Unlist objects on a supporter?

Okay, I’m stumped. I can’t seem to make this stop happening. I’ve tried procedural rules, I’ve tried concealed possessions, I’ve tried “before writing a paragraph about…”

But I can’t make a supporter not mention things that are on it when I already mention them in the description:

[code]>x table
It’s a fancy table with a map you don’t recognize.

put cannon on table
(first taking the miniscule model cannon)

You put the miniscule model cannon on the wooden war strategy table.

x table
It’s a fancy table with a map you don’t recognize. On the table you see a miniscule model cannon.

On the wooden war strategy table is a miniscule model cannon[/code]

I want to suppress that last line. Sorry for asking, this should be a simple thing and I’ve combed through the manual. Can someone at least tell me where to look if that’s easier?

Presumably, you have written a carry out, before, or check rule for examining the table. Since such rules don’t end the processing of the action, other applicable rules for examining things will also fire (in this case the examine supporters rule).

Inform really expects you to put particular cases like these in instead rules, which will stop the action after they have run.

If you’re worried about Inform’s book-keeping concerning the success and failure of rules and what actions have been performed, add the phrase ‘rule succeeds’ to (the end of) the instead rule.

Tip: The debugging command “RULES” lets you see what rules are processed for the commands you enter. The one immediately before a normal response from the game is the responsible rule. (RULES OFF to turn it off…) Then you can look that rule up in the Standard Rules, if you want to take a close look at what it does and when.

Try this it does work:

instead of examining the table:
say “[description of the table][line break]”;
stop the action.

That’s a bad way of doing it as it might prevent other examining rules which may be needed.

Try adding this to your code.

[code]Carry out examining (this is the new examine supporters rule):
if the noun is not the table, anonymously abide by the examine supporters rule.

The new examine supporters rule is listed instead of the examine supporters rule in the carry out examining rulebook.[/code]

Hope this helps.

I’d say it’s a good way of doing it, precisely because it prevents the standard examining rules. :wink: In this case, we don’t want them to fire; we want the game to give that custom response instead.

Actually, I’d agree with you if this is just a one off case with any other supporters following the examine supporters rule and there are no extra examining rules in addition to the standard ones.

However, authors may sometimes add additional examining rules, which should be firing. A instead rule would stop this. Also, adding instead rules could easily encourage the overuse of the instead rulebook. In fact, I’ve even seen instead rules which literally replicate the the carry out and report rulebooks.