Changing the response text of a rule

Authoring Inform 7
#1

Hey All–

I want to change the response to the “the can’t exceed carrying capacity rule,” and I can’t get anything to work. The closest thing I could find in the docs is 14.11, but
The print can't exceed carrying capacity rule response (A) is "You reach for it, and Aunt Edna smacks your hand with her cane and says, 'Keep your hands off my things, sonny.'".
doesn’t work either with or without the (A). Is this the right approach but the wrong syntax? What’s the deal here?

#2

I think you have to use ‘now’ once the game’s going.

e.g.

now the basic visibility rule response (A) is "I can't see.[conditional paragraph break]";[replaces 'pitch dark']

-Wade

1 Like
#3

I stuck it in “When play begins,” but it still won’t compile. In any case, I want to limit carrying capacity for the entire game.

Message:

Problem. In the sentence ‘now the print can’t exceed carrying capacity rule response is “You reach for it and the collar gi […] at a time during the examination.”’ , I was expecting to read a condition, but instead found some text that I couldn’t understand - ‘the print can’t exceed carrying capacity rule response is “You reach for it and the collar gi […] at a time during the examination.”’.

#4

Strangely, the rule name doesn’t have “the print” in it. the name of the rule is “can’t exceed carrying capacity rule”. You can chase these down in the commands index. Note that you can put “if” statements in the text if needed.

can't exceed carrying capacity rule response (A) is "text".

give that a shot!

2 Likes
#5

Oh, ffs, that works. Thanks, Drew. I don’t know why the docs have to be so limited and/or confusing about it.

2 Likes
#6

Oh, I just worked out where I got my wrong idea about having to say ‘now…’ from.

I have an extension in my WIP that sets a bunch of responses when the game starts. All the lines in it are called by a phrase called ‘Establish special bracketed responses’ that’s in the main source. And the code for the phrase says:

To Establish special bracketed responses:
   do yada yada
   do yada yada 2
   etc

So in this set-up, for each yada, I have to use ‘now’ on each line or it doesn’t compile. Because this is run during the game (albeit When Play Begins) and can’t set the phrases up for the first time; that’s already happened.

That said, when you say you want to limit carrying capacity for the entire game, anything run during ‘When play begins’ will have that effect. All that code runs before the first turn. But yeah, in general, it is not necessary to precede a response changee line with a ‘now’.

-Wade

1 Like