Logic Masters Deutschland e.V.

am 24. Juli 2025, 21:41 Uhr von s1mn
Great puzzle! I really enjoyed it.

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Thank you!

am 24. Juli 2025, 20:42 Uhr von Exigus
Lovely puzzle.

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Thank you!

am 24. Juli 2025, 18:24 Uhr von ContreBombarde32
Absolutely delightful, thank you!

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Thank you!

am 23. Juli 2025, 23:31 Uhr von VitP
i think it's not too hard to determine an "objective" difficulty rating for a sudoku.

it comes down to the fundamental question:
is your target audience ONLY the top 100 sudoku solvers in the world, or is it the MILLIONS of beginners (*) and intermediate solvers.

and, while the former is a valid position, it does not benefit the field as a whole.

so my OPINION is that
1) at level 1, you will know all the cage combinations.
2) at level 2, you can be expected to work with COMBINATIONS of cages.
3) but if you have to ask questions like "if we take domino A from box N, where does it go in box M ?", that is a level 3 puzzle.
and if the ACTUAL question is "if domino A in box N is of type X, forcing domino B in box M to be type Y AND domino A in box K must go THERE, AND THEREFORE domino C in box L must go THERE in box J, AND THEREFORE domino D in box G has no fill ... (and that's just to get ONE digit)"
i rest my case.

(*) of course we have to recognize that this is an ELITE site that DOES cater to the best of the best, so a "beginner" should be defined as someone who has considerable experience with basic sudoku, but is unfamiliar with the VARIANT AT HAND.

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Hi VitP. I do overall agree with your opinion on objective difficulty. It’s along the same veins as determine SE or Hodoku score for a classic sudoku puzzle and I do agree this is more of an objective and fair way to rate puzzles so that all groups from beginner to elite can find the puzzles they are looking to solve.

I think where my difficulty in setting a temporary difficulty rating lies is more based around perceived difficulty. Even in classic sudokus you can find an SE >4.2 puzzle that can be perceived as significantly easier or significantly harder based on your experience with each individual advanced technique required. That problem gets blown wide open when you’re dealing with variants especially puzzles with multiple variants or hybrids with pencil puzzles. People seem to be voting more based on how easy or hard they perceive the puzzles based on their own experiences on this site as of recent and so a puzzle that I would think based on their own experiences techniques should be higher on the scale is dropped down to 1 star based on their own experiences sites collective perceived difficulty of the techniques required.

So when I go in to rate a puzzle I try to cater more toward the target audience’s perceived difficulty but it’s a little more finicky to get that right and if I go by objective people will often find the puzzle easier than what I’ve put it as too. Is this a big deal? Not particularly and I don’t take offense at all to people commenting what they perceive the difficulty of one of my puzzles to be. Mostly because what I set the puzzle as will likely just get changed to what the popular consensus is anyway.

Thank you for your thought out and detailed thoughts on this matter. It was very interesting to read and dissect.

-Chefofdeath

am 23. Juli 2025, 17:58 Uhr von 9Rookienumbers
Beautiful puzzle. I've been looking at it wrong for quite some times before figuring out the correct way in

am 23. Juli 2025, 15:56 Uhr von Blashyrkh
Very nice killer!
I agree with sujoyku, definitely not 1*

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Thank you :)

am 23. Juli 2025, 11:42 Uhr von Snookerfan
Very nice! Thank you

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Thank you :D

am 23. Juli 2025, 02:03 Uhr von PinkNickels
Very nice setting. Break-in is beautiful. Very smooth flow. Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you :)

am 22. Juli 2025, 23:31 Uhr von Piatato
Lovely!

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Thank you :D

am 22. Juli 2025, 22:54 Uhr von Chefofdeath
Adjusting Difficulty

am 22. Juli 2025, 22:40 Uhr von sujoyku
I found this way harder than 1 star, but be that as it may. It is an absolutely wonderful puzzle. Thank you very much for setting and sharing, Chefofdeath!

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Thank you sujoyku :) glad you enjoyed the puzzle! I’ve adjusted the difficulty. Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell what the difficulty is to my puzzles

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I can relate 100%. Estimating the difficulty in my own puzzles often feels close to impossible. The puzzle I uploaded at 3 today has been downvoted to 2 stars, but I also sometimes manage to get it wrong the other way. :)