Soduko Puzzle as a Mystery Cache?

[+Pathfinders4]

Okay, sometimes I’m accused of being that "good idea guy” and I’m not sure it’s always meant as a compliment….

 

Either way, let me hear some feedback.

 

Would it be in the spirit of a mystery or puzzle cache to hide the cache coordinates in a Soduko puzzle?

 

The puzzle would be a simple one, posted on the cache info sheet. Once seekers solved the puzzle, the coordinates for the cache would be revealed in the solution.

 

I've not seen it done yet in my area, but I've yet to see it all anyway!!

 

PF4

[+Harry Dolphin]

They're actually quite common. (Some say far too common.) Here's mine: I'm Looking Over the Town of Dover

[Team Macha]

Not a good idea and HERE's why. Your cache could be solved in a heartbeat.

[+briansnat]

Sudoku puzzles are the guardrail micro of puzzle caches.

[Dinoprophet]

Not a good idea and HERE's why. Your cache could be solved in a heartbeat.

I'll do sudokus and cryptograms occasionally to kill some time, but that site is exactly why I don't really care for them -- solving them requires simply following a set procedure.

[rokclmb]

This is a cool idea. I'm looking for some ideas for placing my first cache and this sounds cool.

[+mgbmusic]

Not a good idea and HERE's why. Your cache could be solved in a heartbeat.

I'll do sudokus and cryptograms occasionally to kill some time, but that site is exactly why I don't really care for them -- solving them requires simply following a set procedure.

 

That's true, but figuring out the order of the solution numbers to pinpoint the coords could be rough...For example

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...8d-b966add806c1

 

I solved the sudoku puzzle quickly and actually the order of the digits relatively quickly too. Not every puzzle has to keep people in suspense for days and days trying to figure it out. If it's in my area, I'd prolly go for it, and do a sudoku puzzle along the way...more fun for me...

 

--MGb

[+Mopar]

Not a good idea and HERE's why. Your cache could be solved in a heartbeat.

 

Sudoku puzzles are the guardrail micro of puzzle caches.

 

This is a cool idea. I'm looking for some ideas for placing my first cache and this sounds cool.

 

:D

[Dinoprophet]

Not every puzzle has to keep people in suspense for days and days trying to figure it out. If it's in my area, I'd prolly go for it, and do a sudoku puzzle along the way...more fun for me...

Agreed, I meant the puzzles themselves. I'll never skip a puzzle cache.

[+Markwell]

Take a look here

[+The Jester]

If Sudoku puzzles are too "lame", try Masyu or Nurikabe or Kakuro or Hitori puzzles for caches[1]. There are lots of ideas, some more popular than others.

 

[1] - Check out "The Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles" by Michael Mepham.

[+OHMIKY]

best idea I have seen along these lines is a puzzle that appears to be a sudoku puzzle, but is, in fact, something completely different (and I do not mean another, similar type of puzzle).

 

far more creative, far more ingenious, far more devious and far more satisfying to crunch

[+beachside]

I used Soduko in "My Favorite Things"

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...=y&decrypt=

 

It was fun and people enjoyed it. Some feedback I got was negative - mainly about being able to cheat. In a game without rules can there really be cheating? My reply was,

 

"Some will solve the puzzle. Some will map all the listed coordinates. Some will follow others. Some will use the computer. Some will wait until the cache is old and call a friend for the coords. I'm not going to be the "cache cop" and make sure eveyone does every cache the way I intended."

 

As long as you are happy with your cache, don't concern yourself with the ethics of others. Life's too short to be the "______ cop" (you fill it in).

 

Gene

[Dinoprophet]

If Sudoku puzzles are too "lame", try Masyu or Nurikabe or Kakuro or Hitori puzzles for caches[1]. There are lots of ideas, some more popular than others.

 

[1] - Check out "The Monster Book of Japanese Puzzles" by Michael Mepham.

Cool, I'll take a look at that!

 

It's funny, though, how Sudoku has this air of Japanese mystery, when it was actually invented in America in 1979 (with similar puzzles appearing in France in the late 1800s). Sort of like the British Invasion.

[+cynwood]

I solved my first soduko puzzle when I did url=http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=6d27c118-248f-44f3-85e2-8e344d0b41c7]RADSC II CDT[/url]. I had fun doing both the puzzle and the cache.

[+Jhwk]

If you want to place a relatively simple puzzle, I think the sudoku route is the way to go. I, personally, like them, and I don't 'cheat' to get the solution. But if folks get stumped, there are resources, as shown above, where they can go to solve the problem.

 

Be careful, some Sudoku puzzles have more than one right answer.

[+Phillips4]

If Sudoku puzzles are too "lame", try Masyu or Nurikabe or Kakuro or Hitori puzzles for caches[1]. There are lots of ideas, some more popular than others.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...4b-de658c6b6c70

[+Cow Spots]

You can always go the other route.

 

Just say NO to Sudoku!

 

[+edscott]

Not a good idea and HERE's why. Your cache could be solved in a heartbeat.

 

So put a puzzle in stage one of a multi ( or 1,2,3,and 4 if you want) so it (they) needs to be solved in the woods, or requires additional trips to the area.

[+jasond]

Be careful, some Sudoku puzzles have more than one right answer.

 

Which is when the proper difficulty rating comes into play.

[markandlynn]

 

Be careful, some Sudoku puzzles have more than one right answer.

 

<pedant mode on> Which means they have been constructed incorrectly <pedant mode off>

 

Got a decoder on my PDA which presents the different possible solutions on each key press.

[+briansnat]

You can always go the other route.

 

Just say NO to Sudoku!

 

 

Or this route.

[+The Leprechauns]

You da man, briansnat. Thanks for a nice laugh when I looked at your cache page.

 

Out of 2100-something cache hunts, I have six finds where puzzle solving in advance was required. I view puzzles as barriers to my getting away from the computer and out driving and hiking to caches. Yet, I know that others really enjoy them. But you don't see me opening threads to rant about the onslaught of puzzle spew. If it's fun for someone else, that's cool.

 

I have never solved a Sudoku puzzle, I don't know if I could, and I don't care. There are lots of other caches to find.

[Mr.Yuck]

You can always go the other route.

 

Just say NO to Sudoku!

 

 

Interesting. If BrianSnat says Sudoku puzzles are the guardrail micro of puzzle caches, then it must be true. A quote from the above cache description:

"One thing many cache creators fail to realize is that online solving programs exist all over the Internet which make puzzles based on SuDoku to be a trivial affair. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to plug in an unsolved grid, and get the solution in seconds."

 

There's only one Sudoku in my area, and it was placed a year ago. It's a pretty good cache, in a nice area. What do I know, I didn't find my first lamp skirt micro until 2005.

[miss_rachel]

cache

 

Here's a slightly more complicated version that took me a couple weeks to figure out. Much more challenging, but more fun too.

[+spikerek]

I placed a Sudoku Puzzle cache in my area about a month ago. Since then, about 15 people have found it but only one said he used an online solver to solve it. Most people said that they enjoyed doing the puzzle.

If you consider that most of the different puzzle caches could also be solved by using online solvers, such as "morse code, Binary code, bar code, etc". Go ahead and post the Sudoku cache. Some people will enjoy it.

Edited January 29, 2007 by spikerek

[+Prime Suspect]

Sudoku puzzles are the guardrail micro of puzzle caches.

Brilliant. And somewhat vaguely familiar...