what is you inventory limit in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
There’s a hard weight limit of 100, and when you’re already carrying 8 or more objects, there’s a decreasing probability of being able to carry more.
The same as Zork, then? (I just read recently - I don’t remember where - that Zork’s inventory limit is probabilistic until you reach the hard weight limit. The thing is, in a game with a turn limit on the light source and a wandering thief, there’s a real cost to taking an extra turn to pick something up.)
You may be thinking of this blog post I wrote – or if you’re not, this will have more info: http://blog.zarfhome.com/2017/08/your-load-is-too-heavy-zork-deep-reading.html
The Zork inventory algorithm: There’s both a weight limit and an item count limit. The item count limit is seven, but you might be able to hold eight or more, depending on the total weight. That’s where the randomness comes in.
It looks like HHGG uses similar logic, although not quite the same. (There’s no weight factor in the “can you go over eight?” chance. It’s based solely on the item count.)
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Yes, that would be it! Thanks for the link.
So if I’m reading this right, Zork allows you to pick up an additional item if the number of currently held items times eight is less than or equal to a random number from 1 to 100? In which case, you can never go above 13 items regardless of weight.