Re: Just spent 5 hours bug fixing HLA Adventure (my head's about to roll off!)

<ELSINORE>
>talk laertes
I don't know the word talk

There's nothing written on it.
>ask laertes about sister
I don't know the word ask
I don't know the word about
I don't know the word sister

Sorry, I don't know that word.
>
</ELSINORE>

VERBS:
ask

SYNTAX:
<verb> <who> <preposition> <item>
ask laertes about sister

COMMENTS:
Rather than respond with all those "I don't know..."'s, just use some
default, "Your companion turns away, totally uninterested." Or maybe
supply a set of random answers, maybe one of his answers holds a
hint about something. Maybe the guy will beat you with a
feather-duster? Maybe you can pick his pockets?

IMPORTANT VERB:
look, examine, inspect

SYNTAX:
look [preposition] <object>
look behind <object>
look on <object>
look under <object>
look at <object>

COMMENTS:
prepositions are important in the case of look...
behind, on, on top of, behind, under, inside, inside of, underneath,
at, in front of

This brings up the topic positionals around objects.

on
behind <object> at
under

synonyms:

on, on top of;
at, in front of;
behind, in back of;
under, below, underneath;

SPECIAL COMMENTS:
Containers have an aditional location in addition to
the regular locations associated with other objects...

in, inside

<ELSINORE>
>go stair
I don't know the word stair

Where?
>go stairs
You are not near enough to a stairs to do that.
>
</ELSINORE>

Change "I don't know the word..." to something more friendly...
"You don't see a stair."

The "I don't know..." is archaic from OLD first versions of text
games. Using "You don't ..." changes the focus from the game
creater to the "game player". The game is all about the person
playing the game. It's the "user-friendly" way to go. It's "give the
user" a good feeling about what they can do.

"Give the dog a bone."

Okay, that's about where I've got to stop. I'm still seeing Elsinore as
a text-game with puzzles, which is okay for first timers. But after
solving the puzzles, what's going to make the end-user want to mess
with it again?

It's like a jigsaw puzzle that once done once, it's lost it's appeal.

There's nothing new, nothing different, nothing randomly humorous.

That brings up random events and random humor-me's. That's a
whole new topic, though.

And that's where I'll stop for tonight.

Hope that helps some.

And thanks for the "verbose" hint. I'm still thinking there should be
a FLAGS or a SET keyword to turn options on and off.

FLAG VERBOSE ON
FLAG VERBOSE OFF

FLAGS by itself displays a list flags that can be toggled on or off.

Some other FLAGS... I can't think of any at the moment... not
for Elsinore. After all, Elsinore is just a jigsaw puzzle... but that
leads me to think maybe there can be levels of difficulty... but
that means expanding Elsinore past the jigsaw puzzle it is?

--
Jim Carlock
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