Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Re: [Inform] Messages on the first turn
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From: kaf03@uow.edu.au (Kenneth Alexander Finlayson)
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Date: 21 Sep 2001 18:41:35 +1000
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Fred M. Sloniker <sfm1@qwest.net> writes:

>On 19 Sep 2001 16:01:21 +1000, kaf03@uow.edu.au (Kenneth Alexander
>Finlayson) wrote:

>>I want the stomach to grumble every turn (until food is eaten), and I
>>want the TV to crackle every turn the player is in the same room. But
>>I also want these messages to be printed after the description in the
>>very first turn.

>Others have addressed the technical issues, so I'll address a style
>one.  Are you sure you really *want* to do this?

Yep, positive. However, there are mitigating circumstances...

>It seems like a
>message that gets repeated every turn like that, which I presume you
>intend to annoy the player into wanting to solve the puzzle quickly
>to turn it off, would instead annoy the player into quitting the
>game.  I know it'd bother *me* to see the same sentence appear over
>and over and over again, as if the game were prodding me with a sharp
>stick...

I agree. But that's not really what I want to do. It's just that, for
the purposes of turning my code into an example, I have stripped away
the variation in output. I'm not going to have the same message printed
every turn. In fact, for the TV, I plan to use something akin to the
system Zarf suggested: a number of different messages, broadcasting
bits of the plot in classic Hollywood style. Once a certain number of
turns have passed, the TV stops printing anything. I just want to have
it print something *before* the prompt appears on the first turn.

It also isn't really puzzle related. The messages in my examples
suggest otherwise, but they're only there to illustrate that each_turn
and daemons don't do what I want. I don't plan to use these exact
messages and I don't plan to have the player's stomach growl each
turn (or ever: food and sleep management is dull).

What I really want is this: some way of printing a message on the first
turn, just after the room is described, but before the prompt appears
(like the describe property does), but which is also printed on every
turn, after the prompt is printed (like each_turn and daemons do).

So thanks to everyone for their style advice, which I accept in the
good spirit it was meant, but I really just need technical help.
(We'll see if the beta testers agree.)

Ken
--
This reviewer once thought Gilligan's Island was a clever and funny
television show. Then he turned seven.
                         -- Tony Davis, writing about "Gilligan's Island"
