Forum Overview :: The King of Shreds and Patches
 
Re: Automated testing would be a lot easier than that for a text game. by Bananadine 03/07/2010, 7:28am PST
Fullofkittens wrote:

1: Create an AHK (autohotkey script) for the happy path through the game.
2: any time there's a way that you can diverge from the happy path, create a different AHK. You should be able to build up a library of the keystrokes that it takes to get to all the various parts of the game.
3: create aggregate scripts that take you through all the possible pathways by using #Include on the divergent scripts.

If there's more than one legitimate way to solve the game then you would need a "trunk" script for each.


Yeah, Inform 7 at least already has something like that in its editor. It's pretty nice. But the space of possible paths through a complex text adventure is vast, and if a human has to manually build a single test in order for a single possible path to be automatically tested, then too many paths will go untested. That kind of scheme is a great start, but it's still critically tied to the author's ability to predict. If you've created a hundred items and thirty special actions and twenty locations etc. etc. etc., then how many combinations of thing with thing with action with location with player character state with whatever else are there? How many of them will you actually check? Almost none, comparatively! But a half-decent AI running for a few days straight could check a heck of a lot of them, and though it might not be smart enough to catch errors in a game's use of English, it could probably give a fairly confident answer to the question of whether it's possible to render the game unwinnable by doing things in the wrong order, along with answers to whatever other questions the author could pose as conditions on patterns of text.

The other problem is that sometimes games explicitly use random numbers, which can mess up test scripts. But there are ways around that.
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WHAT DOES THIS LATCH LOOK LIKE HOW DOES IT WORK WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH IT by Bananadine 02/16/2010, 2:59pm PST NEW
    WHAT IS THIS ROWBOAT CRAP by Bananadine 02/16/2010, 5:29pm PST NEW
        Ah okay by Bananadine 02/16/2010, 5:40pm PST NEW
    now I'm really stuck (maybe) by Bananadine 02/20/2010, 6:28pm PST NEW
        This is frustrating by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/20/2010, 7:22pm PST NEW
            Re: This is frustrating by Bananadine 02/20/2010, 8:46pm PST NEW
            oh yeah I meant to play this by jeep 02/20/2010, 9:07pm PST NEW
            Re: This is frustrating by kings of patches etc 05/22/2010, 4:11pm PDT NEW
                I think that's what finally stopped me too! NT by Bananadine 05/22/2010, 4:43pm PDT NEW
                    Re: I think that's what finally stopped me too! by kings of patches etc 05/22/2010, 6:41pm PDT NEW
                        Probably not (I don't remember) NT by Bananadine 05/22/2010, 8:34pm PDT NEW
                Re: This is frustrating by kings of patches etc 05/22/2010, 6:38pm PDT NEW
        stuck for good by Bananadine 02/24/2010, 9:16am PST NEW
            Re: stuck for good by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/24/2010, 10:21am PST NEW
                Postscript by Bananadine 03/06/2010, 4:58pm PST NEW
                    Re: Postscript by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/06/2010, 9:00pm PST NEW
                        Re: Postscript by Bananadine 03/06/2010, 11:26pm PST NEW
                            Automated testing would be a lot easier than that for a text game. by Fullofkittens 03/07/2010, 6:46am PST NEW
                                Re: Automated testing would be a lot easier than that for a text game. by Bananadine 03/07/2010, 7:28am PST NEW
                                Re: Automated testing would be a lot easier than that for a text game. by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/07/2010, 1:04pm PST NEW
                                    Randomness by Fullofkittens 03/07/2010, 1:15pm PST NEW
                                        "manually" should have said "normally" (We need edit buttons and logins) NT by Fullofkittens 03/07/2010, 1:19pm PST NEW
                        Re: Postscript by kings of patches etc 05/22/2010, 6:55pm PDT NEW
        Re: now I'm really stuck (maybe) by Unknown 05/29/2012, 4:52pm PDT NEW
    Isn't this the Derek Smart forum? NT by the obvious joke 03/07/2010, 5:46am PST NEW
    I read this for the first time because of the bump. I thought this game was NT by about '80s lead guitar. -FSBT 05/23/2010, 1:50am PDT NEW
    Re: THE LATCH by Misha 01/05/2012, 4:45pm PST NEW
        Re: THE LATCH by Misha 01/05/2012, 4:50pm PST NEW
            As a doornail NT by Entropy Stew 01/05/2012, 4:53pm PST NEW
                IN BED! NT by that guy 01/05/2012, 5:11pm PST NEW
            Update on my progress! by Bananadine 01/05/2012, 5:58pm PST NEW
                EXAMINE SEARCH by USE LATCH ON SEARCH 01/06/2012, 1:09am PST NEW
 
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