My problem is with my conversations. I have them all set up as “ASK [SOMEONE] ABOUT [SOMETHING].”
My issue is that it works fine, as long as the “SOMETHING” is an item that’s visible. If not (for example, if it’s in another room), the parser defaults to the “otherwise” response below.
I can get around this by removing the brackets around each topic, but then the player must type exactly what’s in quotes, allowing for no shorter version of the topic.
I’m sure I’m missing something obvious, but whatever it is escapes me.
Here’s a simplified example I wrote that is similar to what I’m actually trying to do to. In my actual tables, I have all of the topics in brackets, but I wanted to show examples of topics with and without brackets to make my issue clearer.
[b][size=150]The kitchen is a room.
The dining room is east of the kitchen.
Bob is a man in the kitchen.
The big blue book is in the kitchen.
The big green bike is in he kitchen.
The big red chair is in the living room.
The big black couch is in the living room.
Before asking Bob about something:
if the topic understood is a topic listed in the Table of Bob’s Replies, say “[Bob entry][line break]” instead;
otherwise say “He doesn’t seem interested.” instead;
Table of Bob’s Replies
Topic Bob
“[the big blue book]” “‘It’s a good book.’”
“the big green bike” “‘It’s a pretty green.’”
“[the big red chair]” “‘It’s red, ain’t it?’”
“the big black couch” “‘Comfy.’”[/b]
[/size]
Here is a transcript of my interactions w/ Bob:
[i][size=150]kitchen
You can see Bob and a big blue book here.
Ask Bob about big blue
“It’s a good book.”
Ask Bob about big green
He doesn’t seem interested.
Ask Bob about the big green bike
“It’s a pretty green.”
Ask Bob about big red
He doesn’t seem interested.
Ask Bob about the big black couch
“Comfy.”[/size][/i]
How do I get my characters to both react to something that’s not visible and also to accept shorter names for those items? I feel like the issue is with the phrase “topic understood,” but I don’t know how to fix it if it is.
Thanks!