''Terrorists' handbook''

[AndersM]

Most ags-games have a situation where the hero got to 'mix' a couple of the inventory items to get a combined item. For example in 'Alien Rape Escape' you combine a dildo, a screwdriver, and an item that I won't say so that I don't spoil the game, to make a powertool.

In my game, if the hero mixes up a couple of chemical inventoy items to build a bomb, to 'open' a locked door, Could this be seen as a 'Terrorist's guide to bomb-building' ?

[ThunderStorm]

This has already been done in Little Johnny Evil, but I assume you want to implement real chemicals to build a bomb that would (probably) work in real life?

I don't think this would be a big problem, as there are manuals on how to build different kinds of bombs spread over the internet, and finally the biggest task is to get one's hands on the ingredients.

[scotch]

Play Little Jonny Evil for a bomb making to open a door puzzle.
Almost anything goes as long as it's done with the right attitude, if your game was about making a bomb to kill some tourists in a cafe then it'd be bad, if it's just to open a door in an adventure game that's fine, you shouldn't worry about offending people.  You might want to stay away from making it too realistic though, just in case.

[DGMacphee]

In the book for "Fight Club" there were real recipies for making explosives.

In the film, they changed them to fake recipies so that people didn't try that sort of thing at home after seeing the film.

So, as long as you invent it and it doesn't explode in real life, it's safe.

[AndersM]

I was thinking about the real recipie for dynamite. Since it's only four igredients it would fit fine in the inventory-list...

[scotch]

I think that would probably be ok.. it's not exacly hard to find on google.. but as a puzzle make sure it doesn't actually require the person to know the ingredients beforehand..

[m0ds]

1 part Kieselguhr 3 parts Nitroglycerin? )sorry, dont know the spoiler code) I don't think it's a problem. This kind of information is readily available and a lot of people know it. You learn that kinda stuff in chemistry anyway (as dynamite is very common).


m0ds

[AndersM]

Kieselguhr and the tree ingredients of nitroglycerin: Salpetre acid, Sulphuric acid and  Glycerin.
Everyone will have forgotten this 'spoiler' by the time my game is finished, so it's not realy a spoiler...

In my game, If you first mix up the nitroglycerine, and then move the character before you add
the kieselguhr you'd get a big surprise: Nitroglycerine does not like to be moved around. The player
will learn this while watching the hero's guts spread over the ceiling...

[Archangel (aka SoupDragon)]

Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears (the book) contains a complete guide to building a hydrogen bomb, but nobody minds, since the machinery needed (not to mention the plutonium and other materials) is fairly impossible to get hold of.

[Evil]

I just used "Test tube with unknown liquid". It worked fine...

[Privateer Puddin']

Arch, im sure the Libians can get all that..

[Las Naranjas]

I wrote a murder mystery once, but I stopped because I thought it could show people how to kill people.

So I wrote a script about 1337 art thieves, but I didn't want people knowing how to steal stuff.

So I wrote an essay on the holocaust, but it showed how to commit genocide.

So I read Spot books.

[GarageGothic]

MrMasse, first of all, don't worry about giving away the recipe. After all, if you can find the information, so can everyone else.

But on the other hand, I'm not sure that it's very important whether the chemicals used in the game could be used to make explosives in real life or not. I think it depends on the tone of your game really.
If it's a realistic game, it would make sense to use real recipes, but then just must remember that in real life, you wouldn't just mix the stuff together in your inventory (what do you mean you don't have an inventory in real life? ) but you'd heat stuff up, stir it slowly, chill it by lowering the beaker into ice water and whatnot (not sure if you'd do any of this when making dynamity, but you get the point). If, on the other hand, this is a humorous game, you might make up some bogus recipe with more interesting ingredients (or use a simpler recipe such as gunpowder rather than dynamity).
I mean, most of the ingredients you mention would be found in labeled bottles in a laboratoty. If you also gave the player a list of ingredients, there would be no real puzzle. It would be far more fun if you had to improvise, getting charcoal from the barbecue grill in the backyard and stuff like that.

Edit: You MUST give the player a recipe to work from, even if you use a real world recipe which the player would probably know (gunpowder for instance). One of the worst puzzles in an adventure game ever was probably the photo developing puzzle in Shadow of the Comet where you had to pick out three chemicals from a shelf without any sort of hint. It was pure trial and error.

[Esseb]

They probably expected you to go to your library and find out for yourself.

Ah, naïve game developers of old.

[juncmodule]

Arch, im sure the Libians can get all that..

 LOL

How many people do you think got that? I hope a lot.

Isn't that bomb making handbook thing still for sale at Barnes & Nobles across the US? I think it has a bunch of misprints/wrong recipes anyway.

Anyway, do Terrorists use adventure games to plan their attacks? That would be...yeah...

-junc

[AndersM]

I found ''my'' recipie for dynamite in a book about Alfed Nobel....

[Squinky]

My buddy used to have all these crazy bomb making books...The one I remember the most was the anarchist cookbook....crazy stuff...

It had everything from shotgun propelled grenades to techniques for knife fighting...

[rodekill]

Two weeks ago some kid almost blew off his face when a bomb he made didn't detonate until he had given up and was carrying it home. This was like, two blocks from the house I grew up in.
He got the recipe from the internet.
Dumbass kids.

[juncmodule]

anarchist cookbook

That's it Squinky. It has a lot of screwed up recipies in it and misprints. I think they "used" to see that everywhere. They may not anymore. I had a room mate that used to make bombs with stuff from there. Luckily he was smart enough to know what errors were in the book. He bought this huge can of gunpowder from wallpart and started making bombs with snapple bottles, tin foil, and gunpowder. Ahhhh...what it would be like to be 26 again. heh.

Anyway, in relation to the game. Does it really matter what you put in it. I mean, if you put a fake recipe some dumb ass will make that and then decide to drink it and his parents will blame you. If you put in a real recipe it could blow up his whole house and then his parents will be dead and can't sue you .

later,
-junc

[Las Naranjas]

No matter how many times I hear things like "bought a huge can of gunpowder from wallmart" it'll still crack me up.