I've been avoiding public posting, but for the moment I have no choice. This is an issue that threatens to compromise part of the hold I've been working on for the past year.
mxvladi (Slava) has informed me that, in recent chat, TFMurphy expressed distaste upon learning "
the bridge trick"
(explained below in secret). I had no idea TFMurphy was unaware of this particular gimmick. I have been told (or maybe I imagined) that the trick has been used as a lynchpin in more than one hold, so removing it would likely ruin rooms that have already been published. More importantly (to me), the hardest secret in my upcoming hold is a four-chamber progressively-gets-harder room that teaches users how to perform the trick in different circumstances. Removing this trick would ruin a room really cool room that I (not to mention two of my testers) spent weeks on.
I'd like to see it remain. I agree the physics of it is questionable, and the fix to make results more intuitive would be easy enough to do, but I don't think it's too far outside the realm of "
DROD exceptions"
to be unfair to leave in. Personally, I discovered the trick on accident while experimenting because I wondered what would happen if I tried it. So even though it may be the less-obvious of two results, I don't think any result of the situation which causes the trick is 100% obvious.
For those of you unfamiliar with the trick, I describe it below, secreted for your virgin eyes. (It concerns how the game determines how replacement with pit and water occur when a bridge drops.)
Click here to view the secret text
×A bridge is a maximal set of orthogonally-connected bridge tiles. To the client architect, bridges are similar to flooring except that they visually increase the pit distance when found north of a pit, and may in special cases be "dropped" to reveal pit or water beneath them. Unlike trap doors, bridges are not differentiated into pit and water types.
A bridge drops when each orthogonally-adjacent tile to the bridge is one of: pit, water, pit platform, or water platform. Outside of Turn 1, this can only happen when a trap door is dropped to reveal pit or water, or when a builder (or some other change) builds pit or water (or platform, though builders in TCB cannot do this).
To determine whether a dropped bridge will reveal pit or water: once the conditions are met, all tiles orthoganally-adjacent to the bridge are checked. If any of the tiles are pit tiles, the bridge drops to reveal pit. Otherwise, the bridge drops to reveal water.
The trick relies on the fact that no platforms count as pits, including pit platforms. This means in special cases it is possible to select whether a bridge reveals pit or water.
A bridge that would normally reveal pit can instead be made to reveal water if there is at least one water trapdoor and it is possible to surround all pit tiles orthogonal to the bridge with pit platforms. To do this, drop all pit trap doors (if any), surround the bridge on all pit sides with pit platforms, then drop any remaining water trap doors.
A bridge surrounded by platforms (of any type, even pit platforms alone) will drop to water on Turn 1. It is not possible for this case to occur in later turns in TCB, because builders cannot build platforms. I'm not certain of the effect this would have in RPG or GatEB but I suspect it would drop to water as in the Turn 1 case.
Anyway, please respond with comments so I'll know if I have to scrap the room or not before things go any further.
____________________________
Trickster
Official Hold ProgressClick here to view the secret text
×Beethro and the Secret Society: Postmastered
Beethro's Teacher: In Progress
Complex Complex: In Progress
Devilishly Dangerous Dungeons of Doom: In Progress
Finding the First Truth: Postmastered
Gunthro and the Epic Blunder: In Progress
Halph Has a Bad Day: Mastered (no door)
Journey to Rooted Hold: Postmastered
King Dugan's Dungeon 2.0: Postmastered
Master Locks: Mastered (no door)
Master Locks Expert: Mastered (no door)
Perfect: In Progress (Perfect 8)
Smitemastery 101: Postmastered
Suit Pursuit: In Progress
Tendry's Tale: Mastered (RPG)
The Choice: Postmastered
The City Beneath: Postmastered
Favorite Unofficial Holds (I need to play more!)
Click here to view the secret text
×A Quiet Place: Mastered (no door)
Advanced Concepts: In Progress
Archipelago: In Progress (Island 12)
Break Out Of Jail: Conquered (86%)
Dr. E. Will's Mega Complex: In Progress
Hold Anonymous: In Progress
Paycheck: Conquered (75%)
The Test of Mind: Mastered (RPG)
Unfriendly Islands: In Progress
Val Unrich: In Progress
war10: Mastered (no door)
war15: Mastered (no door)
war: the truth within: Mastered (no door)
Washed Ashore: Mastered (RPG)
My HoldsClick here to view the secret text
×The Plague Within (RPG) (alpha)
Tinytall Tower (Smitemaster) (beta)
Do Not Disturb Compilation (level contributions) (in review)
Riddle of the Bar (compilation)