[ANN] Blighted Isle
Eric Eve
end.
Swimming around in the Bay of Biscay, with your ship nowhere in
sight, it can only be a matter of minutes before you succumb to the
cold and drown.
Except that there was that strage mist that refused to be shredded
by the gale, surrounding land where no land has a right to be. What
if you were to fetch up there? What would happen then?
To find out, play Blighted Isle, my new TADS 3 game. It has just
been uploaded to the IF-Archive and will no doubt eventually find
its way into the games/tads directory. In the meantime it can also
be downloaded from:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~manc0049/files/Blighted.zip
-- Eric
Ryusui
about to head into town. Is it really this simple to implement
believable NPCs in a game with TADS3?
***SPOILERS***
...On a side note, I'm well aware of where I happen to be right now.
The name of the island, its mysterious property of not showing up on
any map, the motif on the coin...very clever. Points for that; I hope
the story holds up all the way through.
Ryusui
with Duke William, and this is what she said:
"I'm sorry, but I cannot help you{comma inadla/pctitle}," she replies,
"my cousin controls our finances."
Seems a control code slipped into the output. Sorry.
Fred Burbidge
> Just started on it...quite enjoying it; I've just met Julia and am
> about to head into town. Is it really this simple to implement
> believable NPCs in a game with TADS3?
Yes, it is. Great, eh? Michael J. Roberts is clearly genius material for
designing the T3 conversation system.
Woop, a new Eric Eve game! Loved All Hope Abandon and The Elysium
Enigma. Square Circle, on the other hand, didn't really do it for me.
Still, THIS should be great, so long as you don't ask me to engage my
frankly ghastly mathematical skill.
Eric Eve
news:1184463258....@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
Yes; 'inadla' is a typo for 'inalda' so the parameter substitution
doesn't work. I've now corrected it in my source; thanks for
reporting it!
-- Eric
Ryusui
the entire puzzle by that point, but the "mission" you get sent on was
still a very satisfying ending indeed. Might I ask, though, what is
the purpose of the screwdriver? And the Amusing (I forget the precise
term you used, so let's call it that) hinted that I can help You-Know-
Who cure the Blight...but I'm frankly at a loss.
I would like to offer a bit of constructive criticism: the feel of the
game changes drastically once you pass the Ridge, and to be blunt I
was fairly lost. Before then, I had the NPCs to give me a sense of
direction and accomplishment: losing them, I felt like I had stumbled
into the wrong game somehow. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I started
resorting extensively to the clues at this point, and I still don't
understand the purpose in the chain puzzle (I assumed it was to be
used as an elevator; was this an alternate solution that got only half-
left on the cutting room floor?). Everything from the marsh to the
tower felt fairly out-of-place: lavishly described, but somewhat
lacking in terms of the actual experience of getting through it. (As
for opening the tower: the "White Room" Flash game already did that.)
Again, excellent work on the NPCs, and on the story. Just...do
something about the sojourn through the wilderness.
Eric Eve
> Well, I finished the game.
That was fast work!
> Nice work on the finale: I had put together
> the entire puzzle by that point, but the "mission" you get sent on
> was
> still a very satisfying ending indeed. Might I ask, though, what
> is
> the purpose of the screwdriver?
It's used in an alternative solution to a puzzle (or, more
accurately, as part of an alternative route to reaching a particular
goal); if you achieved that particular objective by some other means
you don't need the screwdriver.
> And the Amusing (I forget the precise
> term you used, so let's call it that) hinted that I can help
> You-Know-
> Who cure the Blight...but I'm frankly at a loss.
You'd need to talk to you-know-who a bit more about the blight, and
about an object he mentions in connection with it, an object you
might associate with this character and "him upstairs" in any case
(I'm trying to give non-spoilery answers here, you'll note, but
before I respond to anything else I'd better add some spoiler
space).
S
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> and I still don't
> understand the purpose in the chain puzzle (I assumed it was to be
> used as an elevator; was this an alternate solution that got only
> half-
> left on the cutting room floor?).
You're right, it's meant to be used as an elevator, but it's one of
three alternative puzzles you can solve to reach the Tower (you
obviously solved one of the other two). It wasn't "left on the
cutting room floor"; the last time I tested it (just before
releasing the game) it worked fine, but it's a tough puzzle so I'm
not surprised you managed one of the others first.
> Everything from the marsh to the
> tower felt fairly out-of-place: lavishly described, but somewhat
> lacking in terms of the actual experience of getting through it.
I'm conscious that the game changes character in that section, but
IMHO it has to. In a much earlier version of the game, long before
any beta-testers saw it, there was a much shorter path from the
Ridge to the tower, but it felt very anti-climactic to me. From what
you say above I gather you got past the Ridge by going through the
marsh with Meg (there are two other routes), so you're never without
an NPC to talk with, and Meg should have something to say on most of
the things you encounter past the Ridge if you ask her about them.
> Again, excellent work on the NPCs, and on the story.
Thanks!
>Just...do something about the sojourn through the wilderness.
Well, I'm not sure what can be done or, at that moment, that
anything actually needs to be done! But I'll wait and see how other
people react before making my mind up on that.
But thanks for your feedback, anyway. It's a real luxury to get
feedback from someone who's played the game all the way through
within 24 hours of its release!
-- Eric
Rioshin an'Harthen
through the marshes with Meg.
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I believe I managed to encounter a fun bug in this: I managed to go through
the marsh to the other side of the ridge with both Meg and Inalda following
me; I just tried first grabbing Julia (since with either Meg or Inalda in
tow, I can't get to the town), and neither Meg or Inalda will follow me with
Julia in tow.
What happend was: I asked Julia to provide passage for Inalda, she agreed.
So I went to Inalda to tell her the news, but couldn't get her to where
Julia is, since she didn't want to enter town. So I went and talked to Meg,
who agreed to go with me to the other side, Inalda in tow.
Here's my full score list:
In 1756 moves, you have scored 82 of a possible 80 points. Your score
consists of:
1 point for drinking the reviving bowl of soup
1 point for rescuing Lady Inalda from Cadan Pascoe
1 point for sending Sally Penhaligon to Lady Inalda
1 point for obtaining the key to a room at the inn
3 points for retrieving the sack from the rafters
2 points for giving Meg the seaweed
2 points for returning the ladder once you'd finished with it
5 points for getting the lamp refilled with oil
1 point for reading the Red Dragon's ledger
5 points for reaching the crypt
2 points for finding the boat in the cave
2 points for moving the heavy crate up to the cellar
5 points for getting Inalda away from the castle
2 points for returning the screwdriver
3 points for getting the slow match
5 points for blasting a hole in the upper east mine wall
4 points for gaining a companion
5 points for getting safely through the marsh
1 point for removing the shed door
2 points for crossing the chasm
6 points for repairing the bridge
3 points for lowering the drawbridge
4 points for opening the tower door
2 points for breaking a hole through the north wall of the waterfall cave
6 points for freeing the Holy Grail from the rock
2 points for returning the Holy Grail to Merlin
5 points for rescuing Winston Churchill
1 point for getting Winston Churchill safely home
Note how it says 82 out of 80. :)
Ryusui
its release (not as part of a Comp or the lone time I tried beta-
testing a game) was L. Ross Raszewski's "Moments out of Time:
Adventure Type".
...God, what an experience. I loved the original MOOT, but if you play
the initial release of MOOT2, you'll probably have a similar reaction.
It's a promising game, and the homages to "The Journeyman Project" are
much appreciated, but it's so full of holes I find the author's claim
that it was beta-tested *at all* to be highly dubious. It took me a
week or two to finish, mostly because of bugs, underimplementations,
and general opaqueness that needed the author's help to sort out.
Speaking of help, there was none. The game uses a system similar to
The Journeyman Project: you get an AI, a foul-mouthed teenage girl
named Julia (I sincerely hope her constant F-bombing wasn't meant to
be funny; give me Ms. Trelawney any day), who drops hints at key
moments...problem is, they're in short supply and often just as opaque
as the puzzles. I haven't tried the second release yet, but I hope the
reaming the first release suffered at my hands inspired Mr. Raszewski
to fix the gaping holes in his game.
Forgive me for ranting. What I mean to say is that Blighted Isle was a
pleasure to play, and I honestly have never played one of your games
before. I better go back and look at The Elysium Enigma...
Eric Eve
"Rioshin an'Harthen" <rhar...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:dJtmi.186$2_5...@read3.inet.fi...
Yes, that sounds like a bug! Thanks for reporting it.
> Here's my full score list:
> In 1756 moves, you have scored 82 of a possible 80 points. Your
> score
[snip]
> Note how it says 82 out of 80. :)
That's not surprising, nor is it a bug. There are various routes
through the game involving alternate puzzles. The maximum score of
80 is what you get for the most economical route completing all
tasks, i.e. without solving puzzles that are on alternative routes
to the same destination. There's no way of stopping players solving
additional, unnecessary puzzles, so there's no way of stopping a
player from gaining more than the maximum score(even without the bug
involving Inalda continuing to follow you around once you team up
with Meg).
-- Eric
Rioshin an'Harthen
news:f7dq1e$29t$1...@frank-exchange-of-views.oucs.ox.ac.uk...
Yeah, I thought it wasn't intended.
I also remember receiving a few "Nothing obious happens." -messages when
asking people about things or other people, but forgot to write down to whom
I was talking and about what, so decided to leave that out of the original
message. If I can find the time, I'll try to track it down.
>> Here's my full score list:
>> In 1756 moves, you have scored 82 of a possible 80 points. Your score
> [snip]
>> Note how it says 82 out of 80. :)
>
> That's not surprising, nor is it a bug. There are various routes through
> the game involving alternate puzzles. The maximum score of 80 is what you
> get for the most economical route completing all tasks, i.e. without
> solving puzzles that are on alternative routes to the same destination.
> There's no way of stopping players solving additional, unnecessary
> puzzles, so there's no way of stopping a player from gaining more than the
> maximum score(even without the bug involving Inalda continuing to follow
> you around once you team up with Meg).
Well, I wasn't quite sure about this, so I added it there, just to be sure.
Glenn P.,
:> Note how it says 82 out of 80. :)
> That's not surprising, nor is it a bug. There are various routes
> through the game involving alternate puzzles. The maximum score of
> 80 is what you get for the most economical route completing all
> tasks...
In that event 80 points ought NOT to be listed as a maximum score,
since (by definition) it clearly isn't. Indeed: who on Earth ever
tried for the MINIMUM possible winning score in a game!?! As Graham
Nelson ("The Craft Of Adventure") would agree, scoring is among the
hardest things to get right in an adventure game. (See below.)
> ...There's no way of stopping players solving additional, unnecessary
> puzzles...
This is a matter of pure logistics: you haven't set your "scoring events"
properly.
If you have (say) three different puzzles, the solution to any of which
will allow the player to (say) open a locked door, then the the player's
immediate "minor" or "temporary" goal, is opening the locked door -- NOT
solving any particular puzzle -- and the game should score accordingly.
That is, do NOT award ANY points for solving ANY of the three puzzles:
ONLY award your points for actually opening the locked door for the
first time. THAT way, it doesn't matter *which* of the three puzzles
the player solves -- or even if he manages to solve more than one of
them! You'll still end up awarding the correct number of points for
opening the locked door. (Really, did I need to say this? It's only
logical, after all.)
I suggest examining all of your alternate puzzles to see where they all
"converge" -- that is, which particular obstacle they remove or which
problem they solve -- and then (1) make sure that removing that obstacle
or solving that problem is actually necessary for winning the game
(because otherwise you run the risk of letting the player earn "extra"
points, and you'll be right back where you started!), and (2) award your
points ONLY when the obstacle is removed or the problem is cleared,
rather than for solving any particular puzzle.
Hope this helps!!! :)
-- :: ============================================================== ::
:: %%%%%%%%% "Glenn P.," <C128UserD...@FVI.Net> %%%%%%%%% ::
:: -------------------------------------------------------------- ::
:: "When the moon hits your eye :: "When an eel bites your toe ::
:: like a big pizza pie, :: And it just won't let go -- ::
:: That's Amore!" :: THAT's A Moray!" ::
:: -------------------------------------------------------------- ::
:: %%%%%%%%%%%%% Anonymous -- Found On The Web! %%%%%%%%%%%%% ::
:: ============================================================== ::
:: Take Note Of The Spam Block On My E-Mail Address! ::
Glenn P.,
The thing to do is to differentiate, within your game, between "problems"
set against the player, and the "puzzles" he'll use to solve them.
Let us say that in order to successfully complete your game, the player
must enter one particular room, which at the game's start just happens
(well, O.K., it doesn't really "just happen", YOU set it up that way!)
to be locked.
So the game PROBLEM is, "Enter the locked room." O.K. so far?
You have set up three separate possible ways for the player to do this:
1. Use the TNT to blast the door to flinders (wherever they are).
2. Use the Magic Spell to make the door Disintegrate.
3. Use the Key to unlock, and then to open, the door.
This correspponds to three possible PUZZLES which the player might solve:
1. Blowing the door up.
2. Using Magic on the door to get rid of it.
3. Finding the Key to unlock the door.
Each one of these PUZZLES will enable the player to solve ONE particular
game PROBLEM: "Enter the locked room."
ONLY award points when the player solves the PROBLEM -- NEVER when he
merely solves a PUZZLE.
In other words, award points when the player ENTERS THE LOCKED ROOM FOR
THE FIRST TIME (this last condition is important, unless you want the
player to get the same points EVERY time he enters that room!).
DO *NOT* award ANY points for --
Blowing up the door, OR
Disintegrating the door with Magic, OR
Unlocking the door.
ONLY award points when the player actually ENTERS THE LOCKED ROOM FOR
THE FIRST TIME.
*IF* you do this, it won't matter WHICH of the three puzzles the player
solved, or in which order, or even if he has solved more than one (say,
unlocking the door first and then blowing it up). He'll still get the
correct points for "Entering the locked room."
Got the idea? :)
Hope this helps!!!
Eric Eve
> happens." -messages when asking people about things or other
> people, but forgot to write down to whom I was talking and about
> what, so decided to leave that out of the original message. If I
> can find the time, I'll try to track it down.
Thanks; with the aid of that information I was able to write a
little debugging topic-checking action to pick out likely cases
where this might occur (which I've now corrected). The three it
located were:
Asking Merlin about the Duke
Asking Julia about ships (under certain circumstances)
Asking Inalda whether she was sorry to leave Valon
Do any of those ring a bell?
-- Eric
Rioshin an'Harthen
> debugging topic-checking action to pick out likely cases where this might
> occur (which I've now corrected). The three it located were:
>
> Asking Merlin about the Duke
> Asking Julia about ships (under certain circumstances)
> Asking Inalda whether she was sorry to leave Valon
>
> Do any of those ring a bell?
No, none of those do.
But with a little bit of stretching my memory, I rememberd having this
problem with Jennifer, so I went and tested. At least asking Jennifer about
Inalda produces the "Nothing obvious happens." message.
Eric Eve
> "Eric Eve" <eric...@NOSPAMhmc.ox.ac.uk> kirjoitti viestissä
> news:f7dvj2$4e7$1...@frank-exchange-of-views.oucs.ox.ac.uk...
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>>
>>>>> S
>>>>> P
>>>>> O
>>>>> I
>>>>> L
>>>>> E
>>>>> R
>>>>>
>>>>> S
>>>>> P
>>>>> A
>>>>> C
>>>>> E
>>>>>
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>>
>
> No, none of those do.
>
> But with a little bit of stretching my memory, I rememberd having
> this problem with Jennifer, so I went and tested. At least asking
> Jennifer about Inalda produces the "Nothing obvious happens."
> message.
Okay thanks for checking. I was able to locate that one (which was
caused by the opposite set of conditions to the ones I just tracked
down before), and on the basis of that I added another test to my
debugging routine and tracked down an additional four cases.
-- Eric
Rioshin an'Harthen
> "Rioshin an'Harthen" <rhar...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:NCvmi.251$2_5...@read3.inet.fi...
>
> by the opposite set of conditions to the ones I just tracked down before),
> and on the basis of that I added another test to my debugging routine and
> tracked down an additional four cases.
Nice to be of assistance, as bugs do always slip through even the most
careful alpha and beta tests; more bugs the larger the piece of software is.
:)
Eric Eve
>
> Nice to be of assistance, as bugs do always slip through even the
> most careful alpha and beta tests; more bugs the larger the piece
> of software is. :)
How true! I've now uploaded a version 1.1 (to my own website, not to
the IF-Archive), which fixes all the bugs you've reported.
-- Eric
EtrF
">ask inalda about apples
"What do think about apples?" you ask.
"It would take too long to answer that now, lieutenant," she replies,
"Some other time, when we have more leisure, perhaps.""
not really appropriate for the situation, i would venture to say.
-Erik
EtrF
EtrF
>
> Thanks; with the aid of that information I was able to write a
> little debugging topic-checking action to pick out likely cases
> where this might occur (which I've now corrected). The three it
> located were:
>
> Asking Merlin about the Duke
> Asking Julia about ships (under certain circumstances)
> Asking Inalda whether she was sorry to leave Valon
>
> Do any of those ring a bell?
>
> -- Eric
I ran into a few bugs while playing (nice game by the way) and have e-
mailed them to you. Please let me know if you got them.
-erik
Eric Eve
"EtrF" <EMFred...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1184703770.1...@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
No, I'm afraid I've not received anything from you. If you used the
email address quoted above you'll need to remove the spam block.
But thanks for trying to send a bug report, at any rate!
-- Eric