[Arnavion]

Yes. I've always bemoaned the fact that people's first experience with the game is the one bundled in Windows. Because the player knows the game sometimes requires guessing, they never learn which situations actually require guessing and which are actually solvable; they just decide they need to guess because there is no number surrounded by the same number of empty squares, and never discover the math about possibilities that the game requires.

I used to play a version that was guaranteed to never require guessing [1], but it was still possible to accidentally make an unnecessary guess and not be punished for it. TFA's variant is a great way to fix that problem.

[1]: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ "Mines"

[sideshowb]

I learned on Windows and 1. Never guessed if avoidable, 2. If guessing always considered both odds and potential reward for each option, at least heuristically. I feel in this context for saying "never" you deserve to click a mine ;-)

[brandmeyer]

> 2. If guessing always considered both odds and potential reward for each option, at least heuristically.

Same here. To add a pinch to this, say there are two regions of the visible board that must be answered by guessing. If one has 1-in-3 odds of failure, and the other has 2-in-3 odds of failure, then make the guess on the one with better chances.

[bscphil]

I would kinda like to see this approach (Kaboom) combined with Simon Tatham's version. Basically, add the guarantee that you can solve each one without guessing. Or, add instant death when you open a square that wasn't guaranteed safe to Simon Tatham's version. I think I would like that significantly better: I like the guarantee that each one can be solved, but I want to be punished when I incorrectly open a square that wasn't safe.