FWIW, after doing some more experiments (see the edits to my previous post), I think I know why my example ScottKit code resulted in ScottFree allowing the player to say BREAK BOLT while ADVENTUR/CMD would only accept BREAK on its own: it’s because my code is missing the noun BOLT, without which ADVENTUR/CMD seemingly can’t match the command BREAK BOLT to any of the given actions.
I had thought that the noun BOLT was also missing from the widely circulated adv05.DAT file, which contains the game data for v1.15 of The Count, but it turns out that it was hiding there in plain sight all along — it’s just that it isn’t tied to any specific item or object. The word BOLT appears only in the noun list (as BOL):
...
"SLE"
"WIT"
"BOL"
"JAM"
"HOL"
"*SMA"
...
When I used ScottKit to decompile the adv05.DAT file, ScottKit omitted the noun BOL from the decompiled code, presumably because it appeared to be redundant. That was what had confused me. I thought that a ScottKit decompilation would accurately reflect the entire contents of the original .DAT file. But apparently not…
I tried to fix my example code by adding the line noungroup BOL in order to force the noun BOL to be present in the game, but it didn’t work: ScottKit omitted BOL from the compiled .sao file!
It was only after I had added called BOL to the definition of the bolt item (and then compiled the code in ScottKit and reformatted the resultant .sao as a .DAT) that ADVENTUR/CMD would finally let me BREAK BOLT as in the “official” release of The Count.
start workroom
room workroom "workroom"
item file "Large tempered nail file"
called FIL
item bolt "Lockable slide bolt"
called BOL
item lock "Broken slide lock"
nowhere
verbgroup CUT BRE FIL TRI
noungroup FIL NAI
action CUT:
print "Tell me with what? Like: `WITH FIST`"
action WIT FIL when present file and here bolt
swap bolt lock
look2
print OK
action WIT FIL when !present file
print "Sorry I can't do that"
print "I've a hunch I've been robbed!"
comment "NO FILE"