On 15.01.2025 08:46, Benjamin Heiligenbrunner wrote:
14.01.25 08:54 — Janis Papanagnou:
I wonder whether in NerfHack it was a deliberate dungeon creation
design to place a level-teleport trap on the Sokoban entry level
(the open icy area with the rivers). I deliberately tried it out
to see whether it's ineffective (what I assumed) or where it will
put the character. - I happened to land on the first puzzle level,
but not at the stairs, rather somewhere in the middle. That, of
course, had effects on how (or whether, in the first place) you
can solve the puzzle without penalty.
Assuming that you can also enter the first puzzle by the stairs (I don't
know that variant), it should rather be helpful — if you've moved a
stone into a bad position, you might be able to do something about it by teleporting into another location of that map. Just a thought…
Well, if it would be well designed you could probably add some
interesting Sokoban game-play variants. But...
As level-teleport traps vanish after they've been triggered you
could only use them once. A deliberate use (and just once) would
only be possible if you found that trap without having trigged it.
If these conditions are met it's still random and might make any
potential gain just a gamble since it may also (as I wrote in my
OP) be the other way round, that an easy Sokoban (starting) level
will get spoiled by an unfortunate teleport target place.
It's unclear (to me) whether these traps in NerfHack would also
make it possible to directly reach the Sokoban prize/zoo-level.
In any way, with the special character of Sokoban I'd either not
generate level-teleports in the first place or place the character
on the entry stairs of the (first) puzzle-level.
IMO NerfHack's Sokoban entry-level design, deliberately chosen or
not, isn't good; more often than not you've just no means to cross
the rivers. A level-teleport trap on the right side of Sokoban's
entry level could fix that *if* you'd be guaranteed to land on the
stairs of the first puzzle level; you could then use the scrolls
of earth to pass the rivers on your way back.
Janis
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