Name that strategy

[BitBuster]

I always just did Ctrl-N/Ctrl-P. And then I found out that that manoeuver can sometimes create little bugs in TW...

[geodave]

"Suicide" - running into the nearest monster/fire/water when you know you've cooked a level and don't want to press Ctr+R (I can't be the only one who does this).

Definitely use this.

Also, need a name for "taking a little more time right now and saving time later". Recently found this to be true in Recurring Dream.

[thinker]

My proposed SUMARIZED ‘INTEPRETATION’ of what has been offered so far:



(the word in front of the hyphen is the designers strategy and after is the player’s tactic)







1: Sequential order - logic



2: “Two-pass” (disconnect)- connecting; and, “Disintegration” – integration (?)



2B: (I don’t know what the “left –hand rule” rule is) -please explain



3: Seduction (temptation) to take a resource - wisdom/caution and abstinence



4: (Strategic) Placement (of a tile needed in the future) - peripheral awareness



5: “Bug Rule” (?) – (?) what is this rule? - please explain



6: AWA/randomness – simplify and eliminate excess noise



7: Multiple choice (causing guessing) – persistence, or



Forced choice>unseen consequence> of the choice – play different level; lol



8: Out of sight control of (frog-helpers) - reflect on past similar situations



9: Blind…ing - search (for out of sight tiles)



10: Too hard – suicide (killing Chips and starting over)



11: (cause) Run around – efficiency (taking time now to save time latter)







I’ll add another one here:



12: Door trap – look ahead



This is where the layout path causes Chip to pickup a key that needs to be disposed of before crossing over a forced floor next to a door that will trap Chips if the door is opened with the unwanted key.







If I have not interpreted your entry properly, go ahead and re-propose with more explanation, please.







Keep making entries and I will summarize again latter on after more are entered.



Also, feel free to offer counter active tactics to the proposed strategy



Ian Wilson (thinker)

[BitBuster]

I think the "bug rule" refers to following paths the way bugs (or paramecium) would. This applies mainly to mazes, so that you can keep track of where you're going and where you've been.

[PB_guy]

Left-hand rule (Bug Rule): imagine yourself in a maze where you must make every left hand turn offered to you. Bugs always turn left in a maze.

[M11k4]

Ok, before I was thinking you were asking about strategies a player might use while playing a level, but it seems you were asking more about the types of strategies or types of problems a designer might include in levels. Of the mentioned strategies bug rule, abstinence, window shopping, wandering around, and suicide really mean the first type of strategy. That leaves sequential logic, two-pass algorithm, integration by parts, strict time limit, timing and agility, requiring patience, unseen helpers, and multiple choice as the types of things a designer might use. There is some overlap in the concepts though, like another designer strategy is "requiring abstinence", and a player strategy is definitely recognizing the problem type, like "realizing there are unseen helpers." I believe it's still useful to consider smaller design elements in a category by itself, like "door trap", "partial posting", "blocks opening traps" as just being tools a designer might use to create a strategy.

[thinker]

Sorry for the confusion, guys! The original intention of this thread was to make a list of possible “names” of various strategies that a designer could utilize in designing a level.

Then it occurred to me that the “player” also needs to utilize a known ‘tactic’ to combat those strategies that have been used. Thus, the strategy was named first followed by a hyphen, and then to possibly name a type of tactic that could often be used to beat that type of strategy.

Admittedly, most levels have more than one strategy in the design as noted by what I would call a ‘cousin’ to this post -that was also started and called: “Name that design Element”. So yes, there are many strategies and most are of the smaller kind “inside” the level its self. But on the other hand, quite often, there is an overall strategy that can be identified and named – and that was the original purpose of this post.

One that is often used and one that I think of as the most disliked (by most players) is one that I would call “Random” –where there are many multiple choices and you have to guess which one to try and hope that you guessed right. Thus, to name it:

Randomness-Recognizing (the situation), Remembering & Persistence (to keep trying)

As for an example of this: I looked at AndrewR1’s levelset, one time, and saw that there was too much use of this kind of strategy -as some of you have mentioned back to him in response to his request for critique.

Ian Wilson (thinker)

[thinker]

Another strategy (that I don’t think all that highly of), but is used some what often -is one where you follow a pathway and on each side are pitfalls, such as a fire tile, water tile, bombs, etc. A simple enough strategy, but all that it takes (mostly) is being careful. An example of this would be in the original MS CC1 - level 57: “Strange Maze”.







Tracking-carefulness



Ian Wilson

(thinker)

[BitBuster]

^I used to think that that was the key to beating Spooks, but doesn't the bold involve opening chambers and dodging monsters?

I think a list of strategies that often work well when combined with each other might be useful as well.

[jblewis]

That's the beauty of Spooks - the normal and bold routes are fun in their respective rights.