So I want to include things like documents and pictures in the room descriptions. But they’re not really described in great detail in the room descriptions. So I want the player to be able to look at each individual piece within those groups, if it’s important. I know the player is going to type
examine pictures
or
examine documents
So how do I give a list of things to examine within those groups, in that room, if they do that?
Example (a piece from my current project):
The dining room is a room. It is southwest from the living room. “A long, dusty wooden table, with similar chairs sitting around it, lies in the center. Pictures like the ones in the rest of the house line the walls around the room.”
Here is pictures. The pictures are scenery. The description is “Which pictures?”
I’d like the player to be able to be prompted with a list of things they can examine individually. Then be able to examine them each.
Examine pictures
“Which pictures?”
John’s wedding photo
John’s birthday photo from last year
Examine John’s wedding photo
“John looks really happy with his wife.”
The same applies for documents, or anything else in groups, I’d like to describe generally but allow the player to examine them individually.
I tried doing this myself in Inform 7, using some guides on tables and multiple objects but I couldn’t get very far at all. I don’t understand exactly what I’m supposed to do.
I would think that normal disambiguation prompts would do pretty much what you’re asking for. All you have to do is indicate that each of the items can be understood with the same keyword(s), e.g.
Understand "picture" or "pictures" as John's wedding photo. Understand "picture" or "pictures" as John's birthday photo.
You can get fancier than that, for example creating a photograph kind and assigning the keywords to the kind. Or, more elegantly, defining “picture” or “photo” as applicable to the kind and understanding “pictures” or “photos” as a plural of that kind. However, in that last case you might run into a response like “You can only examine one thing at a time.” instead of a disambiguation prompt, because the parser will interpret >EXAMINE PICTURES with a different grammar token.
You can stop Inform from interpreting “examine pictures” as a plural by renaming the plural of your kind to something that isn’t “pictures,” like this:
[code]Use the serial comma.
The dining room is a room. It is southwest from the living room. “A long, dusty wooden table, with similar chairs sitting around it, lies in the center. Pictures like the ones in the rest of the house line the walls around the room.”
A picture is a kind of thing. A picture is usually scenery. John’s wedding photo is a picture in the dining room. John’s birthday photo from last year is a picture in the dining room. Dogs Playing Poker is a picture in the dining room. The plural of picture is someoldnonsensethatwewanttogetridofhere.
Understand “picture/pictures” as a picture. [/code]
It’s pretty simple so far, but I’d like to expand on it.
The foyer entrance is a room. It is down from the living room. "Inside the foyer, there are various pictures on the walls, a dusty coat rack in the corner, and some old, worn out shoes beside it." The pictures and coat rack and shoes are scenery things in the foyer entrance. The description of the coat rack is "Looks old and rotted." The description of the pictures is "There is john's wedding photo from 1985. He looks so happy in that picture. There are other pictures too."
Technically I could just show the player every single photo that I deem important, along with the description of said photo. But as you can imagine, we’d end up with one long block of text with very little interaction between it. Is there some way I can cut it up, so that the player is prompted with a question of “which picture?”, after they type:
examine pictures
This would be extremely helpful, not only for this part of the game, but also for other grouped objects like documents as I mentioned before.
I’ve almost got it but I’m trying to include pictures in multiple rooms, that can only be examined when inside of those rooms. But when I put:
[code]A picture is a kind of thing. A picture is usually scenery. John’s wife is a picture in the foyer entrance. John’s wedding photo is a picture in the dining room. Toby is a picture in the foyer entrance. John’s birthday photo from last year is a picture in the dining room. Dogs Playing Poker is a picture in the dining room. The plural of picture is someoldnonsensewewantogetridofhere.
Understand “picture/pictures” as a picture. [/code]
I run it, type:
Examine pictures
Then get this:
Which do you mean, the pictures, John’s wife or Toby?
Why is it counting pictures as it’s own thing like that? How can I make it show only the pictures I actually listed above, for the room the player is in at that moment?
I hope I’m not bugging you guys too much with these questions. But I am trying hard to figure it out on my own, I swear. I’m still getting confused though.
What I would do is write the description of the scenery object “picture/pictures” with rotating text so the player can EXAMINE PICTURES multiple times and get several different things.
[code]The description of the pictures is “[one of][first time]You single out one of the multiple pictures on the wall. [only]It’s a black and white still of a farmhouse, inscribed with the year 1939. You wonder if all of these pictures are from the same era.[or]This one is some kids happily jumping into the water at a swimming hole.[or]Here are some people dressed up as if they are going to a party.[or]This one is a framed magazine article about some type of text adventure called ZORK. You think you’ve seen all the pictures.[cycling]”
Understand “picture/pictures/photo/photograph” and “another/next picture/pictures/photo/photograph” as the pictures.[/code]
In another game I had two scenery objects; portrait and portraits. EXAMINE PORTRAITS explained that there were lots of portraits arranged in the hallway, and “you could probably examine a single portrait more closely.” EXAMINE PORTRAIT described a person from a randomized list so the examining could go on a long time.
Understand “picture/pictures” as a picture when the item described is touchable.
Does the player mean examining a touchable picture: it is very likely.
You can give any specific object cycling text.
For another thing above:
Make your pictures a backdrop in several rooms. Then write your description with cycling text so no matter where the player is, examining pictures lets you describe them in the right order (or randomized, if that suits you.) You can even make different groups of pictures.
[code]
West Wing pictures are a backdrop. It is in West Foyer, West Hall, and West Office. The printed name is “pictures on the wall”. The description of west wing pictures is “[one of]Here’s a picture.[or]Here’s another picture.[or]What boring pictures here in the West Wing.[cycling]” Understand “picture/pictures/photo/photographs/wall” as West Wing pictures.
East Wing pictures are a backdrop. It is is East Breezeway, East Sitting Room, and Eastern Verandah. The printed name is “pictures on the wall”. The description of east wing pictures is “[one of]What a random photo.[or]You peruse another random photo.[or]You can’t remember if you’ve seen this photo randomly or not.[at random]”. Understand “picture/pictures/photo/photographs/wall” as west wing pictures.[/code]
You can understand them the same thing since the player will never encounter more than one at a time and won’t have to worry about disambiguation.
Simple solution which may or may not do exactly what you want:
Understand "pictures" as the plural of the wedding portrait. Understand "pictures" as the plural of the beautiful landscape. Understand "pictures" as the plural of the impressionist landscape.