cchittleborough
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 32
Registered: 06-27-2004
IP: Logged

Many architects make good use of rooms which you have to traverse (cross from one entrance to another) instead of conquer. Another common pattern is rooms which cannot be conquered when first entered; instead you have to fight your way across the room, exit and reenter.

I would really like it if the "Automatically save a demo when you conquer a room" setting could also apply to traversing such rooms. The hold editor would have a new per-room setting called (perhaps) "Traversal Room" in addition to "Secret Room" and "Required Room". If a player with the "save a demo on conquest" flag set exits a traversal room from a entrance other than the one by which he or she entered, DROD would save a demo.

This leaves one tricky point: how do you decide if two entrance points are part of the same entrance?

(By the way, this is motivated by A Quiet Place: Limbo: 1N2E, which I traversed once and now cannot traverse again. Grrrr!)

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-- Chris[topher] Chittleborough

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Hmm, I think that making something that the architect has to set is a bad idea, because then something like A Quiet Place won't be set correctly unless the architect comes back and uploads a new version. Rather, an option in the Settings screen for saving a demo when leaving a room would be better. It ideally would be separate from the "save a demo upon dying" option, but it could be integrated I suppose, since I think most people don't use it.

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

cchittleborough
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 32
Registered: 06-27-2004
IP: Logged

Good point. I was thinking of future holds, not existing ones.

I though of adding a "save demo on traverse" setting, but felt that it would apply to far too many rooms, most of which would be easy to cross. It seems to me that you need to flag the hard-to-traverse rooms ... maybe players could press a key to stay "from now on, record a demo whenever I traverse the current room". Hmm, I suspect that would be hard to implement.

(Of course, the real answer is to press F4 just before exiting, but I usually forget to to so. BTW, I still haven't managed to repeat the second traversal of That Room.)

____________________________
-- Chris[topher] Chittleborough