Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: [Inform] Messages on the first turn
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From: kaf03@uow.edu.au (Kenneth Alexander Finlayson)
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Date: 18 Sep 2001 12:07:41 +1000
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I would like to have my game start with the character's stomach growling
and white noise coming from a television in the same room (that is,
have appropriate messages printed after the room description). But the
seemingly logical solution (a daemon for the player object, each_turn
for the television) isn't what I want. These routines don't print
anything until the end of the turn.

Is there an elegant way around this, or will I have to add a clause
along the lines of

        if (self hasnt visited)
            print "^^Your stomach growls.^^The infernal crackle
            of static comes from the television.";

to the description of the initial room?

Ken

(source code follows)

Constant DEBUG;
Constant Story "TEST FILE";
Constant Headline "^An Interactive Test^";

Include "Parser";
Include "Verblib";

[ Initialise;

    player = test_player;
    location = test_room;

    StartDaemon( test_player );
];

Object  test_player
  with  number 0,
        daemon
            "^Your stomach growls.",
        description
            "Gaunt and starved. You do not look your best.",
   has  concealed animate proper transparent;

Object  test_room "Test Room"
  with  name "bland" "sterile" "white" "test" "room",
        description
            "The room has been plainted a bland white, in an
            attempt to give the place a sterile feel, as befits
            a testing area.",
   has  light;

Object  -> television "television"
  with  name "old" "boxy" "television" "tv",
        each_turn
            "^The infernal crackle of static comes from the
            television.",
        description
            "The television is old and boxy. Its screen is a
            mess of static.";

Include "Grammar";

--
This is television at its most challenging, the challenge being to get
to the end without throwing up.
                                -- Tony Davis, writing sbout "Family Law"
