Re: Just spent 5 hours bug fixing HLA Adventure (my head's about to roll off!)

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 02:47:49 GMT
"Jim Carlock" <anonymous@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:Rather than respond with all those "I don't know..."'s, just use some
:default, "Your companion turns away, totally uninterested." Or maybe
:supply a set of random answers,

I agree with the goal, however, I feel that it would be best to solve the
first part of the problem by greatly expanding the vocabulary. It seems to
me that there is value to letting the user know that an alternative wording
might work -- as long as it doesn't happen too often.

:prepositions are important in the case of look...

Agreed. I implemented a bit of that capability in "Monster Rally", but did
not, at the time, back-port it to "Castle Elsinore". However, I plan to do
so in the Linux version.

:"Give the dog a bone."

I think that will work, if both the dog and the bone are present --
although I usually word it "Give a bone to the dog".

:There's nothing new, nothing different, nothing randomly humorous.

True, although there is some non-random humor that you have probably
missed. For example, did you try to get Laertes any help for his drinking
problem?

:I'm still thinking there should be
:a FLAGS or a SET keyword to turn options on and off.

If there were more flags, then I would agree with you. However, as it is,
it seems to me that "verbose" / "brief" work well enough.

:but that
:leads me to think maybe there can be levels of difficulty... but
:that means expanding Elsinore past the jigsaw puzzle it is?

The Elsinore script is not suitable for either levels of difficulty, or for
multiple [human] players. However, the game engine has no such limitations.

-- Chuck
.