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July 2003 – Number 8

Contents

1.Editorial

1. News and

announcements

Forum news

Competition news

2. Drifters birthdays

2. Next Month

Request for input

2. Drifters toolbox

QuickPlot

3. Tip of the month

3. Article

Where to from here.

4. Interview

Mystery

6. Review

Captive Universe by

Mischav Navoritch

8. Reference

Runner features

News and announcements

Editorial

I would like to take this opportunity, as the current editor of

Inside ADRIFT, to thank Mystery and her predecessor

Woodfish for all their hard work in getting a regular newsletter

going. My intention is to start off by keeping fairly closely to

the old format, while making a few changes.

News and announcements

Forum news

The forum has been fairly turbulent of late, as there has been

quite a bit of concern at the speed of ADRIFT bug fixing.

Some regulars have been looking at other IF creation

systems, but it is to hoped that most stay loyal to ADRIFT.

Things improved late in June with the reappearance of

Campbell and a new release of Adrift. Release 40 is mainly

aimed at fixing some of the bugs, with a few consmetic

changes. A whole host of bug fixes have just arrived with

release 41 on 27

th

June.

Competition news

Kind of busy on the competition front with two comps

sneaking in towards the end of June adding to the Summer

Minicomp previously announced.

First into the arena was DavidW's minicomp, closing date 27

June 2003, for V4 games up to 15Kb or V3.90 games up to

45Kb. Voting is currently taking place with four entries vying

for the top place.

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Next issue

The next issue will be

due out at the end of

July, but a lot will

depend on the

assistance that I get

from you ‘drifters out

there. I can only

produce a newsletter if

others can write some

articles. Contact me if

you have an idea for

use.

Drifters birthdays

this month

July

2 30otsix (33)

8 syke39 (31)

9 The Mad Monk (14)

mammoth (35)

15 Tonyg (15)

17 Mel S (17)

22 nick (19) driftingon (23)

This was closely followed into the arena by the One Hour

Game Competition organised by Woodfish. Closing date for

this was 24 June 2003. There were 3 entries and after a vote

on the forum the entry by the organizer, “Forum” was the

winner.

After these, the next ADRIFT competition is the Summer

Minicomp 2003 which takes place in the later half of August. It

is an event for ADRIFT games with no more than 20 rooms.

Entries to be in by 24th August, with voting over the next

week. Not forgetting that there is prize money.

On the wider IF front there is the 2003 IF Competition, the

major event of the IF calendar. Any entrants must have

registerd their intention by 1 Sep 03.

Drifters Toolbox: QuickPlot

Having trouble keeping track of your plot. Take a look at

QuickPlot which allows you to put things into a tree structure,

and attach the text which can then be cut and pasted into

ADRIFT when you are ready. You can move items around as

much as you want, until the structure works for you.

If you are interested, you can get QuickPlot from

http://www.characterpro.com/quickplot.html

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Tip of the month

Anything you mention

in a description, no

matter where in the

game, you need to

either make an object

to account for it, or

make a task to fool the

player into thinking it is

there.

If you are getting a

"You see no such

thing." message, then

you need to add more.

There is nothing more

infuriating to a player

than to find that

something you come

across isn't actually

there.

Where to from here. by KF

Thought I would just put down my hopes for the way ahead in

the ADRIFT world. My main wish is to see a stable version of

ADRIFT 4.0 available by the start of August at the latest. If we

don't have that we are heading for the same problems as last

year where IF Comp entries were incompatible, in minor but

annoying ways, with the runner. Also the runner

was quickly updated in the week before the comp, so that the

versions of the runner in the judging packs were out of date.

Next I would like to see some thought put into a kind of

development environment, I have been looking at Plugh! for

TADS which is flaky, but does allow you to put together a

map. What is required is a utility that would be a split screen,

one side a game map, the other a creation window for rooms,

objects and characters. When anything was updated, the map

would be too, and you could decide whether the map boxes

displayed the start of the description, or had the objects

and/or characters they contained. The program would be able

to save both in ADRIFT format and as an ADRIFT module to

import. If it were possible to add in task construction, based

on automated use of verbs and objects, we would have a very

handy addition to the ADRIFT environment.

What would be useful to see would be some kind of route map

for the future development of ADRIFT. We could be told that

no new features will be added

to Version 4.0, only bug fixes aim stable by 1 Aug 03. ADRIFT

4.1 development to commence Oct 03, aim of beta release

end of Jan 04, with full release within the following four

months after full testing and fixing. Listing of major new

features such as conversation trees to be released. This is an

example timescale and NOT based on any facts.

What do other Drifters want to see. This is just a starting point

as I hope we are all equally commited to the future

development of ADRIFT.

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Interview: Mystery (our erstwhile editor)

Hello Mystery, as we agreed when you interviewed me, here

is my reciprocal set of questions.

Q1.

We all know that you are an imaginative writer, but what

first brought you to the world of ADRIFT.

A. During my first introduction to the net, I wanted to find out

more about the text games I had been hooked on when I was

younger. I happened along ADRIFT, and instantly fell in love

with it.

Q2.

Within the community you have put a lot of effort into

developing the creative writing side of things. Do you see that

as a vital key as to how we can move forward and be noticed.

A. Unfortunately, writing exercises on the forum have never

really taken off as I had hoped. I' ve noticed that there are a lot

of Drifters out there that have the creativity and imagination,

but just don' t want to put the effort out. I do think that is part of

what is going to separate ADRIFT from the big three. Along

with future enhancements, I think the authors are going to

play a key role in how ADRIFT is seen. Anyone can use

ADRIFT, but I think some very talented Drifters are going to

help ADRIFT get noticed, by putting themselves on the line.

Q3

. You have always been very active within the community,

particularly in urging the increased use of proper beta testing.

Are you satisfied with the way testing is happening now, or do

you believe more should be done.

A. Well, there hasn' t been a great number of games out

recently, and I hope that is because they are being beta-

tested. I' ve played some of the Annual IF Comp games and

was shocked at how well some of the games had done when

they were littered with guess the verb, spelling errors, and

were so lacking in description it wasn' t funny. With proper

beta-testing things like that should have been discovered and

taken care of. It not only makes the author look terribly bad,

but it makes the program they use look bad as well.

As for ADRIFT, specifically, I think more need to beta-test.

Using the transcript is the best way, in my opinion, as it allows

the author to see how different people are playing, what verbs

they tend to use, and how their approach to certain situations

differ from others.

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Q4

. As an entrant in the Annual IF Competition a couple of

years ago, how do you think entry in a wider competition

effects development of ADRIFT games. Do you think that the

focus on the IF Competition can cause a distortion in the

authoring process when writers aim to complete their game by

September.

A. That is a tough question to answer. The game I had

entered was so terrible, and I was so worried about finishing

the game in time, I overlooked so many things. I did have the

game beta-tested, but it was very poor, and many things were

overlooked. Thankfully, now, a certain fellow Drifter will be

completely honest with me and tell me outright if my work is

no good.

I certainly think the focus on the Annual IF Comp can blind

authors and can certainly rattle their nerves quite a bit too. It is

a very hyped competition, with entries from many other

systems, and authors from all over the world. There is a lot of

pressure on the author, and a desire to do well. I have learned

one thing from entering, and doing poorly. I will not write a

game specifically for the competition, because I believe the

quality of the overall game would suffer. I say write your game

as you intend it to be. If it happens to be complete, with proper

testing, at the time the competition rolls around, then enter it.

It really takes the pressure off.

Q5

. You decided to give up writing the newsletter, I know you

felt it took up a lot of your time, but do you have some advice

for the mug who took up the challenge .

A. My advice would be, if you don' t want to really do it, then

don' t. If a newsletter is that important to our community, then

more should put forth the effort to support it, contribute to it,

an not complain about when the next issue is going to be out.

So, my advice is that if you' re not wanting to do it, then don' t.

You' ll end up resenting it.

Q6

. Writing with ADRIFT has been frustrating in recent

months, particularly with your unerring knack of finding bugs,

have you been put off working on games. What methods

have you found to help minimise problems.

A. To be honest, having come across some very annoying

bugs well into writing several games, I was very put off and

ready to give up, since the bugs seemed to stop the game

production. But I really had to put things in perspective. This is

Campbell' s hobby, not his life, not his job, his hobby. Without

his hobby, I would not have this hobby. So I had to think,

' What could I do to help.' I could not complain about it, for

one. It was upsetting to see much of the forum so stressed

about the bugs, and seeing how angry they were about it, only

made want to help more. I had to try to help find what was

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production. But I really had to put things in perspective. This is

Campbell' s hobby, not his life, not his job, his hobby. Without

his hobby, I would not have this hobby. So I had to think,

' What could I do to help.' I could not complain about it, for

one. It was upsetting to see much of the forum so stressed

about the bugs, and seeing how angry they were about it, only

made want to help more. I had to try to help find what was

causing some of the bugs. So that is what I did. I have also

found a couple work-arounds for a couple of the bugs, until

the proper solution is found. I hope during future releases that

more drifters, when discovering bugs, will ask themselves,

"What can I do to help."

Thank you for replying to my questions, and being a source of

help and advice to the whole ADRIFT community.

Review by DavidW

Captive Universe by Mischav Navoritch

In Captive Universe, Mischav Navoritch' s only ADRIFT

adventure, you begin the game trapped in a cell, imprisoned

there by the local priests when you spoke out against their

rule. Everything you know, your whole world, lies in the valley,

a large area from which there is no escape; the only way out

is blocked by the Boulder, a huge stone dropped there

centuries before by the Gods in punishment for an untold

crime. No one has ever escaped from the valley before, but

you intend to be the first…

Based on Harry Harrison' s novel of the same name, Captive

Universe is an engaging, if frequently frustrating, game.

Though relatively straightforward to begin with - escaping the

cell you start off locked in is childishly simple and says little for

the efficiency of the priests - it rapidly becomes a very difficult

game to make much progress with due to there being a liking

on the part of the writer for killing the player off every five

seconds. Often it' s nightmarish just moving from one location

to the next without getting yourself killed in the process.

Randomised events leading to the player dying add further to

the difficulty factor - sometimes traveling through one location

is perfectly safe, other times it leads to certain death. Naturally

there' s no way of knowing beforehand (at least not that I

discovered) just when it' s safe to venture into a specific

location and when it' s not. As such I tended to die a lot of

times and even though I was saving my game every few

moves just in case, it still becomes a pain when it was

happening for the fifth time in as many minutes. Admittedly,

there' s a hint right at the start of the game that tells you of the

best way to avoid getting killed but as this incurs a whopping

356 score penalty it' s probably not advisable to try it out!

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there' s a hint right at the start of the game that tells you of the

best way to avoid getting killed but as this incurs a whopping

356 score penalty it' s probably not advisable to try it out!

But bad points aside, what of the game itself. It' s well written

and has a quite impressive atmosphere. The majority of the

puzzles are reasonably straightforward and don' t

require too

much thought to figure them out although as mentioned

before the hardest part of the game involves random deaths.

Often it seems you' re just about to make a bit of progress and

then a guard appears from out of nowhere and kills you. This

might be acceptable if it happened once or twice or if there

was some way to avoid it, but it really brings down what is

otherwise a fairly decent game.

I haven' t finished Captive Universe yet and haven' t reached

the later stages of the game but what I' ve played so far,

random deaths aside, was well worth playing.

Logic: 7 (out of 10)

Fairly logical.

Bugs: 10 (out of 10)

None that I could see - unless the random deaths are a bug.

Story: 6 (out of 10)

A fairly engrossing one although the background could have

done with a little more fleshing out. The Boulder is blocking

the way out of the valley as a punishment for some crime -

what crime.

Characters: 3 (out of 10)

Perhaps the least part of the game. There are only two actual

characters - your mother and the village smith - and neither

have much in the way of

programmed responses. None of the many guards who

frequently pop up and kill you have anything to say at all.

Writing: 7 (out of 10)

Stylish in places and with a definite flare for description.

Game: 5 (out of 10)

An above average game let down by a penchant for killing the

player every few seconds.

Overall: 38 (out of 60)

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Reference

This page is included here as it would seem a sensible page

for those Drifters entering the IF Competition to add

information from for those who are new to ADRIFT.

Manual page 73: Runner features

Auto Complete

To make typing a bit easier, you can select Options > Auto

Complete from the menu. This will attempt to guess what you

are typing, making it a lot quicker. Aside from making it

quicker for the player to type common commands, it can

sometimes make the game a bit too easy by giving away

object names. Usually this will only happen if the Player has

come across them, but nevertheless, the option exists within

Generator to disable this feature.

Control Panel

If you select Options > Control Panel from the menus, it will

bring up a small control panel with buttons on it. This allows

you to navigate the map and do simple object manipulation.

Verbose

If you select Options > Verbose from the menus, then every

time you enter a room you have already visited the whole

room description will be displayed. If it is not selected, only the

short room description will be displayed.

Transcript

If you want to save some transcript to file, select Adventure >

Start Transcript. This will prompt you for a filename to start

logging the text from the game. Once you click Save, anything

you type, and all the responses will be logged to this file. To

stop transcript, select Adventure > Stop Transcript from the

same menu. You should now be able to

access this file which should contain all text in the game in

plain text format.

Right-clicking

You can right-click the mouse in the main Runner window for

a list of common commands. Clicking on object names will

give a different menu specific to that object, and clicking on a

direction name will attempt to move the Player in that

direction.

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High scores

Runner has built in facility to keep track of high scores for

particular adventures. To enable this option, select Options >

High Scores/Scoring > Enable High Scores from the menu. To

view the current high scores for the adventure you are

playing, select

Options > High Scores/Scoring > View High Score table from

the menu. You can clear this at any time by selecting Clear

High scores. If you want to be notified explicitly every time the

score changes, select Options > High Scores/Scoring >

Notify when score changes from the menu. This will display

the score change as a reference (in brackets) every time it

happens.

© 2003 Edited by KF. Please send any contributions

or suggestions to kf@kfadrift.org.uk

(revised edition)