Talk:Digging

Core concepts

• Dirt exists in the unselectable points where four tiles meet.
• Removing dirt on all four points on a tile reveals rock tile.
• Digging and dropping affects the point closest to where you stand, not where you target.
• Flattening affects target tile.
• Flattening time is only based on the height difference between the highest and the lowest point.
• Time seems to be generally 0:09 + 0:05 per height difference
  • Exception: If three points are even and the fourth is at least 2 higher, add 0:05.
  • Thus 0,0,0,+2 gives 0:24, not 0:19.
  • Extra seconds are added sometimes, but exactly how is unclear
• Flattening digging algorithm: ???
• Flattening will gladly mess up adjacent flat tiles, so use with care

Just noting down some stuff... - Dashiva 16:48, 26 August 2006 (CDT)

Flattening

x---x---x
| A | B | Tiles: A, B, C, D
|   |   | Tile borders: | and -
x---x---x Tile corners: x
|   |   |
| C | D |
x---x---x

Each tile has four corners (the unselectable areas where tile borders meet). Height (and dirt) only exists in the corners. If all four corners of a tile have equal height, the tile is flat. Flat tiles have 0:09 flattening time (FT). Since each corner is part of all four adjacent tiles, two flat and adjacent tiles must be the same height.

The basic operation of flattening is to average the height of the corners, rounding down.

• Dropping one dirt on the center tile changes FT to 0:14 for all tiles. Flattening one tile destroys the dirt (rounding). All tiles to FT 0:09.
• Dropping two dirt on the center tile changes FT to 0:19 for all tiles. Flattening one tile destroys the dirt (rounding). All tiles to FT 0:09.
• Dropping three dirt on the center tile changes FT to 0:24 for all tiles. Flattening one tile destroys the dirt (rounding). All tiles to FT 0:09.
• Dropping four dirt on the center tile changes FT to 0:29 for all tiles. Flattening one tile moves one dirt to each of its corners. The flattened tile returns to FT 0:09, but the other tiles now have one or two raised corners, resulting in FT 0:14.

More notes. - Dashiva 07:29, 27 September 2006 (CDT)

Dirt flow

Dirt flows downhill when the slope to one of the eight adjacent points is greater than 40 (that is, 41+). - Dashiva 11:27, 9 December 2006 (CST)