Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: mlvanbie@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (Michael Van Biesbrouck)
Subject: Re: When should "all" be allowed?
Message-ID: <CMA1L8.5tG@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
Sender: news@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca (news spool owner)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <2ldjflINNm8t@life.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 04:24:44 GMT
Lines: 83

In article <2ldjflINNm8t@life.ai.mit.edu>,
David Baggett <dmb@ai.mit.edu> wrote:
>An issue that frequently comes up in playtesting is when to allow multiple
>direct objects.  The problem is that allowing too much makes some puzzles
>trivial:
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>The troll eyes you hungrily.  He begins drooling on your leg.  "Me hungry,"
>he growls.
>
>>give all to troll
>
>...
>Kewpie doll: the troll, fearing the ancient legends, flees in terror
>from the Kewpie doll.         
>...
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The best solution to this sort of problem is:

* >give all to troll
*
* Book: the troll, not being much of a bookworm, decides to eat you.
* Kewpie doll: the troll is not in the habit of accepting strange things
* from food.
* :

If someone starts fiddling with all of the knobs for Zork's Flood
Control Gate, the result is catastrophic.  Any situation for which
cycling through objects in your inventory will provide a solution is not
a good puzzle.  Planetfall sort of solved this problem by giving you
more objects than you could carry.  Trying objects without understanding
why they would be useful might take hours.

Killing the player on a wrong choice (like my example might be construed
to be) is probably excessive, and doesn't stop people from undoing or
restoring until they get it right.  If your puzzles require players to
realize that they need an object and then search for it ("The store is
just to big to go wandering about in.  Perhaps you should ask one of the
staff members."), then this problem doesn't really occur.

Sometimes you really do want to feed `all' to the dragon.  If stuffing
the dragon will keep it from eating you, then good.  Another possiblity
is requiring things to be given with some sort of order so that random
guessing will be too slow.  When feeding a dragon, maybe

* The dragon looks hungry, and licks her lips when she looks at you.
*
* > feed dragon flamethrower.
*
* The dragon sees through your ruse and blocks the cave entrance with
* her tail.  She begins sharpening her teeth.
*
* > feed dragon sandwich
*
* The dragon is on to your ways, and refuses the food.  You're lunch.
*
* You have died: restore
*
* > feed dragon sandwich
*
* The Earl of Sandwich is screams in terror as the dragon swallows him
* whole.  The dragon is eyeing you warily, and still seems very hungry.
*
* > feed dragon princess
*
* What do you want to feed to the dragon Princess?
*
* > steak
*
* The dragon licks her lips after eating the steak.  She's still hungry
* and looks at you expectantly.
*
* > feed flamethrower to dragon
*
* Trustingly, the dragon swallows the flamethrower whole.  You barely
* make it to cover before she explodes.

-- 
Michael Van Biesbrouck, UW CSC Librarian
gopher://descartes.uwaterloo.ca/h0/mathSOC/.csc/.www/.mlvanbie/homepage.html
	Spin-doctors are like evil anti-librarians; they're
	the Dark Side of the Force. -- Bruce Sterling
