Re: Mazes and why I can't get very far in Curses!


7 Jan 1995 14:45:54 -0500

Jean-Henri Duteau (nstn1433@fox.nstn.ca) wrote:
: Hi all,

: To me, I should be able to map everywhere my persona goes in the
: game world. I may not be able to get everywhere, but my map should show
: me where I've been and how I got to where I am. In Curses, (which I've
: just retried), this happens quite nicely in the beginning (which is the
: farthest I ever get! 8-<). There are eight or nine rooms or so, and I
: have to solve some puzzles to go further (like, what the hell is a
: dumbwaiter???). In my own game, the opening has fifteen rooms. The

Well, first of all, a dumbwaiter is a small lift-like device used to
transport food and such between floors- so that the people dining would not
have to (Heaven forbid) actually see the servants... (Actually, no, I didn't
know what it was first, but both my roommate and another friend who wondered
into my dorm knew right away what it was!)

With regards to mapping in Curses- I experienced a small degree of
frustration when trying to map it- but this was mostly a result of travelling
between floors. I don't know a way to map different floors of the same
building and still have the map remain continuous. The only real problem I
had was later in the game when some more rooms in the lower part of the house
were revealed... and with one section outside... but these were not really
major problems.

Actually, I quite enjoyed the fact that each new place you went to lent
itself quite readily to being mapped as a small, separate map- it made things
quite easy to grok...

As for frustration in Curses, I personally found the fact that only "throw"
die would work, and no other words, far more irritating than any mapping
problems that arose.

However, I do agree that entering a room by moving north and then having to
go east to get back is a real pain. About the most I'll accept is entering
by moving NE, and going S to get back, which could be plausible, if the path
between areas twists slightly. However, for rooms in a building, that are
immediately adjacent to one another, this kind of twist is, in my opinion,
just silly.

When things do twist, I've found the easiest way for me to map is to pay
attention to the directions in which the lines leave the square representing
the location.

Oh well, gotta go- I'm being paged for chat...

Keep Well and God Bless,
-Zellyn

--
,d8b.        d"b  d"b           "For You knit me together in my mother's womb.
   `Yb  d"b  $ $  $ $  g   g gd"b,     I praise You because I am fearfully and
   dP'  "dP  "dP  "dP  $   $ d  `$ d                        wonderfully made."
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----dP-----------------,o"-P------------------------>Zellyn Hunter<-----------
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