Yeah. If you have an ostentatious room description you can stick everything into one scenery item to reduce object litter.
[code]room-scenery is a kind of scenery. [I think you can do this.]
SR-scenery is room-scenery in Sitting Room. The printed name is “the Sitting Room decor”. The thought is “The Sitting Room is full of tasteful decor.” The description is “Better not mess with that lest you gank the Feng-Shui.”
Instead of doing anything except examining to room-scenery: try examining the noun.
Understand “sitting/room/tasteful/decor/furniture/parquet/floor/persian/rug/carpet/wall/walls/flocked/velvet/wallpaper/ceiling/ornate/crystal/chandelier/light/fixture/fireplace/fire/mantel/mantelpiece/sofa/couch/cushion/cushions/comfortable/armchair/crown/molding/wainscotting/woven/tapestry/curtain/curtains/window/windows” as SR-scenery.[/code]
Leads me to another question–can the player use any AND all of the ‘Understand’ words to refer to its item?? So I would not have to say
Understand "wounded/hurt/-- purple/-- feather/feathered/-- eagle/bird" as the violet feathered eagle.
I could just say
Understand "wounded/hurt/purple/feather/feathered/eagle/bird" as the violet feathered eagle/
and the player can refer to it with any combination of these words?? Or would the first set of words be preferable if a specificity/distinction is needed, and you are using your format only for generic scenery items?
I think, but am not sure, that [EDIT: In fact this is wrong; see below]
Understand "wounded/hurt/purple/feather/feathered/eagle/bird" as the violet feathered eagle.
only lets you use one of these words at a time
However, replacing the slashes with “or” lets you use any combination:
Understand "wounded" or "hurt" or "purple" or "feather" or "feathered" or "eagle" or "bird" as the violet feathered eagle.
Though you don’t need “feathered” or “eagle” as those come automatically from the object name. This can be better anyway as you don’t have to anticipate every form in which the player might enter the words.
Now I didn’t know that the player could use more than one of the words if they are separated by ‘or’–would just a comma also do this?? I’ve been using the non-serial comma (capped with an ‘or’) in my lists. And just now I thought from Hanon’s example above that he was suggesting you could use any combination of the slashed words, because his example shows both adjectives and nouns and slashes after every word. Or did I not understand that correctly…??
OK. So the deal with slashes is that they’re exclusive in multi-word phrases like “wounded/hurt/-- purple/-- feather/feathered/-- eagle/bird” but inclusive in single-word uses like “wounded/hurt/purple/feather/feathered/eagle/bird”?
I think the point is that the parser doesn’t care how many times it matches the same object.
Understand "ball" as the globe.
So if we use several synonyms, whether defined in one “understand” line with slashes or otherwise, then the parser will simply match the same object multiple times, and be happy.
jrb is correct, but this still requires some explanation.
Given these two lines:
Understand "wounded/hurt/-- purple/-- feather/feathered/-- eagle/bird" as the eagle.
Understand "red/orange/slimy/amphibian" as the newt.
The parser will accept X RED ORANGE RED NEWT because each individual word matches the snippet “red/orange/slimy/amphibian”, or the single (automatically added) word “newt”. As far as the parser is concerned, this object has two synonyms, and it’s matched (a) three times and (b) once. “(X) (RED) (ORANGE) (RED) (NEWT)”.
The parser will accept X HURT PURPLE FEATHERED BIRD, but in that case the entire input string matches the big snippet once. “(X) (HURT PURPLE FEATHERED BIRD)” You could also type X HURT BIRD PURPLE BIRD; in that case it matches the snippet twice over. “(X) (HURT BIRD) (PURPLE BIRD)”.
The parser would reject X HURT HURT BIRD, because there’s no way to make that match the snippet a whole number of times. The snippet wants exactly one of WOUNDED/HURT/–, followed by exactly one of PURPLE/–, followed by exactly one of FEATHER/FEATHERED/–, followed by exactly one of EAGLE/BIRD. The – terms mean that the first three requirements are optional (but must appear in that order). The EAGLE/BIRD is mandatory and must appear last. So “(X) (HURT BIRD)” can match, but a lone “HURT” does not match the snippet, so it’s no good.
Does that make sense? It’s harder to explain than it is to do.
Most adjectives and synonyms can go in one set of punctuation marks as long as you don’t mind that the whole word refers to it.
The reason to separate them out is if and when you want specific word combinations to match but not others.
Understand "steve/dude/guy/DJ/friend" and "your/my friend" and "DJ/-- Doctor Steve" as the secondary protagonist. Understand "Doctor Who" as the doctor.
So EXAMINE DOCTOR means the doctor and won’t ask if I mean secondary protagonist Steve. To use “doctor” as Steve, I have to type EXAMINE DOCTOR STEVE or X DJ DOCTOR STEVE.
The Doctor will respond to DOCTOR or DOCTOR WHO, but not just WHO.
