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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site tilt.FUN
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!tilt!kyrimis
From: kyrimis@tilt.FUN (Kriton Kyrimis)
Newsgroups: net.games.hack
Subject: Mazes: A brute force approach
Message-ID: <393@tilt.FUN>
Date: Sat, 8-Mar-86 05:37:46 EST
Article-I.D.: tilt.393
Posted: Sat Mar  8 05:37:46 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Mar-86 00:34:00 EST
Reply-To: kyrimis@tilt.UUCP (Kriton)
Organization: Princeton University CS Dept
Lines: 47
Keywords: pick-axe

(The following applies to hack 1.0.3)

Here's an approach I used today  to  deal  with  finding  my  way
around the mazes in the lower levels:

In the first maze I encountered, I spent the usual long time try-
ing to find the rock under which lay the wand of wishing. After I
found it, I wished for a pick-axe, as someone suggested  here  on
the  net.  From then on, the game was easy: teleport to level 39,
and for each level, use the pick-axe to knock down  every  single
vertical  wall!  This  does  away with having to worry how to get
from A to B, since all you have to do is go in a  straight  line.
What  I  did,  was  dig  my way horizontally from one edge of the
maze to the other, and do  that  for  each  horizontal  corridor.
After  having  finished  with  a level, the maze looked something
like:

--------------       ------------|
|                                |
| --- - -- - - . . . -- -- -- -- |
|                                |
| -- - --- --        -- --- -- - |

		 .
                 .
		 .

This way I was *sure* that I wouldn't  miss  anything.  Even  the
minotaur  always seemed to appear in front of me at some point or
another.

This procedure may appear boring, but it has its  rewards:  since
it  takes  time  to use the pick-axe, *lots* of monsters have the
time to reach you, and killing them gives you plenty  of  experi-
ence points.

One interesting thing I discovered while playing in this way  was
that  I  was  able  to kill *lots* of demons in the maze, without
filling the world with more of them.  It seemed that demons would
rarely  duplicate if hit. Is this a feature of hack 1.0.3, or did
I do something unknowingly?
-- 

	Kriton	(princeton!tilt!kyrimis)
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"Even in this corner of the galaxy, captain, two plus two equals four!"
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