Re: inform doors.. an alternate method?


7 Nov 1995 11:46:58 -0800

In article <47mqd4$9l@atheria.europa.com>, Alien 2 <frich@europa.com> wrote:
> Having just got inform a few days ago, I naturally
>jumped right in and started writing a game with no planning
>beforehand whatsoever (which makes for a real crappy game,
>at least when I try it). I took one look at the usual method
>of doing doors (with door_dir and door_to) and said "screw
>that." I ended up doing this:
>
>-------------------------- CUT HERE ------------------------

[snip snip snip ]

>-------------------------- CUT HERE ------------------------
>
> What advantages does the door_dir/door_to method have
>over this? I know my method works fine (as far as I can tell).
> I take this opportunity to thank Graham Nelson for
>writing such a flexible parser and grammar system.
>

The most obvious disadvantage is that if the player types 'enter gate',
the game will respond with something along the lines of 'You can't enter
that.', which is misleading. You also have to manually flip the n_to and
s_to properties of the rooms the gate is in, which isn't necessary using
the door_to and door_dir properties (which can easily be routines
allowing the door to be in multiple rooms...)

-- 
|Evan Day                | "You can go out and destroy what's already spent    
| daye@peak.org          |  You can blame on your hat the thoughts in your head
|"Redneckers, they get us|     Archer of Loaf         
| pissed" - Black Francis| They've got the guns but we've got the numbers.