Ixnay on the itchingsway

Just when i think i’m getting the hang of this…

i have a device.

That’s too much information. i don’t want the switched on/off addendum. Here’s what i’ve tried, based on my dogged reading of the docs:

[spoiler] The rule for showing action of the TV is not listed in any rulebook.

Rule for showing action of the TV: do not show the action of the TV;

Rule for showing action of the TV: do nothing.
Rule for showing action of something: do nothing.
To show action of something: do nothing.

After printing the description of the TV: do nothing;[/spoiler]

Please help end this agony!

Hi Untoldent, this looks like an Inform 7 question. You can use the RULES command when playing your game to have Inform print what rules are being activated.

It looks like the rule is called “examine devices rule”.
I tested this in 6G60 (an old version of Inform 7). So you should try RULES in your version.

Test is a room. The television is a device. It is here. The description is "The TV is an inexpensive knock-off brand called 'Soomy'."

A rule that is not listed in any rulebook never gets called, and never gets run. So creating your own rule, and then saying that it is not listed in any rulebook, is not going to accomplish much.

What you really want to do is find out which already-existing rule causes the “currently switched off” message to appear, and then unlist that rule. heartless zombie has already demonstrated a quick way to do this, showing that the rule responsible for that message is called the “examine devices rule”.

Thus:

The examine devices rule is not listed in any rulebook

…will take that rule out of play. You can also say:

The examine devices rule does nothing.

…which does pretty much the same thing, but allows you to attach conditions. For example:

The examine devices rule does nothing when the noun is the TV.

…suppresses the rule for the TV, but not for other devices.

Thanks, mikegentry and heartless zombie. The issue is that i didn’t know how to inspect the name of the built-in rule, so i couldn’t turn it off. Thanks for the knowledge!

(Is this not the place to ask Inform7 questions? If not, my apologies.)

“General Design Discussions” is for discussing game design in general. Questions about programming in Inform should go to the aptly named “Inform 6 and 7 Development” forum.

(perhaps i’m commenting on the general design of Inform7 … )

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