Pack Inspection

Owner:

Greg

Solution:

DIABLO

Partial Answers

n/a

GC Notes:

GC to update day-of-game.

Presentation:

Teams meet a staff member who gives them six "packs" (grids) to fill and a pile of "equipment" (polyomino pieces), and instructs them to pack a pack and present it for inspection.

Walkthrough:

This is a talking bastard like Stackenblochen from several years ago. When they present a completed pack, the staffer will evaluate a bunch of hidden rules and tell them the first rule on the list they violate. The goal is to find a way to pack six packs using all of the provided gear. The discovery process usually goes something like this:

  1. Realize that you have six sleeping bags and can't fit more than one in a pack, so each pack has to have one.

  2. Learn that each pack needs one tent piece, which constrains most of the space in each pack.

  3. Start learning rules about specific pieces.

  4. When you get to the "fragile" rule for the flashlights and lantern, realize that that constrains things a lot. The lantern needs a rope and all three fuel bottles to fill the pack. The flashlights both go in a pack with a tent fabric.

  5. The other "big rocks" that require their own packs are the fishing pole+tackle box combo, the walkie-talkie, and the two toilet papers.

  6. Everything else fills in the gaps around those things.

(There are a few minorly different ways to pack the packs, but nothing that affects the final extraction)

When they have all six packs correctly packed, the proctor will give them some additional food items and tells them to "throw those in wherever, I don't want to look at your packs again." If each type of food goes in its own pack, there's a unique way to arrange them. The food items are conspicuously round in different colors- each makes a Braille letter, and ordering in rainbow order makes the answer DIABLO.

Hinting:

Early on, people sometimes try to use every space in the packs. Counting the area (or just trying it) should prove that they shouldn't- they're 14 squares short.

The lantern pack is the hardest thing for most teams. A hinting process there, assuming they know the relevant rules:

  • So the lantern can only go next to the sleeping bag and tent fabric. Is there any way to put it in a pack with tent fabric? (No) Then it can only go next to the sleeping bag and empty space.

  • You're only allowed to have three empty spaces. So if the lantern has the sleeping bag below it, how can you orient it such that there are only three other spaces it touches? (Adjacency is only horizontal/vertical, not diagonal)

  • Now that you've used all three empty spaces, you need to fill every other square in that pack. What pieces are shaped in a way that let you fill in the weird gaps you have? (The rope and fuel bottles)

Changes Since Beta/RC:

Only minor/cosmetic. Since Beta, I moved the four empty spaces rule to be the last thing checked rather than the first. Since RC, I replaced the spork with an axe to have something that uses the space better.

Data:

A correct arrangement (until they solve the first phase, the food items will be empty space instead)

 

 

batnroom tissue batnroom tissue 470LLS

 

 

(TODO: The spork was replaced with an axe in RTM.)

 

The full order of rule evaluations:

Single piece rules:

  • No bullshit (pieces overlapping, outside the boundary, upside down, etc.)

  • Pieces can’t hover over empty space

  • The lantern and flashlights are fragile: they have to be at the top of their pack, and can’t touch anything but tent fabric and sleeping bag. [Be clear the first time this happens, or if they try with the toilet paper or something, that only those two things are soft.]

  • Knife must be upright (blade up) and at the bottom of the pack.

Multi-piece rules stuff:

  • Every pack must contain at least one tent part (tent poles or tent fabric)

  • Fishing pole and tackle box must be in the same pack

  • The three fuel bottles must be in the same pack

  • Stove and the fuel bottles must be in different packs.

  • The toilet paper must be in the same pack.

  • The ropes must be in three different packs.

  • No more than three open spaces in any one pack.

With all six packs:

  • You must pack all the gear.