Reaching rules seem to give no feedback?

Authoring Inform 7
1

It looks like you get no feedback when an action fails due to a reaching inside or reaching outside rule.

I tried with a very simple setup:

The Lounge is a room.
The couch is an enterable supporter in the Lounge.
Some rice is in the lounge.

Reaching outside the couch: deny access.

And this is the transcript:

>enter couch
You get onto the couch.

>take rice
>i
You are carrying nothing.

>rules
Rules tracing now switched on. Type "rules off" to switch it off again, or "rules all" to include even rules which do not apply.

[Rule "parse command rule" applies.]
>take rice
[Rule "declare everything initially unmentioned rule" applies.]
[Rule "generate action rule" applies.]
[Rule "announce items from multiple object lists rule" applies.]
[Rule "set pronouns from items from multiple object lists rule" applies.]
[Rule "before stage rule" applies.]
[Rule "basic visibility rule" applies.]
[Rule "basic accessibility rule" applies.]
[Rule "access through barriers rule" applies.]
[Rule "Reaching outside the couch" applies.]
[Rule "A first turn sequence rule" applies.]
[Rule "scene change machinery rule" applies.]
[Rule "every turn stage rule" applies.]
[Rule "timed events rule" applies.]
[Rule "advance time rule" applies.]
[Rule "update chronological records rule" applies.]
[Rule "A last turn sequence rule" applies.]
[Rule "scene change machinery rule" applies.]
[Rule "adjust light rule" applies.]
[Rule "note object acquisitions rule" applies.]
[Rule "notify score changes rule" applies.]
[Rule "parse command rule" applies.]
>

Am I missing something?

1 Like
2

The idea is that the reaching inside and reaching outside rules themselves are supposed to give that feedback. For example, from example 212:

Rule for reaching inside a room:
    say "You can only look from this distance.";
    deny access.
1 Like
3

If you want a response, it’s your job to provide it. Failing to “reach” could look like a lot of things, depending on the situation, and any attempt at a generic response is doomed to be ridiculous for a bunch of them.

2 Likes
4

A generic “You can’t reach that” would probably not be ridiculous in a lot of cases, and at least gives some feedback that makes it more obvious what happened, allowing the author to go and add specific feedback to the offending rule.

5

It’s the same principle as check and instead rules being expected to give feedback. If a check or instead rule stops the action, the action machinery doesn’t know why it was stopped, so it can’t give a useful response; it just has to trust the creator of those check and instead rules to know what’s going on and communicate it to the player.

2 Likes