Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!ieunet!maths.tcd.ie!tcdcs!news.tcd.ie!rwallace
From: rwallace@tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Subject: Re: Handling lots of objects?
Message-ID: <Cx3y2q.1p2@news.tcd.ie>
Sender: usenet@news.tcd.ie (TCD News System )
Organization: University of Dublin, Trinity College
References: <36l4jo$9f3@nntp1.u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 17:32:50 GMT
Lines: 32

In <36l4jo$9f3@nntp1.u.washington.edu> scythe@u.washington.edu (The Grim Reaper) writes:

>I'm working on my game, and I've realized I'm planning on having lots and
>lots of objects purely for decorative purpose.  This is good, since it adds
>realism and whatnot to the setting.  However, common sense suggests that
>the player should be able to take most of these.  This is not good.  For 
>instance, let's say I had a room that was really cold, with icicles hanging
>from the ceiling (unncessary to the game, but mentioned in the room desc to
>help suggest how cold it is).  As I see it, I have a couple options for 

I can see two good ways to handle this:

1.  Implement an engine that correctly handles collections of objects,
'common nouns' as well as 'proper nouns'.  An engine that would start
off with 50 icicles on the ceiling and correctly handle a request by the
player to take 12 of them and drop 5 of those 12 in the next room.  This
would involve writing your own game engine, probably in C or some other
general purpose programming language.

2.  Simply respond to 'get icicle' with 'You don't need to take the
icicles'.

Now, as a matter of principle the first option might be preferred; as a
practical solution, most people would probably agree that the second
option is better :)



--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie
