Losing/retreiving items in book 9 (Spoiler alert)

[Dave]

Hi wonderful folks of the forum, please help me out here:

I'm about 50% with book 9, and have discovered at least 3 separate instances of being able to lose 1 or more items, and then being able to possibly recover them. Or if you don't recover them, they are gone for good.

1) Gambling with the farmer, sect 115. If you lose, you can get the wager back by winning the next round. If you lose that next round, though, you lose those items for good.

2) Robbed by a pickpocket (starting on sec 158) - If you catch the pickpocket and kill him, you get your item(s) back, but you can also eventually lose the trail and they are gone for good.

3) Guards take your equipment at the South Gate, section 170. You can find just your equipment later in stages, or not at all, though it is then returned to you at the end of the book (if you win!)

I think that's it for the total number of instances, but I need your help in knowing whether any of those timeframes overlap. E.g. can you lose your equipment at the South Gate, and *then* engage with the farmer in gambling, or get pickpocketed by the bad guy in 158?

I just don't have the time or patience to figure out whether I need to "ear-mark" the items that are lost from one of those encounters versus another. Once you lose the trail of the thief, I just say "delete all items in the "lost items" pool permanently". Same with the farmer gambling - if you lose the second bet, I just wipe the whole "lost items" pool clean. It would stink if doing so also wiped clean all of the equipment that the guards took that you should be able to get back!

So, if I need to write come extra code to be able to "ear-mark" lost items, I'll do that, but if there's no overlap, I won't bother.

Thanks for your help in tracking this down!

[Honza]

try using SVG graph for book 9

For what I found out, all three instances don't overlap

the gambling is first, and the pickpocket is (but don't need to be) after your escape from the South Gate

So there could be:

a) Gambling, then Imprisoning, then Picpocketing
b) Imprisoning, then Picpocketing
c) Gambling, then Imprisoning
d) Imprisoning
e) Gambling
f) nothing


ad 1) Gambling with farmer

sect. 115 (selecting an item) -> sect. 204 (wrong answer) -> sect. 302 (second wrong answer)

Maybe you don't need to delete the item after first wrong answer. you could wait for the second riddle. So in section 115 mark the item as selected, in sections 5 and 50 deselect it, in section 204 leave it still selected, and in section 302 delete it permanently.

ad 2) you could meet the pickpocket only after your escape from the South Gate prison. You lose the item in sections 201 or 273. You can retrieve it only in section 155. There is some trouble because sections 334 and 278 are reachable either after fighting a thief or when you choose not to chase him. So the stolen item should be permanently lost in sections 201, 62, 273 and 194 when you click at "go to 334" button, and in section 311, when you click at "go to 334" or "go to 278" buttons.

at 3) when you are imprisoned, you lose all your possession (sections 170, 174 and 312).
When you wait for the judge/Gwynian, in section 54 he returns you all your possession - including weapons and weapon-like special items.

When you try to break out, in section 177 you find your possession without weapons and weapon-like special items.

If you are caught again, there is no mention about another confiscating (in section 162 your are placed back into cell with enforced guards) and then in section 54 Gwynian returns to you all your equipment (so I think it should include your weapons and weapon-like special items).

If you are not caught again, the remaining weapons and weapon-like special items are returned to you in section 350.

Edit: just fixed one section number. -Dave

[Dave]

Thanks Honza for your help with that, I'm no good with the SVG charts.

I was afraid of that. So, you could lose your items in prison, escape - get pickpocketed, pursue the thief but lose your item permanently, then eventually get your original items back. It *does* overlap, so I'll need to figure out a way to "ear-mark" the pick-pocketed item... so I don't send all of LW's confiscated possessions into oblivion! Nuts!

Book 9 @ 60%, by the way. If Joe didn't make each book progressively more complex than the last one, it would done by now!

[Dave]

Okay, thanks to Honza's excellent help with that - I've got that wrinkle all smoothed out and everything is working like a charm!