Foxaroo project #1 - TARDIS Adrift
(Sounds like TADS Adrift, doesn’t it? Pure co-incidence I assure you)
Hi all, I’m back from Canada and very keen to make progress on my 1st Inform 7 project, from which I hope to learn enough to then progress onto more sophisticated projects. My progress to date has been impossibly slow, I cite lack of time and lack of talent so I’m throwing myself at your mercy, or else this will never materialise (pun intended).
I’ve chosen the classic Doctor Who series for the theme.
The premise I’ve devised for my first project is that the player takes the role of a young time lord/lady not long out of the Gallifreyan Academy whose TARDIS suffers an in-flight disaster and makes planetfall in a completely inoperative state. The player is tasked with scavenging the components to restore his/her TARDIS to nominal function (Similar to Infocom’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams where the player as Arthur Dent scavenges for various tools). This will not only involve searching, but also identifying ways to move the TARDIS by external means until the point where the player has re-enabled flight functionality. For example, the player departs their starting planet by scooping up the TARDIS with a sandminer and loading it onto a modified maglev track to propel it up to escape velocity.
I chose this theme for flexibility; no requirement for a linear narrative, and the structure of locations and puzzles can be moved around if needed. Interactive characters in the game will initially be very basic (a non-talking robot from the sandminer) until I learn how to establish rules for more sophisticated interactive characters. The player also has 12 “lives” in the form of regenerations, although there will be some hazards that do not allow regeneration, such as drifting off into space.
Now the first difficulty confronting me is one I’ve already asked about: the early puzzle requiring the player to break open the fire extinguisher cabinet. The player needs to use the sonic screwdriver to either cut (preferred) or bludgeon (alternative) the glass plate. The purpose of the puzzle is to ensure that the player has located the sonic screwdriver before he/she can exit the TARDIS, since the object will be indispensable throughout much of the game.
Matt W devised a code that enables the player to accomplish the breaking of the glass by the player
Instead of attacking the case glass:
say "Crash!";
now the case glass is shattered;
now the small metal case is open.
However I need to refine the command so that only the below can be accepted.
[b]CUT GLASS WITH {SONIC} SCREWDRIVER
BREAK GLASS WITH {SONIC} SCREWDRIVER
SMASH GLASS WITH {SONIC} SCREWDRIVER[/b]
(Rule fails without visible possession of the sonic screwdriver, and if attempted in an unlit room)
The problem being that Inform7 already has “break” in the group of synonyms for attack, including (but not limited to) “smash”, “hit”, “fight”, “torture”, “wreck”, “crack”, “destroy”, “murder”, “kill”, “punch” and “thump.” While I was searching the manual, I stumbled upon a paragraph somewhere that spoke of the need to tell Inform to forget or unlearn a verb so that it is no longer a synonym of something else. That sounds like what I need to do, but I neglected to bookmark the place where I read the syntax.