Overview
ADRIFT 5 is a complete re-write of ADRIFT 4. The reason for this is due to the flawed design of ADRIFT 4. Fiction created using ADRIFT 4 have constantly been criticised for “guess the verb” problems, issues where overriding tasks only works some of the time, and problems with the parser. This is mainly due to the design whereby the Runner has a built in set of standard tasks, and players can choose to override these. The overriding in ADRIFT 4 works by creating task commands which syntactically match the in-built commands. If there is not full coverage of the in-built commands, problems can arise with the default task executing rather than the overriding one.
ADRIFT 5 gets around this problem by having all the in-built commands defined in libraries. These tasks can then be explicitly overridden, removing the possibility that the wrong task will execute.
Major differences between v4 and v5
Perhaps a side-by-side comparison
ADRIFT 4.0 | ADRIFT 5.0 | |
---|---|---|
Technology | Visual Basic 4.0 - 6.0 | VB.Net (.NET Framework 2.0) |
System tasks | Hardcoded in Runner | Customisable in Standard Library |
Restrictions between locations | Task or Object status | Unlimited restrictions of any type |
Editing ALRs | External text editor | Within application |
Hints | One per task | TBC |
Location Properties | N/A | Dynamically assigned |
Object Properties | Hardcoded list | Dynamically assigned |
Character Properties | N/A | Dynamically assigned |
Resize windows | No | Most can be resized |
Multiple windows | No | Yes |
References per task command | 2 max | Many |
Parser | Poor | Improved |
Drag and Drop support | No | Yes |
Customisable List/Folders | No | Yes |
Sub Events | 2 | Unlimited |
Spell Checking | Basic | Advanced |
Source text highlighting | No | Yes |
Alternate text output | Rooms only | Any text |
Full screen mode | No | Yes |
Graphics | File only | File or Internet |
Object classes | No | Yes |
Treaty of Babel support | No | Yes |