If the player has items (x) that can be strung on a string (y), I’d like to know all the possible commands people would use to try this.
I have:
STRING x on Y
STRING y through x
PUT x on Y
PUT y in x
PUT y through x
THREAD y through x
INSERT y in x
I just had a tester try THREAD y on x, which seems very weird, but I added it, so I guess I need to think of all possible variations of PUT, THREAD, STRING, etc.
Can anyone think of any other commands you would try that I should add?
Oh, you should make your game have the full dictionary of verbs resembling STRING, but when the player uses a synonym, have it say “Maybe you should try STRING x TO y.”
I’ve encountered this in games (with other verbs) and it’s infuriating.
Players should not be overly pampered. Sometimes the author can have a private sadistic moment.
I have the game set to recognize your biosignature, so when you try anything, it will give the response that you should try my husband’s only suggestion, which was F*** X WITH Y.
An alternative might be to have a parser error, if there aren’t too many things to string:
rule for printing a parser error:
let stringables be 0;
if the player's command matches "orange bead", increment stringables;
if the player's command matches "red bead", increment stringables; [and so forth]
if stringables > 1: say "If you want to put two beads together, you may wish to try the verb STRING.";
This may not be adequate on its own. For instance, someone may try “put orange on red.” Or, once you have the string item, you can clue the STRING verb. Or you can even have a catchall help-command USE that may cue a verb to use in some situations.
I wish! But things need to be strung in a certain order. Since this could be very annoying to the player if they get the order wrong, I am working hard on ways to make it as user-friendly as possible and to avoid guess-the-verb frustrations.
Is there a reason not to do a generic bit of code like:
After reading a command:
if the player carries the string:
if the player carries the bead:
if the player's command includes "bead":
if the player's command includes "string":
try inserting the string into the bead instead;
yada yada yada
I mean I guess the player could try “drop bead and string” and this would fire weirdly. But it seems like something along these lines would cover every command, with every in/into/through/on.
It sounds like there are multiple beads and the order matters, so something this crude will not work.
Bypassing the parser means bypassing a bunch of parser magic, anyway. It’s usually not a good idea. If you did this, you’d be missing out on synonyms, pronoun support, object disambiguation, “What do you want to thread the orange bead onto?” responses, etc, etc.
