For some reason (and I’m sure it must be something very basic), I’m running into a problem with “supplying a missing noun” activity.
[code]“Firing Range” by Me
This Room is a room. That room is east of This Room
Shooting it with is an action applying to two things.
Understand “shoot [anything] with [something]” as shooting it with. Understand “shoot [something] at [anything]” as shooting it with (with nouns reversed).
Rule for supplying a missing second noun while shooting:
If the player has the gun:
Now the second noun is the gun;
Otherwise:
Say “You have nothing to shoot with” instead.
Check shooting it with:
If the second noun is not the gun:
say “You can[apostrophe]t shoot with that!” instead;
If the player does not have the gun:
say “You can[apostrophe]t shoot with a gun that you aren[apostrophe]t carrying.” instead.
Carry out shooting:
Say “BANG!”;
If the second noun is a person, say “[Noun] falls to the ground dead.”;
If the second noun is not a person, say “You put a nice round hole in [the noun].”.
A sofa is in This Room.
George is a man. George is in That Room. A gun is in That Room.[/code]
produces the following:
Obviously, this is not working correctly in several respects:
1. When I try to shoot the sofa without the gun being either in my possession or in sight, it does not apply the rule which generates the "You have nothing to shoot with" response; instead, it thinks the sofa is both the first and second noun, and gives me the reponse that I have specified for a situation where the player has actually specified a second noun other than the gun.
2. When I go into That Room (where the gun is visible but I haven't yet picked it up) and try to shoot George, it doesn't apply the rule which generates the "You have nothing to shoot with" response; instead, this time it prompts for a second noun.
In the other two situations (where I specify the gun but I’m not carrying it, and where I don’t specify the second noun but I have the gun) it behaves properly as far as understanding what I want to do. However, another problem (which I assume is unrelated) shows up when I successfully send George to his maker: Although I have specified that George is a man, I get the response for shooting something other than a person.
What dumb errors am I making?
Thanks.
Robert Rothman