Hi, I’m having trouble with my Event One Veeder Expo game. I want to have the player be someone specific, defined elsewhere in the source. I tried the “now the player is somebody-or-another,” but when testing, that resulted in this:
Some Place
You can see your former self here.
/>x self
[Blah blah blah not really important right now]
/>x former self
As good-looking as ever.
This is not what I want. This is the exact opposite of what I want. How did I get rid of that other guy and make this work like I want it to?
Yourself is a person that gets created by default in every project. The player is a variable; by default, the value of the player is yourself. “Your former self” is the printed name of yourself when the player is someone else. (Otherwise, the printed name of yourself is “yourself.”)
Here’s an example that I think accomplishes what you’re trying to accomplish. The tricky part for me was Understand "jim" as Jim.—make sure you scroll all the way across to see (my understanding of) why that declaration is necessary.
Office is a room.
Jim is a person. Jim is in Office. Description of Jim is "[if the player is Jim]You are a pretty good-looking guy.[otherwise]Jim is a smirking man-child.[end if]"
Dwight is a person. Dwight is in Office. Description of Dwight is "[if the player is Dwight]You are a handsome gentleman, with a strong Teutonic forehead.[otherwise]Dwight is a ridiculous person.[end if]"
The player is Jim.
[This overrides the default understanding that the player is yourself.]
Understand "jim" as Jim.
[I think there must be a sentence in the Standard Rules that says something like "The player is usually privately-named," preventing players from referring to themselves as "yourself." But if you say "The player is Jim," then the internal name "Jim" will be blocked in the same way as "yourself." So this seemingly redundant sentence is actually necessary to allow Jim to refer to himself as Jim.]
Dissociating is an action applying to nothing. Understand "dissociate" as dissociating.
Instead of dissociating:
If the player is Jim:
say "You become Dwight.";
now the player is Dwight;
otherwise:
say "You become Jim.";
now the player is Jim.