()===========================================================================() ||'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''|| ||: :|| ||: The Planet of Death :|| ||: :|| ||...........................................................................|| ||: ported by Neil Bowers :|| ||: :|| ||...........................................................................|| ()===========================================================================() Beta Comp 04 entry for Graham Holden (g-holden@dircon.co.uk) ()===========================================================================() || || || The Game || || || ()===========================================================================() THE PLANET OF DEATH Artic Adventure 'A' Inform version by Neil Bowers Release beta-2 / Serial number 040804 / Inform v6.30 Library 6/11 Release beta-3 / Serial number 040818 / Inform v6.30 Library 6/11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ............................................................................... Welcome to Adventure 'A' The Planet of Death In this adventure you find yourself stranded on an alien planet. Your aim is to escape from this planet by finding your, now captured and disabled, space ship. You will meet various hazards and dangers on your adventure, some natural, some not, all of which you must overcome to succeed. Good luck. You will need it! ()===========================================================================() || || || Cheats / Hints || || || ()===========================================================================() Records points where I needed help, hints or plain cheated! o With the original "beta-2" version, I managed to avoid the Walkthrough until I hit the problem with not being able to pick up the guard. Checking the Walkthrough confirmed that it was a problem with the game and not me... o I needed to check the Walkthrough to see that you took the Starter Motor into the Space Ship and then flew that into the lift; I got hung up trying to figure out how to reach the lift buttons (I really should have tried using the Starter Motor earlier). ()===========================================================================() || || || Beta Testing Notes || || || ()===========================================================================() First, some general notes about me and how I beta-test, then some specific notes about your game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Me ............................................................................... Whenever I beta-test a game, I like to put a few paragraphs about "where I come from", so that you, the author, can put my comments in the right context. First, I've never progressed beyond the WNYIP stage (work not yet in progress). I therefore have a genuine admiration for anybody that actually manages to persevere through to the point of needing beta-testers. I have, however, played many games over the years, and have quite a good eye for spelling and grammatical errors. Except in the case of clear-cut bugs, spelling or grammatical errors (which are usually right or wrong), I try to phrase my comments along the lines of "might be better as..." or "you might want to consider doing this differently" as opposed to "this is wrong" or "do it this way"; however, as this can become cumbersome to write (and probably to read) I may not always succeed. Please take any comments that appear too declamatory as suggestions. If I really think you've made a fundamental error, I'll let you know :-). Bugs and Spelling mistakes apart (which are usually right or wrong), most subjective comments will be just that -- subjective. Something didn't seem quite right -- TO ME -- as I played, and so I will jot that down. I tend to jot down anything that comes to mind, however "trivial"; I TRY not to filter these myself (e.g. "it's only a quick game, it's not worth the author going to that much trouble"). I'd much prefer having them "out in the open" so that the author can decide if it's too much trouble to fix. And there will ALWAYS be SOMETHING that can be tweaked in any game, so deciding to "cut your losses" ISN'T a bad decision in itself -- only if you cut too early for a given situation. Again, they are only MY comments, affected a lot by my likes, dislikes and prejudices. Hopefully an author will find them useful (mixed in with those from other testers) in deciding if some aspect of the work could improve by being changed. Where possible, I will also try and point out things that used to be staples of an adventure game, but which nowadays are frowned upon by "community standards" (e.g. mazes, sudden deaths, hunger puzzles etc.). I won't go into the rights and wrongs of these changes in expectations, merely point them out since, especially for a competition game, an "old-school" work may be received less favourably. If the author has given a clear indication that they are aiming for a particular "feel" (e.g. deliberately making a "retro" game), then I will try and temper my comments accordingly. Ultimately though, I don't claim any "divine right" to how the work should be; it's the author's work, and only (s)he can (and should) make the final decision. My personal preference in adventure games (or "Works of IF" if you prefer) is more "old-school" than "avant-garde" -- more "Anchorhead", "Mulldoon" or "Curses" than "Photopia". I obviously want to enjoy playing, but I usually want an element of challenge -- similar to doing a good crossword. Finally, I'm more than happy to respond or expand on any of the points I raise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About "Planet of Death" ............................................................................... Being a port of an old game, Planet of Death is clearly going to be much more of an "old-school text adventure" than a "modern work of Interactive Fiction" (and playing the first few turns confirms this). As such, I will (mostly) hold off from comments about the brevity of descriptions and other "old-school" features (e.g. the early maze). I will, however, try and comment on those areas where you have stated that you wish to improve on the original. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary of Testing ............................................................................... This bit was written last, and is the "executive summary" of all my in-play notes. Plot ---- Being a port of a "traditional" adventure game, you've got to judge the plot by the standards of the time (i.e. don't worry about WHY there's a laser gun left lying around, or just how long CAN a block of ice remain in a maze without melting, etc.). Even then, there's at least one plot-hole that I really think needs filling in -- the Prison Cell. If I am right (see notes for more detail), there is one Prison Cell that is to the west of the Quiet Cavern, and this is where you are dragged off to if you head east or west from the Passage (or dance there without the mirror), or go south from the Large Hangar. The main problem is that, since there's no mention of guards to do the dragging, it feels as though there's a mapping error that merges four different Prison Cell locations into one. The guards are talked of in passing if you happen to try bribing them with the Gold Coin, but why would you even attempt this when you've no idea they exist? Adding some suitable "you are dragged off" messages would help greatly. The ending is a little sudden and short; adding a paragraph or so to the "You've survived" message would probably help considerably. Bugs ---- There are (no longer) any showstopping bugs that prevent you from finishing the game, and only a couple of serious "what off earth happened here" ones. The most serious is the lack of any restriction as to where USE COIN works. The main other full-scale bug (as opposed to not-ideally-programmed verbs or objects) is the (probably) pair of Rope objects that are improperly described and switched near the beginning of the game. I'm now fairly sure that the multiple-Prison-Cell bug mentioned in the main section of these notes is not a bug, but the result of the absent-guards plot- hole. Feel of the Game ---------------- In its present form, I think you need to pay some attention to the dichotomy between old and modern style. Early in the game, two-word commands prevail (e.g. USE FLINT, CUT ROPE) and more complex forms (e.g. CUT ROPE WITH FLINT) are rejected. This makes it much harder (in the "wrong sort of hard" way) later in the game when you need to use constructs like SHOOT GUN AT FIELD, or the combination WEAR BOOTS and GO LAKE instead of USE BOOTS. There are quite a few cases where objects could be enhanced (without losing the "old-style" feel) by adding entries to their 'name' property (e.g. add SHARP to the Sharp Flint's 'name' property). Finally, adding a number of 'scenery' items here and there should enrich the playing experience, without losing much of the old-style feel. The latter third of the game seems to have been "modernised" better; more objects have a full 'name' property (e.g. the Sleeping Security Man) and more complex forms CAN be used (e.g. UNLOCK DOOR WITH KEY works, but so to does UNLOCK DOOR --> What do you want to unlock the door with? --> KEY). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About these Notes ............................................................................... The bulk of the notes will be written in chronological order during my first progression through the game. While these will be reviewed for clarity later on, I won't generally change the gist of what I wrote, since I feel a note of my original impression is relevant. Sometimes this will result in comments about something that was unclear at the time, but is later resolved. I believe this is preferable since it is important to note when, at the time of writing, I was confused. I'm not just talking about not knowing where a missing key is; this is confusion at a deeper level; an example probably explains better: One game I tested had a situation where it was obvious that you would need to open a secret door at some point. From the context, I was REASONABLY sure that this would happen later in the game; however, responses from "obvious" commands were sufficiently ambiguous that AT THAT TIME there was at least an outside chance that it could be opened now, but we had a "guess the phrasing" problem. Although later I discovered that the secret door was indeed opened in another way, the original note about there being a possible "guess the command" situation was still relevant. My final suggestion was that the author catch the "obvious" command (and variants) and let the player know that this wasn't the right approach. This would stop someone wasting time in a futile attempt to get the right combination of words. Most entries should use the following nomenclature in the left margin to identify the type or severity of the comment: !B Something that is, or feels like, a bug. !O Problem with an object; either real or virtual, fixed or portable. Often where an expected synonym doesn't work. In many cases adding entries to the object's 'name' property should help. !V Problem with a verb; generally an expected one that doesn't work, or one that behaves in an unexpected manner. !S Spelling mistake (or something I consider a definite grammatical error). !T Some other issue with the text: something feels wrong or I think it could be worded better. !P Passe -- some aspect that nowadays seems to be commonly frowned upon (rightly or wrongly). These are (often) more "for your information" than from any personal dislike. Also used for situations where there really ought to be more explanation for the way things work, even given an "old-school" game. !N General note. Not necessarily a problem; just something to think about. Or something that doesn't fit into any of the above. !G A good point. I see beta-testing as not just picking holes, but reinforcing good aspects of a work. !** These are entries I've scattered around towards the end of the testing process. Generally these are of the form: "now I've seen how everything is meant to work, this might be the best thing to do..." I may also prefix important entries with a double exclamation mark (e.g. "!!W") and suffix comments I'm undecided over with a question mark (e.g. "!N?"). My "intended" way of you using the comments is: o Hopefully at least skim all entries, crossing them off as you go (either because you've fixed the problem or decided the comment doesn't apply or warrant a change). If you're pressed for time, or as a double-check, then: o Search for "!B". These are what I suspect to be bugs. Generally, all these should be dealt with; even if there isn't a bug, that fact that I thought there was may suggest some reworking may make things clearer. o Search for "!S". These are what I think to be spelling or grammatical errors. In most cases, they should at least be checked. o Search for "!!". These are what I consider the more important or noteworthy of other issues. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release beta-2 / Serial number 040804 ............................................................................... Although these notes were made against the first released version, I've been reasonably careful to check that they all still apply to the "beta-3" release (that fixed the problem of not being able to grab the Small Green Man). Opening ------- !N The style of the opening is very much "old-school" -- you are explicitly "set a puzzle" to solve, rather than your predicament emerging through exploration (i.e. while you might know your ship has been captured, you would be unlikely to know yet that it's been disabled). Probably excusable as it's a port of an old game; changing this would probably jar with the rest of the game. !T "your, now captured and disabled, space ship." sounded wrong when I first read it. Perhaps use dashes instead of commas, or have "your space ship (which is now captured and disabled)." General (not location specific) ------------------------------- !V ENTER seems to be a synonym for CROSS; in a few places (e.g. Edge of Pit and Beside Lake) this gives unnatural seeming responses. !** I can't remember seeing anywhere where this synonym makes more sense than not having it; I would be tempted to break the connection and add some specific responses to ENTER. Some (e.g. ENTER PIT) should just trigger a refusal, while others (e.g. ENTER LAKE) should make something happen (in this case, act the same as GO LAKE). Mountain Plateau ---------------- !O The Sharp Flint doesn't respond to X SHARP. !P The "As good-looking as ever." response to X ME -- generally accepted that this should be overridden. Because this is the Inform default, it screams "I'm an Inform port" rather than "I'm an old game". Either reject totally (as the original possibly did) or add a suitable response. !O X STEEP CLIFF gives "You can't see any such thing." (although X CLIFF works). !G Response to GO NORTH. !T Possibly says more about me, but from "mountain plateau", I'd initially assumed that I was at the TOP of the "steep cliff", and that DOWN (and the unmentioned NORTH) would head down over the edge. Maybe get "foot of a steep cliff" in there somewhere? !** I would make UP and CLIMB CLIFF give the same refusal as NORTH. Edge of Pit ----------- !S As there's only one (obvious) exit, "The obvious exits are east." should probably be "The obvious exit is east." (or "...to the east."). !O X PIT gives "You can't see any such thing.". ENTER PIT is thus not recognised; as isn't THROW STONES IN PIT. !** Create a Pit object for immersion and have anything thrown or dropped in sent to the Quiet Cavern. For a bit of "real" old-game-feel, destroy them! !O X STONE doesn't work; neither does X HANDFUL or X HANDFUL OF STONES. !V USE ROPE seems to be the only way to descend. !** Given that CUT ROPE in the Dense Forest automatically uses the Sharp Flint, I would be tempted to make DOWN and CLIMB DOWN do the equivalent here (i.e. auto-use the Rope, assuming you've got it). If this seems too much "bypassing the puzzle", then make CLIMB DOWN generate the same "How?" response as DOWN on its own does. Dense Forest ------------ !B X ROPE gives "You shouldn't see this. Please report to author." -- reported! (Have you forgotten to update the 'initial' property of the rope?) !B From a restart, carrying the Sharp Flint: >cut rope The rope drops to the floor. >get it You can't see "it" (the hanging rope) at the moment. >get rope Taken. !** From these two it looks like you have two rope objects that you swap between when the first is cut. To fix the first bug you probably need to update the first object's 'description' property; for the second, a call to PronounNotice() may do the trick (only a guess; not tested). !O None of TREE, TREES, FOREST can be examined. !V UNTIE ROPE gives "That's not a verb I recognise."; UNDO ROPE gives "That's not something you can open.". !** I would probably respond to both with a refusal of some kind (e.g. too high or too tight). !V CUT ROPE (as I suspected when trying to UNTIE it) works, but so does USE FLINT. However, CUT ROPE WITH FLINT gives "I only understood you as far as wanting to cut the hanging rope.". This is presumably the "old- school" nature of the beast. Modern practice would be to not allow USE and insist on CUT ROPE WITH FLINT; if just CUT ROPE were accepted, a "(using the sharp flint)" response might be expected. !** I suspect that if CUT ROPE WITH FLINT were added to the verb-rules, then (a) this would automatically generate "(using the sharp flint)" to CUT ROPE, and (b) should still allow USE FLINT to work. !V GET ALL says "There are none at all available!" rather than trying to get the rope. If you're going to allow GET ALL (it works elsewhere), then perhaps it should attempt (and fail) to get the rope. !T Since CUT ROPE, when you have the Sharp Flint, works, the response "With what?" doesn't seem quite right when you don't have the flint. There's no point answering, since you haven't got the flint; if you were asked this WITH the flint then USE FLINT would be an OK response (compare with DOWN -> "How?" -> USE ROPE at Edge of Pit). !** My preference would be to keep CUT ROPE the same if you have the flint, but say something like "You've nothing to cut it with." if you haven't. !T CLIMB ROPE (when still hanging) gives "I don't think much is to be achieved by that."; a response along the lines of "You shimmy up the rope, but finding nothing of interest, and with your muscles beginning to ache, you drop back to the ground." gives a less "canned response" feel. !P You go DOWN from the Mountain Plateau to here, yet WEST to return. Perhaps UP should also go back (and _maybe_ NORTH instead of WEST to fit neatly into the "spare" SOUTH direction from the plateau?) !** As you've indicated you don't want to change the geography, then probably ignore this, although adding UP may still be valid. Damp Cave --------- !O Neither CAVE nor WALL can be examined. Maze ---- !B? I seem to have fully mapped the maze to the Ice Cavern, but there's no way back to the Damp Cave. For an old game, this is entirely plausible behaviour, but on the other hand, you could have nixed the exit back to the Damp Cave. !** Obviously not a bug, just a one-way point (I was reasonably certain it was). Ice Cavern ---------- !P Having to X CAVERN to be told about the steep slope. Especially as the description of the cavern doesn't even hint at it being shrouded in darkness. !** Possibly adding something about part of the cavern being in darkness would give a bit of hint without spoiling the original feel. !B? After having learned of the steep slope, I get the following responses: >d You can't go that way. >enter slope You can't cross that! >go slope It doesn't look like you could safely scrabble down. ENTER SLOPE is probably a reasonable stab if DOWN doesn't work and you're stumbling towards GO SLOPE (which is probably the "correct" old-school command). Ideally, all should attempt the descent. !!V USE ROPE here gives "You don't know how to use the rope. Nothing happens.". At first, I thought this might have been because I hadn't looked at the Cave Drawing in the Damp Cave, but it appears to be the default response to USE when not at the right place. You clearly CAN use a rope (or most other usable items); might be better to make the default "can't use" message emphasise the fact that there's nothing worthwhile or appropriate to use it the object on, rather than it can't be used. !!T The game doesn't allow you to GO SLOPE because "It doesn't look like you could safely scrabble down.". If this were the case, I would certainly not "...slide down the slope on the block of ice. Wheee!". "scrabble down" implies a roughish surface, that would be even less suited to ice- block riding. !B? Should a block of ice that's large enough to ride on be portable? Why does USE ICE insert a "(first taking the block of ice)" first? !** I guess there's little one could do without a risk of losing the flavour of the original. You could, perhaps, imply that you'd get scratched to pieces if you went down on your hands and knees. Beside Lake ----------- !B Consider: >x ravine It is very deep, but not very wide. >cross ravine How? >jump ravine You can't see any such thing. The last response occurs all the time, not just in reply to the (probably rhetorical) "How?". !** In fact, I think it occurs in response to JUMP when said anywhere. Whatever is after jump, a real object or gibberish, you are told you can't see it. You never actually use JUMP, but a better response should be given. !V SWIM responds "There's not enough water to swim in." (as it does elsewhere). The lake would appear to be enough... Maybe a different refusal? !V ENTER LAKE gives the same response as CROSS LAKE. !** Another case where ENTER == CROSS seems the wrong behaviour. I think ENTER LAKE should give the same response as GO LAKE. !P I'm remembering why so many players don't like USE... After getting the Floor Board, I USEd it here, thinking it could be used to reach the Gold Coin. I'd forgotten the Ravine for the moment, and was rather surprised to get to the Old Shed! !** This probably just something to put up with... USE always has the danger of solving an unexpected puzzle. !B Seeing as how the Floor Board wouldn't get the coin, and the Pair of Boots "look waterproof" I tried USE BOOTS and got the standard "You don't know how to use the pair of boots. Nothing happens." message. Almost as an afterthought, I tried WEAR BOOTS then GO LAKE and managed to retrieve the Gold Coin. Given "USE " has worked for other situations, this seems wrong (either USE should never work, which would probably break the "old game feel"; or USE should work here... wearing the boots seems no less obvious an action for USE BOOTS than cutting the rope does for USE FLINT. Also, as noted above, ENTER LAKE should probably work the same as GO LAKE. !** If USE BOOTS is too little to solve getting the coin, you could always reply with something like "You can't use them if you're not wearing them.". !!!B Having just retrieved the Gold Coin above, I tried USE COIN and got "You use the gold coin to bribe the guard, who leaves the door unlocked.". Apart from the total lack of guard or locked door, this seems a perfectly reasonable response :-) !** This is the major bug of the game (now that the Small Green Man can be got) -- you can bribe the guard from anywhere! A location check will fix this bit, but there are a couple of related issues (discussed below) that also need attention: (a) the guard appears not to be mentioned anywhere else than in this response (AFTER you've bribed him), and (b) the door to the Prison Cell never changes its description to reflect its state. Strange House ------------- !O The door to the north doesn't exist. !O X PAIR OF BOOTS doesn't work (neither does X BOOT). !T Personally, I would make "floor board" one word. !O X FLOOR BOARD gives "I only understood you as far as wanting to examine the ground."; X FLOOR gives "You see nothing unexpected in that direction." and X FLOORBOARD gives "You can't see any such thing.". Another reason for making it one word? !O X HOUSE gives a "no need to refer" message, but X STRANGE HOUSE (or just X STRANGE) give "You can't see...". Old Shed -------- !T The description has "The exit is the east.". Should this be either "to the east" or "is east"? !O X SHED doesn't respond. !P Crossing back to Beside Lake (with the Floor Board breaking) would (I guess) lead to an unwinnable condition if you didn't pick up the Laser Gun. !** Being able not to win is almost a defining aspect of "classic" adventure games, and, for this sort of game -- short, presented as a "puzzle" and not a "story" -- I really don't have any objections to having to start over occasionally. More practically, you would have to completely rework the story and puzzles were you to try and prevent this (without using subtle-as-a- sledgehammer responses like "That laser gun's far too interesting to leave behind", which I would consider even worse than having to restart). !T SHOOT GUN or FIRE GUN gives "Bang!". My experience with them is (very) limited, but would a laser gun go "Bang!"? SHOOT GUN is a fine synonym for FIRE GUN; But FIRE ROPE or SHOOT ROPE (and other objects) both give "You can't shoot a rope!". I would say you CAN shoot a rope (by firing a gun at it). Perhaps "You can't fire " would be a better common response, to reinforce that SHOOT or FIRE refer to the thing being fired, not the thing being fired at. !B SHOOT GUN AT (other than the Green Man or the Force Field) returns absolutely no response (just a blank line). However SHOOT GUN AT gives "You can't see any such thing.". !** I would be seriously tempted to rework the verbs so that FIRE GUN AT replaces the current use of SHOOT. You can then make SHOOT work in exactly the same way (i.e. implying the use of the gun to do the shooting). This sounds closer to the verbs' everyday use (assuming one goes around shooting laser guns everyday...) Quiet Cavern ------------ !!P I know this is a traditional "one-way" point, but should there be a better explanation of why you can't return to either the Ice Cavern or the Edge of Pit? If from the Cavern, there's no mention of the slope you came down; nor why, having picked up the Block of Ice before use, you're not still carrying it at the bottom (although I have subsequently realised it turns into the pool of water). From the Pit, even if you can't reach the bottom of the rope, you would expect it to remain tied to something at the top (and therefore you shouldn't still be carrying it). If you looped it over some (unmentioned) beam at the top and descended the doubled rope, this would allow you to keep a hold of it, but nothing like this is suggested. Finally, if any of the objects before here are needed later (and not obtainable by other means), you can make the game unwinnable by heading straight through the maze. !** Given that "porting with interaction-enhancements" is the main goal, it's probably not worth worrying about. !O X CAVERN gives no response. !O Neither X GREEN MAN nor X GREEN (nor with SMALL for GREEN) give the expected response. !T LOOK IN MIRROR gives "On the mirror is a small green man.", which is more appropriate from, and is returned by, LOOK ON MIRROR. !** This is probably more default-Inform-response's fault than yours, but adding a verb rule to catch this might be worth it. !N The "Bang!" response from shooting the gun implies a loud-enough noise that you should have a chance of waking the Small Green Man. After discovering that SHOOT GUN AT (mostly) doesn't have any response, then eventually trying SHOOT GUN AT MAN, I now realise there is a way of "getting his attention" (albeit at the expense of the Man and the Mirror). !** I would either (a) change "Bang!" to something like "An almost silent beam of light shoots out", or (b) add "(but even this doesn't disturb the man from his sleep)." to the end of the existing response when you're near him. !S After shooting the man (and breaking the mirror), LOOK includes "a broken glass", which should be "some broken glass". !V I've not figured out how DANCE should be used yet, but it seems a bit odd. DANCE just produces "What do you want to dance?" and DANCE ME gives "You can't see "me" (yourself) at the moment.". DANCE WALTZ (as suggested by HELP in the Passage) just gives "You can't see...". DANCE in the Passage suggests an attempt at movement (although you fall over), yet here, the response is just "You dance on the spot.". This may make more sense once the correct use is known, but that's probably too late; at the moment it's confusing. !** I expand on DANCE in the notes for "beta-3" once I understood how it works better. !T The response to WAKE MAN -- "That seems unnecessary." -- MAY turn out to be accurate, but it certainly feels necessary so that you gain access to the mirror without breaking it. Of course, you may not need to do this... Wind Tunnel ----------- !O Neither X TUNNEL nor X WIND TUNNEL respond. !O "You feel nothing unexpected." in response to FEEL GLOVES is probably strictly true, since by now you probably expect them to feel slimy, but could be improved. X GLOVE doesn't respond. Computer Room ------------- !T "You are in a room with a computer in." sounds slightly clumsy. Maybe just "with a computer." or "containing a computer."? !S X KEY gives "a small metal key" which should start with a capital "A". !V Consider: >get keyboard It is attached to the computer. >unattach keyboard That's not a verb I recognise. >detach keyboard That's not a verb I recognise. It's probably right that you shouldn't be able to remove the keyboard, but should the verbs be recognised? !T TYPE (except, possibly, the as yet unknown "right thing") gives "Nothing happened.". In keeping with other responses, this probably should be "Nothing happens.". Passage ------- !T The description includes "There is a force field to the south : beware of security.". Perhaps this would be better as "There is a force field to the south and a sign reads "Beware of security"." (i.e., enclose the sign's text in double-quotes). !** Rereading my notes, I realise that -- if you stretched the point -- this could be a sufficient reference to the otherwise elusive bribable guard. However, I would still add some extra text when you're thrown in the cell (see notes on this below). !T Also, the description includes "You can see a loudspeaker with dance music coming out here.". To me, this sort of implies that you can SEE the dance music coming out. Perhaps "...a loudspeaker playing dance music."? !N Given the dance music, LISTEN should probably give more than "You hear nothing unexpected.". !B Despite there being a force field to the south (or perhaps because it IS there), SOUTH probably shouldn't give simply "You can't go that way.". Similarly, there perhaps could be better responses to: >go force field That's not something you can enter. >enter field You can't cross that! (Again here's the ENTER == CROSS synonym that's cropped up before). !N A minor thing, but a "passage" that has four exits (if you include through the force field) seems more of a "cross-roads" or "junction". !T The third response to SHOOT GUN AT FIELD is "It had no further effect.". As with typing on the computer, this probably should be "It has ..." for consistency. !T DANCE tells you the "You fell and knocked yourself out." before sending you to the Prison Cell; if my guess about this is right (see below), there should be something like "The guards find your unconscious body and drag it off to a cell.". (Though why they don't notice the hole where the window used to be is another question). Prison Cell ----------- !!B WEST from Quiet Cavern AND both EAST and WEST from the Passage ALL take you to the SAME Prison Cell (if you break the window in one, it's broken in all; leaving always takes you back to the Quiet Cavern). And the locked door is always to the east, even if you went east from the Passage. !** See notes below. !S GET BARS gives "That's fixed in place.". Should be "They're fixed in place.". Similarly TURN BARS gives "It is fixed in place.". !** I suspect that you have a combined Window/Bars object, and that's where the "That's"/"They're" problem comes from. Adding a separate BARS object may help (and see the next point). !** Given that examining the window/bars gives "On close inspection, the bars look loose.", perhaps it would be better to trap GET BARS with a more specific refusal. If you were feeling generous, you could even hint at them needing breaking (e.g. "They won't quite pull free, but probably wouldn't need much of an impact to break them."). !N I'm obviously losing my "old-school" mentality (where you used to BREAK or HIT anything in sight) -- it took a while before I thought of trying BREAK BARS. !B It seems somewhat odd that after you've broken the window, the guards (assuming they exist) don't seem to notice the gaping hole where the window used to be... !!B USE COIN (which so far has given "You use the gold coin to bribe the guard, who leaves the door unlocked." everywhere to no discernible effect) DOES have an effect here: it opens and unlocks the Sturdy Door, allowing you to leave to the east (although the door gets closed and locked again if you re-enter -- as it should). Once you've used the coin, you can open and close the door at will. Trying to lock/unlock it with the Small Key (from the Computer Room) gives the expected results (it's already unlocked, to LOCK; or the key doesn't fit to LOCK). Curiously, the description of the door (X DOOR) is always "It's sturdy. And very locked." no matter whether it's open or closed, locked or unlocked. This would suggest that this ISN'T the door the coin's meant to be used with, as does the lack of any mention of a guard. However, USE COIN doesn't seem to affect the door between the Wind Tunnel and the Computer Room in any way, which sort of suggests that the Sturdy Door IS the door that's meant to be the object of USE COIN. Problems with the Prison Cell / Guards -------------------------------------- !!** I'm now almost certain that: o The Prison Cell is meant to be to the west of the Quiet Cavern; o The Gold Coin is meant to be used there as a possible means of escape; o Unspecified guards are responsible for dragging you here if you stray east or west from the Passage, or if you knock yourself out while dancing. If this is right, the following is needed (or strongly advisable): o Stop USE COIN working anywhere but in the Prison Cell. o Have trying to go east or west from the Passage (or south from the Large Hangar) mention the guards (e.g. "As you leave the passage, guards apprehend you and haul you off to a cell"). o Dancing (without the mirror) in the Passage would add something like "A guard finds your unconscious body and drags it to a cell.". o Going west from the Quiet Cavern might produce "As you enter what appears to be a small cell, a guard slams the door behind you!". o The description of the Sturdy Door needs to change to reflect whether it's unlocked or open (i.e. after you've bribed the guard). ** See also discussion of DANCE SOUTH under the "beta-3" release. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release beta-3 / Serial number 040818 ............................................................................... These notes are made against the "beta-3" release (that fixed the problem of not being able to grab the Small Green Man). However, I've been reasonably careful to check that the comments from the "beta-2" release still apply. Quiet Cavern ------------ !O From the following: >x man He's asleep. >get him I'm not sure what "him" refers to. >get it Ugh! He's all slimy it looks like the Small Green Man could probably do with the 'animate' attribute (I think). !** But of course, he DID have 'animate', which is why you couldn't pick him up in beta-2! You could reinstate 'animate' and have: before [ cant_take ; take: give self ~animate ; cant_take = AttemptToTakeObject( self ) ; give self animate ; if( cant_take ) rtrue ; if( gloves has worn ) "You're safe from the slime"; else "Ugh! He's all slimy"; Where the important thing is to return TRUE (either 'rtrue' or using the bare-string short-cut above) so that the normal processing is prevented (and if you've got an 'after' routine, it won't get called by the above, so you'll need to move the code or add a call to RunRoutines( self, after )). !B? The responses to GET MAN -- "Ugh! He's all slimy" if you're not wearing the gloves, and "You take the green man. The gloves protect you from his slime." when you are -- suggest that wearing the gloves OUGHT to be a requirement. however, you end up carrying him in both cases. If the above is meant to be a requirement, you may also want to prevent the player removing or dropping the gloves while they are carrying the man (otherwise, "...your hands will get all slimy."). !** Also, the response "Ugh! He's all slimy" almost implies that you refused to pick him up, almost as though the response ended "... There's no way I'm touching that!". You may want to emphasise that you did pick him up anyway. !S If the Small Green Man wakes up, you get "The small green manawoke and throttled you!". This needs a space between "man" and "awoke". Also, from the tenses elsewhere, this could become "The small green man wakes up and throttles you.". It could also use an extra linefeed before the message. !!T It seems that the man only wakes up if you pick him up without wearing the gloves, so allowing him to be picked up with your bare hands (as mentioned above) probably isn't a bug. While I've no problem with the player having to die to learn the danger of not using the gloves, I do think some sort of causal link should be established. As it is now, all the gloves SEEM to do is "...protect you from his slime.". If the game ended four turns later because your hands had been eaten away by the slime, then this would be OK. To make him waking-up a (moderately) logical consequence of not using the gloves, you could have "Ugh! He's all slimy. The small green man stirs slightly in his sleep as you shake the worst of the slime off your hands.". In this case, instead of preventing the gloves being removed while you're carrying the man (as suggested above), you might want to trigger the "he's-going-to-wake-up" code with something like "You pull the gloves off an immediately your hands are covered in slim from the small green man. As you shake as much as you can off, the man stirs fitfully in his sleep.". (At present, taking the gloves off doesn't seem to trigger the wake-up logic at all). !T I'm not sure how ALL the variants worked in "beta-2", but in this version, the responses to DANCE SOUTH are as follows: o If you've not shot the force field, or only shot it once, then you always go straight to the Prison Cell with no explanation, no matter where the mirror is. o If you've fully weakened the field with two shots, but not carrying the mirror, you get the "You fell and knocked yourself out." message before being moved to the cell. o If you've fully weakened the field AND the mirror is carried, you dance through to the Large Hangar. I realise that games of this vintage don't NEED to use bullet-proof logic in their puzzles, but I think SOME sort of "reason why this happened" should be present, even if you can only figure it out after the event. As to why (a) you need to dance at all, and (b) what difference carrying the mirror makes, I'm not sure. If it was laser beams blocking the exit south, I could see how a mirror might help, but not with a force field. In any case, as noted under the "beta-2" release, some mention of the guards dragging your body away would be nice. !V The implementation of the DANCE verb is confusing. DANCE on its own gives "What do you want to dance?", which with the HELP response of "Vanity waltz!" suggests that DANCE WALTZ might be the right command. However, only DANCE does anything, and here it seems to ignore the direction and only go to the Large Hangar (assuming the field has been weakened) !** I would suggest either: o Make DANCE return "Where do you want to dance?" and then only accept DANCE SOUTH to go to the hangar. DANCE NORTH should probably take you back to the Quiet Cavern, and EAST or WEST dancing into the Prison Cell (since walking east or west even after the field is down gets you captured). DANCE elsewhere would just move in that direction. o Alternatively, require something like DANCE WALTZ to breeze you through the Force Field, and have DANCE return "You don't know that type of dance." (possibly have a couple of variants, like FOXTROT etc.) This would sort of fit since DANCE anywhere else gives "You dance on the spot." (i.e. the direction is ignored). Why you actually need to DANCE through the Force Field at all, we'll leave as an exercise for the reader... Large Hangar ------------ !T The description reads "You are in a large hangar. There are also exits east, north, and south. There is a closed door to the west.". The "also" sounds wrong here since no other exits have been mentioned by that time. Maybe "There are exits..." and (if you can make it happen) "There is also a closed door...". !O X HANGAR doesn't give anything. !!O I got the following when looking around (while still having the Small Green Man in my inventory): >x man (the sleeping security man) He's asleep. >x green man You can't see any such thing. >x small green man I only understood you as far as wanting to examine the small but powerful space ship. Somewhat surprised that X MAN didn't try to disambiguate between the security guard and the green man, since both will have MAN in their 'name' properties (although, unusually so far, the Sleeping Security Guard seems to have all three words present). If SMALL were present in the Small Green Man's 'name' property, then this should have stopped the last response (and would/should disambiguate X SMALL). Interestingly, if both men are carried (just how big are they??) then X MAN does ask which you mean. However, because the Small Green Man only has MAN in his 'name' property, he can never be chosen. !O Also, as with the Small Green Man, the Sleeping Security Guard doesn't appear to have the 'animate' attribute, as X MAN followed by X HIM doesn't work. !** The same fix (temporarily removing 'animate' during TAKE) should work. !S If you let the Sleeping Security Guard wake up, there's a missing space in "The sleeping security manwoke and shot you!". Small But Powerful Space Ship ----------------------------- !T The description includes "There is no visible exit. There is a small open window in the side.". However, EXIT and OUT both leave, but GO WINDOW doesn't (there no such object). If the window is what you're meant to be entering and leaving by, then (a) there's no mention of you scrambling in through it, (b) GO WINDOW should be made to work, and (c) you might change the description to "The only exit is the small open window you came in through.". !** It's not the window, since trying to leave after takeoff gives "When the spaceship took off, the door was locked for your safety.". Maybe just change the description to mention the exit (I don't think it needs a compass direction). !T Pressing either of the buttons in the ship gives "Nothing happened.". For consistency, this perhaps should be "...happens.". !T If you bring in the Starter Motor and PRESS MAIN, the death message is "The space ship blew up and killed me!" which seems to have been missed in the "I am" to "You are" conversion. !B? Probably not a bug, just doesn't feel right: You can carry the Starter Motor into the ship and press the buttons (to die or enter the lift) without (knowingly) plugging it in to anything, and certainly without dropping it! Maybe either require the player to drop it and plug it in, or simply automatically drop it and plug it in when they enter. !O Once you are airborne in the lift, X BUTTON(S) (the lift buttons that are described as visible) doesn't work. Perhaps you need to move a fake button object into scope as you take off. !O Also, the AUX and MAIN buttons from the ship have disappeared. I think these should still be present. Whether you let PRESS AUX return the ship to the Large Hangar is up to you (this would allow the player to power-up the lift if not already done and cut out one more unwinnable position problem). !T After PRESS 1, you get: The lift has become electrified! It is a good job you were wearing rubber-soled boots. However, since the space ship is described as "hovering in the lift", the ship itself (which you're standing on) shouldn't be affected. All you have to do to survive is not brush your finger against the lift wall as you bring it back through the window! For PRESS 1 or PRESS 4, you get "The lift has taken you up to a plateau."; should this be "The lift takes..."? !T After PRESS 2 or PRESS 3, we get our first real mention of the security guard! However, "A security guard shot you for trespassing." perhaps should be "shoots"? !T If you press one of the lift buttons before activating the power, you get "You press the button. Nothing happened.". As before, should this be "...happens"? !B? If you PRESS 5 (and probably other numbers), you get "You can't use multiple objects with that verb.". It would be nice if you could trap these to give "There are only four buttons.". Lift Control Room ----------------- !T The description "A sign says : 5,4 no dusty bin rules." would be better if the "5, 4..." bit was in quotes. It would be even better if all references to Ted Rogers and 3-2-1 were wiped off the face of the globe, but that's another story! !O You can't X SIGN. !O GET SWITCHES gives "That's hardly portable.". Should be "They're...". !T They are described as switches, yet the response to pressing one is "You press the button." (plus the fusing or beeping message). If PRESS is used as the verb to activate them, then describing them as buttons to start with might be better; otherwise, alter SWITCH (see below) to fit. !S If you press the wrong button, you get "You press the button.The fuse has just blown.". This needs a space after "button.". !N The following transcript is probably more Inform's behaviour than yours: >switch 3 You can't use multiple objects with that verb. >switch 2 You can't use multiple objects with that verb. >switch 1 (the door) That's not something you can switch. SWITCH was tried just because they ARE switches. Maybe SWITCH could be mapped to PRESS in this case? Tall Lift --------- !T Given that the Small Green Man could quite happily fall asleep on top of the mirror, the following responses (discovered when attempting to reach the buttons in the lift): >stand on mirror That's not something you can stand on. >sit on mirror That's not something you can sit down on. could probably be improved by having more specific rejection messages (e.g. "There's only enough room for a SMALL green man..."). !T On learning that space ship can fly into the lift, I think "Tall" doesn't quite do the lift justice in describing its size. END BUGS COMMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beta Comp 04 entry for Graham Holden (g-holden@dircon.co.uk)