Crossworlds Beta

[TCampbell]

Since it's a quiet weekend and you guys are such a cauldron of creativity, I thought some of you might be interested in this. I've made 52 sci-fi-themed puzzles, and they need test-solvers.

http://faans.com/xworldz/

An extra, redundant warning: these crosswords are in beta, so I'm asking for your help editing them-- if a few clues seem not quite right, they're probably not. I've revised three of them based on early feedback ("A Little Extra," "@#$%!" and "Aliens Go Home"), so I'm a bit more confident about those, but I need more notes! (If you grow frustrated with the solving of puzzles, but still want to help edit, you can push the "cheater" buttons on the left of each puzzle's online version.)

And one more warning on top of that: you guys are welcome to post your reactions to the crosswords here as well as in e-mails to me. But since you are welcome to do that, any post on this thread after this one might qualify as a spoiler. Read with caution!

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[Davidj]

And here I was hoping to see something about parallel universes...

[Sri]

And here I was hoping to see something about parallel universes...

I've been looking at them since I saw you post this (on Twitter I think) and having a lot of fun doing so (especially once I emailed and got the link for one of the puzzles).

[Mr. Brightside]

What the... gaps?

EDIT: Oh... I get it now. Ha ha.

[MudFlap33]

Pretty stoked about these! Planning to tackle as many of them as possible during the next few weeks. I'll be happy to send any critique I may have!

[jk9000]

I really dig "The Choice is Yours". The only problem with the two-letter circles is, if the system has, for example, "OU" as the correct letter, it'll mark both "O" and "U" as wrong when I check, and there's no way to enter "OU". That might be a technical limitation, though, and it's a slight annoyance. As for actual clues:

9 down makes precisely zero sense to me. How the hell are ice pellets and steel bits related?

21 down... I suppose you mean, "-eth", like in "pride goeth before destruction"? Calling it an "ending of" rather than "suffix in" is confusing.

59 across is kind of off. "Auri-", when not about gold, is more about the ear (e.g., "auriform", having the shape of an ear; "auriscopy", an examination of the ear) rather than hearing, which would be "audi-" or "audio-".

[TCampbell]

I really dig "The Choice is Yours". The only problem with the two-letter circles is, if the system has, for example, "OU" as the correct letter, it'll mark both "O" and "U" as wrong when I check, and there's no way to enter "OU". That might be a technical limitation, though, and it's a slight annoyance. As for actual clues:

9 down makes precisely zero sense to me. How the hell are ice pellets and steel bits related?

21 down... I suppose you mean, "-eth", like in "pride goeth before destruction"? Calling it an "ending of" rather than "suffix in" is confusing.

59 across is kind of off. "Auri-", when not about gold, is more about the ear (e.g., "auriform", having the shape of an ear; "auriscopy", an examination of the ear) rather than hearing, which would be "audi-" or "audio-".

Yeah, I couldn't find a good way around that technical problem. I think Compiler isn't designed for this kind of crossword, yet.

9: Sleet, not steel.

21: Deliberately confusing, but it may well be too much so. I tend to err on the side of hard, often without meaning to.

59: Quite right on this one. This will definitely be changed by tomorrow.

[Sri]

21 down... I suppose you mean, "-eth", like in "pride goeth before destruction"? Calling it an "ending of" rather than "suffix in" is confusing.

Yeah, I couldn't find a good way around that technical problem. I think Compiler isn't designed for this kind of crossword, yet.

9: Sleet, not steel.

21: Deliberately confusing, but it may well be too much so. I tend to err on the side of hard, often without meaning to.

59: Quite right on this one. This will definitely be changed by tomorrow.

Crosswords often use ending instead of suffix to make a puzzle more challenging (they also use starter instead of prefix for the same reason). It can be the difference between a Monday level clue and a Wednesday level clue (puzzles in papers usually get harder throughout the week).

[TCampbell]

Yeah. I've been trying to make the clues as easy as I can without being dull or missing out on good sci-fi references. My puzzles almost always end up harder to everyone else than they look to me, so I have to make the extra effort to "grease the wheels."

[Sri]

In the Colored with Envy puzzle, how are you supposed to enter the color answers? I figured out violet after doing a reveal for yellow but I didn't seem to be able to type in a whole word for one square. Is there a way to do that?

[TCampbell]

In the Colored with Envy puzzle, how are you supposed to enter the color answers? I figured out violet after doing a reveal for yellow but I didn't seem to be able to type in a whole word for one square. Is there a way to do that?

I haven't found one yet myself: I've always resorted to "Reveal Letter" for those. It does seem like a curious oversight, though rebuses are kind of an afterthought to the makers of puzzling software. I'll float that question to the puzzling community and see what they say-- it's possible I've overlooked something.

[Sri]

In the Colored with Envy puzzle, how are you supposed to enter the color answers? I figured out violet after doing a reveal for yellow but I didn't seem to be able to type in a whole word for one square. Is there a way to do that?

I haven't found one yet myself: I've always resorted to "Reveal Letter" for those. It does seem like a curious oversight, though rebuses are kind of an afterthought to the makers of puzzling software. I'll float that question to the puzzling community and see what they say-- it's possible I've overlooked something.

That's too bad. Using 'reveal letter' always feels like cheating to me so I try my best not to use it. That does make the lantern line easy though since all of them just have to be revealed.

[TCampbell]

In the Colored with Envy puzzle, how are you supposed to enter the color answers? I figured out violet after doing a reveal for yellow but I didn't seem to be able to type in a whole word for one square. Is there a way to do that?

I haven't found one yet myself: I've always resorted to "Reveal Letter" for those. It does seem like a curious oversight, though rebuses are kind of an afterthought to the makers of puzzling software. I'll float that question to the puzzling community and see what they say-- it's possible I've overlooked something.

That's too bad. Using 'reveal letter' always feels like cheating to me so I try my best not to use it. That does make the lantern line easy though since all of them just have to be revealed.

Well, I figure using "Reveal Letter" is okay if I get to the point where I'm ready to say, "I will bet my feeling of victory over this puzzle that the value in that square is RED."

[Adrishiana]

I'm at a slight handicap here because I don't watch a lot of TV (and haven't in quite some time), but I'm still enjoying myself, so there's that!

(And I was aware that there's a lot of TV-based questions, so that's not a complaint.)