Dungeon Master Forum

Because I am very found of this kind of puzzles, here is, how to tackle those.
In these, the designer, teleports you at places that all look the same, to make sure you will get lost.
When large enough there is little chance to get to the end wandering randomly.
The main point is to avoid, running in circles, going over and over again at the same places.
So, you must identify the places you have already visited. You don' t have a chalk to scribble on the wall "I was there", the only way is to leave some item on the floor.
This can be a Zo Kath Ra or some number of them.
You need paper, pencil ( and eraser ) to prepare a table to record your moves.
In most of these puzzles, from each place there are 4 possible moves into a teleporter; South, East, West, North.
So make the table 4 columns wide for S E W N. Each row will be for some place in the puzzle.
Each entry in the table will be the identity of the next place where you have been teleported.
Let' s play.
Identify the starting place with 1 Zo Kath Ra
Do some move. It might go back to the starting place or go to a new one that you will identify with 2 Zo Kath Ra s on the floor. Update your table.
Keep going. It might go back to an already visited place or go to a new one that you will identify with "+ 1 " Zo Kath Ra 's on the floor. Update your table.
Keep going until you reach the end.
This looks like a slow process, but it is bullet proof. It has to reach the end.
There are variants of teleport puzzles, some more involved; This framework is a good start, tough.
And let's hope a devious mind will not use random party teleportation or produce a puzzle where any item put on the floor will be teleported elsewhere.....

If you like puzzles, here is one I made many years ago:

http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Games/5dmaze.zip

What is the minimum number of moves needed to pick up the coin?
I included the editor so you can cheat.

This maze looks like a nightmare.
A lot of movable walls, moved by a lot of pressure pads, some seting, some clearing, some toggling.
And on top of that, two levels linked by a lot of stairs.
It seems, much more involved and of another kind than the teleport mazes I was talking about.

like a nightmare......more involved and of another kind

Indeed, it is. Definitely for dedicated puzzle fans only.

Perhaps you would like my 2-dimensional free-fall puzzle better?

http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/Games/3 ... ption.html

5D, so there is time and probability involved? Or are you referring to it form a mapping viewpoint where coming at a level form different sides would see a different layout?

Well, 5-D might be an exaggeration. It is an ordinary
3-D Dungeon-Master design with perfectly standard
mechanics and nothing hidden or requiring good timing
or luck. 100 percent straight-forward. Just complicated.

The 5-D? There are the standard three dimensions. But
each hallway is more-or-less duplicated twice; once in
the north-south direction and once in the east-west
direction....sorta like a couple additional dimensions.
And, since the hallways and byways must be traversed
in a particular time order, that too is like a dimension.

5dmaze. 5 Dimensions, I like the idea.
I think I am going to give up.
I feel this is a NP-hard problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-complete
No faster solution than trying ALL possible cases. A job for a program.
It is too tough for me and I do not feel like programming that stuff.
And, I am not enough mathematics proficient to go at proving it is a NP-complete problem.

Short version: The 5dmaze is too complicated for me.

terkio wrote:I am going to give up.

I don't blame you. You would have to like the puzzle simply
as a challenge to which you are ready to devote many hours of
inspiration and perspiration.

But perhaps you would rather prove it to be NP-complete?
That is a very different challenge.