intfiction.org

I feel like this is the most obvious question in the world, so I apologize if it's been asked a million times before, but I've done a fair amount of googling and searching within this forum and I haven't been able to find quite what I need.

All I want to do is change the wording of the default "You can't go that way." message. I don't want to change anything about the circumstances under which it appears; I just want it phrased differently. I thought I could do this with:

But that has additional undesired effects, i.e. if the player tries to go through a closed door, he just gets "something something" instead of automatically trying to open it or getting a message that there's a door in the way.

I then thought I could use Custom Library Messages to replace the message itself, but its documentation suggested that it's overkill for what I want to do and I should probably just use the more lightweight extension "Default Messages," which I looked up and found that it's no longer supported and has been replaced by "English," which had no documentation. When I got to the point where the Inform 7 documentation was telling me I should make a copy of English and put it into place using I6 template hacking, I figured I should probably take a step back and see what the forum suggests is actually the best way to do this.

The simplest thing to do, I think, would be to replace the can't go that way rule.

Here's the original thing in the Standard Rules:

I think it's Default Messages by David Fisher that's out of date; if you want to go the extension route instead of just replacing the you can't go that way rule, you could use Default Messages by Ron Newcomb.

ETA 2: I also think that the "English" extension that the document for David Fisher's extension mentions isn't the current extension, but one that will be in an Inform Release Yet To Come.

Ah, how very confusing. Thanks; Default Messages by Ron Newcomb looks like it will do what I need if I don't end up just replacing the rule.

Which rulebook is the can't go that way rule in, or more importantly, how can I find out that information for myself?

[Edit: I managed to find out by telling the Inform IDE to unlist it for me.]

I tried replacing it with:

... but now I just get

whenever I try to go anywhere. So I think I'm probably just going to give up and use Default Messages.

The bottom line ("stop the action with library message...") should be one tab stop deeper; as it is, it triggers whenever you try to go in any direction (unless "something something" has triggered, stopping the action).

Yeah, sorry, I just typed that out from a different computer rather than copy/pasting, which of course messed up the tabs. (I generally use begin/end rather than tabs, for just this sort of reason.)

Try this.



Replacing the standard is the most efficient way of changing the message here. The standard rule is a little more complex in order to give a different message when there is a door leading to nowhere rather than just a blank connection. I've actually done this replacement in games I've written as I find that the default message is not very helpful, although I replace this message with an exit listing so the player knows which exits are valid.



I find that it's easier to see when something begins and something ends using the begin/end syntax.

_________________
"Will you stop breaking the fourth wall? It's costing me an absolute fortune to replace it!"

As a C++ programmer who has barely any experience with Python... I prefer the Pythonesque syntax because "begin" and "end" are just too long and ugly.

On topic: You don't need to replace the rule if you use the extension. They are alternative ways of doing (basically) the same thing.

Agreed.


I know, but the extension also includes a lot of other stuff I don't need, and I'm trying to be economical here. (Yes, I realize that's a somewhat ridiculous thing to worry about when writing a text adventure in this day and age.)