Quick question about repeating dialogue actions

Authoring Inform 7
1

Hi. This is a dumb question, and one which I’ve figured out before, but I can’t find the example on the help files to help me, and my old game was on a computer that crashed over the summer. Anyway:

I want to know how to have the player be able to ask a charachter the same question and get a different response. I’m already basically doing it by shaping the conversation using scenes, but in this particular game I’m also incorporating several unique verbs, (FLATTER, INSULT, FLIRT WITH, etc.) and I don’t want the player to be able to get the same response when doing these actions, even if the context itself hasn’t changed greatly. (I’m using branching mood/exposition scenes to keep track of the flow of information).

I know this solution is painfully simple, and what’s more frustrating is that I used this feature alot in a much earlier tutorial learning game I made for myself about a year ago.

Can anyone please help me out. Either by posting an example or referencing me to something similarly pertinent. Thanks so much!

2

By far the easiest way (in my opinion) is the one of…or… construction (see chapter 5.6 in the manual):

Carry out insulting King Arthur: say "[one of]You empty headed animal food trough wiper![or]Your mother was a hamster![or]Your father smelt of elderberries![at random]"

3

Well the order is important. It’s also important that should the player exhaust all of the conversation options, that a default message appears. At some point a character should have no more (at least at that point in the game) to say on any particular subject.

I should have been a bit more specific. I’d prefer a solution that allows me to run through a table of responses, and once that table is exhausted, the game resorts to an unchanging default message.

4

Okay, I figured out a solution that works. I don’t know if it’s most elegant way of solving the problem. Any pointers?

[code]“Dialogue Testing” by Brooks

Understand “lawn” and “grass” as “[lawn]”.

Lawn is a room.

Fudgestone is a man. Fudgestone is in the lawn.

Table of Fudgestone Events
event
"Do you know anything about the lawn?’ you ask Fudgestone.

‘No sir,’ he says, ‘I do not.’"
"‘Are you really sure? Are you positive?’

‘As positive as a proton,’ he tells you."
"‘It’s just that,’ you say, ‘If you know anything, anything at all, I’d really appreciate–’

‘I do not know anything about the lawn!’ he snaps."

Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]”:
repeat through the Table of Fudgestone Events
begin;
say “[event entry][line break]”;
blank out the whole row;
rule succeeds;
end repeat;
say “Before you can open your mouth, Fudgestone raises his eyebrows, questioning the very logic which would persuade you to ask such a redundant question.”[/code]

5

Sorry, I wasn’t being too specific either: [at random] is only one option.

[code]Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]”:
say "[one of]‘Do you know anything about the lawn?’ you ask Fudgestone.

‘No sir,’ he says, ‘I do not.’[or]‘Are you really sure? Are you positive?’

‘As positive as a proton,’ he tells you.[or]‘It’s just that,’ you say, ‘If you know anything, anything at all, I’d really appreciate–’

‘I do not know anything about the lawn!’ he snaps.[or]Before you can open your mouth, Fudgestone raises his eyebrows, questioning the very logic which would persuade you to ask such a redundant question.[stopping]"[/code]

Other options are [cycling], [sticky random], [as decreasingly likely outcomes], [in random order] etc. You’ll find them all in the chapter 5.6.

But your method is fine as well and it might produce more legible code. Another method is “for the Xth time”:

[code]Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]”:
say “Before you can open your mouth, Fudgestone raises his eyebrows, questioning the very logic which would persuade you to ask such a redundant question.”

Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]” for the first time:
say "‘Do you know anything about the lawn?’ you ask Fudgestone.

‘No sir,’ he says, ‘I do not.’";

Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]” for the second time:
say "‘Are you really sure? Are you positive?’

‘As positive as a proton,’ he tells you."

Instead of asking Fudgestone about “[lawn]” for the third time:
"‘It’s just that,’ you say, ‘If you know anything, anything at all, I’d really appreciate–’

‘I do not know anything about the lawn!’ he snaps."[/code]