This map was pulled out of the pup_land raffles map, and all non-escential `fluff' removed to allow easier study of the gadget. In other words it was stolen for study purposes! :-) -- I do hope the author treats this as a complement as that is how I feel. This is what I call a ``boulder cascade'' which rolls a boulder in sequence until it falls onto a random prize button. The prizes above are in order of how commonly they would be picked by this generator (supposally). That is the first prise should be given out approximatally 50% of the time, while the last two (which have equal chance) are almost never ever given out.

This `gadget' works because boulders (and other items) will roll off a closing gate and randomly into a non-blocked square. UNDER each gate (except at the start) are two buttons, one which will close the gate the boulder is currently sitting on and one to keep the previous gate closed until the boulder has moved on. (See ``Multiple Buttons'' sign) When the boulder finally leaves the gate sequence the large button triggers the appropriate pit so the prize can be retrived.

Note a cascade such as this could be looped around to provide a repeated sequence of events. The smallest such cascade loop is 4 long, but only works fitfully as the gates don't get a chance to fully reset before the boulder rolls around again. The next longest is 6 unit loop, which works estreamly well. Also see other gadget test maps in this directory.

Under each gate in this ``boulder cascade'', are two buttons. To keep the boulder moving in the right direction one button keeps the previous gate closed (no back tracking by boulder), and the other closes the gate the boulder currently sits on. Small buttons are used as the `trigger weight' of the button is also the weight of the button itself! That is if you stick two plain buttons (trigger weight 1) on top of each other, the top button will be off (no weight on it), but the second one underneath will be activated by the weight of the first button (weight 1)! As such to make this work the buttons trigger value must be equal to the trigger weight of ALL the buttons above it, plus one more. EG: first button: 1, second: 1+1 -> 2, third: 1+2+1 -> 4. Actually the sequence is trigger weight = button depth ** 2 EG: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64,... etc to however many small buttons you need on top of each other. With this formular any object with some weight can could used, from a light peice of paper, a gold piece, shield, or even a player (which has to move or get continuously crushed :-)

Trapdoors are NOT exact but places objects within the 3x3 square of destination, unless blocked. They are however `connectable'. Teleports however are `exact' for delivery, but are not `connectable' or can be turned off. So to make a exact deliver of an item to a table when the appropriate button is pressed, a trapdoor places itme on a teleport, with the surrounding squares blocked. The teleport then exactly places itme on the table.

Before this `gadget' and other such gadgets in this directory can be used (and this one is used in raffles), a certain about of extra `fluff' needs to be added... * A floor needs to be inserted under amost all objects, but above the boulder cascade, small buttons. * ``No Spells'' must also be added under everything to prevent the use of dimension door (any other spells?) * Due to a a bug (now fixed), pets were able to walk through walls! To fix this raffles has an ``furious_floor'', to de-pet pets. * A ``chaos'' floor was also added inside the boulder cascade, to kill such wandering pets. -- Thanks to : Hisanobu Okuda <Hisanobu_Okuda@mbj.mercedes-benz.com> for the explaination on the last two `fluff' items

Warning, in server 95.1 the item retrival code does NOT work. The trapdoor under the items will open, but nothing will fall through. Arrrggghhh.. Also a `pet' bug in version 94.x means extra `fluff' is required. EG: angry or furious floors, and a chaos floor inside the cascade. (See previous sign).