Using vehicle (car) as a teleportation device

Authoring Inform 7
1

I want to have a vehicle that will take a player to other parts of the game that cannot be reached on foot.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a thing that is a vehicle, but it needs be enterable.
The game play can look like this:

You are next to a barn that is just to your south.
There is a jeep here.

drive jeep to Boy Scout Beach.
You have to be in the jeep to do that!
enter jeep.
You are now inside a 1986 Jeep CJ7.
drive jeep to Boy Scout Beach.
You arrive to a parking lot beside the beach. (inside the Jeep)
There beach lies to the southwest.
SW
You can’t drive the jeep on the beach. You must park it here, in the parking lot first.

The enterable thing that just happens to be a vehicle can teleport the player to various parts of the game and back again just as long as they are inside the Jeep. Trying to walk there would be too far. The player and the Jeep would need to be teleported to the other parts of the game at the same time and maintain the player inside the jeep until they exit and then are able to explore other portions of the map not accessible by foot. Any Inform 7 examples of instructions would be a big help.
Thank you,

2

You asked basically the same question here: Vehicles to separate part of map. (separate regions only accessible by vehicle). I’d like to help you out.

[Edited by Mod - good to point out members can search for similar previous topics and link to helpful historical topics; bad to imply “deficiency” in previous topics or OP’s understanding of search.]

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3

You are correct. I am such a beginner at this point that I am not very good at asking questions. I basically need a vehicle that is more of a teleportation device. it would ‘not’ respond to n,s,e,w. It would respond with something like “Just tell me where to drive” Sorry I am not being very clear on this. The idea is that the player would know different places they could drive to already. IE: beach parking lot, or mountain trailhead, mall parking lot. Areas like this would be different regions of the game that would be unaccessible with walking n,s,e,w. This is going to be a rudimentary game that will just be played by my family members.

4

You probably want to put multiple choice on that, lest people are complaining about having to fully spell the destination. So, the command to move the vehicle would be

Drive car

Followed by

where do you want to go?
1 South Beach
etc…
your choice?

Or you can just override the directions if you’re in the car.

N to South Beach, etc…

5

This is how I would do it, approximately. I would make it a full extension able to deal with any number of rooms, but for your purposes this is probably enough. Notice I’ve intentionally avoided the aspect of getting into and out of the car, because I don’t think they improve the experience for the player.

Main Street is a room. "You are standing on the curb next to your car.[paragraph break]You can: [italic type]drive to the beach[roman type], or [italic type]drive to the mall[roman type]."

The beach is a room. "You are standing in the beach parking lot next to your car."

The mall parking lot is a room. "You are standing in the mall parking lot next to your car."

Driving is an action applying to one object. Understand "drive to [any room]" as driving;

Check driving when the location is Main Street:
	if the noun is not the beach and the noun is not the mall parking lot:
		say "That's not a place you can drive to." instead;

Carry out driving:
	say "You drive to [the noun].";
	move the player to the noun;

EDIT: If you want to add the aspect of getting in and out of the car, you’ll need to add an enterable container for the car, and only print the driving directions when you’re actually in the car. You’ll also have to amend the check driving rule.

6

I have a solid plan to make it work now. These suggestions are a big help. Thank you.

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