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From: zbir@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Zachery J. Bir)
Subject: Inform questions: several...
Message-ID: <ZBIR.94Aug16215017@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
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Date: Wed, 17 Aug 1994 02:50:17 GMT
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Okay, I've finally got a compiler that works (no offense, Robert, but
I didn't have time to wait, so I pulled down the other Inform compiler
in the /incoming/if-archive directory. It works wonderfully, but, Rob,
I'm waiting for the gui... :). So, I have this compiler, what happens?
I go code crazy. I had an idea for a game, and now that it can be a
possibility, I am coding like crazy (without much understanding of the
language, granted), and have come upon some stumpers:
 
1) How the h**l do I code a simple chair? Here's what I have so far:

Nearby Chair "vinyl chair"
	with name "vinyl" "chair" "seat",
	     description
	"The chair is old, with a flaking chrome frame, and cracked \
	vinyl cushions. For fear of theft, it has been bolted to the \
	floor.",
	out_to Hotel_Lobby,
	has enterable static light;

Now when you are in the Hotel Lobby (where this chair is located), you
see this:

You see a vinyl chair (providing light) here.

Arg. But, if I don't include the attribute 'light', it turns pitch
black when you sit in the chair! So I looked throught the Toyshop code
(the only one I could remember off hand where you could sit in or on
something - the car), and the car is attributed:

	has ...//...enterable container open;

So I thought, "Aha! That should work...," and lo! A change was made.
But it was not good...

My line became:
	has enterable static container open;

And thus is it described in the game:

You see a vinyl chair (which is open and contains a small key) here.

Arg.

(The key, by the way is the key to your Hotel Room, which was meant to
be placed unerneath the chair, but I couldn't figure that out yet...)

So how do I code that chair so that it isn't a light provider... (Heh,
would be interesting to be carrying around the glow in the dark vinyl
chair for a light source, but alas, it's too funny for the theme and
mood of my game...) And so it also isn't a container of sorts...

2) How do I write the game so that it is time-based, rather than
turn-based? I am using a small town as the setting, and want to be
able to have stores open or closed depending on the time of day. I
will need the whole gambit of time: minutes, hours, days, all cycling.
There is a very good include file for TADS called timedisp.t, written
by (don't feel bad, Rob, I can't remember his/her name either...) that
handles this wonderfully. 

3) How would I code a notebook? In it, the player could "write" ideas,
clues, bookmark his/her adventure ("Honey! Come to bed, it's late!"
"Innaminit, I almost solved this puzzle..." would at least be
alleviated the worry of forgetting an important clue, plus it would be
really cool to have it be like a diary (maybe with #2, give it a
time-stamp) like follows:

> write "found a body in the alley behind the hotel" in notebook
(with the ballpoint pen)

"April 12th, Saturday, 9:45 P.M.
	found a body in the alley behind the hotel"

>

... or something like that.

4) Can I (and how if I can) make the starting location something other
than a room? I want the player to start out the game sitting in the
chair in the Hotel Lobby. How would this be accomplished?

with a simple:

[ Initialise;
  location=chair;
  "^^^^^Welcome to Arkham...^^";
];

perhaps?

5) How would I write in a daemon to keep track of player sanity? (In
case you're wondering, I'm trying to base the game on Lovecraft's
works, and am waiting for news from Chaosium to use their
supplements...)

Something along the lines of when you reach a certain level of sanity
loss (temporary or otherwise - heh, heh) you either feint, develop a
neurosis/psychosis, or go stark raving mad...

Well, that's enough questions for now... I'm still coding in other
areas, etc..

BTW: I know with .z3 games, you have a max number of objects. What is
the max for .z5? Any? None? Limited only by the amount of patience
the programmer has?

Thanks many many times in advance,

Zachery Bir

(Author of the someday famous Arkham Nights...)




--
+----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
|     Zippy Zeeber     |   Eat right. Exercise	| zbir@silver.ucs.indiana.edu |
| Student of the World |   daily. Die anyways.	|    Look for pub key soon... |
+----------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
