TFMurphy
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3118
Registered: 06-11-2007
IP: Logged
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Briars (+6)
One of my favourite additions to the game happens to be briars, simply because they work so differently to many other things. However, they appear to have large amounts of... "quirks"... to them. Some of these may be bugs. Some of them may not. Due to these inconsistencies, I thought it might be useful to compile what *is* known about them, so that they can be looked at as a whole. Also, these notes are true of 3.0.0. Later patches may change things (I've already heard of the Force Arrow change).
Briar Roots
Every turn, a briar root will convert the nearest immature briar to it into a mature briar. Priority is given to tiles closest to the root via Pythagorean Theorem, with ties broken by those tiles nearest the top-left of the screen (column taking priority over row).
If there are no immature briars to convert, then the briar will grow. This creates an immature briar in each of the 8 empty squares surrounding a briar root or a connected mature briar square. Also, any mature briars connected to a root when the briar grows will become immature if it is directly next to a pit: only the 4 squares directly touching the pit are affected. After this, the briar will go ahead and convert one of the immature briars as normal.
Multiple briar roots work exactly the same, whether connected to the same briar patch or in their own seperated clusters.
Briar Growth Quirks
The basics don't quite cover some of the more interesting situations that can crop up. Here's some of the interactions I've currently noticed. Some of them are obvious, others are... not so obvious. I've listed the obvious ones for completion.
* Briars will not grow over walls or closed gates. They trigger pressure plates normally.
* Briars will not grow over pits (naturally). However, they will also not grow diagonally past pits. A diagonal line of pits acts like a barriar that no briar can penetrate, unlike a diagonal line of walls.
* Briars will grow over water. They also grow over trapdoors, platforms and bridges. If the platform or bridge is over a pit, then the briar tiles will die if the platform/bridge is moved/removed. Over water, there is no such interaction.
* Oremites, stairs and tunnels can all get clogged with briars. Hot tiles, on the other hand, are treated as walls. However, briar tiles can be placed manually on hot tiles (as someone else has noticed, I believe).
* As has been noted elsewhere, in 3.0.0, briars cannot grow *on* to a force arrow against its direction, but can grow *past* a force arrow against its direction if it's already on the force arrow. Briars are not affected by any other tile type.
* Briars will consume all orbs, potions, scrolls, mirrors, every token type, bombs (without exploding them), fuses, relay stations and even lights. They will not grow over obstacles and will treat them as walls. They will destroy any tarstuff, creating tarstuff babies if appropriate.
* Briars will kill almost anything if they grow onto a tile that an enemy (or Beethro) occupies. Even NPCs with the Invulnerable flag are not safe. Rock Golems and Giants are destroyed without leaving behind rubble (although the briar acts as obstacle enough). The only notable exception appears to be all Serpent-type enemies - they are immune to death by briar growth. (Though Serpents will tend to die simply due to having nowhere to go)
* One more quirk regarding briar growth. When a growing briar patch connects with a pre-existing patch of briar, it will treat the new patch as part of itself on the next growth cycle. This seems normal on first glance, but the quirk arrives when the patch is a mixture of mature and immature briars. When it first grows next to the patch of briar, it will only mature the briars it created during its current growth cycle. When it next grows and connects to the new patch, it will expand that patch, ignoring the immature briars for this cycle. On top of this, the immature briars will stunt the growth where they currently are, until the briar can mature them on the next cycle.
This particular quirk can be seen more explicitly by creating a briar root behind a togglable door, and opening and closing the door every so often (I used a Serpent loop for my own test that had the door open every 15 turns out of 40). The growth of the briar will eventually take on rather strange shapes, depending on where the root is compared to the open space the briar is allowed to expand into.
Destroying Briars
Briars are not invincible. There are ways to get rid of them.
* Bombs and Fegundo explosions will destroy all types of briar in their blast radius. Closing gates will also destroy briars that are in the way.
* The aforementioned methods of dropping briars into pits will destroy briars too, as well the unmentioned Build Marker pit.
* Build Markers themselves have strange inconsistent effects with briars. Building walls will not destroy the briar on top of the tile, but a pit will. Most tiles will not destroy the briar... however, asking to build a bomb or a fuse *does*. This is an illusion though: unless the fuse or bomb is used up before the next briar growth, the briar will treat the tile as if there were still briar there (and make an annoying beep when it does this).
Also, while most Build Markers will fail if placed on a pre-existing briar (Pits are one of the exceptions), a Build Marker that is placed before briar grows on it will continue to be active and attract working citizens (which is how we can get bombs and fuses to be built on top of briars).
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I've also heard of another quirk/bug with regards to multiple switches toggling doors with regards to briar growth order... but I haven't looked into it myself, so I'll only mention it in passing here.
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That seems to be everything I can currently think of. Some definite things that are particularly interesting... and a handful of what seem like bugs too. Still, as I said at the beginning, this is one of my favourite new features, and it definitely has a lot of potential - I had a lot of fun solving the various briar puzzles in TCB.
I'll end this with... well, not quite a feature request, but more something to spark discussion: should a briar patch with multiple briar roots be allowed to split its growth on half turns when a Speed Potion is in effect? And if so, how exactly should it work? (Pros: Makes growth during Speed Potion use more fluid, which could make things more interesting. Cons: It's a lot more complex, and not easy to decide exactly which briar roots should work on a half turn instead of the full turn)
Anyways, hope that's useful to someone. And apologies in advance if I've forgotten to touch on certain aspects.
[Last edited by mrimer at 06-13-2007 12:40 AM]
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