Asking an NPC to examine something

[matt_weiner (matt w)]

NPCs can be part of something–this was at the root of one of my early attempts to hack up a multiple commands extension, where I had a person that was part of a backdrop. See here and here.

From that experience I can answer this:

Now for figuring out why examine turns to "answering that" when the NPC is part of something

The reason this happens is that, if the NPC is part of something, the rock won’t be in scope for the NPC. So it’s as if you had typed “NPC, examine ahtapionv.” Then, when processing a conversation command, the parser first tries to parse it as a command (if the first word after the comma is a verb), and if it hits a parser error, it just turns it into an “answering it that command.” So:

[code]Cave is a room. An NPC is a person in Cave. A rock is in Cave. The player holds a present.

Rule for deciding the concealed possessions of the player: if the particular possession is the present, yes.[/code]

Cave
You can see a NPC and a rock here.

actions
Actions listing on.

npc, x rock
[asking the NPC to try examining the rock]
The NPC has better things to do.
[asking the NPC to try examining the rock - failed]

npc, x rock and roll
[answering the NPC that “x rock and roll”]
There is no reply.
[answering the NPC that “x rock and roll” - succeeded]

npc, x fluffy
[answering the NPC that “x fluffy”]
There is no reply.
[answering the NPC that “x fluffy” - succeeded]

npc, x present
[answering the NPC that “x present”]
There is no reply.
[answering the NPC that “x present” - succeeded]

As you can see, “npc, x rock” got processed as an action, but the rest all got translated into answering it that–whether there was too much stuff in the command “x rock and roll,” nonsense “x fluffy,” or just something the NPC couldn’t see “x present.”