Yet again I'm wondering how people can mark puzzles as easy when they've taken a long time over them and used aids.
Posted 16th May 2015 at 09:19
bchrystie Rated puzzle: EasyBest completion time: 14:37Time on first attempt: 41:20Used 'show wrong moves'
Well if they're anything like me, they're refereeing the kids' arguments, cooking a meal, answering the door, etc , etc at the same time. The grading is a comment on the puzzle, not the solver's ability :-)
I personally love the 'easy' puzzles that take about 20 minutes - a pleasant relatively mindless distraction for about the amount of time I can justify stopping what I'm meant to be doing!
Posted 16th May 2015 at 10:54
Elisabeth Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: ModerateCompletion time: 21:21
Yes, Penelope, very frustrating! I think the time is not as relevant as the aids as we have said before, so I only take notice of the first column's rating. I think Gareth has said in the past that overall the two are not that different. But how you judge the difficulty of the puzzle objectively if you have used aids I'm not sure.
I too like the occasional 'easy' puzzle as a relief, bchrystie, but I don't have the same interruptions that you encounter!!!
I use aids to remove what I consider the boring parts of a puzzle, stuff like auto filling boxes, highlighting duplicates, etc - parts that are mechanical and time consuming without the interest. This leaves the calculating, clue solving parts which I find interesting. Therefore I judge a puzzle based on how complicated the solving of the puzzle is rather than how long it takes. In this puzzles case, because I had to guess at one point, I marked it as moderate not easy.
Posted 17th May 2015 at 12:06 Last edited by Elisabeth 17th May 2015 at 12:08
Elisabeth Daily subscriber Rated puzzle: ModerateCompletion time: 21:21
I see your point, Rachel, but I have found when using auto-add, say, I spend just as much time and energy removing digits that do not apply! On the other hand it has done some work for you as it may give you only one digit in a cell. I have just tried it on today's Kakuro and there are several cells with only one digit............and if you use auto-remove that produces more one-digit cells:)
Posted 19th May 2015 at 11:16
cuvansu Completion time: 56:33Used 'check puzzle' when incorrect
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A yellow/light blue highlight in the time distribution charts highlights your time, where relevant.
Rating scores out of 10.0 show the average difficulty rating chosen by users, where 1.0 is "Easy" and 10.0 is "Hard".
If a puzzle is opened more than once, including by loading from a saved position, then this is potentially a significant aid so it is listed as being completed with 'multiple sessions' for the purpose of the best time/average rating displays above.
Minor aid is defined as no more than one use of 'Check solution' when incomplete and/or no more than one use of 'Check solution' when wrong; and/or using highlighting aids (show repeated digits, show broken inequalities and show valid/invalid placements [slitherlink] only). Major aid is any and all other use of the solving aids except for 'show wrong'.
I personally love the 'easy' puzzles that take about 20 minutes - a pleasant relatively mindless distraction for about the amount of time I can justify stopping what I'm meant to be doing!
I too like the occasional 'easy' puzzle as a relief, bchrystie, but I don't have the same interruptions that you encounter!!!
Last edited by Elisabeth 17th May 2015 at 12:08
You can however view other players' statistics and comments in the tables above.