Sudoku Players' Forum (clone)

I like playing with colour patches instead of numbers, but find it irritating that the colours appear in a different order each time I start a new puzzle. This makes it difficult to run through the colours quickly in my head and see what's missing. Is there any way I can keep the colours in the same order, or is this something you might consider changing at some point?

The shuffling of colors is by design, as you might imagine. The intention was to avoid solvers beginning to associate a color with a number (e.g., "Oh yes, orange. That's the second color in the list, so orange = #2". If that happens, you may as well be playing with numbers. To make it a truly random test, the colors have to be re-ordered.

Any thoughts?

- Wayne

I guessed this was the reason for it, but I think that playing with colours is very different to playing with numbers. It's actually a much more immediate (and sensory) experience, with the eye finding patterns as well as the brain. If I was able to arrange the colours myself, I would put them into a spectrum. It wouldn't actually matter if this spectrum was presented from left to right or reversed, just so long as the colours were in the same relationship to each other. I find that I can solve puzzles much more quickly with colours, apart from the point when I have to slow down and search through the row of buttons at the top to check which ones I've missed.

A static spectrum of colours might be a very nice option for a future edition - and could enable people whose brains work like mine to achieve breathtaking speeds.

Mmm... yes, I'll think about making it an option.

- Wayne