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 did the puzzles become harder in August? 
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Posted on: Mon Aug 26, 2013 10:40 am




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Joined: Thu May 12, 2011 11:58 pm
 did the puzzles become harder in August?
Was there maybe a small increase in difficulty of the Calcudoku and Killer Sudoku puzzles in August?

I put a small improvement in the solvers, which may have caused puzzles to become "underrated".

Patrick


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Posted on: Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:13 pm




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Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:15 pm
Post Re: did the puzzles become harder in August?
This is purely anecdotal, of course, so treat it accordingly.

I took a calcudoku vacation of 10 or 12 days beginning in early August. When I begin solving again after a hiatus I expect to be just a little rusty, but this didn't seem to be the case.

The only puzzle I've noticed to be overly difficult for me in the week or so since returning was the 9x9 from 8/24. It's rating was under 90 but it took me an inordinate amount of time. Since that is just one example it's probable that there was a strategy I was overlooking. Once I finally solved it I hadn't noticed what the breakthrough moment was. But if you run your solver with and without the new code and the times are different that might be an indication.

One guy's remembrance of one puzzle...


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Posted on: Mon Aug 26, 2013 2:17 pm




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Post Re: did the puzzles become harder in August?
jaek wrote:
But if you run your solver with and without the new code and the times are different that might be an indication.

Really good point, thanks: I can "revert" the code of the solver, and compare notes :)


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Posted on: Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:51 am




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Joined: Fri May 13, 2011 6:51 pm
Post Re: did the puzzles become harder in August?
pnm wrote:
Was there maybe a small increase in difficulty of the Calcudoku and Killer Sudoku puzzles in August?

I put a small improvement in the solvers, which may have caused puzzles to become "underrated".

Patrick


My "feeling" for August: A little easier the no-op's, 12x12's, bitwise and mod; a little more difficult the 9x9's and Sudokus, KS's about the same (very subjective of course).


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Posted on: Wed Aug 28, 2013 12:02 pm




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Post Re: did the puzzles become harder in August?
At the moment I'm generating the puzzles for September,
and all Calcudoku puzzles 6x6 or larger will be "10% easier" wrt. August
(of course ridiculous to slap "10%" on it).

In reality the August puzzles were mostly harder than before, but the
difference was distributed across a range.


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Posted on: Wed Aug 28, 2013 11:59 pm




Posts: 931
Location: Ladysmith, BC, Canada
Joined: Fri May 13, 2011 1:37 am
Post Re: did the puzzles become harder in August?
pnm wrote:
At the moment I'm generating the puzzles for September,
and all Calcudoku puzzles 6x6 or larger will be "10% easier" wrt. August
(of course ridiculous to slap "10%" on it).

In reality the August puzzles were mostly harder than before, but the
difference was distributed across a range.


The reason I thought they were harder was that my daily average was well below the 50+ points that I set for myself. The worst day was 27 pts. [cursing]


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