Comments, questions, frustrations, delights

[larryboyko]

You can always email me, or else discuss here, any questions you have, or roadblocks you encounter, etc.

Thanks for reading/playing!

[tliston]

Thank you so much for this. It's an amazing work, both technically and artistically, and I'm having a wonderful time working through it.

I read a bit of the background on this in your post on Hacker News. I'm incredibly sorry for your loss. Thank you for taking the time to put the pieces of this together and sharing it.

[larryboyko]

Thank you, you're welcome, and thank you for taking the time to take it for a test drive. :)

[Simon-The-Sourcerer]

Thank you for this! It's a lot of fun.

However I am struggling a bit with puzzle 13 and could need another hint.

Spoiler warning

I assume the first hint refers to prime numbers. But I don't know how to apply this information to the love letter. I'm currently ignoring the backside as told by the reminder in the puzzle description.

[larryboyko]

Hi Simon!

You are correct about the first hint.

The second hint

spoiler

refers to the fact that "first letter" is a synonym for "initial"...

Does that help?

[Simon-The-Sourcerer]

D'oh! Thank you. I was close but not quite as persistent as our characters in the solution.

[dersebi]

This one still totally stumps me btw. I'm not even sure what to ask 🥲

[larryboyko]

Hi @dersebi . Maybe drop me a line if you've run out of ideas, I can nudge you in the right direction. manyegosago@protonmail.com

[Simon-The-Sourcerer]

Still having great fun!

I just finished riddle 43 but my entered solution didn't quite work (I fixed it by comparing with the solution hashes).
I very likely made a mistake somewhere but just wanted to make sure.

Spoiler

This was my list of foods in order:
1: Passionfruit
2: Roast turkey
3: Bubblegum mint ice cream
4: Linguine alfredo
5: Pistachio pudding
6: Chocolate cherry ice cream
7: Rye bread
8: French vanilla ice cream
9: Pineapple
10: Tomato herb soup
11: Mutton stew
12: Old cheddar cheese
13: Mushroom gravy
14: Spaghetti alla puttanesca
16: Pumpernickel bread
18: Angel food cake
19: Turkey gravy
20: Dragonfruit
21: Smoky gouda cheese
22: Chocolate cheesecake
24: Carrot spice cake
28: Gingerbread coffee cake
30: Coconut ice cream
33: Roast beef
34: Tangelos
35: Fig pudding
36: Apple caramel cake
37: Custard pudding
38: Chicken noodle soup
39: Grapes
40: Roast lamb

So the king's seats are 2-18.

My solution string is:

2: Roast turkey, 3: Bubblegum mint ice cream, 4: Linguine alfredo, 5: Pistachio pudding, 6: Chocolate cherry ice cream, 7: Rye bread, 8: French vanilla ice cream, 9: Pineapple, 10: Tomato herb soup, 11: Mutton stew, 12: Old cheddar cheese, 13: Mushroom gravy, 14: Spaghetti alla puttanesca, 16: Pumpernickel bread, 18: Angel food cake.

But with this solution the 'A' from "Angel food cake" is coming before the '.' in the substitution alphabet. It only works correctly if it's the other way around.

[larryboyko]

Hi Simon,

Are you able to fill in dishes that are missing from your list (#15, #17, #23, etc)?

[Simon-The-Sourcerer]

Argh, my code was operating on an incomplete/wrong file and I didn't notice it because the results came so close (probably because the first words have a much heavier influence). Embarassing! Thank you again.

[larryboyko]

Hi @Simon-The-Sourcerer @dersebi and @tliston !

Happy new year!

Just a brief note to let you know that this project has just today been officially published: https://obnakwa.itch.io/dimityjones

I hope you'll check out the latest update!

Warm best wishes,
Larry

[tliston]

Larry- I started working through the Dimity Jones puzzles last year but got sidetracked by some things and never finished. One of my New Year's resolutions was to start over again and work my way through it. I can only imagine the amount of work that went into piecing it together, so I bought a copy as a token of appreciation for your effort. I don't know if you're still interested in edits/corrections, but I just noticed in the text of chapter 18 that the sentence that begins "The fourth and final combination lock..." looks like the word "that" should be "than." Thank you again for this wonderful puzzle :-)

…

-TL

On Wed, Jan 1, 2025 at 11:39 PM Lawrence Boyko ***@***.***> wrote: Hi @Simon-The-Sourcerer <https://github.com/Simon-The-Sourcerer> @dersebi <https://github.com/dersebi> and @tliston <https://github.com/tliston> ! Happy new year! Just a brief note to let you know that this project has just today been officially published: https://obnakwa.itch.io/dimityjones I hope you'll check out the latest update! Warm best wishes, Larry — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAQG722OZYWCFHVRHJLQG4D2ITGJDAVCNFSM6AAAAABUPL6ZG2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCNZRGQYDOMA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[larryboyko]

Hi Tom,

Delighted and tickled to hear that the novel made it on to your New Year's resolutions list.

Thank you for that typo catch. And keep them coming!

Thanks for reading, it means a lot.

Best of luck in the castle and beyond,
Larry

P.S. I don't know if you noticed, but I used your earlier comment as the top blurb in the "Advance Praise" section of the itch.io page. Thanks a million!