Hammerite
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 44
Registered: 07-13-2005
IP: Logged

Idea: "Putty"

Brief description: Tarstuff that can be cut at any point and for which joined tarstuff not hit by the attacker, but in a straight line away from the attacker through the tarstuff, is also cleared.

In-depth description:

Putty would be tarstuff that can be cut at any point - flat edges, exterior corners and interior corners - and suppose furthermore that when it is cut, a ray is drawn from the sword to the edge of the blob and each tile along the ray is cleared; not just the tile hit.

But if there are n Putty Mothers in the room, then the ray stops n tiles short of the edge of the blob instead of going all the way to the edge. (If there is only one Putty Mother in the room then the final tile would be turned into a Putty Baby.)

It might be desirable to have Putty Mothers move every 15 turns (say) instead of every 30, since it might otherwise be very easy to clear Putty.

For example: Consider a 6 by 6 block of Putty with two Putty Mothers centred in the 3rd row:

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Suppose Beethro stands to the south of the third column, sword pointing north, and strikes the Putty. He breaks the Putty on the tile he strikes automatically. Now determine the length of the ray. There are two Putty Mothers in the room, so the ray stops two tiles short of the edge of the Putty. In particular, the Putty Mother to the west is killed. Now Beethro steps to the east. The corner piece of Putty is destroyed automatically. Now determine the length of the ray. There is one Putty Mother in the room, so the ray stops one tile short of the edge of the Putty, leaving a Putty Baby. The other Putty Mother is now dead.

zex20913
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1723
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

I like it! I think I'd like to run through a room full of putty.

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Hammerite
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 44
Registered: 07-13-2005
IP: Logged

Possible modifications to this idea:

- Putty can be cut only at corners (both internal and external), not at straight edges (so it can be cut precisely where tar cannot)*
- Putty can only be cut if the blade cutting it is orthogonal to the edge of the Putty. (So to cut at a straight edge you would need your sword to be pointing North, South, East or West, whereas to cut at a corner your sword would have to point in a diagonal direction.)
- Instead of being cleared, Putty tiles along the ray could be turned into Putty Babies. This would slow the player down considerably compared to simply clearing the tiles.

* If you went with this, you'd have to make a decision about how Adders should behave with respect to Putty.