An exception to a limitation in "After reading a command"?

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hey All–

I want to have multiple instances where I ask the player a question and they pick a numbered option as their answer, for instance:

Which is your Mom’s favorite cake?

1.) Chocolate
2.) Vanilla
3.) Lemon

And then the player would pick a number and the game would ask them a follow-up question with more numbered choices. Like if they picked chocolate, it might then say,

Oho, she’s a chocolate lover! Which way does she like it:
1.) With chocolate buttercream
2.) With vanilla drizzle icing
3.) With sifted powdered sugar

And then the game would give them the cake they choose. I also have a scoring system which would track this (which I have working).

I’m just doing this with “after reading a command,” because doing that means I don’t have to tackle a scary extension like “Questions.” Eg (assuming the player has triggered the question and is now cake-asked):

After reading a command:
	if the player is cake-asked:
		if the player's command matches "1":
			now the player is chocolate-chosen;
			say "Oho, she's a chocolate lover! Which way does she like it:[line break]1.) With chocolate buttercream[line break]2.) With vanilla drizzle icing[line break]3.) With sifted powdered sugar[line break]";
		otherwise if the player's command matches "2": 
			etc;
		otherwise:
			say "Answer the question! Which way does she like it:[line break]1.) With chocolate buttercream[line break]2.) With vanilla drizzle icing[line break]3.) With sifted powdered sugar[line break]";
	otherwise if the player is chocolate-chosen:
		if the player's command matches "1":
            now the player if cake-picked;
			now the chocolate cake is in the location;
			say "ZAP! A plate of your Mom's favorite chocolate cake appears.",
		etc;

That all works fine. However, and here’s my question:

I want to allow the player to be able to access information about their family members while they’re choosing so they can pick the right cake. So I’d like to have a line like “unless the current action is remembering” in there so that the player can REMEMBER stuff before making a choice, but can’t do anything else until they make a choice. Either I have not been able to word this correctly, or you just can’t do this with “After reading a command” rules, since this compiles but Inform just ignores it.

I may have made that question more complicated than it needs to be. Bottom line: restricting the player from doing anything except remembering until they answer a question. Hopefully this can be done with the format I’m using (After reading a command).

1 Like
2

Oh, I think I solved it. I finally hit on the right syntax.

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3

Hi @AmandaB! :slightly_smiling_face:

I think it would be nice for other members / future searchers if you shared the solution you found.

4

Excellent point. Of course you’re right.

I’m sure this makes good coders flinch, but the way that works in my system (using “After reading a command”) is to say:

if the player's command matches "remember":
      try remembering instead.

It’s the only thing out of about a dozen different ways I tried that actually works.

For the smart people reading this who are twitching with unhappiness at how ugly this system is: I DID look at extensions like “Questions” and read all the documentation and examples. But I just couldn’t wrap my mind around how they’d work for my application and I knew I could do it this way.

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5

Nah, I’d say that’s actually a fine way to use “after reading a command”. You’re basically replacing the parser completely for this certain section of the game. I’d expect this is what Questions does too.

My gripe is when people use “after reading a command” to parse certain actions and the normal parser to handle the rest, because there are inevitably so, so many pain points when the two don’t quite work the same.

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