Hedge Maze
<<May 29, 1999>>
You quickly dart around the next corner, almost hitting the trigger at nothing for fear of another ambush. This was becoming annoying.
Why on earth did you ever suggest using the hedge maze for the water fight?
Well, it had seemed to make sense to begin with - no one knew their way around the maze, so it was plausible to have a capture-the-flag game with only four people. There were four entrances, so you were all playing on separate teams. The flag, of course, was hidden (by a parent) somewhere in the center of the maze - so you not only had to find your way to the center without being shot, you had to find it quickly enough not to get shot while you were looking.
If you were shot, of course, you had to make your way back out of the maze and start over. Of course, you also had to go back out of the maze if you needed to refill, which could become a problem with your XP 110, but you did bring a small amount of water (about 1/4 a refill) on your belt in a small water bottle.
The first thing you had heard when you started was some fool trying to push his way through the thick, thorny hedge. Recognizing it as a potential danger even by accident for the first time, you've been careful not to brush against it.
You dart around another corner with your weapon at the ready and find no opposition again. Suddenly realizing that you are thoroughly lost by now, you give up on this practice and start planning a way to get through the maze . . .
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I would just continu on my way and try and find the middle by headeding ing in one direction towards what I think is the center and when I reached the center if i did not and i reached the edge I would then head in towards what i thought was the center repeat if needed
~Your Name Here
Not a very intuitive solution, is it?
Although this is not a particularly bad way to find the center, it will probably take longer than the average person would take if they were correcting their course along the way and taking some more risky chances, putting you at a minor disadvantage. More importantly, it will cause you to cover a very large area of the maze, increasing the likelihood that you will run into opposition, which would further delay you even if you weren't hit (and the odds are that in 2+ confrontations you will be).
First, since what weapons the emenies have weren't mentioned, I don't know what I am up against. I also don't know how much water I have. I know there was an ambush before because it talks about another ambush. If I wasn't shot during the previous encounter then I must have at least used some water, if I was shot than when I went out I was probobly smart enough to refill when I was outside the maze. In a maze there is not much space to move around so I will use short and (hopefully) accurate shots and will most likely hit him/her. One paragraph is not particularly clear:
"The first thing you had heard when you started was some fool trying to push his way through the thick, thorny hedge. Recognizing it as a potential danger even by accident for the first time, you've been careful not to brush against it."
Does this mean that the danger is getting cut on the thorns or that the fool is a threat, and what is the accident.
That paragraph means that you heard someone trying to force their way through the hedge and being cut on the thorns. Hearing this, you noticed that there was a constant threat of being cut by the hedge thorns, even by accident, and so you had made sure not to touch it.
Tip for future POWs: Please tell what the rules are and all of the weapns being carried by the main person: main sidearm, backup.
I told you your main sidearm - the XP 110. Many people don't carry additonal weapons, so unless I tell you about additional weapons, assume there aren't any. As for the rules, I don't think I left much room for ambiguity in this P.O.W. You're shot, you leave and come back in. Goal is to get the flag and get out.
~?apphire
That's your entire solution? "I will use shot and (hopefully) accurate shots"? You call that a plan?
cheat by digging under the thorn bush
~Briane Cook
Well, if you happened to bring a shovel with you for digging (which you didn't), and you happened to bring some powerful clippers so you could go through the roots instead of under them (which you didn't), and you squeezed down really tight and didn't mind scraping your back . . .
. . . you might only waste about an hour for each hedge you went under.
While that might keep you more or less on course to the center, you'll be a sitting duck the entire time and someone's going to come and find you while you're working on the second or third hedge and tell you that the game's over.
Here goes. This is my first time at one of these, but, hey, why not?
Anyway, here's where things stand.
I have a 110. I also have a bit of extra water, albeit, not a lot. I don't know what anyone else has. Touching the walls = bad. Okay, stay clear of the walls.
Basically, the only solution I can see is stay right, strafe around corners, and don't touch the walls.
Since I know you're nitpicky, I'll tell you why I said stay right. If you're ever in a maze, you can just put your right hand on the wall and follow that wall and eventually, you'll get out, most likely covering about half the maze in a normal, "Get-from-point-A-to-Point-B" maze. In this maze, however, you'll only wind up covering about a fourth each time, and you can't touch the walls, hence staying right. But, all things considered, I think covering one fourth of the maze at a time is the best you'll be able to do.
It is true that you will always eventually get to the exit (barring that it is in the center) if you follow one EXTERIOR wall. However, if the wall you're following doesn't connect to an exterior wall . . . if its just floating around somewhere in the center of the maze . . . you just end up going around it in circles forever. You would probably realize what was happening, but because you don't know what wall each is to begin with, you could end up wasting quite a bit of time.
Also, you only end up covering about 1/2 the maze (or in this case 1/4) if ALL the walls link to the exterior walls. If there is supposed to be a distinct "center" to the maze, this is probably not the case, which means your best hope if you're tracing the edge of the maze is to cut off someone's escape once they have the flag and then take it from them.
Also, as a side note, you're always ranting about assuming your enemy is stupid. Judging from your usual replies, you assume everyone is a tactical genius. Not so. One of the other guys ran straight into the hedge, remember?
~Ben Nesson
Trying to get through the hedge wouldn't have been a bad idea if there hadn't been any thorns, you could probably beat everyone to the center without any encounters, and then simply disappear back through the hedges. I wouldn't say he's an idiot, just that he's unobservant.
Anyway, clearly not everyone is a tactical genius (for one thing, if everyone was one it wouldn't be termed "genius"), but similarly not no one is a tactical genius. Typically you must assume that your opponent has comparable skill to you, because if they have significantly more you can't be too careful and if they have significantly less you'll beat them anyway (or at least you'd better). It's not worth practicing a scenario if the enemy is some idiot who'll kill himself before you can even put your plan into action.
Besides, usually I end up using teams, and in a team the most tactically astute will probably be in charge of tactics.
id take a compass to keep my bearings and plot a course
~Delia T. Salcedo
PREREQUISITES TO THIS SOLUTION: You must be one of those lucky people who have a relatively easy time constructing a mental map of labyrinthine areas, and you must have a compass, which you don't.
PROS: You'll know your way around next time you have a battle here.
CONS: You'll be distracted, and therefore more easily surprised and beaten if you run into any opposition. There is no plan to deal with encounters of any kind or what to do if the flag is gone when you get there, so it is dependent almost entirely upon luck.