> imagine an unlit maze consisting of large natural caves
> connected by long, narrow, twisting, natural tunnels in
> which you have a candle and no compass, and the caves
> and tunnels are largely uniform; i think this would have
> the properties you describe.
Actually, that reminds me of a dungeon I once adventured in in AD&D (oops,
I let that secret out of the bag) where the walls curved ever so slightly
that the characters didnt realize the had turned. However, they did know
how to get back to where they came from. Having a room that backtracks on
itself or that switches directions makes the problem one of choice of
directions. If instead of N, S, E, W, we used Forward, Backward, and
turning, some of these maze things wouldn't be real problems.
>
> however, it is the case that most games seem to assume
> that the character has a compass, since the player moves
> the character using compass directions rather than
> 'forward', 'left' etc. under such an assumption, you
> should at least know from which direction you enter a
> room.
And I feel that you should be able to tell when you've entered a room you
just left, i.e. no looping corridors.
> although i've not played wishbringer, i don't think this
> sounds very fair: if you're able to get up the cliff
> once without dying by using hints in the game, you
> should always be able to do it; if there are no hints
> and the wrong direction kills you, it's just tedious.
>
I didn't make myself clear here. In Wishbringer, you get up the mountain
easily enough. If you haven't mapped it, you have to remember how to get
down or you're in trouble.
>
> why is this a brute force puzzle? if i exit north from
> room 1 to to reach room 2, but have to go west from room
> 2 to get back to room 1, then i know the corridor
> between the two rooms hasn't followed a straight line;
> i map it like this:
>
> -----room2
> |
> |
> room1
This in itself isn't bad, but if you had no way of determining whether
room2 was actaully a different room or just room1 that you've entered from
a different way. And if the passage curves, the text should indicate this
to you. I guess what I'm saying is that using a deficiency of the medium
, i.e. text games, to make a puzzle doesn't seem fair or, more
importantly, any fun.
>
> it may of course be the case that the corridor has
> curved and bent all over the place; unless it's
> relevant to the game i'm not that interested. if the
> geometry of the corridor is important, i'd either expect
> to be told about it, or a point in the corridor to be a
> separate location.
>
> -- richard
Oh, and by the way, I do know what a dumbwaiter is, I was trying to be
sarcastic and obviously failed. Now if anyone can tell me how to kill my
Aunt (still in curses) so I can get the gloves, I'll offer them a gold
ducat. (I'm kidding here, I've long since decided not to carry luggage
for a living.)
Thanks, JHAD