switching PCs? initialPlayerChar usage? -- success!

Authoring TADS
1

How do I switch PCs?

I did this successfully a year ago, but it wasr tricky. I lost my old code with my computer.

It looks to me that I’ve got the second Actor object trying to become the PC, by using gameMain.initialPlayerChar = self, but somehow gamemain.initialPlayerChar isn’t resetting. Thoughts?

[code]… control code …
DefineTAction(SwitchTo)
;

VerbRule(SwitchTo)
(‘switch’ ‘to’ | ‘become’) singleDobj
: SwitchToAction
verbPhrase = ‘switch/switching (to who)’
;

modify Actor
dobjFor(SwitchTo)
{
action()
{
gameMain.initialPlayerChar = self;
"Did it work? Are you <<self.name>>? ";
}
}
;

… room defs snipped …
me: Actor ‘fellow’ ‘fellow’
location = entryway
;
me2: Actor ‘guy’ ‘guy’
location = entryway
;

gameMain: GameMainDef
initialPlayerChar = me;[/code]
… what happens …

The guy is standing here.

x guy
You see nothing unusual about the guy.

x fellow
You look the same as usual.

switch to guy
Did it work? Are you guy?

x fellow
You look the same as usual.

x guy
You see nothing unusual about the guy.

2

initialPlayerChar is only used to set gPlayerChar during init. (gPlayer is a macro for libGlobal.playerChar.)

Does it work if you do this instead?

modify Actor
    dobjFor(SwitchTo) {
        action() {
            gPlayerChar = self;
            "Did it work? Are you <<self.name>>? ";
        }
    }
;
3

Thanks, Ben! That did it.

Conrad.

…

x guy
You see nothing unusual about the guy.

switch to guy
Did it work? Are you guy?

x fellow
You see nothing unusual about the fellow.

x guy
You look the same as usual.

4

I’m posting the basic, working code for anyone down the line who wants to do this.

This is no-frills code, which allows the player to switch into any character of the Actor class. It does not address the case where the player tries to switch into an object – you get the default “You can’t do that.” – and does not consider that you might want some Actors switchable-to, and some not.

[code] DefineTAction(SwitchTo)
;

VerbRule(SwitchTo)
(‘switch’ ‘to’ | ‘become’) singleDobj
: SwitchToAction
verbPhrase = ‘switch/switching (to who)’
;

modify Actor
dobjFor(SwitchTo)
{
action()
{
"Switching from <<gPlayerChar.name>> to <<self.name>>… ";
gPlayerChar = self;
"You are now <<gPlayerChar.name>>. ";
}
}
;[/code]