VortexSurfer
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File: The Palace of Puzzles - JtRH Remake v1.01.hold (94.4 KB)
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This is the remake of "The Palace of Puzzles - Extended Version" for JtRH. I ended up redesigning almost all puzzles completely so this should be interesting even if you've seen the original versions before.

As usual, I'd be very glad about any kind of feedback, especially if there are trivial solutions or unclear explanations.

Developers note: I didn't use scripting in this hold (even though it's quite useful for puzzles like these) because I wanted to see what could be done with the other new features of JtRH, which tend to get somewhat neglected. Turned out you can do quite some new things, especially with one particular character who now does most of the running-around-toggling-orbs tasks while Beethro stands back and watches.

VortexSurfer


[Edited by VortexSurfer at Local Time:05-15-2005 at 12:05 AM: Moved hold to "Holds" section]

[Edited by VortexSurfer at Local Time:05-31-2005 at 09:01 PM: Bugfix version attached here temporarily]

silver
Level: Smitemaster
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Yes, Halph would make the sokoban and pin solitaire look a lot prettier (one big pile of orbs in an inaccessible room, nothing but nice pretty blocks of squares in the Beethro area.


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schep
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silver wrote:
Yes, Halph would make the sokoban and pin solitaire look a lot prettier

Would? More like does. But the most dramatic improvement is to the tilt-maze and green-blue-red maze.

The fact that all this was done without scripts is just as amazing to me as the original hold. How well implementing rules via Halph turns out depends a lot on the puzzle, though--- the tilt maze is now ludicrously simple, but the rolling block shows how ugly Halph's area can get with complicated states or rules.

As far as testing goes: I played through the whole thing without spotting any ways to circumvent the puzzles. I suspect it's possible to place 11 or 12 mines in the minesweeper puzzle by getting Halph to strike adjacent orbs quickly enough, but I don't think that could possibly be used to solve the room. Hmm, do you have some proof that leaving the bishop's chessboard always wastes more moves travelling than it might save cutting turns?

Dangit, now that my sword-direction script for triangular peg solitaire is working, I need to think about whether the room would be better using Halph.

VortexSurfer
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 90
Registered: 04-04-2004
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schep wrote:
As far as testing goes: I played through the whole thing without spotting any ways to circumvent the puzzles.

That's good news - Thanks for testing!

I suspect it's possible to place 11 or 12 mines in the minesweeper puzzle by getting Halph to strike adjacent orbs quickly enough,

You can place as many as you like (I hope), that's not prevented. But as you said, the room will become unsolvable.

Hmm, do you have some proof that leaving the bishop's chessboard always wastes more moves travelling than it might save cutting turns?

A good point - I hadn't thought about that. Here's not quite a proof, but some kind of explanation: When you leave the board, your sword is always pointing outward. To re-enter without turning you therefore have to walk around at least one corner, which takes 10 steps in the best case. Therefore you can't save turns this way.

Dangit, now that my sword-direction script for triangular peg solitaire is working, I need to think about whether the room would be better using Halph.

Better - That's hard to say. For the player a scripted solution works best, I think, because it looks nicer and you can implement larger puzzles. These non-scripted versions are more like proofs of concepts. I guess I will continue with scripted versions myself.

VortexSurfer