For the action “tying it to,” I have found that if the player types, for example, “tie rope” without including a second noun, Inform will sometimes ask for clarification (“What do you want to tie the rope to?”), and sometimes will make a guess about the second noun. I would like Inform to always ask instead of guessing, at least for this action.
I could probably make a new action to handle tying when the player doesn’t include a second noun, but in that case, I don’t know how to make Inform ask “What do you want to tie the rope to?” and then accept that answer.
Thanks for pointing me to that thread, Wade! And thanks for the solution, @rileypb ! This does what I want (with a little adaptation to make it about a second noun):
Unfortunately, the code controlling noun inference is older than I am, and changing it is a difficult and fraught prospect. Still, once I have some time post-comp I should give it a shot!
Well, I basically meant overriding it, similar to the code above. Not changing the underlying code. But don’t let me stop you from doing it however you want to do it.
