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Triple Town (Really a math question)
Jan. 12th, 2015 11:52 amSo, I’ve been playing a decent amount of the Android game Triple Town (which I totally recommend as a casual game; it’s a fun twist on the “match 3” setup). The thing that occurred to me, though, is that I’m certain I’m playing it inefficiently: Especially in the “Peaceful Valley” mode where there are no bears, there must be an optimal way to set up the pieces so that you never box yourself in and can get a really high score.
Backing up: Every time you connect three (or more) of the same type of tile, they fuse into one of the next tile up the scale (and they can be connected horizontally or vertically, they just all need to touch), and they occupy the space of the last piece you placed. So if you placed grass on A-1, then A-2, then A-3, a bush would appear in A-3 and the first two slots would empty.
The sequence of tiles is: Grass -> Bush -> Tree -> Hut -> House -> Mansion -> Castle -> Floating Castle. Most of the tiles you get to place will be grass, but you get bushes maybe 10% of the time and higher-level items maybe 1%. You also periodically get Imperial Bots (which let you remove a placed tile) and Crystals (which act as a wildcard and can combine any two of the same tile, but turn into unless rocks if placed where they don’t combine*).
My basic question is, given a 5x5 grid and unlimited grass tiles (ignoring the pre-existing pieces on that grid or the chance of getting other tiles), what pattern do you place them in if you want to build all the way to a floating castle?
Then, having solved that, the follow-up is how you deal with the other tile drops.
(If there are clarifications I’m missing here, just let me know and I’ll edit them in.)
*If you somehow manage to merge three rocks, it creates a big rock, and merging those creates a gray treasure chest that gives you a big boost to your score multiplier. But that’s not particularly useful to this exercise.
Backing up: Every time you connect three (or more) of the same type of tile, they fuse into one of the next tile up the scale (and they can be connected horizontally or vertically, they just all need to touch), and they occupy the space of the last piece you placed. So if you placed grass on A-1, then A-2, then A-3, a bush would appear in A-3 and the first two slots would empty.
The sequence of tiles is: Grass -> Bush -> Tree -> Hut -> House -> Mansion -> Castle -> Floating Castle. Most of the tiles you get to place will be grass, but you get bushes maybe 10% of the time and higher-level items maybe 1%. You also periodically get Imperial Bots (which let you remove a placed tile) and Crystals (which act as a wildcard and can combine any two of the same tile, but turn into unless rocks if placed where they don’t combine*).
My basic question is, given a 5x5 grid and unlimited grass tiles (ignoring the pre-existing pieces on that grid or the chance of getting other tiles), what pattern do you place them in if you want to build all the way to a floating castle?
Then, having solved that, the follow-up is how you deal with the other tile drops.
(If there are clarifications I’m missing here, just let me know and I’ll edit them in.)
*If you somehow manage to merge three rocks, it creates a big rock, and merging those creates a gray treasure chest that gives you a big boost to your score multiplier. But that’s not particularly useful to this exercise.
