Okay, let's clear some of this up.
First off, the behavior isn't *precisely* mirror-specific. The code itself is all to do with the movement of the *sword*. The rules are now the same as for Beethro moving with a sword: if you pick a direction but don't actually move, then it counts as a stab forward if you tried to move in the direction you're facing. No checking for mirrors is done by the Mimic. If anything else ends up also being affected by this stab forward other than mirrors, then Mimics, under the current rules, will automatically be able to do it. Again, it's a function of sword movement, not solely of mirrors.
The current behavior is set up such that if Beethro was in a position such that a move would break a mirror, then the Mimic would as well. That's why the 3rd rule in your post exists: if Beethro and a Mimic were in identical positions, then if Beethro bump-breaks a mirror, it seems intuitive that the mimic should as well.
The *generalised* case of this is what also leads to situations where a mimic can break a mirror without moving, but that's no less a trick than "
displace the mimic by using the fact that they can't bump-break mirrors at all"
.
The exact rules for Mimics in this case are:
1. When the player rotates, the mimic rotates.
2. When the player moves to a new square, the mimic checks to see if an appropriate adjacent square is available. If one is, it moves to it.
3. When the player attempts to move in some direction, but cannot do so for any reason, then the mimic does not move.
4. If the mimic did not move, then if it was swordless, it will turn to face the direction the player tried to move. If it did have a sword, and the direction the player tried to move was in the same direction the mimic was facing, it does a "
stab forward"
. Both of these are new moves Beethro can accomplish due to the changes in TCB.
BoyBlue wrote:
NOTE #1: And I do mean any (in-game) reason. It includes bumping into a pit or water, whatever that means. It includes cases where the player would not be able to bump an adjacent square with his body, due to a force arrow or aumtlich beam. It includes attempting to use non-functional tunnels, or bumping into objects offscreen in the next room.
In all those cases, Beethro would break a mirror (providing a mirror could exist there in the first place). Yes, Beethro can break mirrors against the direction of a Force Arrow or while trapped in an Aumtlich beam. If you think that's unintuitive, then that's fine, but that's a different thing altogether.
BoyBlue wrote:
NOTE #3: Mimics apparently never bump anything except mirrors, but there are so few cases where bumping into something has an effect that it's hard to tell what the general rule is intended to be.
No other current elements make sense for it. Mimics certainly don't get all the other benefits of Power Tokens, so there's no real reason they should be able to bump orbs. It's also not the only movement-related thing that Mimics can do: they can move Platforms, they can trigger Fuses. Why can't they bump-break mirrors? Because they don't bump things? But as you say, there's so few things that they *could* logically bump and get an effect. They certainly have a sword though.
===
I'm not saying this isn't debatable. Your point that mimics should follow simple rules rather than complicated exceptions is a good one. But as the previous thread demonstrates, there's certainly different conclusions that you can draw from all this, and some of the rules feel more intuitive in particular situations than others.
If we do revert this change, I'd rather go back to Mimics not bump-breaking things at all though: only bump-breaking when Beethro moves - and not when Beethro does a bump-break himself - would feel more arbitrary than either other possibility.
[Last edited by TFMurphy at 02-10-2008 06:42 PM]