Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: philip@labtam.oz.au (Philip Stephens)
Subject: Planetfall
Reply-To: philip@labtam.oz.au
Organization: Labtam Australia Pty. Ltd.
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1993 23:32:03 GMT
Message-ID: <1993Oct14.233203.4340@labtam.labtam.oz.au>
Sender: news@labtam.labtam.oz.au (Net News Administrator)
Lines: 37

  Perhaps I'm getting old, but did anyone else think that Infocom's Planetfall was a
tad (no pun intended) too short?  I finally got to play this game after having bought
the Lost Treasures collection, and was somewhat disappointed to find that not only
was I able to complete it in two days during quiet moments at work [:-)], it wasn't
even very challenging.  Fixing up a couple of broken machines didn't seem like much
of an adventure to me.

  Ah well.  You know, playing the old Infocom games has inspired me to come up with
a little list of things I don't like about them (i.e. things that ought to be
improved to make such games more playable):

  1. Having to repeat a series of steps to open a door or activate a lift, every time
     you want to get from one room to another, is a bore.  The game should take note
     of the first time you perform the actions, and then offer a shortcut command for
     all future encounters.

  2. Once you've visited rooms, you ought to be able to say "go to that room" in order
     to revisit it, rather than type in all of the "w", "n", "e", "s" commands
     required to find your way back.  This also means all doors, lifts etc should be
     automatically opened/activated (provided you are carrying the correct tools).

  3. It would be nice if the game would remind you where you've dropped an object when
     you try to use it.  I find that when I have multiple saves of a game, I tend to
     forget where certain objects were dropped before a particular save :-)

  4. The handling of object carried in your inventory ought to be more natural i.e.
     you should have pockets to put things in, and carry the objects you wish to use
     in your hands.  Waiting for your inventory to become "too heavy" or having
     objects slip out of your grasp when you try to take them is annoying.

  Features 1, 3 and 4 ought to be fairly easy to implement in a text adventure, but 
I'm less sure about feature 2 (though no doubt it's achievable with some work).
--
| Philip Stephens, Systems Programmer. | "Many views yield the truth.         |
| Address:  43 Malcolm Road, Braeside, |  Therefore, be not alone."           |
|           Victoria, 3195, AUSTRALIA. |                                      |
| Internet: philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au |    -- Prime Song of the Viggies      | 
