> I don't mind mapping at all. I'm perfectly
>willing to put in whatever amount of effort that
>it calls for. My problem, however, is this: it
>just doesn't help me very much, because for
>whatever reason it never works when I try to
>make my own maps. I borrowed my friend's paper
>map of the maze in Brackly Hall and was able to
>make it through the maze. It was still really
>difficult, though, even with a detailed, pre-
>made map sitting right in front of me.

I had the same problem with the Brackly Hall maze. Personally, I hate mapping, and usually absolutely refuse to do it. It's not because I think all games should map for me like most newer computer adventure and RPG games, it's just that I don't like having to stop every single stupid move and draw lines on a piece of paper. I never *did* like it, which is why I never played any of the old text adventure games or any of the early CRPGS that really required mapping. Mapping is just not even remotely fun for me, and if the game isn't fun, there isn't a whole lot of point in playing it.

Brackly Hall, however, was a little different in that I was absolutely determined to finish it. So I broke out the pencil and paper and started mapping the maze. The only problem was, it was absolutely of no use to me. First of all, I was tricked by the "The path to the north goes north then west" thing, and had to start all over when I finally realized that even though I went "north" away from location X to get to location Y, that doesn't necessarily mean that location Y is north of location X.

Second, once I figured out the first problem, I couldn't get anything to line up. I'd get the "north then west" part mapped correctly, but that path would never end up connecting to anything else. I tried several times from the start of the maze to go in different directions and map out parts of the maze, and what I ended up with was about three or four DIFFERENT maps that didn't seem to have any sort of relationship to each other. It was frustrating in the extreme.

I'm not sure how I eventually got through it. I think I just stumbled around and got lucky after enough time. I know I've basically sworn of AGL games, though, as all they do is make me angry and frustrated, and there's really no point in playing a game if that's all you get out of it.

-- Dave