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Test of the Pathmaker

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Overview

Design a miniature system of aqueduct towers, and challenge other to connect them in a loop. Living mossy towers (green) require the pipe to pass straight through, but turn adjacent. Dead (black) towers require the pipe to turn in place, but extend straight.

Principles

The Test and Principles can be started from a University of Thought at level 6.

Principles of the Pathmaker will lead you through making one of each type of item needed to build a Pathmaker. Of course, you may trade for the materials, bypassing all of those steps.

  • Dig a Cuttable Stone at a Hole
  • Cut a Stone on a Rock Saw
  • Cut a Hexas Plate Amethyst
  • Cut a Looking Glass Jade
  • Cut a Symmetry Turquoise
  • Cut a Dragyn's Eye Citrine
  • Mine a Huge Diamond
  • Mine a Medium Topaz
  • Mine Silver
  • Build a Pathmaker
  • Open your design for Judging
  • Tear down your Pathmaker, OR do the following:
    • Have 7 Judges solve and rate your Pathmaker
    • Design rated Good by most judges
  • All of the above, OR solve three recent winning Pathmakers

Don't Panic!

All steps regarding cutting a gem and mining gems do not need to be resolved. Once a Pathmaker has been built and Opened for judging, all Construction related steps are automatically completed if not already!

Demonstrate the Principle

Demonstrated by McArine in Shabbat Ab on 09-03-22.

Designing a Puzzle

Cost to build a Pathmaker is:

Solving a Puzzle

The test description isn't very clear about the rules. Here's some clarification.

A Pathmaker puzzle is played on a two-dimensional grid. Initially, each square either contains a black tower, green tower, or is empty.

You may place pipe segments on a square, including squares containing a tower, by clicking on the square. Clicking on a square again cycles through the possible pipe options for that square:

  • Straight pipe, top-to-bottom.
  • Straight pipe, left-to-right.
  • Pipe with a 90 degree bend (4 possible orientations).

The object of the puzzle is to join all towers into a single closed loop, while obeying these rules:

  • All pipes must connect up correctly to adjacent squares
  • You may only have one pipe segment per square, i.e. you cannot have a "cross" pipe.
  • Pipes on a square with a green tower must be straight.
  • Pipes on a square with a black tower must be a 90 degree bend.
  • One of the pipes connected immediately adjacent to a green tower must be a 90 degree bend. (Note: the rules only require one of the two to be a bend, but both can be bends if you like).
  • The two pipes connected immediately adjacent to a black tower must be straight.

The Pathmaker will not let you place pipes that violate these rules.

Pathmaker Locations

  • Green for recognized (passed) puzzles (use "Gr" prefix on pin)
  • Red for unrecognized (unpassed) puzzles (use "Rd" prefix on pin)


Region Coordinates Designer Passed Remarks
Adn 1047, 6959 bortox No Close to Chariot
Shabbat Ab 1472, 1998 McArine No Close to UArch
Meroe 846, -3645 Malard No 30 coords northeast of CS (Next to Essence of Harmony)
Meroe 821, -3624 Oni No 30 coords north of cs
Meroe 811, -3653 Katezinha No West of CS
Stillwater 1703, 3690 Tokiryu No Just south of cs
Stillwater 1712, 3711 Keko No Just east of cs
Saqqarah 785, -757 Fryoj Yes East of CS(by Essence of Harmony)
Saqqarah 784, -755 Brucette No East of CS(by Essence of Harmony)
Queen's Retreat 583, -6152 Traak No Just north of CS
Queen's Retreat 578, -6154 Shazza No Just north of CS
Falcon Bay 4297, -647 Xaxyx No Just south of CS
Falcon Bay 4307, -584 Ariella No 50 coords north of CS
Falcon Bay 4305, -587 Pascalito No 50 coords north of CS
Queen's Retreat 578, -6151 Wampak No Just north of CS
... ..., ... ... Yes/No .....