How to hide all locale descriptions (or at least for things)

Authoring Inform 7
1

So I have sunk about 2 hours into this problem and I haven’t found a way around it. I’m trying to disable all locale descriptions. So far, I have disabled them for rooms, but I can’t figure out how to disable it for things/containers/items or anything sitting on a supporter. I have tried several different things like Rule for printing the locale description of things on an old table: stop. , etc, but I can’t ever get any of them to work. Since my code is relatively short, I will just paste it.

"story" by Montag

Chapter 1 - Amnesia

[---------------------------------------]

When play begins, say "You awaken to the sound of screaming. Your head throbs with an intense pain." 

The Hotel Room is a room. "The hotel room smells of stale cigarretes and earthen mold. It is very dark. Streetlight bleeds through the ragged curtains. In another room, a man yells angrily at the television. 

In the center of the room, there is an old metal table, poorly painted teal."

Rule for printing the locale description of old table: stop. [doesn't do what I want]

Rule for printing the locale description of Hotel Room: stop. [gets rid of the description before looking at the table, just from the room desc]

The old table is a supporter. 

The old table is scenery in the Hotel Room. "There is a bottle of bourbon next to an old, chipped drinking glass on its side. To the left, a silver revolver glistens on the table."

The glass is an open openable transparent container. 

For printing a locale paragraph about a supporter(called the old table): say "blah." [hidden by previous rule]

The glass is a thing on the old table. 

The revolver is a thing.
The revolver is on the old table.

The bottle is a portable closed transparent container.
The bottle is on the old table. "What is this?"

[Rule for printing the locale description of things on a supporter: do nothing.] [tried this, doesn't work]

Instead of examining the revolver, say "You pick up the revolver. It feels worn, and heavy in the hand. With a sudden twist of your wrist, the cylinder swings out of the gun. In it are five rounds--one spent."

I’m wanting to get rid of the locale printing because I prefer to have more control and list it out myself, structured how I would like instead of barebones like this: On the old table are a glass (empty), a revolver and a bottle (closed and empty).

This is my output, and the aforementioned line is the one I’m wanting to get rid of.

[code]You awaken to the sound of screaming. Your head throbs with an intense pain.

story
An Interactive Fiction by Montag
Release 1 / Serial number 121112 / Inform 7 build 6G60 (I6/v6.32 lib 6/12N) SD

Hotel Room
The hotel room smells of stale cigarretes and earthen mold. It is very dark. Streetlight bleeds through the ragged curtains. In another room, a man yells angrily at the television.

In the center of the room, there is an old metal table, poorly painted teal.

look table
There is a bottle of bourbon next to an old, chipped drinking glass on its side. To the left, a silver revolver glistens on the table.

On the old table are a glass (empty), a revolver and a bottle (closed and empty).

[/code]

2

I just realized that when I take the item and put it in my inventory, it is still said to be in the room thanks to my static description. Hmm… perhaps I can print a custom locale description for each item instead of the general locale?

say, for instance:

There is a bottle of bourbon next to an old, chipped drinking glass on its side. To the left, a silver revolver glistens on the table in the pale yellow light.

and if the bottle is gone:

An old, chipped drinking glass lays on its side. To the left, a silver revolver glistens on the table in the pale yellow light.

and if the revolver is gone:

An old, chipped drinking glass lays on its side.

3

The offending line (‘On the old table are a glass (empty), a revolver and a bottle (closed and empty).’) is not printed by the printing a locale description of something or the printing a locale paragraph about something. Its printed by a carry out examining rule.

To see what rules get fired on a given command, enter the debug command RULES and then try the command as usual. In this case you’ll find that the rule that fires immediately before that line is ‘the examine supporters rule’. You can hunt it down in the Standard Rules to find out how it works (and a pdf of the Standard Rules can be downladed from here — inform7.com/sources/webs/).

You could in principle write an ‘Instead of examining the table’ rule to customize the response. But if that custom response is to mention the bottle, the glass, and the gun on the table in any fancy way, it quickly becomes pretty complicated, since it has to look different, if the player removes one, several, or all of them, or if he/she puts something else (which could be anything!) on the table.

Also, I think you might have confused the printing a locale paragraph about something and the writing a paragraph about activities. In this case it is probably the latter you want:

The Hotel Room is a room. "The hotel room smells of stale cigarretes and earthen mold. It is very dark. Streetlight bleeds through the ragged curtains. In another room, a man yells angrily at the television." 

For writing a paragraph about the old table: say "In the center of the room, there is an old metal table, poorly painted teal."
4

Why don’t you just do this?

[code]“Story” by Montag

Chapter 1 - Amnesia

[---------------------------------------]

The examine containers rule is not listed in the carry out examining rulebook.
The examine supporters rule is not listed in the carry out examining rulebook.
The room description paragraphs about objects rule is not listed in the carry out looking rulebook.

When play begins: say “You awaken to the sound of screaming. Your head throbs with an intense pain.”.

The Hotel Room is A Room. The description of the hotel room is “The hotel room smells of stale cigarettes and earthen mold. It is very dark. Streetlight bleeds through the ragged curtains. In another room, a man yells angrily at the television.[paragraph break]In the center of the room, there is an old metal table, poorly painted teal.”.

The old table is a scenery supporter in the hotel room. The description of the old table is “There is a bottle of bourbon next to an old, chipped drinking glass on its side. To the left, a silver revolver glistens on the table.”.

The glass is an openable transparent container on the old table.

The bottle is a closed transparent container on the old table. The description of the bottle is “What is this?”.

The revolver is on the old table. The description of the revolver is “You pick up the revolver. It feels worn, and heavy in the hand. With a sudden twist of your wrist, the cylinder swings out of the gun. In it are five rounds–one spent.”.[/code]

It saves all the tweaking with the locale description rules.

Hope this helps.