Forum:Sokobon diagonal movement "You cannot pass that way"

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I can't move diagonally in Sokoban. I've tried taking off all armor and dropping anything, but I always get "You cannot pass that way". I'm using NetHack 3.6.7. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mgm7734 (talkcontribs)

Because you can't squeeze diagonally past boulders unless you're on a level you've already solved. Sokoban branch rules are fairly straightforward. --Umbire the Phantom (talk) 22:51, 11 July 2023 (UTC)
The Sokoban level is an homage to the Japanese game Sokoban, which was created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and became quite popular. The original game didn't allow diagonal moves, likely because it would have been too easy to solve if you could move diagonally, so Nethack's Sokoban levels don't allow them either (at least, as Umbire points out, until you've solved the puzzle). --Skrizzle (talk) 03:14, 23 October 2023 (UTC)
I got a computer to generate some Sokoban levels designed around the principle that the character could move, and push boulders, diagonally. In general they seem to be much more difficult for humans than the orthogonal version. I put an example below (the goal is to push all the boulders out through the gap at the south side of the level, imagine a row of holes there); you might want to try solving it yourself, which will probably give insight into why diagonal moves are banned. Ais523 (talk) 09:19, 11 December 2023 (UTC)
 -----      
--...-----  
|..-.....|  
|.000-0..|  
---.0..---  
  |.----    
 --.-|      
 |.0.---    
 |.000.|    
 |.0-0.|    
 |.--0.|    
 |.-0.--    
 |...--     
 ---@|      
   -.-
I suspect you're overthinking it, but what I really came here to say was this:
So this whole thing got started because a programmer wanted to try his hand at coding procedurally generated dungeon levels, or so the story goes (was that how Hack was born? Or Rogue? I can't remember. Anywho...). If you could patch in code that procedurally generates different sokoban levels for every play-through, then You, Sir, would win the Internet (Or at least the corner of it that still plays Nethack).--Skrizzle (talk) 03:28, 16 December 2023 (UTC)