The Bianco Mansion
Moderator: Alastair
Re: The Bianco Mansion
And Garry those are wicked maps. What software do you use to create them? I really like your cleaned up one. Maybe Gifford was on acid? Or it was just his way of creating a little bit more complexity. Can't really say, although as Strident mentions above, there's a link to the author's current on-line presence. Maybe I'll go ask the man himself.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
I use Trizbort for the maps. It has some quirks and takes quite a bit of effort to get used to, but I prefer it over anything else that's out there. I've now done several hundred maps with it (perhaps half are on CASA) and I've learnt lots of little tricks to get the most out of it. Alex also uses Trizbort, but the styles of our maps are completely different. You can develop a style to suit yourself. Alex also spiffies his final image with a fancy title. I wish you could do this in Trizbort. Incidentally, I use version 1.5.9.3. Later versions have "features" that make it worse (for me) than the version I settled on, particularly in the bit-mapped images.
I checked Clive Gifford's web site and couldn't find any mention of his text adventures. Perhaps he's embarassed by them.
I think you're right about intentionally trapping you in the vault, but he doesn't warn you beforehand, doesn't tell you that the door has closed behind you, doesn't tell you that there's a door there and doesn't allow you any means of escape unless you happen to have the key and guess that you can use it to unlock the invisible door.
On the subject of the stool/ladder (I used the stool in the solution, as it's much closer to the study), you can climb the stool while you're carrying it, then drop it, even though you're standing on it, then get the map, even though it's now out-of-reach again. Very sloppy programming.
I forgot about the inventory limit with the stool/ladder. I actually took advantage of this bug in the solution, but I did note it. Perhaps this was cheating.
I checked Clive Gifford's web site and couldn't find any mention of his text adventures. Perhaps he's embarassed by them.
I think you're right about intentionally trapping you in the vault, but he doesn't warn you beforehand, doesn't tell you that the door has closed behind you, doesn't tell you that there's a door there and doesn't allow you any means of escape unless you happen to have the key and guess that you can use it to unlock the invisible door.
On the subject of the stool/ladder (I used the stool in the solution, as it's much closer to the study), you can climb the stool while you're carrying it, then drop it, even though you're standing on it, then get the map, even though it's now out-of-reach again. Very sloppy programming.
I forgot about the inventory limit with the stool/ladder. I actually took advantage of this bug in the solution, but I did note it. Perhaps this was cheating.
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Re: The Bianco Mansion
I have thought of it, but spamming the FB group might turn a lot of people off.
Anyway, I will post tomorrow as it's a special date
Anyway, I will post tomorrow as it's a special date
Re: The Bianco Mansion
The news posts that appear on the CASA homepage and in the Planet IF blog aggregator feed are very infrequent and would be welcome on Facebook, I think.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
I fixed the vault interaction in the following way in my latest: If you search in the entrance room to the vault, it tells you the vault has a time lock door and is "currently open." Hopefully enough of a warning. I also fixed the ladder/stool handling. Now you can either be holding it or have dropped it in the room before typing "CLIMB STOOL" or "CLIMB LADDER". In any case the item (ladder or stool) is dropped in the room along with the map. Also fixed up the murderous results of combat with the guard. Now if you use the wire cutters you just knock him out cold, or the rope-- you subdue him and tie him up (losing the rope). Also, worked on the quirk about "opening" in the letter. Added a message for the library regarding the reading of books in there ("there's too many") and added a "Nothing" message when you are carrying nothing.
Garry wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:54 amI think you're right about intentionally trapping you in the vault, but he doesn't warn you beforehand, doesn't tell you that the door has closed behind you, doesn't tell you that there's a door there and doesn't allow you any means of escape unless you happen to have the key and guess that you can use it to unlock the invisible door.
On the subject of the stool/ladder (I used the stool in the solution, as it's much closer to the study), you can climb the stool while you're carrying it, then drop it, even though you're standing on it, then get the map, even though it's now out-of-reach again. Very sloppy programming.
I forgot about the inventory limit with the stool/ladder. I actually took advantage of this bug in the solution, but I did note it. Perhaps this was cheating.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
CASA gets a lot of mentions on the FB group... I probably link to it at least three times every day.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
Found another bug. After you get the map you see a message "The Alarm has sounded. You don't have much time!" But if you drop the map and pick it up again, it gives you the same message, which means the end timer has been reset to 25. This can happen anywhere, so you can effectively reset the map at will! I changed it so this message only will display once.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
I've joined up. Lots of interesting stuff and CASA does get mentioned quite often. I'll probably lurk for a while until I have a chance to read the backlog and get a feel for the general vibe. I recognise a lot of familiar names on there, including Jacob and other CASA regulars.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
It's generally very good natured... the moderators never really have to do much and I've only ever had to block one person on there.Garry wrote: ↑Wed Feb 20, 2019 11:49 amI've joined up. Lots of interesting stuff and CASA does get mentioned quite often. I'll probably lurk for a while until I have a chance to read the backlog and get a feel for the general vibe. I recognise a lot of familiar names on there, including Jacob and other CASA regulars.
People do tend to have their own specific niches of interest, myself included, but there is quick a wide overall area of interest across the group.
It's just such a shame it's Facebook... it's an absolutely awful platform for such good content... it would be so much better threaded and archived in a forum like this.
Re: The Bianco Mansion
I couldn't agree more. As a first-time Facebook user, I was surprised at how cumbersome it was to use. I tried it on a web browser on the computer, web browser on a mobile phone and Facebook Lite app on a mobile phone. Computer is best.
I get the impression that Facebook is targeted at the here-and-now throw-away generation. For something like the 8-bit Text Adventures group, there looks to be some great information stored over a period of time, but it's very awkward (slow and time consuming) to work your way back to see what's there. Some of the best info is in the comments and you have to drill down to see the comments and the comments to comments and it's very easy to miss something in the process.