Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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This is an idea I had while responding to zex's post on my "Digging Serpents" post (and noman posted also about this while I was replying): walls that the diggers can't break at all. But they should have more use than that: if they are iron walls, then they are magnetic and can therefore affect other things made of metal. I think that there are some other ideas in this forum about metal items, but an obvious choice is: Beethro's sword! (Hopefully his sword is iron, not steel, but we could ignore the physical inconsistancy if it is steel.)

When Beethro moves adjacent to these iron walls, he sword immediately move 1 square towards the wall, unless it is pointing exactly opposite from the wall. Once it is touching the wall, it cannot be moved away from the wall until Beethro has moved away. To imagine this, think of one iron wall standing by itself. Beethro approaches it on the left side from the South, with his sword pointing North West. When he moves to the square South West of the iron wall, his sword also moves to face North. (Yes, this means he could kill two creatures in one move...but we would need to decide when the iron wall acts, if it is before monsters move or after.) If Beethro waits one more turn, his sword will turn North Eest, directly onto the iron wall. If Beethro moves away from the wall, the sword is free to move again. But if he moves North now, then his sword immediately snaps to the East, still into the wall. If he moves North again, it snaps to the South East.

You could actually use this to pull off some cool moves. Like, Beethro starts off on the West side of the iron wall, with his sword pointing East. He moves to the top of the wall, the North of it, so now his sword is pointing South. He then takes a step to the North East, and the sword is still pointing South. He's just moved two squares, and in the process had his sword rotated by two squares for free! That's pretty cool!

Anyway, I bet there are a lot of things I haven't thought of...I'll be awaiting zex's questions...

Game on,

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

zex20913
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Hmm...before I question, I think you need to look at your "cool example" again. It doesn't quite mesh with your definition.

I do think that as you have it is good. It may be confusing to players at first, especially if they speed through rooms, but a good level intro should get them used to it. A graphical difference must be implemented, possibly just making an iron wall instead of lining a wall with iron, or something like that.

As far as the ordering goes, I think that the sword should rotate before the monsters move. Even though my reasoning doesn't exactly match:

wtttttt
 /
Biw

This is before Beethro (B) makes a move, and the sword has already been turned by the iron wall (i). t is tar. w is a wall.
Beethro is on a trapdoor.

If Beethro were to move northeast, having the sword move later than monsters (tar cutting in this case) the tar baby would get Beethro. If the sword moved first, then Beethro would be safe.

I thought of a question from that description now! I can't believe I hadn't earlier...

What if Beethro swings the sword when next to an iron wall? Would it remain stationary? Would it swing twice?

The only other things I could think of involve other ideas which may or may not be implemented in the future (sword arrows, electricity, metal things, etc.) But those questions remain for after the AE release, when hopefully we can get a list of new features, and how they would work together.



[Edited by zex20913 on 08-20-2003 at 07:52 AM GMT: silly appearance...]

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Zmann
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Also, when his sword is affected in this way, does his sword swing first, or does he move first?

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

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zex20913 wrote:
Hmm...before I question, I think you need to look at your "cool example" again. It doesn't quite mesh with your definition.

I am horribly bad at ASCII art, and it would be pretty difficult to draw the sword attached to the iron wall. Hopefully I didn't mix up East and West or something. Here's another example...Beethro is walking North down a hall with an iron wall to the East. Each step Beethro takes, the sword swings towards the wall until it is inside it. Once Beethro exits the hall to the North, his sword will be pointing South East, because when he passed the last square of the iron wall it pulled his sword towards it.

I think I see the problem now...I said initially that the iron wall would only make the sword swing one step at a time, but in my initial example when Beethro makes his diagonal step it moves two swings at once. Hmmm...this is tough to resolve, I need to think about it. It may be possible that like a force arrow has three directions that Beethro cannot move off it from, there are three directions that a sword can point that it won't be affected by an iron wall, and if it is pointing in the other five directions it immediately snaps to the wall (will a buzz and a flash or something, so you know it happened). This way you could walk down a hall like I said above and have a chance of your sword not rotating. Unfortunately, this is a pretty tough concept to visualize and the best way to see it would be for me to implement it somehow.

A graphical difference must be implemented, possibly just making an iron wall instead of lining a wall with iron, or something like that.

Yes, that was what I was thinking...a totally different looking wall.

What if Beethro swings the sword when next to an iron wall? Would it remain stationary? Would it swing twice?

No, Beetrho can't move the sword without moving away from the wall. If he tries he loses a turn.

Okay, let me think about the order in which things happen...yes, the sword should move before Beethro, or to put it more realistically, in your example Beethro wouldn't be able to pull the sword up to hit the tar because it would still be stuck to the wall.

Maybe I will try to make an example using the DROD palette...

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams