I’ve found quite a few issues with your code here.
- You’ve defined the prying action as “prying the noun open the second noun”, yet you say this.
try prying open the museum manhole cover
Here, Inform thinks the second noun is the museum manhole cover and doesn’t define the first. That’s why it says “You must supply a noun.”. I suggest you define the prying action as “prying the noun with the second noun” for simplicity.
- You say this.
Instead of examining the Museum Manhole Cover: say "(description)".
It’s much simpler and a lot easier to use the built in code for descriptions, like so.
The description of the Museum Manhole Cover is "(description)".
- This rule will never fire.
Check opening the Museum Manhole Cover:
if the Museum Manhole Cover is locked:
say "It is far too heavy." instead.
Because of this one.
Instead of opening the museum manhole cover:
try prying open the museum manhole cover.
- This rule occurs too early.
Before going down to Below Museum--Sewer:
say "Though all that can be seen is blackness, you begin your descent down the slippery ladder. It's a 25 foot climb, but the further down you go, the more light is available to you. Soon, you finally reach the bottom.".
The player appears to climb down the ladder, reach the bottom and then pry open the museum manhole cover. A report rule is best here, like so.
Report going down to Below Museum--Sewer:
say "Though all that can be seen is blackness, you begin your descent down the slippery ladder. It's a 25 foot climb, but the further down you go, the more light is available to you. Soon, you finally reach the bottom.".
- This is a bad idea.
Instead of prying open more than once:
say "You've already pried that open.[line break]" instead.
This will prevent prying more than once, even if the action failed the first time and the museum manhole cover is still closed and locked.
- I probably should have made this more clear from before. I don’t think you need to make a kind of door for the manhole cover here, even if there is more than one. You can define them all as locked doors, since they pretty much are doors in their own right. The only time you really need to create a kind of door is when you need a conduit between two rooms that doesn’t behave like a standard door like a hedge or a flight of stairs, which shouldn’t be lockable or openable.
Try this.
[code]A manhole cover is a kind of door. A manhole cover is lockable and locked.
Museum Manhole Cover is a scenery manhole cover. Museum Manhole Cover is down from Gotham City Museum and up from Below Museum–Sewer. Understand “manhole”,“manhole cover”,“man hole”,“cover” as the manhole cover when the location is Gotham City Museum.
The description of the Museum Manhole Cover is “A seemingly standard manhole cover. It’s a circular shape, made of heavy steel and possesses a deep-graphite color. On the cover is a rivet design and the letters G.C.W.S.S., representing the Gotham City Waste and Sewage Service.”.
Below Museum–Sewer is below Museum Manhole Cover. The printed name of Below Museum–Sewer is “Sewer”.
Instead of examining down in the Gotham City Museum: try examining the Museum Manhole Cover.
The crowbar is undescribed in Gotham City Museum. The crowbar unlocks the Museum Manhole Cover.
Prying it with is an action applying to one visible thing and one carried thing.
Understand “pry [something] with [something preferably held]” as prying it with.
Understand “pry [something] open with [something preferably held]” as prying it with.
Understand “pry open [something] with [something preferably held]” as prying it with.
Instead of opening the museum manhole cover: try prying the museum manhole cover with the crowbar.
Check prying it with:
if the second noun is not carried, say “You do not have a [second noun] to pry with.” instead.
Check prying it with:
if the noun is open, say “You’ve already pried that open.” instead.
Carry out prying it with:
now the noun is unlocked;
now the noun is open.
Report prying it with:
if the noun is the Manhole Cover begin;
say “Carefully you take the crowbar and pry the sewer grate free from the road. With all your might, you shove the surprisingly heavy grate away.”;
otherwise;
say “You pry the [noun] with the [second noun].”;
end if.
Instead of examining down when the Museum Manhole Cover is open and the location is Gotham City Museum: say “You look down into the sewer. A ladder can be seen extending down into the blackness.”.
Report going down to Below Museum–Sewer: say “Though all that can be seen is blackness, you begin your descent down the slippery ladder. It’s a 25 foot climb, but the further down you go, the more light is available to you. Soon, you finally reach the bottom.”.[/code]
Hope this helps.