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revenge of the computers 1 Thu 26 May 2005 23:22
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Thanks, mjn.

Yeah, my solver has hashing, but I had it turned off because it made things a lot slower for Ricochet Robot solving. But I guess I was expecting a much shallower solution! I'll try again..
<mjn> (SPOILER) Whoops, I'm an idiot--of course the solver's only going to find one solution if duplicate positions are ignored; it won't be able to duplicate the ending position!

Never mind, I have no idea what the minimum complexity is. The minimum number of block pushes, though, should be 68.
<mjn> (SPOILER) Heh heh, I gave up and wrote a solver as well. My solution has a complexity of something like 27, including the first move. (I got that number by watching the solution replay; I might be off by one or two.)

Also, unless there's a bug in my program, that's the *only* solution (except for a couple minor variations towards the end).

Does your solver check for duplicate positions? Mine was threatening to take a long long time, too, but fortunately, adding a hashtable to check for repeats cut it down to a few seconds.
 
The Worst Is Behind You Thu 26 May 2005 20:03
<Tom 7> Man, this one is tough.
 
One Last Time Thu 26 May 2005 17:35
<Tom 7> Moved to graveyard.
<Tom 7> 'One Last Time' uploaded by Tom 7.
 
Durrrrr Thu 26 May 2005 17:32
<Tom 7> Moved to graveyard.
<Tom 7> 'Durrrrr' uploaded by Tom 7.
 
San Francisco Airport (SFO) Thu 26 May 2005 17:20
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 294 moves (old: 999999).
 
Testing, Sorry Thu 26 May 2005 17:10
<Tom 7> Moved to graveyard.
<Tom 7> 'Testing, Sorry' uploaded by Tom 7.
 
revenge of the computers 1 Thu 26 May 2005 14:47
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Also, I am not counting the first move, which I believe is forced, so that's really a depth of 18.
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Since this one was made by computer (and I am stumped) I tried to solve it by computer, using my Ricochet Robot solver (the game is very similar).

Can someone who has solved this level help me figure out if I have a bug in my program? Define the "complexity" of a solution to be the number of times that the player switches from pushing around one block to pushing around a different one. (All levels on 5 blocks then have a complexity of at least 4).

What is the minimum complexity of the solution for this level? For Ricochet Robot, I never see complexity higher than about 11, even for very hard levels. But I ran my program on this level up to complexity *17* and didn't find a solution (50 hours of computer time)! I find it a bit hard to believe that the complexity is really this high: The speedrun at 414 moves could correspond to a higher complexity, but only if the individual moves are pretty short (~24 each). However, I also think my program is correct. Anyway, if someone can tell me the complexity of his solution, that would help me know if it's hopeless to try to find a solution automatically, or hint that my program may have a bug.
 
Real Deadly Wed 25 May 2005 23:12
<Stephan> (SPOILER) Added solution "Faster."
 
Button Blocker: The Challenge Wed 25 May 2005 22:36
<John Lewis> For those who thought the original was too easy. :-)
<John Lewis> 'Button Blocker: The Challenge' uploaded by John Lewis.
 
Warp Wed 25 May 2005 20:57
<Stephan> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 116 moves (old: 122).
 
Kung Fu Movie, Scene 2 Wed 25 May 2005 18:24
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 38 moves (old: 70).
Cooked: If daleks colide on a panel, and then the resulting broken bot is pushed off, the panel nets a "permanent" swap, since that's two bots stepping on but one bot stepping (pushed) off. This can be used to solve this level quickly, especially if we let some extra bots block the lasers for us.
<OCTweak> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 70 moves (old: 73).
 
Seventeen Years Wed 25 May 2005 17:29
<Stephan> (SPOILER) Added speedrun: 95 moves (old: 101).
<Tom 7> nLogic: the original solution is automatically included when you upload levels. (Although this wasn't true before the speedrun system was implemented, which is why you'll sometimes see people upload Original solutions for old levels.)
 
Playground1 Wed 25 May 2005 16:39
<nLogic> (SPOILER) Cook: I went down, grabbed the grey block and exited from the left side, ignoring the entire right half of the puzzle. But maybe you're supposed to do that?
 
Seventeen Years Wed 25 May 2005 16:00
<nLogic> (SPOILER) Added solution "Original."
 
Real Deadly Wed 25 May 2005 13:23
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) I like the giant Dalek, but the level is pretty loose. It would have been harder if the lasers triggered by the red panels were more troublesome; my solution turned some on but they didn't get in my way.
 
Seventeen Years Wed 25 May 2005 13:02
<Tom 7> (SPOILER) Added solution "Tom's Method":
Cooked: Here's a totally different way of solving it. Nice level, though.
 
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