Quote:Another option would be for me to rework the two last levels and make them simpler, removing half the keys in Sophomore Fetcher
, and some of the options in Junior Fetcher
. I think the first level is fine. The levels still wouldn't be an absolute joy to work on, but at least somewhat more manageable.
This would be my vote.
I guess my issue with these levels - particularly the latter two - is that optimization for them is pretty much all about trial and error. Last month's TT levels, as well as most of the others, required some amount of logic in determining what was fastest and what wasn't. On Hexominos, for example, tracing certain portions of the route that can be deduced as optimal and then piecing together those portions to form a fast final product both involve logic, even if there's some experimentation involved. On Nested Replay, optimizing is about trial and error, but the endpoint of the experimentation is certain, as you explained the objectives yourself: finding which three rooms in each quadrant were the fastest, and from that, which three quadrants were the fastest. And along the way, secondary objectives could come into play, such as which differences between collecting one, two, and three keys in each room were worth exploiting. But even those were uncomplicated. The challenge was in making sure that you had the definitively fastest route for each room. Here, though, barring a computer program, you'd almost need to create a fairly lengthy decision tree just to cover every possibility to absolutely ensure that your route is optimal, not unlike Tool Box or especially Which One Next? It's just not as fun.