Help with Idea

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hello again.
I need some input and possibly some help with an idea in my project that I’m not sure how, or if, I can do.

Idea: Area where, upon entering, invisible traps are set on random spaces/rooms (the whole area I would like to seem “one room”). The player must throw an object to adjacent spaces to detect these traps so that he may avoid them and continue on.

The only thing I have working now is a region where I have placed nine rooms on a 3x3 grid, this is my area. When the player enters the region it places 4 traps into play (created by making a new kind) randomly in the 3x3 region. Also, I’ve created a container in which the player may take a supply of “trap testers”. Once thrown they are taken out of play, so another my be generated in the container to give the illusion of a supply.

After that I felt like I needed some help. Basically, I can’t figure out how to get it so the player can use the testers to find the traps. I’m not sure how to allow throwing into adjacent rooms either. I don’t know if I’m even going about this in the best way, I could really use some help. The only thing that I can think of that might be somewhat analogous is the berries from Andrew Plotkin’s The Dreamhold.

Thanks guys!

2

Based on what you’ve said so far, it sounds like the main component you need is a verb for throwing things in directions. Is there anything else?

Understand "drop [something preferably held] at/against [direction]" as throwing it at.

Then you need to replace the built-in check rules for throwing it at, and write carry out rules that find the room to the specified direction and put the object there, along with any trap-springing code you need.

3

Thanks capmikee,
This is perfect, I really needed a correct place to start. Since this is my first time I didn’t want to be spinning my wheels in the wrong places. Now I can focus on learning how to do this in the right places, awesome.

I’ll report back on my experience.