§18.27. Choosing notable locale objects for something
1. When it happens. See "printing the locale description". This activity is expected to decide which items ought to be mentioned in a locale description for a given room, enterable container or enterable supporter, and to give each item a priority, which is a number ranging upwards from 1 (which is the top priority). The lower the priority number, the earlier the mention, or at least, the earlier the opportunity to be mentioned: it's up to other activities whether to give it a paragraph of its own or not. This activity only makes something a candidate, and decides what order the candidates will be tried in.
2. The default behaviour. By default, this activity contains only the "standard notable locale objects rule". This chooses exactly those items directly contained by the locale, assigning all of them priority 5. Note that this includes scenery, and other probably unwanted items - those will be excluded later.
3. Examples. (a) In the Misty Moorlands, only large items on the ground are visible through the mist:
A thing can be large or small. A thing is usually small. The stepladder is a large thing in the Misty Moorlands.
Rule for choosing notable locale objects for the Misty Moorlands:
repeat with item running through large things in the Misty Moorlands:
set the locale priority of the item to 5.
Report taking a small thing in the Misty Moorlands:
say "You grope blindly in the mist and pick up [the noun]." instead.
Note the special phrase
set the locale priority of the item to 5;
which should be used only in rules for locale activities. It makes the given item a candidate and sets its priority. (Setting the priority to 0 forces an item not to be a candidate, and can thus undo the effect of previous rules.)
![]() | Start of Chapter 18: Activities |
![]() | Back to §18.26. Printing the locale description of something |
![]() | Onward to §18.28. Printing a locale paragraph about |
Suppose we want a different treatment of lighting than the usual: the room isn't totally dark, but there's something we can't see unless we turn on a bright light. First we make our environment and its light:
Now we make a shadow so that the player can only refer to it if the shadow is in inventory or the light is on:
And finally a couple of extra touches to make it clear why we're able to interact with the shadow when it's in inventory, even if the light is low:
To handle the appearance of the object, we want to set its locale priority to 0: that will prevent it being named in room descriptions.
|
|
Suppose we want a different treatment of lighting than the usual: the room isn't totally dark, but there's something we can't see unless we turn on a bright light. First we make our environment and its light:
Now we make a shadow so that the player can only refer to it if the shadow is in inventory or the light is on:
And finally a couple of extra touches to make it clear why we're able to interact with the shadow when it's in inventory, even if the light is low:
To handle the appearance of the object, we want to set its locale priority to 0: that will prevent it being named in room descriptions.
Suppose we want a different treatment of lighting than the usual: the room isn't totally dark, but there's something we can't see unless we turn on a bright light. First we make our environment and its light:
Now we make a shadow so that the player can only refer to it if the shadow is in inventory or the light is on:
And finally a couple of extra touches to make it clear why we're able to interact with the shadow when it's in inventory, even if the light is low:
To handle the appearance of the object, we want to set its locale priority to 0: that will prevent it being named in room descriptions.
|
|