Esoteric Update #255 - Late-Binding Ad Hoc Polymorphism?

This week, I've mostly found myself writing and tackling one bigger problem. Of course, there were also the usual smaller things like tackling assets and bugs, but I don't think that's worth talking about much.

So yeah, I think we're around the 65% line for the texts needed for various objects you encounter in the adventure. There's some interesting indirect storytelling building up here, and I'd like to highlight it more at a different time.

For the moment, I just want to talk about electrical circuits. Oh boy, the circuits. It turned out to be a much more complex simulation to implement than I initially anticipated, but that might also be my fault for making it that way. After all, I could have simplified it until the problems disappeared, but that would be a disservice to the whole concept. So I stuck with it, and after some perusing of introductory electronic textbooks later, I bashed out something that works.

Here's an example:

(A circuit with two lightbulbs connected to a breaker; the issue is that the breaker is just one ampere and cannot support both lights.)

(Trying to turn the second light on by flipping the switch trips the breakers and cuts power to both lights.)

(However, with a three-ampere breaker, the circuit functions with both lights on.)

I also personally think that the coding behind this is quite fascinating, as there's something resembling late-binding ad hoc polymorphism involved in defining the individual parts. These parts currently consist of power sources, wires, different types of switches, breakers, light fixtures, or even abstract power-drain elements that can be used to build wholly custom components on top of the system without adding new parts.

Currently still looking for some ideas on new elements to add, but I think the whole thing is reaching feature completeness.

Anyway, we'll get more writing done next to finish the items and then start putting it all in the game. We will not be able to finish this for the next yearly roundup, and we'll likely move that back until we have this out for people to interact with — at least the version without the monster.