Update 13th Apr '25

It was another week of intensive code-hacking.

I was hoping I'd have a sneaky little HoHH 1.5 release to put out here instead of the usual update post, but the clue framework is still refusing to settle down. I thought I had it, moved over to implement it with Asphya as a first test case, and then ran into a stat check the overall framework didn't handle particularly gracefully.

Overall, my thoughts of a couple weeks back that I was mostly through the code-hacking have proven a little premature.

The good news is that the underlying system I've come up with I think is fairly good. I will go into it in more detail in a later post, but the main change from the proof-of-concept version is the addition of incremental evidence and 2-step clues. This seems to be working fine in testing.

Where I've been running into trouble is trying to shove it all down and compartmentalise it into a nice neat framework. Twine is meant for people with limited programming expertise. I've done some sneaky things like make passages mimic functions and brought in some object data structures, but there are some pitfalls that can be a nuisance, especially in regards to variable scoping. I also don't want a solution that requires cut'n'pasting 100s of lines of code into each harlot scenario.

It's getting there, but there are still some points where it's rickety and that might be a problem later. Mostly because I was wanting to rush something out and cutting corners where I shouldn't.

At this point I think I might have been on this for too long. I'm tempted to pull back, leave it alone for a bit while I write the slime nun scenario and then come back with fresh eyes to get it properly "right".

I'll give it today and Monday to see if it does snap into place. If it does, I'll put something out next week with a 3-4 example harlots. If not, I'll leave it alone for a bit and come back later.

Apologies for the delay.
- manyeyedhydra