Well, my answer for the DROD puzzle I set a while ago doesn't seem to have been contested or refuted, so I assume that I'm correct. You can see my working out and solution
here, if you want to check its correctness.
However, the puzzle was originally created back in the 1.5 days, when there was no editor to play with, and so we had to speculate on what exactly the solution was. However, we now do have an editor, so this means that the puzzle wording needs to be updated to reflect this. I am reposting this puzzle in a more up-to-date form, so that it can be solved properly, while at the same time removing my annoying posts in the original thread, "
A Complex DROD Puzzle"
.
So, here it is:
"The Study Of The Dungeon (Part 2)"
(Continued)
All at once, Beethro heard a voice in his mind saying, "
72 different killing moves. The answer is 72."
(Thanks to Ferday who found the correct answer)
Beethro realised that the voice was talking to him and giving him the answer to his nephew's problem.
"
72,"
he repeated, "
72."
"
Are you sure?"
asked the nephew.
"
Of course,"
Beethro replied, though he himself was not sure if the answer was correct or not.
"
Ok, that's great! See you later Uncle Beethro!"
called his nephew as Beethro continued along the road.
"
The Study of the Dungeon and Its Inhabitants?,"
thought Beethro as he walked. "
What utter rubbish!"
A short while later, he came to the field at exactly noon. However, his astonishment at what he saw on the field was so great that he could not do anything but stare. The field had been turned into some sort of giant research project; countless numbers of large objects had been brought to the field, along with around a thousand people, all of which were moving objects or arranging them in set-ups, or recording some sort of data. The field was a riot of movement, colour and noise.
Beethro was truly shocked by the scale of the event, for this was the largest he had ever seen in his whole life. A man ran up to Beethro, who was still absorbed in his amazement, and said, "
Please, sir, could you move away from this area because we are going to set up here? Thank you."
Beethro replied, "
What is all this? What are you doing here?"
"
We are on contract from King Dugan,"
replied the man. "
We have been given the task to do research into the number of room arrangements there are, as part of King Dugan's new research project: 'The Study of the Dungeon and Its Inhabitants'."
"
I can't believe it! Is the king that serious about this new 'Study of the Dungeon' project of his?"
exclaimed Beethro. "
Why does he want to go to the bother of doing all this? What's the point?"
"
We don't know. All we do now is that our boss signed a contract with the King, and so we have now ended up doing this job, on pain of a giant fine or being thrown to the roaches in the mountains if we fail."
Beethro was now curious about what was going on.
"
Can you show me round the site?"
he asked the man. "
I've never seen such a large event before like this, and I'm just curious about it. I hope I'm not disturbing you."
"
Of course not!"
the man replied. "
We've already shown quite a number of inquisitive people like yourself around. Follow me,"
Beethro followed. The man first took him to a small platform with four squares marked on it in a 2x2 arrangement.
"
Why is this platform just grey? I always thought dungeon floors come in two colours, not one,"
Beethro said.
"
We pleaded with Dugan and persuaded him that having two colours would make the task too confusing, so he let us off and allowed us to just have a single coloured floor,"
the man replied.
He took Beethro towards a large group of piles of the objects that were positioned nearby. Beethro at once ran forward towards them when he saw what the objects actually were. Grabbing them and admiring them one after another, he exclaimed: "
This model force arrow is so realistic! And this potion looks exactly like the ones I used down in Dugan’s Dungeon. Everything that I saw down there you have here now in models, even monsters! How did you do it?"
“Yes. If only we ourselves could also admire and experiment with them like you are doing, but we can’t, since we don't have the time. Today is Novender 37, 147 B.D., and King Dugan wants us to finish by 13 Onsuary next year, which gives us only two weeks."
"
What is this problem?"
Beethro asked.
"
Using all the elements you can find in a dungeon, combined in every possible way, find out how many theoretically possible arrangements of these that there are in a 2x2 DROD room,"
replied the man. "
What this means is that we are to take every element that can be found in a dungeon (Caravel DROD release 1.6), such as walls, floors, gates, monsters and pits, and any other possible combinations of these, such as a roach on top of a force arrow, or a goblin on a trapdoor, and find the total number of all theoretical arrangements of these in a room."
"
Do rotations and reflections of arrangements count?"
asked Beethro.
"
Yes,"
said the man. "
The orientation of an object is also important. A roach facing north is considered different from a roach facing south, for example."
Beethro then had a thought. He began to search the piles for a particular object that he had noticed was not present.
"
What are you looking for?"
inquired the man.
"
Do you have a model of the 'Neather?"
asked Beethro.
"
Err... no. What is a 'Neather?"
Beethro then realised that the 'Neather was a secret that probably only he out of all the dungeon exterminators knew about, and that he had to keep it secret, just in case the DAA (Dungeon Architects' Association) discovered he knew about it. He replied cautiously, "
I don't know myself. I once heard a rumour about a monster called a 'Neather, and was curious to see if it existed. You don't have a model of it, so it can't possibly have."
Beethro then turned to the people working on setting up the arrangement. Suddenly, one of the supervisors pointed at the platform and shouted, "
No! That arrangement has never been allowed! Orbs cannot exist on trapdoors. Architects have designed orbs to have a special structure that prevents the rock that they are placed on from ever crumbling or collapsing. You should know that!"
The worker immediately corrected the problem, and the work then continued.
Beethro then attempted to think about the puzzle himself, but soon realised that the number was going to be far larger than he could possibly comprehend. He turned to the man and said, "
It would take me years to work all of them out. I don’t think I could possibly help at all."
"
We’ve already completed about 300 different arrangements,"
said the man in reply, "
but indications seem to show there are probably thousands of arrangements. At 2 minutes to set up each arragement, even working around the clock without stopping, we couldn't possibly find them all in just 2 weeks, since we need to set up each arrangement and record it before we set up the next. There has to be an easier way to do it, or we are going to fail for sure. Do you have any idea about what we could do?"
Can you help the poor researchers solve the problem given to them by the King, and find out how long their method would take to make all of the different arrangements?
If you need some help, you can find the UDCT (Ultimate DROD Combination Table)
here, and some information on the Dugandish calendar
here.
Again, if you want to see my solution, or possibly even refute it, then you can find it
here.
Good luck!
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:11-04-2004 at 11:04 PM]
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:11-05-2004 at 12:09 AM]
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:11-05-2004 at 06:13 PM: Changed wording of puzzle]
[Edited by agaricus5 at
Local Time:11-14-2004 at 10:50 PM]
____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist
