Maze/Robot facing direction clarification (no spoilers)

[NeuralSimulation]

Hi, I'm working on the maze problem currently, and I had to do a lot of work to figure out that the robot is guaranteed to start the maze facing in the UP direction (basically I hardcoded a solution to the starting maze and checked, every time the robot entered a new maze it was facing upwards).

Since we're given no way to know which direction the robot is facing, this really should be part of the problem statement.

I just wanted to post here to let people know that you are seemingly guaranteed that the robot starts each maze facing up. Also wanted to point it out in case the author reads this and is willing to add that clarification to the problem statement in-game.

Please don't reply with algorithm spoilers, or reply to say, "you shouldn't need to know that." I think it's an important piece of information, and some algorithms may rely on this information for solid reasons.

Also please don't reply saying it's obvious. It isn't obvious, it's an assumption, and in programming if your starting assumptions are wrong you could waste a lot of effort finding that out.

Simply adding this information to the problem statement in-game should be enough for people to solve it in my opinion, but I do think the problem could be improved if there was some way to know what direction the robot is facing at runtime. But I can see good arguments against doing that as well, so just adding it to the problem statement is probably the best way to go.

Hope this helps someone else, and thanks for making such a great game!

[SunCat]

What you had in that level is basically an exam in problem solving - you are given a big problem, and a playground to test your solution. This problem has mini-problems - one of which is "what will or won't change when you get to the next test, and how to handle that". You can try to account for all possibilities on your first solve - OR you can first do an experiment, and then see which possibilities actually matter (like you did).

So, it's all part of problem solving - both things that are obvious (which can turn out to be wrong assumptions), and things that are not obvious.

[NeuralSimulation]

Originally posted by SunCat:

What you had in that level is basically an exam in problem solving

Yeah that's fair, but for those of us who don't have a lot of time, implementing a complex solution to a complex problem that may end up not working because of a failed assumption is a big ask, IMO. It's also not really in with the aesthetic/sensibilities of the rest of the game, where IMO you are given the necessary preconditions you need to know in order to solve the puzzle before you begin, if you're careful about studying it before you start.

But sure, it's a grown-up problem if you wanna look at it that way. As a final exam I suppose it's appropriate to give only the bare minimum amount of info.

[FireStorm]

FWIW I just chose to output a direction as part of my initialization routine, save that as my heading, and then I didn't have to care if it changes by level (now or in a future update/level). There are no hazards, no penalty for bumping a wall, and nothing special about the starting tile. Even if starting heading was random it wouldn't change the meat of the solution.