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<mark> (SPOILER) Very nice level Dave,very satisifying when you find the last number needed.(blue for me). I found 15 different counts between 49 and 100 before solving not looking anymore. Never came up with any logical way to work the out the count just brute force. Uploaded my solution but you probably already knew that. Found a few different ways to find some of the other numbers,but only 1 for red and blue. Not to sure with the eight, might be a bit mean but it is very solvable if you want to do it. Thanks look foward to your next. <N7DOT> (SPOILER) Dave, It's possible to measure direction reversals with one dalek for horizontal and vertical each, but it takes up a fair amount of space (a decision tree using teleports to connect the nodes) I won't upload my prototype so as to avoid spoiling the style points. <Dave> (SPOILER) N7, been thinking about RetCon. I long had in mind a similar idea where the space you've just left would flip if you changed direction. RetCon inspired me to get the mechanism working because it could be used for an implementation of something else. So far it works if you change from vertical to horizontal and vice versa but doesn't yet detect back-tracking. Just have to rethink 'slightly' to incorparate this too with the 15 bot limit, I will get there, very close. |
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<Dave> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 191 moves (old: 220). Not tidied up. |
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<Jim> (SPOILER) I've been using the random method trying to solve this and it is clearly not working..lol...best Ive done is 2 of them 10 apart with the middle one 8 off. Ive also had 2 of them 7 apart to at least get an odd number in there. <Dave> (SPOILER) That's pretty much the crux of it. 4-spacing is pretty common because even counts are much easier than odd ones. Obviously, either one or two of these must be odd. <N7DOT> (SPOILER) I keep ending up with a difference of 4 for the first two :( (the third is either far behind or the same as one of the other two.) Is this on the tracks of one of those near-miss solutions? <N7DOT> (SPOILER) So, a valid solution to this requires modifying the timers such that if x is the time of the first timer, the three timers must be x, x+5, and x+10 long, and x must be greater than or equal to 50 it seems (around 45 steps to get to below the 1 block) and must be less than or equal to 245. (unless I made a mistake) |
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<Dave> (SPOILER) Oops, for 'remotes' read 'transponders' in the non-spoiler below. <Dave> (SPOILER) Mark, The Art of Dalek Programming has such a messy d-map that it's hard to see what the mechanism is. The underlying puzzle is simple: just focus on correctly filling the 3x3 square one piece at a time and you should quickly see what the 9 rows of 3x3 possibilities each are for. I was hoping that Clocking Out would be difficult enough, without being too difficult, that you'd have to resort to logic rather than luck .) If I haven't miscalculated, there is only one set of counts that will work. There are two arrangements that will produce it but they are almost identical anyway. If I have miscalculated, I'm sure I'll read about it here soon. I know of 43 count sequences which will acheive the 5 separation by inserting straights and remotes into 8 bit counters. How many of these are possible with the pieces given, I have no idea. The 'close but no cigar' 46-51-56 and 41-46-51 sequences both require an additional 2 pieces. As a point of interest, every count under 40 is possible with straights and remotes inserted into an 8 bit timer. I said I had been playing about with this for a while... <mark> (SPOILER) Been away from escape a couple of days two nice levels to come back too. Like you Jim i first stuggled with Retcon but i was trying to do it with the wrong idea in mind. Dave looked up aforementioned person could only relate maybe the chess levels,or am i missing something. Anyway went again now i'm more experienced and had a look at N Queens by Alois. I did not realise first time of playing there was "5" answers to this well constructed level. Completed all but one of Alois level's the Art of Dalek Programming remains unsovled I can't find any logic to it,is there any? Spent about an hour guessing on the new level Clocking Out,Can get seperation of the timers but not lucky enough to have came up with solution yet. Love to know what move you was on passing into the first red square But don't tell me unless i start begging .(not for a while) Going to get the pen and paper out for this and go through all the options, which may take ages. |
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<mark> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 78 moves (old: 79). Only just scraped in by one,different route. |
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<Dave> I already changed it from 4 to 5 and back to 4! I could not make my mind up. Jim has handsomely compensated for my indecision :) re early mods levels: I agree. That was the original intention: rate the level up to stop it being automatically ditched into minor leagues and then correct it once the next mod had been released. In reality, it just gets forgotten about once it's in the graveyard. You've got a couple of these levels still in triage btw. <N7DOT> (SPOILER) Remember, if you ever feel feel your rating for a level was off, you can change it with ctrl-r ;) This reminds me that we should probably reduce the difficulty ratings on the initial mods levels (4 difficulty for no challenge is silly!) <Dave> (SPOILER) Jim, you are probably right about the rating for RetCon: I should have stuck with 5. It was an enjoyable level, I got all 14 quite quickly but kept blocking my exit route. Anyway, I've been playing about with timers for a while so thought it was time to read through my notes and try and make a new level for once. Usually when I make a scratch level it gets broken. If it can't be broken, it won't be easy, if it can be, we have a new bag of tricks to play with anyway. Sorry about the long and winding road to the exit but it was the only way without things getting to messy. I've since thought of a much better implementation but it's too late now. |
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<Jim> (SPOILER) Whew, finally got it. <N7DOT> (SPOILER) It took me a couple tries to get a solution, too. I feel that it's possible to make an even harder version (the number of dots here was my limit; I would have preferred a higher dot to block ratio). The nature of the level does admittedly lead to some unpredictability. Each push creates a fair number of new possible moves, but also prevents quite a few more, leading to the ending game being rather constrained. I was thinking of a puzzle where the 'current panel flips' idea would happen for every move, but at that point most would be trivial or impossible. So I think this is a better use. <Jim> (SPOILER) At least for me, I'm finding this way more difficult than a 4 rating. I've tried 3 different times now and the closest I can get is 2 dots left. <Dave> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 99 moves (old: 114). First solve |
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<Dave> (SPOILER) Mark, look up Martin Gardner. Better still, look up some of his books. You will find a lot of stuff which has been implemented on Escape. You may find things you can implement yourself. I do have one level inspired by these papers sitting in /mylevels, one day it will get round to cookproofing it... |
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<Dave> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 294 moves (old: 301). Changed the second part of Jim's part in place of my last part :) <Jim> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 301 moves (old: 316). I just changed Dave's last part, very fun level! |
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<mark> Escape not just a game but an education.. I did not know who Reuben Garrett Lucius was. I'd never heard of a turing machine I thought at first it was touring spelt wrong. Now i know who C Dudley Langford is... I must admit i did read the puzzle on Langtons cube's. I did not really understand what was meant until after solving the level,and a google search produced nothing. Langford's cubes a different matter,short clip on youtube to explain. |
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<N7DOT> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 476 moves (old: 536). Removing the unneeded blue panel activation. I do have to complement Gil on exploiting the ability to go direct to the 4th room, which I worried might happen, but I don't think that's too big of a deal. |
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<N7DOT> oops, that was meant for 'langton' cubes level... |
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