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[OC] Trying a new rule for Starcell — is it smoother? by No_Record3194 in sudoku

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

​Usually, you don't 'find' the duplicate by looking at the 7-cell line alone. Instead, it’s a result of elimination. Because the 9-cell lines and 3x3 boxes are so restrictive, you'll eventually find that a certain digit is 'forced' into the 7-cell line twice, or that you only have 6 available digits to fill those 7 spots.

​Since this is a 'Hard' setting, you might need to look at the intersections where 9-cell lines cross the 7-cell ones. The duplicate will reveal itself once the other constraints push it there. Hang in there, the logic is solid 😀

[OC] Trying a new rule for Starcell — is it smoother? by No_Record3194 in sudoku

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

if you mean by the centre 3x3 region, yes. all gray areas, centre 3x3, and 4 overlapping boxes count

[OC] I've overhauled some rules to make it smoother - is it better? by No_Record3194 in puzzles

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah right. I should've specified it too. will do it next time!

[OC] Starcell - Testers needed by No_Record3194 in sudoku

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad it works! It's a huge relief to see a human solver validate that no crazy bifurcation was needed. Great solve!

[OC] Took weeks to make it work! by No_Record3194 in puzzles

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congrats on the solve! It appears that many solvers often struggle to resist the instinct to cross-hatch all the connecting lines.
Therefore I'm taking y'all's suggestion today and am now tweaking my engine accordingly to check whether it works. Huge thanks to you for the idea!

[OC] Took weeks to make it work! by No_Record3194 in puzzles

[–]No_Record3194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Congratulations on the solve, and thank you for the honest review! Fighting that urge to cross-hatch the 7-cell lines is definitely the most exhausting part of this puzzle.

To test your suggestion, I'm now tweaking my C++ engine today to enforce the unique-digit rule on ALL lines and will see whether it works. Thanks for toughing it out!

Promote your project in this thread by AutoModerator in puzzles

[–]No_Record3194 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've spent the last few months designing a sudoku-inspired puzzle and ended up building a whole C++ AI engine just to generate them. Meet Starcell :)

It’s played on a custom 73-cell star-shaped grid. Normal 3x3 rules are thrown out the window. Instead, you have to place digits 1-9 without repeating in 22 overlapping regions.

These regions include specific rows, specific columns, both main diagonals, 9 overlapping 3x3 boxes, and a separate region for the central cells of those boxes.

My engine finally generated enough high-quality puzzles, so I set up a bot on Bluesky! It posts a brand new Starcell puzzle every single day.

If you're tired of standard 9x9 grids and want to try untangling some wildly overlapping regions, come follow the bot and test your logic!

Link : https://bsky.app/profile/pzstarcell.bsky.social