Feedback from a long time user

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Feedback from a long time user - 3/6/2020 2:56:40 AM

atomant

Posts: 11
Joined: 7/1/2003
From: Australia
Status: offline

Dear Conceptis and community

I have been a constant subscriber, and user even before the paid option was introduced (which will be around 10 years now). I am very much a fan of your puzzles, they have continued to be large part of my leisure activities over all those years.

I have been mulling over what feedback might be helpful.

I play all of the puzzles online with your tools. I love some puzzle families and just don't "click" with others. That is just a matter of taste and it is great that your variety of puzzles offers this range of interest. I am sure there are some who love them all, hate the ones I love or whose favourite is one that I never got the hang of.

I have out-grown my interest in some families: generally those where I can easily solve the hardest examples and they hold no challenge, such as Hitori. Some of these I do still occasionally solve, such as Link-a-Pix, because the activity or result is enjoyable. Larger Basic Sym-a-Pix for me are fun to solve with quite a bit of logic still being used. I am still missing solving skills for the Advanced versions and often get stumped and just make wrong deductions which is frustrating.

Some I don't enjoy, such as Basic Fill-a-Pix, because to me the process is not much more than a painting-by-numbers level of difficulty and it becomes a chore. This is contrasted to Advanced Fill-a-Pix which have always been my absolute favourite, as seen in my solving statistics. And these also have incredible replay value. Enough about my puzzle habits.

I assume that the most costly type of puzzles to produce are the picture-based ones. They require exacting artwork and testing before publication. With the Fill-a-Pix example, I get a little sad when the Mega for the week is a Basic. I do see from the statistics that they do get generally more solvers than the Advanced, but to me they are wasted as they do bore me a little, compared to the joy I get from the Advanced Megas. My request would be to have the same artwork for the week be offered as both Basic and Advanced options.

One puzzle I can't get further into is Cross-a-Pix. I enjoy them a lot, they are in my top 5. I do the Easy ones each week, although even the ones listed as Very Easy totally stump me at times. But I just can't get a good handle on any of the larger ones. For some reason I find the task of counting out the length of the chains in a row or column too difficult. Some other solvers may have a better skill at this, but I find it sometimes hard to see if a chain is 5, 6 or 7. The longer ones make me stare and count while I forget what the previous chains counts were. Maybe these puzzles are easier when printed out. Is there some tweak to the tools to turn on a number count for a selected row or column, or allow us to enter some data that mimics paper solving?

I have been a consistent subscriber to the the Discounted Weekly Package option for some years now. I used to buy just the individual puzzles that interested me each week, but as the range of puzzles you published expanded and that I wanted to solve, the package became the much more sensible and enjoyable option. But this also meant that many older puzzles that I have since come to enjoy are sitting in the past taunting me. This would also be the case for many subscribers that have more recently come to your site. I would hope that you may decide on a discounting structure for your massive backlog. Something like 80% off for puzzles older than 5 years.

Edit: I forgot this one. I am a long time fan of Slitherlink puzzles since first doing them in Nikoli books. I wonder why Conceptis doesn't create larger ones than 22x16. For example, the final ones in the Nikoli books were 20x36 and great fun.

All the best
Anthony

< Message edited by atomant -- 3/6/2020 3:17:47 AM >

Post #: 1

RE: Feedback from a long time user - 10/26/2020 3:02:49 PM

maddiegirl

Posts: 1
Joined: 5/26/2008
From: United States
Status: offline

Good morning!
I came to the forum this morning to see if others could offer advice on solving Cross-a-pix puzzles. I love doing them too but often find them too challenging. I went to youtube and saw the one video which helped BUT I was hopeful that there would be a video where the solver talked me through their strategies. That is my ultimate request actually. Could someone post a video to youtube to help the rest of us?? I would think you would gain a lot of CaP players if you did. Thank you!
Melissa
Missouri, USA

(in reply to atomant)

Post #: 2

RE: Feedback from a long time user - 11/5/2020 7:23:39 PM

Ahlyis

Posts: 223
Joined: 12/30/2009
From: United States
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: maddiegirl

I came to the forum this morning to see if others could offer advice on solving Cross-a-pix puzzles. I love doing them too but often find them too challenging. I went to youtube and saw the one video which helped BUT I was hopeful that there would be a video where the solver talked me through their strategies. That is my ultimate request actually. Could someone post a video to youtube to help the rest of us?? I would think you would gain a lot of CaP players if you did. Thank you!

I don't have a video for you, but there is an older thread on this forum which might have some helpful strategies in it. Here's a link to the thread...

https://www.conceptispuzzles.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=35867

(in reply to maddiegirl)

Post #: 3

RE: Feedback from a long time user - 11/6/2020 7:36:45 AM

CharleneTX

Posts: 228
Joined: 6/4/2009
From: United States
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ahlyis

quote:

ORIGINAL: maddiegirl

I came to the forum this morning to see if others could offer advice on solving Cross-a-pix puzzles. I love doing them too but often find them too challenging. I went to youtube and saw the one video which helped BUT I was hopeful that there would be a video where the solver talked me through their strategies. That is my ultimate request actually. Could someone post a video to youtube to help the rest of us?? I would think you would gain a lot of CaP players if you did. Thank you!

I don't have a video for you, but there is an older thread on this forum which might have some helpful strategies in it. Here's a link to the thread...

https://www.conceptispuzzles.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=35867