope you find this helpful!

on 28. March 2025, 20:06 by awwkaw
This was my first slow thermometer puzzle. Very fun concept.

Thanks for the nice puzzle 8-)

on 28. March 2025, 13:14 by PinkNickels
Thanks for all the fun puzzles, Mr Toffee. Really enjoy them all!