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How much can a single passage realistically handle?

edited December 2016 in Help! with 2.0
Because of my limited knowledge of Twine I suspect I overuse passages and resort to them when I really should be using macros like <<replace>>, <<linkreplace>> <<append>> etc.

The game I'm making now starts with the player locked in a single room, so even though there's only the one (locked) exit I'm still resorting to passages to handle the various objects in the room, and I began wondering late last night if the whole 'puzzle' of getting out of this locked room could, and should, be handled in a single passage?

It would be an absolute nightmare for me to take this on alone, as I need to handle things like different descriptions for return visits, items not being there if a player has already taken them, checking for variables etc. But at the same time it would be marvellous if a dozen passages could be reduced to one.

Is this how it should be done, ideally, or am I setting myself up for hours of frustration?

Comments

  • As I understand it generally a story format is design to expect a reader to traverse from one passage to another, and their History (and related Save) system rely on that traversal to know when to make snapshots/record the current state of the variables.

    To put that another way, by default any changes made to the variable values within the current passage (both when it is initially displayed and via reader interaction with the passage) are not persisted in the History system until the next passage traversal. That passage traversal can include the current passage traversing to itself.

    A Save stores the state of the variables as they were just before the current passage was display and it does not include any variable value changes done by the code contained in the current passage.

    So as long as your story does not need to use the History system to Undo a reader's actions and does not need to Save the current state of it's variables then you can create it as a single passage with no passage traversal.
  • I never considered the save issue. Are you saying that if the whole 'getting out of the locked room' puzzle was done in a single passage, any progress (such as collecting items or finding clues and such) would not be saved? In other words, any save done within a single passage would just result in the game starting from the beginning on load?
  • Jud_Casper wrote: »
    Are you saying...
    Yes.

    As I understand it, no passage traversal equals no History of the variables changing value(s), and the Save system stores the History.
  • Okay, thank you.
  • edited December 2016
    First, there's nothing wrong with "overusing" passages. Some of my passages are copied 5 times because it's simply easier and cleaner to do it that way instead of having to bug test a whole bunch of replace and if statements. I prefer solving divergence at the passage selection stage, rather than inside the passage.

    Second, you can solve the save game issue another way, by putting the save game choice in its own distinct passage.

    For example, rather than a link going directly to save, make it so that it's a passage link to an options screen, and save game can be accessed from there. Then you can include a back button in the options screen to return to where you were.
  • edited December 2016
    Thanks, Claretta. I so often forget things like this - that the save can be invoked whenever you please.

    Also good to know I'm not being a noob by creating lots of passages.
  • My first project has over 400 Passages - but it's sorta in the vein of a "Time Branch" type of game (I think) - where you enter at one Passage, it soon splits off, and splits off more after that depending on your choices. No bottlenecking or returning to 'main passages'. I'm in the process of trying to see if I can revamp it into more of a bottleneck since I do repeat a few 'passages' early on.
  • edited December 2016
    I find the process of branching off etc the most difficult part of building a gamebook style text adventure. I don't know why I find it more difficult than I do when building parser games, but I do.

    The hardest thing I find is making sure each choice the player makes, has some kind of impact on proceedings. So often with these games you can blindly click the links, knowing full well it makes no difference whatsoever in the grand scale of things.
  • Right. Makes sense. I try to make sure the choices matter as well. That's why I'm revamping it to try to see if I cant make it matter more.
  • Black choices matter! ALL choices matter!

    Shutting up now.
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