So these are the rules I’m aware of, i.e. before taking, after taking, instead of taking. I was just wondering if there’s a rule for during the action. Like is there a “while taking” or “during taking” or something like that?
There’s no such thing as truly simultaneous effects in Inform. Do you want your rule to run before the object is moved to the player’s inventory, or after?
Have a look at 12.2 of Writing with Inform. You’ll see that there are three other rulebooks involved in action processing: Check, Carry out, and Report. The philosophy is that these three define how an action works generically, while the Instead, Before and After rules are for dealing with special cases.
Thanks, guys. I am aware of how Instead, Before, and After work, as well as the Check, Carry Out, Report. I was really just curious, is all. I often find there’s some possible rule to use that I wasn’t previously aware of, and it got me wondering if a “during/while” type of rule existed. I didn’t have a specific case or anything. Thanks!
“Carry out” would be the closest thing to a “during” rulebook. It is in the carry out phase when all the actual magic of the action processing should occur.
You can also finagle where your rules drop into the rulebooks using “first carry out” “last check”. So in essence you have some control over when during the processing of a rulebook something occurs.
Theoretically, you can think of the whole set of rulebooks as taking place “during” the action. Before, Check, Carry Out, After, and Report is the entire process and you can drop rules where they would go…can something prevent the action? That’s Check. Does something need to happen in preparation for this action? That’s Before. Does this action alert the sleeping guard? That’s Carry Out. Does the player notice results? That’s Report.