| « home | Browsing all comments (spoilers: on | off) (info: on | off) | next 25 |
 |
<mark> (SPOILER) I thought improv was too good to give up on so i've had another go. I see that you have been very busy with your own level Dave so i've tried again. Your new level is to me even though solved is very hard to see how it works.Iv'e not rated yet as i knew how to do it but 9 or 10 for style and effort. Discovered another flaw in escape,and that is if someone delete's a level your bookmarks get lost. I had a short go on rooks before i went out and managed 327,just needed fine adjusting. I was desperate to see Jim's lucky find but i was a little bit merry and my brain won't work after a couple of beers,so i had to wait till today and start all over again. My solution not like yours at all but there are probably many. Anyhow after talking to you last time i managed to get all 15 books on pdf for free. Without you saying what the level was about in title i might not have twigged. As for what is next could you strech it to a 9 x 9 i don't know how that is done or if there are any answers available. All in all another great level but as easy as knoting doughnuts together. Cheers have fun. |
 |
<N7DOT> A nice twist on the twist :) |
|
|
<Dave> (SPOILER) I'm glad you found that quite quickly, Jim! We'll call it a lucky accident. I thought I had thoroughly tested, clearly not thoroughly enough. Not worried about the solution because this is a classic puzzle, like solitaire (one-left), nim, and many others, the solutions are out there. It was great fun to implement and I was absolutely determined to do it in way which resulted in an orthagonal d-map (nearly). Credit to N7 for finally providing the inspiration and motivation. I could resist building in a 'Clocking Out' type counter. The count used won't help there .). Not sure what to do next ... P.S. I have tried a number of variations of the Rook's Tour idea but so far all have trivial solutions. |
 |
<Jim> (SPOILER) Added solution "Untitled": Sorry Dave, I found a loophole accidently, I uploaded it to show you. This was an amazing implementation, I can't imagine how long it took to do. Maybe you can fix it. |
|
|
<N7DOT> My reversal detecting mechanism required one mechanism for each of horizontal and vertical, so it required 3 mechanisms still. <Dave> (SPOILER) N7, I haven't figured out your dalek/teleport direction reversal detector but don't worry about uploading it just yet, I have found another way. I now have three separate mechanisms: one which only triggers on horizontal reversal, one only on vertical reversal, and the third only on either change of axis; each of these requires 3 bots, that leaves me with 6 bots and loads of space... it 'should' be enough. |
 |
<N7DOT> (SPOILER) Dave, you got me! (no idea how to improve that, not enough space to move the steel efficiently) <N7DOT> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 112 moves (old: 402). quite simple. I really like little levels. |
|
|
<mark> (SPOILER) Nice run Dave i was hoping i'd stopped being so blind to the obvious but not so. I'm sure you can improve improv,how about a number 3. I was kind of treating this level like a new series as N7 hinted. |
 |
<Gil Anthony> very nice level make more.... |
|
|
<Dave> (SPOILER) Mark, that is the second solution I mentioned earlier. Nice job finding both! I won't go into it any more details about how many ways there are to do each of the three counts because that is a big spoiler in the right hands. Suffice to say, you've got this well sussed. <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. |
|
|
<Dave> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 191 moves (old: 220). Not tidied up. |
 |
<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) |
|
|
<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. |
 |
<mark> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 78 moves (old: 79). Only just scraped in by one,different route. |
|
|
<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!) |
| « home | Browsing all comments (spoilers: on | off) (info: on | off) | next 25 |