GerAvos wrote:
So why is there a clock for red snakes? What's the purpose of it?
Great question. The clock will actually appear for every kind of serpent and it has to do with the funky way in which serpents move. Snake movement takes a lot of getting used to because snakes will change their preferred behavior every five turns. Here's a brief run down on how snakes try to move (secreted for length or in case you just want to skip it):
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×None of the snake types can move diagonally. They can only move North, East, South, or West. If Beethro is diagonally off from the snake (not in the same row or column) the snake will try to move either horizontally or vertically in one of the directions that will take it closer to him either him It chooses which direction by looking at the clock.
*In a turn ending in 0,1,2,3, or 4, the snake will always try to move horizontally towards Beethro first.
*In a turn ending 5,6,7,8,or 9, the snake will try to move vertically towards Beethro first.
Try making an empty room in the editor with a serpent in one corner and Beethro in the opposite corner and you'll see this behavior on display. The snake will appear to make a large step like pattern, changing directions every five turns.
It gets a bit more complicated than just that though. If Beethro is not diagonally offset from the snake, and is either in the same horizontal or vertical row, the snake will just try to keep going in whatever direction it happens to be facing. That means it will either move directly towards Beethro if it can, or it will move directly away from him if it is facing away.
Lastly, if the serpent is blocked from moving in the way it wants to based on the rules above, it will still try to move. It will first try to move north, and if that fails, east, then if that fails south, and lastly if everything else is blocked west. If all four direction of movement are blocked, a red snake will shrink one tile but all other snake types will just stop that turn.
Whew! Okay I know that sounds super complicated but I promise it actually starts to make sense and be predictable after a while. Most puzzles involving snakes in the official holds don't really require understanding of the more arcane aspects of serpent movement, so don't worry too much about all this just yet. If you do find yourself playing a lot of the tougher holds with snakes, some folks have designed special clocks to show you which direction the snake prefers on a given turn (either horizontal or vertical), but you don't really need those even for the most difficult snake rooms if you just remember 0 - 4 horizontal and 5 - 9 vertical. It takes some getting used to for sure, but you'll eventually master the tricks of serpent manipulation!
tl:dr snakes will prefer to move either horizontally or vertically based on what the turn number is, but most puzzles involving snakes don't actually require you to pay too much attention to this.
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Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:
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[Last edited by Insoluble at 05-31-2016 06:03 PM]
