Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!ieunet!maths.tcd.ie!tcdcs!rwallace
From: rwallace@cs.tcd.ie (Russell Wallace)
Subject: Re: Choosing your IF setting / genre
Message-ID: <1994May21.194107.17053@cs.tcd.ie>
Organization: Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
References: <2r9t9d$ss7@sunb.ocs.mq.edu.au> <)> <2rdehhINNg68@life.ai.mit.edu> <1994May19.013111.4382@cs.tcd.ie> <2rjv83$h8p@news.u.washington.edu>
Date: Sat, 21 May 1994 19:41:07 GMT
Lines: 38

scythe@u.washington.edu (The Grim Reaper) writes:

>In article <1994May19.013111.4382@cs.tcd.ie>,
>Russell Wallace <rwallace@cs.tcd.ie> wrote:
>>[Comments about being able to blow things up deleted...]
>>
>[deletia]
>>(even if it was only provided for one puzzle and is only useful there)
>>or cutting things up with an axe (ditto) would do far more to make the
>>game believable, than the ability to type TELL THE ROBOT TO BURN ALL THE
>>BOOKS EXCEPT THE BLACK AND RED ONES or suchlike; if people are prepared
>>to spend huge amounts of effort on the latter, why not the former?  It
>>needn't be *that* difficult... just record what material everything is
>>made of, and have a section of code that says objects made of paper will
>>burn easily (e.g. with a match), objects made of wood will burn with
>>difficulty (e.g. with a flamethrower), metal and stone won't burn at
>>all...

>Sheesh, you have got to be kidding.  Implementing any sort of vaguely
>realistic physics into an i-f game is difficult, if not impossible.  Just
>saying that wood objects will burn under certain conditions isn't enough.
>We'll have to change the description, possibly create ashes, alter the object's
>weight, change NPC's reactions to the object, possibly have certain puzzles
>change (a bucket with the bottom burnt out isn't going to be much use), check
>if the object's containing anything so that we can see if those things burn,
>etc, etc.  Physics is a much harder problem than parsers, which is why we
>see more of the latter than the former.

Only if you demand perfection or nothing.  That attitude to parsers
would have nobody ever write one better than GO NORTH because it
wouldn't be able to understand TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION,
so why bother?  For wood and paper objects burning, it suffices for game
purposes to simply make them disappear.

-- 
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@cs.tcd.ie
