This is the version of the game that I played:
Release 2 / Serial number 150731 / Inform 7 build 6L02 (I6/v6.33 lib 6/12N)
Entrance to Library
>rezrov doors
That's not a verb I recognize.
Misleading message. If I try to use a spell on something that doesn't exist, I get a misleading message that the verb isn't understood, when in fact, it's the noun that the game doesn't know. This isn't just a rezrov thing; it's all spells.
Do this on first entry to the antechamber:
Library Antechamber
>rezrov door
What do you want to do something to that: the 1) enormous door, the 2) wooden door, or the 3) hidden door in the Disused Closet?>3
You pause for a moment—you don't know where you might find another rezrov scroll, so you should probably make a copy of this one before you destroy it. Are you sure you want to do this?>yesYou do not know that spell.
Horrid disambig phrasing. "What do you want to do something to that" is very awkward English.
Surprise spoiler. The disambiguation message shouldn't tell me about objects like hidden doors that I haven't discovered yet.
What rezrov scroll? I don't actually have a rezrov scroll at this point, so the pause message doesn't really make sense here.
Incomplete Encyclopedia. Some spells mentioned in the game aren't listed in the Encyclopedia:
Main Stacks
>x exothermic
...dry the mixture with a simple pulver spell (from a safe distance), then activate it with radnog...>x damp paper
A short note has been scrawled across the paper:To the next expedition: we tried the golgatem spell here, and the mist is sufficient to create a bridge. Had to leave off before variations could be tested. TODO. - A. Schultz
There also seems to be something printed on the back.
>look up pulver in encyclopedia
You don't see any spell by that name listed here.>look up radnog in encyclopedia
You don't see any spell by that name listed here.>look up golgatem in encyclopedia
You don't see any spell by that name listed here.
And bizarrely, the brand-new never seen before blorple spell is listed! So magical.
Lesoch while izyuking doesn't blow me around. Forgive me, but I think I should be flung around the room, no? Likewise if I've izyuked someone else.
And - yikes - what if I yonk lesoch while flying? Nothing much because...
Yonk lesoch does nothing special (boo) and ...
Unused yonk creates a LLEPS prompt which is confusing:
>izyuk me
(first memorizing izyuk)
You are now floating serenely in midair.>yonk lesoch
(first memorizing yonk)
You feel a surge of magical power building up inside your mind.(first memorizing lesoch)
You pour the surge of power into your spell, but in this case some of it dissipates without effect.Slowly, teasingly, a small puff of wind begins to blow. It quickly builds to gale force, then hurricane force, and just as you feel you are about to be swept away, it subsides.
[LLEPS]>
Vaxumed and seraged adventurer makes lleps zifmia fail. So I have an angry adventurer in the Clean Room, so I vaxum-ed her. And that meant I could summon her to me with zifmia, even though she wanted to go home. Even though she was somehow angry and happy at the same time. Then I tried to send her home, but couldn't. I suspect that LLEPS ZIFMIA ADVENTURER is hardcoded to only work if the adventurer is in the Clean Room? (No, wait, that can't be it; I can dismiss her later from the Hall of the Mountain King.)
I'm also guessing that the adventurer's state-of-mind is done with more than one variable instead of just one of calm, wary, seraged, angry, and vaxumed?
Missing > prompt. This happens after the three senior Enchanters ask you to recreate your feat of yonk gnusto yonk. Without the prompt, it's not immediately clear that the conversation has ended and you're supposed to type something. (The prompt does show up as soon as I type something other than the ENTER or SPACE key.)
Library Antechamber
"Oh, one more thing," Frobar puts in. "Would you mind copying yonk into a spellbook again? It could be quite important, and you seem to be one of the only people with enough magical knowledge to cast yonk without having gnusto imprinted deeply into your mind." He hands you a well-worn spellbook with a leather cover, and another glossy scroll.
"You'll need this too, then," Helistar says, handing your own spellbook back.
You pause for a minute to consider your situation. You currently have two problems to deal with.
[Type THINK to get a list of problems.]
Frobar looks at you expectantly.
You pause for a minute to consider your situation. You currently have two problems to deal with.
Helistar sighs quietly.
You pause for a minute to consider your situation. You currently have two problems to deal with.
Helistar taps her foot, her fingers drumming the spine of her spellbook.
Glulxe crash if we don't immediately yonk gnusto yonk for the Enchanters. So, like, I'm a scroll thief and I'm curious what spells are in this new well-worn spellbook I've been given. Can you blame me? The error seems to happen if it's the first thing I type after the Enchanters' request:
[Type THINK to get a list of problems.]
Frobar looks at you expectantly.
>x well-worn
Glulx has stopped working
A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.
But in trying to reproduce this error, I also learned that I can't examine Frobar's spell book at all:
>i
You are carrying:
the Tome of Psychological Incantations
De Evocatio
your spell book
a glossy scroll
Frobar's spell book
[etc.]>x frobar's spell book
You can't see any such thing.
After the Enchanters teleport away, in Act II, we can try leaving the library:
>s
Entrance to the Library
It was surprisingly easy to get in here—you saw nobody on your way over, and the outer doors recognized your student ring. The hardest part was not talking yourself out of it. So many things could go wrong. What if there is an alarm? What if someone is still in the Library? What if someone comes in and finds you?No. You have come this far. Only the inner door to the north was keeping you away from the magic you seek, and now you have dealt with that obstacle. You aren't going to turn back now.
>s
Yes, probably best to forget this plan. It was doomed to fail.*** You have missed the point entirely ***
In that game you scored 51 out of a possible 100, in 207 turns, earning you the rank of Parlor Magician.
You unlocked 0 achievements out of 3.
The "give up" ending should evolve. Leaving the library gives the same ending regardless of when in the game you try it, even when we have the featureless white cube and might want to show it to someone. This ending acts like it's still the beginning of the game. Obviously either we should be discouraged from leaving that way with a new excuse, or end the game with a different message.
Note also that the Entrance to the Library description doesn't change to reflect the new status of things.
Blorple ring. Since the ring can't be separated from the PC; I'd code "blorple ring" to act like "blorple me", since I don't think you intended this to happen:
>blorple ring
(first memorizing blorple)
Your surroundings shift...Nondescript Room
Not quite a room, per se, but that is the best way to describe your surroundings. The whole world seems blurry and vaguely-defined, without real color or composition.>n
You begin to move forward, and the vagueness distorts around you, resolving into faint outlines, then the solid forms of...Nondescript Room
Not quite a room, per se, but that is the best way to describe your surroundings. The whole world seems blurry and vaguely-defined, without real color or composition.*** Run-time problem P43: Attempt to remove the player from play.
Bird jumps to mist. The bird picks a random item to use as a perch; sometimes that item is mist.
LLEPS ZIFMIA ADVENTURER at Hall of the Mountain King. Interestingly, she disappears, but reappears at the Hall of the Mountain King when you next enter there. So that's okay.
But mentioning the Clean Room again is way out of context. Also, the comment about "other scroll" isn't valid either.
Hall of the Mountain King
>lleps zifmia adventurer
(first memorizing lleps)
The spell goes off, but doesn't leave your mind—a remnant stays, ready to affect the next spell you cast.(first memorizing zifmia)
The image of the Adventurer seems to waver and flicker for a moment, then disappears with a loud snap.
You breathe a sigh of relief. Now that problem is taken care of...but you still have no way to get the other scroll out of the Clean Room.
"Say activation-word to library-mirror" isn't understood by the game. After reading the back of the damp paper, I headed back to the Scrying Room to test the activation word. I was confused by the game's total inability to understand the attempt.
Scrying Room
>read back
You turn the paper over to look at the notice on the back.Note - the activation process for the scrying mirrors in the library will soon require extra security. In addition to saying "shobarrax" you now need to show proper identification as well. Other mirrors will be phased in as time permits. - Thraxivar
>shobarrax
I didn't understand that sentence.>say shobarrax
(to yourself)
Talking to yourself is likely to prove unrewarding.>say "shobarrax"
(to yourself)
Talking to yourself is likely to prove unrewarding.>say shobarrax to stained mirror
You can't see any such thing.>x stained mirror
You see reflected in the mirror one of the most stunningly handsome men you have ever laid eyes on. You take a moment to position your robes more elegantly. There, that's better.>show ring to stained mirror
You can only do that to something animate.
Why can't I put a palantir in the chasm pit? My thinking: if I can't fly down into the chasm, I'll drop a palantir and then blorple to wherever it lands. And return the same way. Seemed like a reasonable plan, no? Like, maybe say there's too great a risk of it breaking that far down, or maybe say that it would be lost in whatever underground river to who knows where, maybe ending up underwater? Part of me wants to explore that dead end regardless. Part of me thinks that allowing that action at all will unfortunately totally hide the idea you're only supposed to go partway down.
Map gone but still here. Thinking that the adventurer was having trouble in the Bottom of the Staircase and Clean Room because of grue-filled darkness aversion, I frotzed the adventurer's map and ordered her to drop the now-enchanted map at the Bottom of the Staircase so she could leave her non-magical lantern in the Clean Room. Naturally, once I lleps zifmiaed her back to the caves, the map was left behind. And yet, during act II, there was no problem asking the adventurer about the map and seeing the lovely ASCII art.
Infinitely extensible rope. I can tie one end of the rope to the adventurer, then travel anywhere else with the other end. (Ropes have a reputation for being difficult to code in IF games.)
Unmentioned mirror. Considering I'd used the adventurer as my proxy with the Clean Room earlier, it didn't occur to me right away that I might investigate directly what the adventurer found on the chasm wall. I tried some more convoluted things first:
Overlook
>give transparent sphere to adventurer
She thanks you politely.>adventurer, d
"Okay, let's hope this works." The Adventurer takes a deep breath and steps out to the edge of the chasm, holding on to the old rope. She turns around and puts her hands on the edge of the rock, then starts to climb carefully down the rock face.After what feels like an eternity, you hear her voice from below you. "I'm at the bottom of the rope now! There's something strange in the wall here; you might want to look at it. It doesn't seem natural."
>x black sphere
Instead of a reflection, the small black sphere seems to show a different view, as if it were a window to another world...Chasm (carried by the Adventurer)
The Adventurer is holding the scrying device at a strange angle, so it takes a moment to reorient your view.You are hurtling downward at a tremendous speed, the wind whipping around you.
Nestled among the equipment is a shiny golden box.
Also carried by the Adventurer are a carbide lantern (providing light) and a knife.
...you step back from the glass, and take a moment to regain your bearings.
You hear the Adventurer's voice from the pit. "Could you help me here? I can't climb back up."
>adventurer, point transparent sphere at wall
The Adventurer does not respond.You hear the Adventurer's voice from the pit. "Would you mind pulling me back up now? I can't get a good grip here."
Note also how the game implies that the adventurer is falling, even though she isn't.
Sometimes, "pull rope: should be understood as "pull adventurer":
Overlook
>pull rope
The impulse is transmitted to the magical strongbox.
magical strongbox: The magical strongbox is firmly anchored.You hear the Adventurer's voice from the pit. "Could you help me here? I can't climb back up."
Tied and untied. While dangling from the rope, I figured the rope might be damaged (or something else bad might happen) if I tried to blorple through the mirror with the rope tied to me. So I cast izyuk, untied the rope, then blorpled through the mirror and this happened:
Chasm
>say shobarrax to mirror
As you say the word "shobarrax", there is a flash of light and the surface of the mirror ripples and distorts for a moment.[Your score has gone up by five points for activating a hidden mirror.]
>izyuk me
(first memorizing izyuk)
You are now floating serenely in midair.>untie me
(from the old rope)
Untied.>blorple mirror
(first memorizing blorple)
Your surroundings shift...South End of Ruined Hall
This must once have been the hall of some wizard, hollowed out of the rock by magic. The ceiling is a great dome, arching inward and downward to a single enormous column in the center. The stone is smooth and seamless, the craftsmanship perfect.But time has not been kind; the western half of the ceiling has begun to collapse, filling that side of the room with debris. Other than the cracked mirror behind you no trace remains of the mage's work.
>n
You're tied up here.You settle gently to the ground.
>x rope
The old rope is tied to the magical strongbox (in the Overlook).You see nothing special about the old rope.
>i
You are carrying:
an old rope (tied to the magical strongbox)
[etc.]>untie me
You is already entirely free.>n
You're tied up here.>untie rope
(from the magical strongbox)
Untied.>n
North End of Ruined Hall
[etc]
Unmagical shelving device. The shelving device in the Returns Room doesn't glow blue in response to jindak.