The Problems Compound release 3 notes

by Andrew Schultz

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This is the third release of The Problems Compound. The first release was for IFComp 2015, on September 28, and the second was on March 31, 2016.

(Write in people who helped here)

This is largely a maintenance release without many flashy new features, though Alec has a new food on Tray B to eat. It addresses some bugs discovered and in release 2, as well as some user-friendliness issues. The source code is now above 800,000 bytes, and...well, I think I'm ready to move on, except if I find a nice idea here or there.

The milestones for release 3 can be seen at https://github.com/andrewschultz/the-problems-compound/milestones/v3%20coding%20tweaks, but that's mostly just the technical stuff. A lot of code rearranging and so forth.

I managed to make more automated tests for the jerks, which spurred many of the changes.

The major stuff is here.
--condition mint now works as planned (BUG in R2)
--Alec now has a new bad food on Tray B which makes him "happy," but not really.
--PE now toggles exits in the header.
--the bartender is renamed to Ally Stout. The Punch Sucker is now a customer mentioned peripherally.
--the Howdy Boy now has a proper name, Terry Sally, which is kind of between two words. He still has the Howdy Boy title.
--Liver Lily was demoted to an off-hand reference, making way for Erin Sack.
--The Proof Fool and Logical Psycho now have proper names: Lee Bull and Sid Lew.
--the earth of scum is now earth of salt, because it's opaque enough you can see something below it.
--two new jump verbs to get by just the jerks or just the brothers.
--the very good ending is now implemented better.
--Bottom Rock is now A Great Den.
--Broke Flat is now a Fly House. Well, until you enter it.
--Hunter Savage is now Armstrong.
--the Basher Bible now rests on a side stand or something a bit more risque in innuendo mode.

The user-friendliness stuff is here.
--SKIP replaces GLIB as a verb. TESTJUMP (not seen in the release) is now the testing verb.
--the final question rule is now organized by (my stuff) (their stuff) and BOLD choices haven't been chosen yet, while italic have.
--walkthrough and InvisiClues touched up to address new alternate jerk solutions.
--the jerks' puzzle now lets you type, say, 1234567, and it clues you if one number is wrong and you gave the wrong guy a mint. The jerk-ordering is still arbitrary, but the game tells you that.
--jerks are now better randomized, but THINK now puts all the hints in one place.
--some concepts were revealed on start before, but now, a tracking file sees if they should be revealed.
--push and pull now map to open. This isn't huge, technically, but I'll use it going forward.
--fixed "can't go that way" in Service Community (up/down gave something odd).
--PDF walkthrough tweaked to separate introductory regions (now with jump-verb spoilers too) and also to use Trizbort's new (as of 1.5.9.5) custom text offset feature, so item placing looks look neater.

There's random stuff, too:
--you can now play Hangman and FreeCell with Guy Sweet
--many extra silly concepts added. Up to 587, from 66 in release 2. Many of these are sort of double-counted in the tables below, but this is how many concepts are defined in the source. It's probably too hard to find them all, but the game lists them at the end. Plus you can search for "table of explanations" in the source to see the goods.
--game text added here and there. As per usual for a post-release.
--the Case Basket now has a ton of Critically Important Law Cases. 210 total cases, in fact.
--it's now easier to get sent to the Ship if you mess up. The first time you re-visit an area, you go there.
--Sid Lew also has some truly 'incisive' theories about life and knowledge in general. To be precise, 22.
--the bad guy now sounds off on individual people and ideas outside of those in the game proper. Some are a bit topical, but they're in the general knowledge realm. If nothing else, you can Google them. He's up to 54 random important administrative and philosophical matters overall, too. Busy, well-rounded fellow!
--flexible maximum in score e.g. 0/(18-21) so the player knows if they're close, or they need to do more.
--new songs (28, up from 13).
--new books (63, up from 38).
--XYZZY in Freak Control now gives a horribly silly side story I just couldn't pass up.
--Uncle Dutch and Turk Young now have 17 bits of wisdom, up from 8.
--the jerks/groaners now have 244 "grown-up" discussions, if swearing is on, including a final lament, with 248 total gossip subjects. They don't actually swear, but...well, they're kind of nasty teenagers. So, yeah, they're a bit uncouth.
--more silly mistakes in either good ending now fixed.
--there are now 20 sleep stories, up from 15
--there are now 30 Basher Bible references, up from 29