Hello Darkness My Old Friend: An Idea

[nauta]

So, I had this thought, and IDEA'd it in-game, but I thought I'd put it out to the masses, see what they thought:

In brief, if you are in cave/tunnel/a stormless moonless night aka Darkness without a torch, you should be able to 'look west' (or 'watch west') and see rooms that are lit up (with a torch or naturally).

This would be neat because you could hide in the dark and wait for someone.  You might even be able to shoot an arrow at them.

As the code currently stands, oddly enough, it works a little counter-intuitively.  Let me explain.

Case One: If things are such that it is 'Darkness' (stormless night/cave/tunnel), and you are not holding a torch, and you type 'look west' you get:

Code Select Expand


> look west
Darkness


Case Two: Now if you hold a torch, and type 'look west', you get:

Code Select Expand


> look west
West of here is darkness.
[Very far]
It's completely dark over there.
[Far]
A tall figure is standing here. (This guy has a torch!)
[Near]
It's completely dark over there.


My proposal then is that the first case (when you are sitting in the dark without a torch) should deliver output like the second.  I actually think it'd be even cooler if the second case (where you are holding a torch) would deliver output like the first case -- so switch the two -- because if anyone has sat around a campfire and peered into the woods, you'd know that you couldn't see someone holding a torch as well as if you put out that campfire and squatted in the dark.

Upshots:

o Realism.
o Makes 'direction sense' even more useful -- if you really want to slink about and you suspect an ambush, better have a friend with direction sense.
o Allows for neat sneak opportunities and ambushes in the dark -- play the weather, study the routes, etc. etc.

So, thoughts?  (I recognize this would be a code change!  I'm just tossing it out there to the masses for refinement.  If a coder finds it interesting, I'm sure they'll take it up eventually.)

[Reiloth]

Dig.

[Delirium]

I've often wished it worked this way. +1

[Barsook]

I dig this for the realism!

[Reiloth]

If it was somehow attached to light sources as well, being able to throw that torch down the scary well to see how deep it is...Would be nice as well.

What I mean is the 'light source' is what gets tracked, not the person holding it.

[nauta]

If it was somehow attached to light sources as well, being able to throw that torch down the scary well to see how deep it is...Would be nice as well.

What I mean is the 'light source' is what gets tracked, not the person holding it.

The ability to throw a torch (and have it light up the room) would revolutionize exploration as we know it in Armageddon, hehe.  (Also: ass -v down: You think this would be a really easy|hard|impossible climb.)

[Pale Horse]

I came to talk to an old friend, again.

I left feeling like this is a great idea.

[WanderingOoze]

If it was somehow attached to light sources as well, being able to throw that torch down the scary well to see how deep it is...Would be nice as well.

What I mean is the 'light source' is what gets tracked, not the person holding it.

The ability to throw a torch (and have it light up the room) would revolutionize exploration as we know it in Armageddon, hehe.  (Also: ass -v down: You think this would be a really easy|hard|impossible climb.)

The Battle-hardened, burly dude says in sirihish "Alright, we're camping -here- for the night, build a perimeter!"

Ths skinny, clever-faced fella throws a lit torch north

Ths skinny, clever-faced fella throws a lit torch east

Ths skinny, clever-faced fella throws a lit torch west

Ths skinny, clever-faced fella throws a lit torch south

Ths skinny, clever-faced fella says in sirihish (nodding firmly to The Battle-hardened, burly dude) "Done Sarge."

The Battle-hardened, burly dude nods

[Rhei]

This. Pls.

The ability to throw a torch (and have it light up the room) would revolutionize exploration as we know it in Armageddon, hehe.  (Also: ass -v down: You think this would be a really easy|hard|impossible climb.)

This would be incredibly neat, as well. Any way to make it possible other than reading through room descs, figuring out whether a direction may or may not lead to a climbing room. Obviously, this sort of feature should probably be nil when room in said direction is dark.

[Raptor_Dan]

I am all for every bit of this. In the past, I had tried these things, thinking that this is how things actually worked. Failed.

+1 to all over this. Torch throwing, torch spotting, assessing a climb, tricking your Byn Sergeant into thinking an elf is useful. All of it.

[Armaddict]

It's all been brought up before.  Was for it before, am for it now!

[BrokenRomance]

I am so for this. I should be looking east and not seeing anything but darkness because I have no light, then walk over there  and it's "brightly illuminated by several lanterns" or something.

Realism +1 please.