Listener 4656 Co-Star By Lysander

[HawkCrossword]

I've been doing this puzzle for long enough not to panic when one of these arrives. Eventually I worked out where to attack it, and it succumbed.

Thanks Lysander - that was a lot of fun!

[upsetter]

A great feat of construction, but was there any logic to the code?
We used brute force to overcome our ignorance.
Thanks Lysander.

[IainGrace]

Our way in was to work out many instances there were of the use of each letter of the alphabet.

[NickorWan]

I really enjoyed this, but I’m not sure I went about it the right way. I just built a ‘normal’ grid last night and worked out what could swap this morning. I don’t recognise the setter’s name, and, as upsetter says, it is a great feat of construction, so I was expecting to reveal a familiar name. However, Lysander must be the setter unless I have really messed up. Thanks very much then, Lysander.

[HawkCrossword]

And the title has just dawned on me.

I'm glad now I didn't spend too long analysing it for hints.

[Hagen]

I needed assistance to get started on the encoding, and I'm not sure I'd ever have managed it at all otherwise. Not my cup of tea at all, but I'm glad others enjoyed it. That's all I'll say about it.

As a side note: So far the enforced adverts aren't too bad, mainly thanks to an extension I use to block nuisance content (not ads specifically). I don't mind a few ads to support a favourite site, but if they become intrusive I will have to consider whether to continue contributing to this thread, much as I enjoy the comments and company of other posters.

[sunny-dave]

Phew - that's ended the run of early finishes - the clues may have (mostly) been on the easy side, but the gridfill was something else.

I tried logic and got not very far, but a lucky stab at what appeared to be an unusual pattern got me a toe-hold and then it was relatively plain sailing - albeit the final letter in 16ac resisted well after the whole of the rest of the grid was filled - tricky clue I thought.

Thanks Lysander - a good challenge.

[Scorpius]

It's refreshing to have a different sort of challenge for a change. After cold-solving about 75% of the clues I didn't know where to begin initially, but a short answer with a repeated letter seemed the way in to me as there weren't that many possible entries, and several could be quickly eliminated.
The few unsolved clues I had at the end weren't that easy to determine by reverse coding because I couldn't be sure if two consecutive letters were two singles or one letter pair.

I'm not sure how one begins to construct a puzzle like this. Perhaps a setter's blog will appear in due course on LWO.

[emcee]

I enjoyed this immensly. I just hope the game isn't given away elsewhere (I've not looked) as it is a decent discriminator and would hope that those who have been guided aren't going to submit "their" solution.

Thanks, Lysander. Great fun.

[emcee]

* immensely * (!!!)

[borealis]

Very nice puzzle indeed! Look forward to setter's blog. Fun when you have to check that a word exists before entering it. Still back-solving the same clue as sunny-dave. Thanks, Lysander. Also, goodbye to you all on this site; I've enjoyed your company for the last few years, but I don't use websites that have unavoidable ads on them. Will still be doing the puzzles!

[Hagen]

Please don't leave just yet, Borealis. Your contributions have been valuable and it would be a shame to see you forced out through the site owners' greed. I've found that certain cookie warning suppressors keep the ads pretty much at bay, though I daren't say more than that - remember the book that told us all how to get past "press 1 for this, press 2 for that" and the telecom companies accordingly closed those loopholes...

[pushmi-pullyu]

Golly that's taken me five days to crack, but I'm finally there. 16ac was my last one to get.