chain Of 20?

[keith.lamothe]

Also, on the unintended chains, "chain containment" is a pretty critical skill on several levels (notably when you have to keep your score down but clear X blocks).  In my own experience I find it's much easier to keep it under control when focusing on stuff near the edge of the board and making sure all the "unterminated" streams and blocks that will emit when falling are pointed toward the edge of the board (or sometimes parallel if it's a dual directional) and of course being careful about what it will hit.

It's a somewhat difficult skill to learn because the game is often about maximizing chain and combo expansion, but it helps an awful lot.

[SmileyFace]

it's supposed to be a level about pathfinding, not about clearing as many blocks of colors you don't care about as you can in order to have some trivial large chain.

Yes, I thought so, and I tried that approach first I wasn't trying to get an excessively long chain; I just couldn't see a victory chain right off the bat. My solution? Focus on clearing one or two colours and check each turn until a long chain appears. The result? I kept accidentally setting off chains that caused even more unintended chains due to the large play field and high # of white blocks. Which put me back at square 1, so I just kept on trying.

I think what this level needs is a limit on the number of moves. Not limited to 1 move, since there's not ALWAYS a 20-chain right off the bat (but there usually is), but a few moves (maybe 3) so you can still make a 20-chain possible if it's not already there without letting people spend forever trying to set it up in this wrong way.

That would be a good hint, yes.

@keith:
So true! That would've helped on this level. I got more practice at it in some later levels. In retrospect, I think I should have stuck to small chains of 3 and controlled them until a chain of 20 appeared after a few turns.