Rats & Snakes: Avoid being eaten, escape unharmed

Question

I'm trying to create a puzzle for an RPG that involves a classic lever puzzle.

It is presented as follows: There are four rooms, you start in the southern-most room (S).

In this room are two closed paths to the East (E) and West (W).

These closed doors are transparent, and through them you can see down the short tunnel to the rooms beyond. The room to the East contains Giant Rats, and the room to the West contains Giant Snakes.

In the middle of the North Wall is an open door that leads to a hallway to the Northern room. In the middle of this hallway are two additional transparent doors that lead to the other two rooms. The northern room contains the locked exit door. In both the Southern and Northern rooms, next to their connecting doors is a panel with three switches in a row. The middle switch is turned to the down (open) position. Each switch is labeled to indicate which room it goes to. Pulling a switch will open the pathways to that room. The exit door is currently locked, and can only be opened when all switches are in the open position.

The Switches

• Pulling the Rat switch will open the path from East to South, and close the path from North to South by removing the transparent doors on either side of the East to South path, and closing transparent doors in the South room leading North, and in the North room leading South
• Pulling the Snake switch will open the path from West to South by removing the transparent doors on either side of the West to South path, and closing transparent doors in the South room leading North, and in the North room leading South
• Pulling the Door (middle) switch will close the path from North to South, and open the path from East to West by closing transparent doors in the South room leading North, and in the North room leading South and opening the doors in the middle of the North to South path.

Additional Information:

• The snakes appear hungry, and the rats appear afraid.
• The snakes will immediately head towards food (including you) if able.
• The rats will scurry to another room that does not contain a snake.
• The rats will attack you out of fear.
• A full snake is docile.

What order can you pull the levers in to ensure you are unharmed, and can escape?

Bonus: Any suggestions for simplifying or altering the above to make it easier to understand the solution. Any harder configurations are also welcomed.

Answer 1

I suspect I'm missing something, as this seems too simple, but the following works for the puzzle as written:

As the north-south passage is open at the start, and all three switches are available in the north room, go north immediately and work from there. (There's no point staying in the south room where you are at risk of meeting the rats and/or snakes.)

Open both the Rat and Snake switches. It doesn't actually matter what order you do this (if simultaneous is not possible), as either of them will shut the south door, keeping you safe from the rats and snakes.

Because the Door switch started in the open position, all three switches are set and the exit should now be open.