I7: The continued difficulty of triggering scenes in turns.
weevil
scenes that change a backdrop. This is great, but it works on real
time instead of turns. I don't honestly see the value of ever using
real time in I7, since you can't have turns trigger automatically on
time, so in this case, everyone and the player are frozen in time
while day and night are whizzing past unnoticed.
It would make more sense to me to have day and night triggered after a
certain number of turns pass, but that seems harder to do.
Here's the example based on minutes:
<code>
"Night and Day"
The sun is a backdrop. It is everywhere. The description is "Currently
out of sight."
Night is a recurring scene. Night begins when play begins. Night
begins when Dusk ends. Night ends when the time since Night began is 3
minutes
When Night begins:
say "The sun falls below the horizon and the temperature drops
abruptly to well below zero.";
change the description of the sun to "Currently out of sight."
Dawn is a recurring scene. Dawn begins when Night ends. Dawn ends when
the time since Dawn began is 1 minute.
When Dawn begins:
say "The sun appears on the horizon.";
change the description of the sun to "It is tiny and weak.".
Day is a recurring scene. Day begins when Dawn ends. Day ends when the
time since Day began is 3 minutes.
When Day begins:
say "The sun is now properly up."
Dusk is a recurring scene. Dusk begins when Day ends. Dusk ends when
the time since Dusk began is 1 minute.
When Dusk begins:
say "The sun has passed across the sky and is on the verge of
setting."
Cratered Landscape is a room. "The ground here is [if Night is
happening]dim silver, with the craters visible as darker splotches
[otherwise]the color of dried blood; here and there it is also rippled
by impact craters[end if]. The horizon curves visibly."
Test me with "z / z / z / look / x sun / z / z / z / z / z / z / z".
</code>
So how do I do that with turns instead?
I can't use "Dawn ends in four turns from now." because that would
only work if I made an event called "dawn ends". I'd have to have some
sort of truth state that changes and triggers a new scene each time,
and that just seems so messy and roundabout to me. Why can't I just
write:
<code>
Dawn is a recurring scene. Dawn begins when Night ends. Dawn ends in
four turns after Dawn begins.
Day is a recurring scene.
Night is a recurring scene.
</code>
Andrew Plotkin
> The inform manual provides a precedent for recurring day and night
> scenes that change a backdrop. This is great, but it works on real
> time instead of turns. I don't honestly see the value of ever using
> real time in I7, since you can't have turns trigger automatically on
> time
Are you sure you are understanding "real time" correctly? The default
behavior is that one turn is one game minute, always. The example you
quote switches day and night every three turns. Is that what you want?
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
weevil
short time, but day and night are longer.
On Dec 26, 3:23 pm, Andrew Plotkin <erkyr...@eblong.com> wrote:
Andrew Plotkin
>
> On Dec 26, 3:23�pm, Andrew Plotkin <erkyr...@eblong.com> wrote:
> > Here, weevil <wileywg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > The inform manual provides a precedent for recurring day and night
> > > scenes that change a backdrop. This is great, but it works on real
> > > time instead of turns. I don't honestly see the value of ever using
> > > real time in I7, since you can't have turns trigger automatically on
> > > time
> >
> > Are you sure you are understanding "real time" correctly? The default
> > behavior is that one turn is one game minute, always. The example you
> > quote switches day and night every three turns. Is that what you want?
>
> In the example there's a day, a night, and a dawn. Dawn lasts a very
> short time, but day and night are longer.
What part of that do you want to change?
Otto Grimwald
> In the example there's a day, a night, and a dawn. Dawn lasts a very
> short time, but day and night are longer.
Believe Andrew: it's not real time, here minutes are used for saying
turns, so 3 minutes = 3 turns.
You can change days and nights this way too (in French Journee = day,
Nuit = night):
Journee is a recurring scene. Journee begins when play begins. Journee
begins when Nuit ends. Journee ends when the time of day is after 7:45
PM and the time of day is before 11:45 PM.
Nuit is a recurring scene. Nuit begins when Journee ends. Nuit ends when
the time of day is after 7:45 AM and the time of day is before 7:45 PM.
weevil
the get-go. I don't know why they bothered using this metaphor instead
of just saying turns.
On Dec 27, 2:18 am, Otto Grimwald
Jim Aikin
> I understand now. I have been misunderstanding the inform clock since
> the get-go. I don't know why they bothered using this metaphor instead
> of just saying turns.
It may seem redundant ... but in fact there are times when it's useful.
For instance, in some games that involve timing (especially games where
there's combat), the author may want to allow the player to take
inventory or examine the opponent without any time passing. Yet that
would still be a _turn_, it's just zero minutes.
And conversely, with stories that are divided into discrete scenes,
scene 1 might start at 11:00 AM, and scene 2 at 4:30 PM. Yet no turns
have elapsed between the end of scene 1 and the start of scene 2.
--JA