Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: neilg@fraser.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Re: TADS object system, and romance extensions
Message-ID: <neilg.732739613@sfu.ca>
Sender: news@sfu.ca
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <732681867snx@hinrg.starconn.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 18:46:53 GMT
Lines: 25

mroberts@hinrg.starconn.com (Mike Roberts) writes:

>It might be better to start off with something less ambitious, or at
>least more abstract and constrained, than a full-blown human romance
>story.  For example, you're stranded on an alien planet populated with
>intelligent creatures.  Unlike in Star Trek, where all intelligent
>life-forms throughout the galaxy speak English, you are not able to
>communicate verbally with these creatures, so you have to find another
>way.  The goal would be to achieve an understanding of their point of
>view, so that you can communicate to them what you need.

 I'm toying with the idea of having a dog in my game. A dog isn't as
interesting as a human being (at least in terms of verbal interaction
:) but is an autonomous being that responds to its environment, to
you, to how it feels at the time. Except I don't want the dog as a
mere "follower" object with random messages - I want to experiment
with coding in various canine desires (food, attention, sleep, etc.)
in a simplistic way. I reckon this'd be easier than a person since
one's expectations are lower, and since you can't really speak to the
dog (beyond SIT! and WALKIES! perhaps) there isn't an excessive
reliance upon ASK THE DOG ABOUT POLICE CAR or whatever.

 More random ideas that may be of interest to someone, anyway...

 - Neil K. (n_k_guy@sfu.ca)
