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Crumb Trails

 Wasn't I here just 3 saves before?
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I have always loved adventure games, Myst, Riven, Zork etc. But every single game I have played has one common drawback.... its easy to get lost. And it happens all the time.... once I get lost it’s blooming hard to get out of the constant circles. Sure there is a save options... but after a point its all just a great big mess. Now I know that point of the game is to create a real environment where getting lost is part of the idea. But think about it.... had you been placed in a new place and were just wandering around and came across interesting things how would you record stuff? You’d probably leave a note saying that this lead has already been used or anything else that would be important. Or you could note how to trail back to a less complicated part. Well the idea is to have a similar feature in the game where a player can maybe leave a post it on the wall or even record a message so that when he/she gets lost and ends up in the same place he/she has a way of getting out of it. This not only allows the game to go on but also adds a very realistic touch to it.
—nomadic_wonderer, Oct 28 2004

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       You could also call it "bread."
—bristolz, Oct 28 2004
   

       Call what bread? The idea?
—nomadic_wonderer, Oct 28 2004
   

       Bread crumbs. I was going to call it a crummy idea, but thought better of it.   

       +
—csea, Oct 28 2004
   

       Most game developers would love to implement something like this, but basically it doesn't happen due to the limitations of current systems. Ever notice that dead bodies never stick around very long in shoot-em-ups? Same problem.   

       Essentially, every "item" (including notes, bullet holes in the wall, wrecked vehicles) contributes to the CPU and memory load of running the game. 3D games are already CPU intensive, so adding a feature like this would gum up the whole works to a certain degree.   

       Hopefully Moore's Law will help us in this area soon.
—krelnik, Oct 29 2004
   

       [krelnik] I doubt it if something like an adventure game has this problem. motion is much slower in these environments. Its definitely not the memory problem. But in other games such a Quake you are absolutely right. and thats why dead bodies dont hang around in quake.
—nomadic_wonderer, Oct 29 2004
   

       Wasn't Zork a text-based adventure game? The problem with many of those was that you were only able to see the objects that were in the same location as yourself. I think later games allowed you to LOOK NORTH to get a description of what was in that location.   

       However, if I remember correctly a common element in those text-based games was a desert, maze (often of maise IIRC), open sea or some other environment where many of the locations looked the same, and rather be able to map a normal route, you had to find a combination of moves to escape. i.e. North, North, East, West, East might get you out despite the non-sensical EWE manouever.   

       <tired-blurr>Hopefully that made sense, last night was a heavy one, and the topic was confusing to start with</tired-blurr>
—zen_tom, Oct 29 2004
   

       Damn Fangbacks Building!
—Mr Burns, Oct 29 2004
   

       I also disagree with krelnik's reasoning. This is not a significant computational or storage problem. It just doesn't take all that much memory, time, or space - if it does, fix the architecture.   

       I really enjoyed the way maps developed on the screen in nethack/hack/rogue, providing both a map and an indicator of where one had already been.
—jutta, Oct 29 2004
   


 

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