Re: Announcing: Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal

[Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@netcom.com>]

In rec.arts.int-fiction Nat Lanza <magus@cs.cmu.edu> wrote:
> pmt6jrp@gps.leeds.ac.uk (J R Partington) writes:
> 
>> No, you've missed the point. The sort of puzzle that we have in mind
>> is one where there is a unique route through a maze, which is told to
>> you in a cryptic message by a character in the game (and different
>> players of the game will be given different routes and hence different
>> cryptic messages). 
> 
> I don't think I have missed the point. If you want to require the
> player to find the cryptic message before solving the maze, make the
> maze unsolvable until the player gets the message. With appropriate
> "You seem to be getting completely lost"-style hinting, only the most
> bloody-minded players will keep trying to brute-force solve the maze.

Well, there are tradeoffs either way. 

In most instances of that particular maze-case, I agree with you. But a
maze where the game tells you to not even try *is* a different experience.

At worst, it's a one-room area with a constant description, where trying
to move around has no effect (or is not permitted.) That's just dull. I
mean, the player won't even really feel like he's lost in a maze. It's
just a room with an indistinct description.

You could have a random-movement maze, where moving around has
non-deterministic results. That can work, but it can also break realism to
some extent, depending on the setting.

(You say that you don't play for realism, but this is a matter of degree
just like anything else. Everyone eventually hits the point where they say
"The author is putting words on the screen, but they don't make a damn bit
of sense.")

Another approach is to have a well-described maze, with lots of rooms that
you can distinguish (if only by their exits). But then one exit has to
mysteriously change when you learn the key information. This too is very
jarring. "I already *tried* that!" (One common dodge is making an exit
*appear*, where you didn't notice it before.)

> Restricting saves so you don't have to do this is a shortcut for the
> author. It isn't necessary for this sort of puzzle, it just makes
> writing them easier.

It's neither a shortcut nor a necessity; it's one solution to a well-known
design problem.

O