Destroyed Rooms

[twiggy550]

Quick question here: Do they serve any purpose at all?

Starting on the first island and going through many of the buildings, the purpose of them being in the game seems silly if they contribute nothing. Or are they only supposed to contribute atmosphere?

I'm just curious.

[Mánagarmr]

They are there to give the atmosphere of a ravaged world in a constant state of disorder and decay. In the beginning, they weren't that clearly marked. They are also there to give you a feeling of "biggness". This house WAS bigger once, but now it's a crumbling mess.

So instead of giving you heaptons of useless rooms to go to just to make the world "bigger", the destroyed rooms are marked as such simply to just show you the world is big, but you don't need to explore it. I'm not sure I'm getting my point across (post-dinner coma) but I hope you understand the point.

There is never any reason to go to those rooms. They are simply there to artificially enlarge the world and point out that "Hey this world is going through a tough time, yo".

EDIT: Atrocious spelling.

[tigersfan]

Sometimes they can be used as a way to escape an enemy for a bit while you swap spells or whatever. But, yeah, that's about it, other than what Moonshine Fox said.

[twiggy550]

Alright cool, figured as much. I'm just glad I wasn't missing out by maybe not knowing if there was a secret involved with the room or not. xD

[x4000]

There's actually a wiki article that goes into a bit more depth: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AVWW_-_Why_Being_A_%22Completionist%22_Is_Both_Futile_And_Boring_Here#What.27s_With_All_The_Destroyed_Rooms.3F

Destroyed rooms, which some players refer to as "bombed out" rooms (because of the little bomb icon that used to be on the door), are something that exist -- thematically speaking -- because of the cataclysm that shook up the world prior to the start of the game.  There are destroyed rooms for the same reason there are chunks out of the moon, or clocks that have fallen down to the floor.


From a gameplay standpoint, what purpose do they serve?

1. They make the buildings smaller.  Having to always explore enormous buildings in any game is annoying.  Most players also hate locked doors that you can't go into for mysterious reasons (unless the game you're playing is survival horror, in which case it's a relief every time; but that's a very different genre).  Our solution was to let you go into any room, but destroy some of them.  We make them obviously destroyed just from looking at their entrance, and make it so that they never have nothing of interest at all inside them.  Repeat: there is never anything of interest to find in destroyed rooms, which means you can safely ignore them as you explore around.

2. Destroyed rooms also make buildings non-linear.  In real life, buildings are constructed to make it as EASY as possible for people to get around in.  There are often big loops, multiple ways to get to any spot in a building, and so on.  The only barriers we really put up in ''most'' buildings are locked doors, but it's expected that anyone with a key will have quick access to any part of the building.  For a game, of course, this is terrible: there's no sense of exploration, there's no secret passages, etc.  Having destroyed rooms in AVWW means that sometimes you find a room BEHIND that destroyed room that is only accessible through, say, the vent ducts.  Or sometimes part of the building is only accessible through the back door of the building, while the front door just leads to a few rooms that are collapsed-in.  Etc.  A lot of games use this trick; you'll see it everywhere if you know to look for it.

3. Destroyed rooms also do provide a little hidey-hole for your character to step into and safely let their mana recharge, reorganize inventory, wait out enemies, or whatever.

This thread had already somewhat covered all the points except #2, which is a pretty important one.  Cheers!

[Mánagarmr]

Thank you! That was what my food induced coma-ridden brain was trying to convey and I completely forgot about #2

[x4000]

No worries!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I forgot they had vents sometimes, I'll have to remember that in bigger buildings....

King