I figured I would start a new topic for this particular question so it would not get buried in my other thread and may show up if someone ever searches a similar question.
I have decided to change up my game a bit. I have a calendar that will have 12 pages. I want the player to be able to examine by the month or to turn/flip a page and then examine.
I am not sure the best way to go about this?
Personally, I’d probably just make it so that the description uses [one]…[or]…[cycling] to move through the pages, with a “you flip to the next month” at the beginning (with a tweak if they’re flipping back from December to January). Then you can use an instead rule to make “turn page/calendar” redirect to examining - presumably if they turn the page they want to see what’s on the next one, so might as well combine the steps.
(NB that “turn” is an action already built into the standard rules, though I don’t think “flip” is included as a synonym so you’ll need to implement that one).
You could use tables, that’s what my mind jumps to.
I would make a Calendar object with parts January, February, etc. Then just put the contents of the month pages in the descriptions.
I would implement both EXAMINE/READ JANUARY and LOOK UP JANUARY IN CALENDAR, since those are the two ways to phrase it that most parser systems can handle.
Are you using a specific system? Just philosophy of interface? Choice/Parser?
Gosh I hope you’re doing this in Inform 7, because if so then you can just copy this code I wrote for The Little Match Girl against the Universal Sisterhood of Naughty Little Girls.
The calendar is a thing. Understand "page" and "pages" and "month" and "months" as the calendar.
Month is a kind of value. The months are January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.
The current month is a month that varies. The current month is June.
Instead of examining the calendar:
choose row with month of the current month in Table of Calendar Pages;
say "The calendar is turned to [current month]: [image entry]."
Calendarsetting it to is an action applying to one thing and one month. Understand "turn [something] to [a month]" and "set [something] to [a month]" as calendarsetting it to.
Check calendarsetting something to:
if the noun is not the calendar:
say "[We] [can't] do that." instead.
Carry out calendarsetting the calendar to the month understood:
now current month is the month understood;
choose row with month of the current month in Table of Calendar Pages;
say "[We] [turn] [the noun] to [current month]: [image entry]."
Calendarpicking is an action applying to one month. Understand "look [a month]" and "examine [a month]" and "read [a month]" and "behold [a month]" and "admire [a month]" as calendarpicking. Understand "check [a month]" and "x [a month]" as calendarpicking. Understand "look at [a month]" and "turn to [a month]" as calendarpicking.
Check calendarpicking:
if the calendar is not visible:
say "[We] [can't] do that." instead.
Carry out calendarpicking:
now current month is the month understood;
choose row with month of the current month in Table of Calendar Pages;
say "[We] [turn] the calendar to [current month]: [image entry]."
Instead of turning the calendar:
let M be a random number between 1 and 12;
choose row M in Table of Calendar Pages;
now current month is month entry;
say "[We] [turn] the calendar to [current month]: [image entry]."
Table of Calendar Pages
month image
January "It's a picture of the number 1"
February "It's a picture of the number 2"
March "It's a picture of the number 3"
April "It's a picture of the number 4"
May "It's a picture of the number 5"
June "It's a picture of the number 6"
July "It's a picture of the number 7"
August "It's a picture of the number 8"
September "It's a picture of the number 9"
October "It's a picture of the number 10"
November "It's a picture of the number 11"
December "It's a picture of the number 12"
[Leaving out the periods from each text, because they are printed in the Examining and Turning and Calendarpicking responses.]
I changed the texts in the Table of Calendar Pages because the descriptions in the game are TOO SAUCY. But obviously you can change them to whatever you want! If your game is in Inform 7!!!
Yeah, if it’s Twine I would recommend cracking open the code of something like January.
We shouldn’t assume everything is Inform 7 ^^’ @Steveo and put it in the correct Inform 7 category if it is
Edit: I see that you talked about making an Inform 7 game in your prev posts so I am gonna move this to the presumably correct category.
January is so good (but Twine). I remember talking to @litrouke about that calendar interface and the hoops that needed jumped-through.
Yes!! Thank you so much.