I finally managed to finish Wrong Way Go Back. That is quite a difficult story! I particularly like the twist at the end, devious. Thanks Ulysses for this great adventure!

Z Sun Feb 6 02:39:32 2011 The Diamond Key	Hmm, the downloadable version of The Diamond Key seems to indicate that the player starts off with a choice of an extra weapon and an extra item, but the online version doesn't seem to incorporate this?
	The online version is slightly cut down from the original for technical reasons.

Ulysses
Sat Feb 5 03:42:09 2011
Wrong Way Go Back

Aiken:

As you may know from the last time you were in a multilevel hovercarpark, shopping complex or spaceship, it is easy to get disorientated when everything looks the same. Hovercarparks do a good job of getting around this problem by colour-coding the walls and even numbering the spaces, however in a shopping complex or spaceship (the Attila is kind of both), this kind of customer-friendly marking is not usually seen because each vendor wants the freedom to furnish their allotment is they see fit. The unattractiveness of such crude idicators is also unfavoured by centre management, since the opulance and asthetics of the complex or spaceship often justify higher rates.
The HEA staff were well aware of these difficulties, and many options were discussed with Galactic Cruises. The simulations showed that for a certain size of complex, having customers lose their way was advantageous; since this exposed them to more shops, more products and more impulse purchases. However, once the complex grows beyond a certain size, customers tended to pause less frequently, the shops all blurring together, the probability of better prices elsewhere in the complex increasing to the point where customers didn't buy just in case there was a bargain at a similar store around the corner. The engineers toyed with dividing the ship into sections of such size to maximise fund-extraction from the passengers, but Galactic Cruises didn't like this. The ship needed to be grand! To overwealm and impress! That's what would bring the passengers in the first place. People needed to be able to find their way around so they could find what they were looking for and start spending money, not wandering around lost and exhausted.
Some of the suggestions were: having scantily clad women of all species wandering around carrying large glittering cards displaying the current location (too many overheads), periodic announcements by a pleasant artificial voice (not classy!); unique lighting for each level (makes it harder to refurbish).
After these suggestions and more, it became clear that the ideal solution would distinguish each level and section without being noticable at all. How the engineers were to achieve this subliminal information propagation perplexed them for many days.
Then one day one of the engineers burst in excitedly, pointing at his swollen nose that had just been stung by a bee. "It's an apple-on-the-head moment!" he said excitedly. This required explanation. The engineer had gone for a walk to seek inspiration. Passing a patch of roses, he recalled the saying about stopping to smell the roses, so he stuck his nose in one and gave it a sniff. The fragrance of the rose brought back a sudden memory of when he was a child, sitting on a bench with his mother. His father had just brought her roses, and as his parents hugged, he sniffed the roses as his mother had done. The memory had given him an idea: They could use the air ventilation system to flood each level with a subtle but unique fragrace. Whatever the passengers saw or did would be linked with the scent in their brains, and so they would 'just know' somehow if they were in the same place or not.
"But what about the bee-sting?" his colleagues asked.
"Oh, that just made my realisation feel more dramatic! There was a bee in the rose. I'm actually in quite a lot of pain..."
They built frangrance into the models and ran the simulatuion. The passengers still wandered about lost, but they 'just knew' right away they were in the wrong place, and so made for the lifts and transport tubes much sooner to search elsewhere. The engineers discovered that with less undiirected wandering, the impulse purchases made a leap!
Galactic Cruises were very pleased and approved the system...

So it is that when you were searching for the club, you knew something was not right. The scent indicator is subtle, so you didn't know how you knew, you just knew...

Aiken
Fri Feb 4 15:05:55 2011
Wrong Way Go Back

Ulysses: that was what I had always assumed. But I was pondering a different question. Given the well known multiplicity of clubs on Attila the Hon, how does the enseign realise he has gone to the wrong one if he lacks the information to locate the correct one?

Bert
Thu Feb 3 22:17:35 2011
Wrong Way Go Back

Thank you Ulysses. Must have frequented more clubs on the ship than I remember :-)

Ulysses
Thu Feb 3 12:32:49 2011
Wrong Way Go Back

Bert:

The Attila the Hon was designed by members of the Hedonistic Engineers Association, who were given the design brief in the form of a photo of the CEO of Galactic Cruises lying in a puddle of his own ecstatic drool with a huge grin on his face. This happy snap was from a recent fact-finding mission to a number of worlds, including Orgasmotron 9 (it turns out that most of the mission was spent there, but that's understandable, given how much there is to see and do on the delightful world; and at such reasonable prices!)
Consequently the engineers did their best to create deck after deck of pleasure and indulgeance. Being a respectable businessman (and with the sombering experience of returning home to his wife, whose looks, it has been said, can best be described as sombering), the CEO of Galactic Cruises carefully marketed the Attila as a ship of luxury, love and romance.
Despite the high price of tickets, the ship has proven very popular thanks to its mobility, veneer of respectibility, and tax-free status. After all, travel through space is rather boring. The average businessman owes it to his clients to arrive refreshed and vitalised after his journey, eager to conclude a deal as efficiently as possible so he can travel home again as without delay.
After all, one can hardly experience everything the massive ship has to offer in one trip. Each deck explores opulant indulgeance in a different way! There are some universal constants, and one of them seems to be alcohol! Removal of inhibitions is an important step if one is to fully indulge in the luxurious delights of the Attila. Consequently, clubs and bars fill every level of the ship, offering intoxication in more ways and in more flavours than you can poke a stick at!

Bert
Thu Feb 3 10:20:30 2011
Wrong Way Go Back

I think Wrong Way Go Back has an inconsistency almost right at the start.

SPOILER

END SPOILER

Haoie
Thu Jan 27 20:11:17 2011
The Dead World

That's awesome! I was really disappointed with the sequal to Deathtrap Dungeon, Trial of Champions - The only good part is before you go into the dungeon itself. Armies of Death was quite a bit better.

Ulysses
Mon Jan 24 13:34:04 2011
The Dead World

Aiken:

How prophetic of you, it does indeed have a stat like that :)
The contest is to select the king, and so it's hardly an unbiased contest. The six characters you can play as come from different backgrounds (e.g. one is a prince, another is a slave), and start out with different popularity ratings. Your actions can result in your popularity going up or down, and unpopular characters are quietly assassinated by officials if it looks like they might be getting too successful.

Aiken
Mon Jan 24 13:27:36 2011
The Dead World

Ulysses- the Deathtrap Dungeon homage sounds awesome. Well both books do, but especially that one. You could have a stat. called "Popularity" that goes up if you please the crowd by being heroic/bad-ass and down if you are cowardly or evil. At crucial moments the crowd might then decide your fate, a la the Roman gladiatorial games.

Ulysses
Mon Jan 24 01:22:02 2011
The Dead World

Jordan:

Secondhand bookstores or Ebay might be the best place to find a copy of Deathtrap Dungeon. You won't find it online legally. It was included in the re-release of some of the FF titles, but there's no need to pay full price for it.
The re-release seems to have died off anyway. I only saw the books in a few stores a couple of years ago, and now don't see them anywhere.

Jordan
Sun Jan 23 23:00:06 2011
The Dead World

Oh, I didn't know that this was a voluntary thing. Wow! Nice going, Ulysses, Phil, and all the other authors of these books. I've heard of the Deathtrap Dungeon Ulysses, but never played it. I'm assuming it's an actual Fighting Fantasy book. Any online versions out there to play?

Ulysses
Sun Jan 23 02:00:46 2011
The Dead World

Clive55:
Jordan is correct. Some areas of the gamebooks can be accessed only if you have completed the previous episode, usually to gain a bonus.

Jordan:
I have 2 other stories currently under development that are set in the same world as The Diamond Key.
The first is a spinoff about the Orcs who have set up their own kingdom and are up to something. You play as a puny orc who was raised in a temple by humans, sent in to spy on your people. You are forced to learn quickly the harsh ways of your people and grow stronger. You also have an alightment that shifts according to your actions and leads to one of six equally valid endings.
The second is similar to Deathtrap Dungeon, but is set in a series of arenas packed with spectators. Therefore it is a lot more fiscally responsible that watching contenstants disapper into a hole in the ground. Revenue from ticket sales more than covers the overheads of hosting such an event, although the payback period for multiple stadium construction is measured in decades. Still the boost to the local economy by spectators from out of town is not insignificant. You play as a local proprietor trying to make ends meet in your novelty hat store... Actually that's not true. You play as one of the contestants (of which there are 100s, from noble warriors who choose to attend, to prisoners who are there as monster-fodder). The arenas present a series of challenges and battles which are designed to entertain the crowd, oh and find the champion who will be the next king (until the economy dips). You play as one of six characters who will all have different experiences as they fight their way through.
I've written about half of both projects, but they are long ones which will be about 1000 refs each. You probably won't see them for a while yet. After that I will retire from gamebook writing unless I start getting paid for it.

Jordan
Sat Jan 22 01:18:59 2011
The Dead World

Hey, Clyve. Yes, Ulysses did suggest that. Though his adventures can be played as stand-alone gamebooks, you can increase specific weapon training throughout the course of your adventures. Also, you have multiple opportunities to increase your luck, skill and stamina, and the increases to said things goes from gamebook to gamebook. For example, if your skill managed to increase to 14 or so in Golden Crate, you can increase it further in the latest episode. Ulysses, I very much look forward to your latest adventure. If I may make a suggestion, or request rather, I hope that, after you finish all of the episodes of the WWGB series, you do another adventure similar to Diamond Key. Or even something different. Perhaps a mystery with horror/fantashy elements?

Clive55
Fri Jan 21 21:54:02 2011
The Dead World

Ulysses Ai, refresh my memory.. did you recommend somewhere in the guestbook to do your works in sequence? I seem to recall you suggested it in order to get the 'best possible' ending or easter egg in the later story(s). Or something to that effect. Refresh my memory? (I'm sorry, but I really don't feel like clicking through page after page of the guestbook to find this reference!) *sheepish grin*

Clive55
Fri Jan 21 21:48:22 2011
Devil's Flight

Looking forward to it, Gaetano.

Aiken
Wed Jan 19 15:18:46 2011
The Dead World

I must admit that I'm slightly releived. Anyway, good luck- I'm looking forward to it a great deal.

Ulysses
Wed Jan 19 14:33:54 2011
The Dead World

Aiken.

Thanks for the suggestions, particularly (d).

I've broken my formula with Episode 7, which is approaching 500 references. The episodes were supposed to be short, which meant that being difficult wasn't so bad. I don't think I can justify extreme difficulty in something 500 refs long. That said, most of refs are to manage technical issues related to multiple visits to sites, etc.
Anyway, there are still a few snags to get past.

Aiken
Wed Jan 19 10:30:17 2011
The Dead World

Ulysses-Some ideas to make your next "impossibly difficult" gamebook suitably hard:

(a) Combats that must be lost in order to progress;
(b) Items that are very useful but which prevent you from getting vital plot tokens (but you'll never know it);
(c) Endurance must be < 10 in order to elicit the sympathy of a vital NPC (but you'll never know it);
(d) Luck must be exactly 7 when you get to reference 24;
(e) Important information coded using cyphers (not just COH east cyphers, real cyphers); and
(f) Said information is 50% completely misleading, 50% absolutely essential.

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