New game board

[admin]

Hi everyone -

We've soft-launched our completely redeveloped new calcudoku game board today - you can use it by clicking the new "Try new board" button. This game board will soon replace the old one entirely, but since it involves slightly new mechanics (especially regarding pencil notes) I wanted to ease the transition a bit by letting everyone try it out first and provide some feedback on things you like or don't like.

Pencil mode now is toggled on/off by either double-clicking in a cell or typing P on your keyboard.

There is also a new "Smart Hint" feature that will give you the next logical move on the board along with an explanation of why that's the next most logical move. (Penalties are still accrued for this.)

Finally, the game is designed now to work on mobile phones.

I expect to transition fully to the new game board sometime in the next week. Looking forward to your feedback!

Stephen

[cjnren]

Tried the new game, and in honesty I prefer the old version. I don't like the need to toggle on/off the pencil - I feel it works better as it is currently.

[DemonicLlama]

pencil toggle really gut-punches your speed. Extremely dislike.

[admin]

Understood! I will see if I can implement an option that will allow a user to select the old/original penciling method over the new one. I definitely see how it is a benefit for faster solves, especially on smaller boards. It is a bit unintuitive for new players though, which is why I created the new pencil option. So if we can offer both options and let the player decide which they prefer that would be ideal.

Thanks for the input!

[zink]

As noted by others- I prefer the current format. In addition to the awkwardness of using the "pencil" function that has been noted above is another needed change to the new format. The "automatic elimination" of "penciled" numbers when a number is formally entered into any column or row is unnecessary (as numbers must be entered in any cell with the write function) as makes it harder to see the logic of the original "penciled in" options thus slowing the game. Thank you

[bonedoc]

strongly prefer original version. Will stop playing this game if the new/upcoming version is the only option

[lalarox]

Sorry, I do also love the old version and will probably not play nearly as much without the speed of the old penciling format.

[MeyerMalley]

The speed is impacted so dramatically by the need to toggle on/off for the pencil feature. I see here that there is a hot key option for not needing to move the mouse over to click it each time, but that still creates a major time sink. New leaderboards would be necessary if this new gameboard is the only option for play and/or top times would be impossible to achieve anymore.

I strongly suggest you keep supporting both boards while regular users provide more feedback to improve the implementation of the new board OR get more accustomed to the new board. I have really valued my time on this site and would be very sad to lose the ease of use...

[admin]

Thanks for your feedback! It's clear there's a big demand to keep the old board system in place. Right now I'm leaning towards providing both as an option (i.e. old board as the "Speed Board" and the new board as the "Novice Friendly" version, since one of the main issues with the original board is that new users find it confusing and unintuitive). Still thinking on it, but no worries, I've heard your feedback and will NOT be removing the old board, or at least if we ever do I will incorporate all its usability features into the new one.