[MUD-Dev] question about tile-based games

[Wes Connell]

On Sat, 14 Aug 1999, AR Schleicher wrote:

> What do you do when the character wants to turn?  With a square, the 
> character has enough space to do the turn already taken up by him, however, 
> with a non-square, the character might be turning through some space that 
> is already occupied by something else.

Just don't let the character turn into a wall/pillar/etc.

> Since orientation is now more important, instead of turning in a direction 
> and walking that way, you're now likely to want the ability to move in any 
> direction while preserving your orientation, something that wasn't as 
> important to have before.

Well this could be good. Lets say to get to the treasure room of dungeon A
Bubba needs to walk down a 1x10 hallway. The only way Bubba could do this
would be to turn sideways and strafe through. Through in a few
bloodthirsty rats and you have yourself a classic hidden rat horror.

> Finally, to bring up an even more complicated situation, consider 
> this.  Let's say we have a giant snake that is one tile wide, and five 
> tiles long.  The snake is in a narrow, one tile wide tunnel, which reaches 
> an intersection with another one tile wide pipe going perpendicular to the 
> first tunnel.  For the snake to turn from being in the first tunnel, to 
> being in the second, you have to either just instantly pop it around to 
> have a different orientation (looks rather odd, and puts the tail of the 
> snake somewhere the head has never been),  or you have to be able to bend 
> the shape of the snake, into various L shaped configurations, as it moves 
> around the pipe.  Now you have even more unusual situations to think about. 
> *grins*

This something I didn't think of. =] For a graphical representation of
this you would probably have to use some sort of polygon system. I doubt
pixmaps would do the job. This could add the "bending" aspect into the
mix. Of course a snake could slither around the corner. An Armored Rhino
could not though, it would probably have to pull a three-point turnaround
like a Cadillac. 

I agree with you that this would be a huge amount of work for a small
gain. This has the possibility to add a fair amount of realism to a game
when combined with elements such as torso flexibilty, good representation,
and well designed areas.

I leave with a scenario I just thought of. 
Bubba (1x3) is being chased by Squido the Giant Squid (3x10). Bubba runs
and runs but cannot lose Squido. Up ahead Bubba spot a fissure in the
wall. Bubba slides deep into crack evading Squido. Squido, not wanting to
give up his delicous prey extends one of it's tentacles (1x5) into the
crack grabbing Bubba for a lovely meal.

Wes!
wconnell at adhesive.com
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
		-- Henry Spencer




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