Well, if you’re interested, here’s some requests/suggestions I had previously made regarding Trizbort.
[rant]
There’s a few features that you really have to add before it becomes as easy to use as it should. Think about the following features from GUEMap that make using it so much easier:
- Pressing a numerical keypad button while a room is selected automatically creates a room in the appropriate direction (i.e., east for 6, north for 8, and so on), and we can optionally fill in its name at once instead of having to select it to add the name. If there already IS a room, then the selection moves to the appropriate room. Ctrl+NumKeypad does do this now, it was added shortly after my request
Creating up and down connections is possible, as well as in-out connections and dotted lines, and it does not require creating then editing the connection (or mode toggling). On that note, maybe a shortcut like Ctrl-U and Ctrl-D to navigate to/create UP and DOWN rooms?..
It allows for taking notes, which is different from your - very useful - object list. It also allows for taking notes on the entire map. I tend to use it like a notebook, which is most handy.
These are the features I think are necessary for a practical and useful mapping tool, and it’s the first time I have to chance to tell an author, in hopes of seeing them implemented. So I’m taking that chance. I like the style. I would like to use it more.
Now for automapping!
I particularly like the “>see” feature, it even allows me to quickly make notes to the map without leaving the game (I know you meant it only for objects… hey, if you like, you can even add that as an extra feature - a separate “notes” section, to which with automapping could be added notes starting with “>note” or whatever).
“Muder in Aero Club” gives the same problem as in IFMapper - possibly because the first room is called “Car park” instead of “Cark Park”. I mean, I think the issue is the capitalization. You might want to tweak it so that even games with less standard room names (not all of them Have Every Letter Capitalised) get recognised by Trizbort.
Clarification on the issue mentioned above: Trizbort’s automap does struggle if a room’s name is in a less-than-standard format, and sometimes just capitalisation will cause issues. The response on that was:
You’re right, irritatingly “Car park” fails one of Trizbort’s “it could be a room name” tests by one letter It doesn’t mind 1-3 letter words being uncapitalised, but at four or more letters it expects it. I could just up this to four (or more), but I’d need to gather a larger corpus of transcripts to be sure I didn’t just make things worse for the majority of games at the expense of the minority. Good call though.
Other examples of room names being rejected are IF THEY ARE IN ALL CAPS or, in the case of “Sun room”, where it’s only the first letter capitalised.
I did come up with a suggestion: have Trizbort behave as normal, but if the user actually, say, creates a room called “Sun room”, and fills in the description, and during automapping Trizbort comes across that room and finds that, even though it might not trigger the “This is a room!” rule, there already IS a room created in Trizbort itself that fits perfectly with this room-that-didn’t-trigger-the-rules… then just treat it as a room. That way the user can easily override tricky instances without Trizbort having to be programmed to be magic. Or, in the words of my original proposal:
thinking about it, you know what would be even best? Leave the rules as they are - I considered asking you to make those “more relaxed rules” toggleable by the user, but that’s extra work for you with little foreseeable payoff - but make Trizbort a little bit smarter. Let’s say, in Murder at the AeroClub, Trizbort didn’t spot “Car park”. So let’s say I create “Car park” myself, and even fill in the description. It’s an exception, so it’s not any skin off my nose. It would be bothersome if I had to do it every room in every game, but the odd room in the odd game? Best to have a little bit of extra work and ensure that the rest of the program is tightly coded.
So, with that manually-created room, and even with the directions created manually, I would expect Trizbort to recognise that it is a room, and whenever it sees “Car park” in a single line with no punctuation - in fact, whenever it sees something that is a perfect match to a ROOM NAME and is followed by a perfect match to that room’s DESCRIPTION - it would assume that it IS a valid room, and would behave accordingly, even if it would, left by itself, assume otherwise.
Finally, I’d suggest you allow the user to tweak the options in automap even while automapping is going on. Sure, it’s easy enough to STOP and START it again, but all the same…
Also, Trizbort gets confused by “UNDOing”. Might want to check that, let it know that “[Previous turn undone.]” (and maybe make that text optionally editable by the user, as some games, like Crystal and Stone Beetle and Bone, use different UNDO messages) is not a room description.
[/rant]
And other people had other suggestions, too: Trizbort, an IF mapping tool for Windows
Soooo… do you regret saying “let me know if there’s any other improvements you’d like me to attempt.” yet?