I’d like to create a situation in which a thing is visible (and thus can be examined), but not tinkered with in any way (it is locked behind a glass door). I could make it fixed in place, but I would like to change any attempt to get/push/pull etc. it with “The door is in the way.”
At some point, the player manages to open the door - still the object cannot be taken (it does not fit through the door), but it can be opened.
Any easy ways to do the above? Or would I need to write a lot of Instead rules?
I am asking about I7 indeed. I did check 6.13. But that seems to describe properties of a noun I can check for. So I can check if a noun is touchable. I cannot change the touchable property (or set it at the start at the game) and I cannot change any verb which wants to touch the noun with my own specific reply.
At least, I cannot see how to do it from 6.13.
If my question is not clear enough, I’ll try to see if I can add an example!
I think what you need to do is give the container the transparent property. Try this:
“Test Game” by Nobody Special
The Well-Equipped Laboratory is a room. “Nothing much to see here. A glass cabinet resides on one wall.”
The glass cabinet is a scenery container in the Laboratory. The cabinet is closed, lockable, locked, openable, and transparent. The description of the cabinet is “It’s a fairly ordinary glass cabinet.”
In the cabinet is a stuffed bunny rabbit. The description of the rabbit is “What a cute little bunny! Looks fuzzy, doesn’t it?”
Jim’s right (those properties are discussed a bit in §3.6), and you can also customize responses with “rule for reaching inside,” like this:
Rule for reaching inside the closed locked cabinet:
say "The glass door is in the way.";
deny access.
See §12.16.
As for the thing you can’t get out of the cabinet but can open from outside, how to handle that might depend on what else you want to be able to do with things in the cabinet. If the only restriction is that the thing can’t be taken from within the cabinet, you could do that with an Instead rule:
“Test Game” by Nobody Special
The Well-Equipped Laboratory is a room. “Nothing much to see here. A glass cabinet resides on one wall.”
The glass cabinet is a scenery container in the Laboratory. The cabinet is closed, lockable, locked, openable, and transparent. The description of the cabinet is “It’s a fairly ordinary glass cabinet.”
A toy chest is a closed openable container in the cabinet. The description of the toy chest is "It's so big you're not sure how it got into the cabinet."
A stuffed bunny rabbit is in the toy chest. The description of the rabbit is “What a cute little bunny! Looks fuzzy, doesn’t it?”
Rule for reaching inside the closed locked cabinet:
say "The glass door is in the way.";
deny access.
Instead of taking the toy chest when the toy chest is in the cabinet: say "It's too big to fit through the glass door."
After jumping when the cabinet is closed:
say "As you come down, the door of the cabinet pops open.";
now the cabinet is open.
Note that if you try getting the chest when the cabinet is closed, you get the message about the door being closed rather than the message about the chest being too big to fit. That’s because the rules for reaching inside run before the Instead rules (and after the Before rules).
Also, under this solution you will be able to put other things in the cabinet. That can also be blocked! But it’s probably easier to start with the closed transparent container, which will handle the main things you want to handle, and use more rules to take care of the modifications you want to make to that basic part of the model.