Global objects?

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hello, all:

I am trying to implement some of the feedback from the playtester. Is there a way to imbed the floor as part of a room that you can examine without having to add the floor as a backdrop in all rooms?

As always, your thoughts and guidance are appreciated!

2

You mean an object which is examinable in every room? This is what backdrops are for.

You could also use a “deciding the scope of” rule (chapter 18.29). This isn’t great for a floor, though, because the parser considers the scoped object to be distant in the model-world sense. You can examine it, but any “touchable” action will produce a parser “That isn’t available” error. You can tweak this with further work but at that point you’re writing a lot of code to replicate backdrops.

1 Like
3

I think the best practice for a more complex environment is to place rooms in regions, then assign the backdrop to the region.

But if floors are exactly the same everywhere, you can say (I don’t think this will hurt anything!)

the floor is a scenery backdrop.
the floor is everywhere.

but making regions is a good habit to get into

2 Likes
4

Thank you for the response!

5

If you want more fun with floors, try my extension https://github.com/rileypb/Inform-7-Extensions/blob/main/Floors.i7x

1 Like
6

Just be aware - if you make a backdrop/supporter you can put things on, anything supported by the backdrop (which is actually one object that moves with the player where the backdrop is located) will move with it, seeming to follow the player around.

I learned this by making the carpet in a house with several rooms a backdrop, then was like “of course the player might drop stuff on the carpet or stand on it…” so it was also an enterable supporter. If you drop your lamp on the carpet then the carpet with the lamp on it appears everywhere.

This can actually be exploited for effect, say if you want a fire-alarm in every location (which is a device you can SWITCH/PULL/PUSH) you can attach it to a backdrop that’s everywhere so it’s always accessible instead of making multiples of them.

3 Likes
7

You’d want a rule like

Instead of putting something on the floor:
    try dropping the noun;

You want this anyhow for general tidiness, and it takes care of the following-the-player-around problem.

3 Likes