When needing to use multiple objects that should appear similar to the player, I find it useful to name them things like “Door1”, “Door2”, and then set all their printed names to something like “large wooden door”. The problem here is that printed name doesn’t adapt like an object name would, so I get messages like “There is large wooden door here”, or “What do you want to unlock large wooden door with”.
I guess customising printing rules is an option, but I’m hoping there’s an easier way.
The default article (or lack) for an object is inferred when you first define it.
Door1 is a door. The printed name is "door". [Object winds up with the "proper-named" property, appears as "door".]
The Door2 is a door. The printed name is "door". [Object appears as "a door".]
The Door3 is a door. The printed name is "Final Door". The indefinite article is "the". [Object appears as "the Final Door" even in contexts where "a" would normally be used.]
Thanks! Very simple, and very useful to know.
I also saw you can make objects privately-named, thus removing your odd object names from being in the game.
You can, but there’s almost never any reason to bother. I guarantee that no player ever filed a bug report saying “the bathroom door can be referred to as ‘door2’ and that scares me.”