Actually, any system is fine by me as long as they don't ruin it: dialogue options(Reject, accept, deny, attack, hand over item, keep item, etc.) changing positions thus confusing the players, very lengthy dialogue lines(keep it short and sweet, please!), etc.
About typing in with keywords: That doesn't work very well for the newer games 'cos you need a GUI interface for fighting. And you don't want to use a text parser for combat: the newer generation folks might not get it plus games like DD are really large... the older games weren't soo huge.
At that time, you met only a couple of random battles here and there, as opposed to say, a hundred monsters in just a few screens.
Narrator: "You see a goblin. The goblin approaches and hits you in the stomach with its' sword. You lose 10 hitpoints!"
Player: "Fight goblin with dagger."
Computer: "Specified command, "fight goblin with dagger" is invalid."
Player: *starts flipping through manual* All right, "fight goblin at northwest with dagger."
Computer: "Specified command, "fight goblin at northwest with dagger" is invalid."
Player: *getting a little irritated* "fight goblin at nw with dagger"
Computer: "You hit the goblin for 4 hitpoints. The goblin swings its' sword and hits you for 6 hitpoints."
Player: When does the combat stop? Nooo... there're like 200 more monsters in this map! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> And probably 10, 000 more monsters in this game.
