Hide object until it comes up in conversation

Hello,
Looking for a way to hide a box in a room ( basement ) and not make it viewable ( able to be examined or moved ) until a character in another room tells the player about it…

so for instance, if my player is in a Kitchen and shows another character ( Tim ) a photo… Tim would then say " oh that looks like the box of tools in the basement "… next time I go to the basement, and “look down” im looking for the box to be there and movable… if I never show Tim the photo and he never tells me about the box, I want it hidden…

Been trying for hours to get this to work :slight_smile:
thanks

Assuming that you have the box off-stage (that is, not in a room):

... say "Oh, that looks like the box of tools in the basement."; move the box to the basement; ...

thanks VictorGijsbers ! that makes sense …

what is best way to declare something “off stage” when defining the basement, do I just say " the box is scenery . The box is off-stage" ?
thanks

Yes, that works. You don’t actually need to say explicitly that it’s off-stage (though for clarity I usually do this), since Inform won’t put it into a room unless you tell it to.

The modern syntax is “now the box is in the basement”. The old style still works, though. (Same result.)

very much appreciated ! thanks so much

sorry, one last question on this topic… now that I can move the box to the Basement after the conversation, is there a way to add additional text when I go to that location now…

right now it says
Basement
You can see a box here

would be cool if I could say
Basement
You now notice the box that TJ mentioned earlier

Absolutely; see 3.11 in the manual. You just define the box like this:

The box of tools is a thing. "You now notice the box that TJ mentioned earlier."

This will remain the way the box is described in rooms until the player picks up the box. (So you won’t see that message any more if the player picks up then drops the box, which is exactly as it should be.)

You guys are absolutely amazing! this works perfectly … thank you all !!!