Tough genre. Thanks to @dilly for reviewing my first attempt on discord and even making his own new one! Check the tabs for cryptic rules AND crossnumber rules. At the intersection between lots of interesting questions pop up. Feedback appreciated. Google doc for more of my thoughts on the genre: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H17jRq126qzcKrIPNPwQ3FpgJjOgeTPyCD9C2CX7ZFA/edit
Whew, this one felt quite a bit tougher than the first to me. Here are some thoughts: 1A - First entry I put into the grid, parse feels very clean within the rules you've set out (though the surface doesn't make much sense to me) 5A - Is the definition here just "a number"? I think using "a number" as a clue works in some crossnumbers where the tight logic requires only a few clues ( @quatrevingtneuf had one like this recently), and obviously I was able to get it from the wordplay, but something about it feels a little "cheap" maybe? Though I get there's not really a way to clue for 28124 (that I know of, I'm sure @SamuRai is aware of some unique property about it lol) 7A - I don't know if I get this one. I guess the wordplay is "2 (to) go into 80 (a tea)" and then "party that's bittersweet" is the clue? But I don't see how that gives "40" 8A - This one feels pretty clean for me. 9A/10A - Both feel solid. Regular cryptic clues. 1D - Ok, so I just parsed this as I was typing out that I didn't get it lol. "Four-score" as 4-20, and then 7 x ("by") 60 (edgy L[yn]X). Since four-score does not actually equal 420, it feels like this one has 2 wordplay sections & no definition. But otherwise I like it a lot, really tricky. 2D - Though there may an issue with case in PO vs. Po, I think PO number for 84 is really clever. 3D - Probably my favorite clue, really takes advantage of the format, great work! 4D - Wordplay on this one is great, I don't get the definition though. "hard to prevent malfunctions at 12" is left over if I'm parsing the wordplay right, I can see a connection to Y2K, but not a straight definition. 6D - I feel it would have made more sense to do something like "San Francisco player #7" since a fan wouldn't be a 49er right? And point(s) is a little awkward, but I get it.\
Ok, that's all I got. Thanks for spearheading this, hopefully some of these comments were helpful :)
Y2K is used to describe the year 2000 OR the “hard to prevent computer issues” that they knew would arise at midnight when countless digital clocks reset to year 0000. I think. Some of my surface meanings are terrible and I would love advice on getting “unstuck” when a clue idea isn’t working.
I hear everything you’re saying. Not correcting any of your thoughts just explaining myself with a couple. 7A “A party that’s bittersweet” is a 40th bday party bc it signifies middle age for many.
Ok yeah, I get the definitions for 4D & 7A (tho I thought 40 was the new 30???). With 2D, I would generally capitalize things according to any standardized rules, (e.g. I don't think it would be fair to use lowercase "bush" as a clue for the U.S. president) but there may be wiggle room here. With chemical symbols, I believe the second letter is always lowercase to distinguish from chemical compounds (I think, not a chemist) since, e.g. PO would normally be read as phosphorus monoxide rather than polonium. As to double wordplay in 1D, I don't think it's necessarily a problem given that definitions for numbers are a bit sparse, but we would need to make this clear somewhere. And ofc, these are just my thoughts, I'm no expert on cryptics or crossnumbers, these are just the things I ran into solving.
You parsed 1D correctly. I guess I did two wordplay and no def. Defining a number is weird. Like 417+3 is a definition of 420, but how much math do you have to do before it’s wordplay and not a definition? The lines are fuzzy for me. I guess I should’ve done one with straightforward math and no wordplay. Like “C4 score and …” for 100*4+20. Instead of the piece meal logic of “4” + ”20”. Open to ideas.
This is great feedback and helps me better appreciate what was working and what was perhaps just slightly off/unfair in the cluing. Always fun to see a new format!
1A - First entry I put into the grid, parse feels very clean within the rules you've set out (though the surface doesn't make much sense to me)
5A - Is the definition here just "a number"? I think using "a number" as a clue works in some crossnumbers where the tight logic requires only a few clues ( @quatrevingtneuf had one like this recently), and obviously I was able to get it from the wordplay, but something about it feels a little "cheap" maybe? Though I get there's not really a way to clue for 28124 (that I know of, I'm sure @SamuRai is aware of some unique property about it lol)
7A - I don't know if I get this one. I guess the wordplay is "2 (to) go into 80 (a tea)" and then "party that's bittersweet" is the clue? But I don't see how that gives "40"
8A - This one feels pretty clean for me.
9A/10A - Both feel solid. Regular cryptic clues.
1D - Ok, so I just parsed this as I was typing out that I didn't get it lol. "Four-score" as 4-20, and then 7 x ("by") 60 (edgy L[yn]X). Since four-score does not actually equal 420, it feels like this one has 2 wordplay sections & no definition. But otherwise I like it a lot, really tricky.
2D - Though there may an issue with case in PO vs. Po, I think PO number for 84 is really clever.
3D - Probably my favorite clue, really takes advantage of the format, great work!
4D - Wordplay on this one is great, I don't get the definition though. "hard to prevent malfunctions at 12" is left over if I'm parsing the wordplay right, I can see a connection to Y2K, but not a straight definition.
6D - I feel it would have made more sense to do something like "San Francisco player #7" since a fan wouldn't be a 49er right? And point(s) is a little awkward, but I get it.\