When I say that I fiddled with the last three switches, I mean that it was in a way that it was not a set pattern that triggered it, but the water somehow shifted to the right place when I repeatedly toggled the last three switches.
There is no specific given way for the solution to occur. It might happen sooner or later, depending on which things you do, but it will happen eventually, so don't give up.
But here's my theory of mad scientist logic:
Each switch and valve represent a certain gate between two areas. These areas could be between a pipe and a tank, or between tanks, or between pipes. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that they are present, and they control whether water travels from A to B if there is water present in A.
When a valve is + or a switch is UP, the gate is open. If area A is filled with water and B is connected to A, the water will travel to B if the gate between the two is open.
However, this is where things get complicated. If A is connected to B, and B connected to another area C, if both gates between A and B, and B to C, are open, then the water in A will flow to C! There might even be a connection between A to C open and you couldn't tell. There is no way of knowing the difference between B gate and C gate if any other gate is open. Even more problematic is if all the switches are open. In this case, since the water has nowhere to stop, the system floods because they don't want to crash the servers with a logic paradox.
However, intuition in my walnut shell brain says that there is only one gate that leads into an area and one gate leading out of an area. Thank the various faerie deities if that is true. And Pango Pango.
We do know that gates are one way only. Flipping a switch off when it has already been turned on will not put the water back into A. Obviously, a switch will do nothing if A doesn't have water in it in the first place, so if nothing happens, you've either hit a switch that you've hit already, or there's nothing in A.
So if you want to know what goes where, close all your gates and open them one by one, checking to see when water shifts. Make sure only one gate is open at all times, and close each one after you are done checking it.
I haven't figured out where the water is supposed to go in order to win, so good luck.
There is also some evidence leaning in the direction of the existence of intake and ejection areas. These are places where water enters and exits the system, making it nigh impossible to figure out if the water is coming from an area within or outside the system. For the love of Adam, hope that these don't exist, or you will never figure out what the heck's going on.
|