The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[MJEber]

1) I'd like to see the user1, user2, user3 stuff go away. Instead collect the user name and bind all settings to that name in a config file.

Code: Select all

<users>
 <user name='Michael' default=false>
  <GeneralSettings>
   ...
  </GeneralSettings>
  <HallofFameSettings>
   ...
  </HallofFameSettings>
  <ColorPreferences>
  </ColorPreferences>
 </user>
 <user name='Joni' default=true>
   ...
  </user>
</users>

This allows you to create the various user settings by reading the XML and populating a HashTable with each users preferences. Then the user can pick their settings by picking the name in the dropdown. The selected name becomes the default.

2) Seems that once I get an entry into the hall of fame, I'm not given a chance to be entered ever again... even with a better time than the selected game AND what is already in the hall of fame! All winning scores should be entered into the hall of fame. period.

3) Provide a graphical interface for setting colours similar to setting the desktop styles in Windows. Provide a mini picture of the game view to see the effects of the different colours before commiting them to the game.

4) Provide a means of clearing times in the game files so that the first time I play, that is when the average time is set. That way I'm always playing against myself, not some time already set in the game file.

Thanks,

Michael - Lead Software Designer and Developer

[Pappocom]

#1 - a general review of Users is underway.

#2 - not sure I understand your problem here, but each Hall of Fame permits 9 entries.

#3 - it seems you have not noticed the Appearance dialog (press F2).

#4 - I think by "game file" you mean "libary book", but if so, I don't understand what you mean by "average time". The average time is calculated regardless of the source of the puzzle.

- Wayne

[Cyclone]

You know what I would like to see? Variations! There are diagonal Sudokus, Hyper Sudokus (additional segments that also must have 1-9), MultiSudokus (one of more overlapping grids), consecutive neighbours Sudoku (more below), irregular group (jigsaw, nonomino, "squiffy") Sudoku, Sumdoku (Killer Sudoku), even/odd Sudoku, Magic Squares...and I'd also like the capability to create Wordokus and 5x5 puzzles!

Don't recognize any of these?

Hyper Sudokus - most recent I've seen is sent from a contact at Conceptis forums, where there are four additional 3x3 boxes in the grid; any kind of segment can make up the 1-9 rules though.

Diagonal Sudoku - diagonals have 1-9 as well, Pennypress and Dell have picked up on these in their Sudoku publications

MultiSudokus - no explanation required, go to http://www.binaryworlds.com/sudoku/hard.php (BTW, URL recognition in using keywords with your links is horrible on these boards)

Consecutive Neighbours Sudoku - any pair of consecutive numbers has an indicator line between them. No line means no consecutive numbers in the two cells.

Irregular Group Sudoku - Michael Mepham has daily puzzles on his site now. http://www.sudoku.org.uk/jigsaw.asp www.boldts.net has a Sudoku section with 20,000 of these, too, called Nonomino Sudoku.

Sumdoku - boxes inside the grid indicates sums of numbers in the cells; Cross Sums (Kakuro) mixed with Sudoku, grids often start blank. The Times in London does them now. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,18209,00.html

Even/Odd Sudoku - odd boxes are normal, even boxes are shaded. Variations on this too.

Magic Squares - There are shaded boxes in each square, and the number of shaded boxes indicates number of cells. 7 shaded boxes, 1-7 goes in them, 89 in the other two. PrintSudoku does these. www.printsudoku.com

Wordokus - Self-explanatory. Letters are used, and any row, column, or diagonal can represent a word. Codeoku is a variant where letters reading along left to right, top to bottom spell out something.

5x5 puzzles - basically 25x25 grids. 1-25 everywhere. May not fit on some screens.

Aside from variations, better support for libraries is a good idea...input our puzzles and print the library. I mean, we can already print 100 puzzles if we wanted at random, it'd be nice to print our own puzzles however.

Also, support for newer and better solving techniques is required. A lot of puzzles on www.vanhegan.net ARE sovlable puzzles requiring new techniques such as the XY Wing, XYZ Wing, Nishio, Forcing Chains, and other methods. Go to http://www.madoverlord.com/projects/sudoku.t to download SusokuSasser, a tool that can analyze puzzles that this site's Sudoku program considers unsolvable (and also can fetch such puzzles from some sites, such as menneske.no). It's technically tipware (but also free) application...meaning the application on THIS site does not stack up even with individual puzzles. The only features I like from this application right now are libraries (though they are still limited in their use) and the various sized variations, but otherwise it's nothing special and not worth the $20 (even more CAD) without improvements such as the above.

Those are some of my views. Comments, anyone?

Cyclone

[Hud]

I may have the answer to this question:

2) Seems that once I get an entry into the hall of fame, I'm not given a chance to be entered ever again... even with a better time than the selected game AND what is already in the hall of fame! All winning scores should be entered into the hall of fame. period.

The puzzle has to be a "very hard" one to qualify (at least on my version).
Select the "hard" icon, then hold down the "ctrl" key on your keypad, the select "new" icon (one on far left). When the puzzle comes up, the will be an asterisk (*) to the right of the "very hard" notation at the bottom. If you happen to print the puzzle or close and reopen it, the * will go away and the puzzle will be ineligible. Hope this helps and is what will solve your problem.

I'd like to see some puzzles a bit more tough in the next version. It's getting to be the time to raise the bar.

[MJEber]

#2 - not sure I understand your problem here, but each Hall of Fame permits 9 entries.

It seems that most of the time, once the timer hits 7 minutes (regardless of difficulty) the "*" disappears and I'm no longer able to be entered into the HOF.

#4 - I think by "game file" you mean "libary book", but if so, I don't understand what you mean by "average time". The average time is calculated regardless of the source of the puzzle.

- Wayne

Well, I can only explain from my experience. I play a game and at the end I get a message that says my time was better than the last time - or average time - for this puzzle.

[MJEber]

I may have the answer to this question:

The puzzle has to be a "very hard" one to qualify (at least on my version).

Wrong. There are Hall of Fame entries for each puzzle difficulty level.

[Hud]

Sorry about the misinfo. Maybe I was thinking about hard ones vs very hard ones. I seem to remember that I can't place hard ones in the HOF. Now I have to check that out.
I hate it when I get an easy very hard puzzle and mess up the pencilmarks so that I can't beat the record.