verb names in web version

[troglodyte111]

Web version. I define a verb for an object "frob" with multiple options, eg "wash;clean". In gameplay I can then write "wash frob" and "clean frob" with the same effect. All good. But if I try "wash grunk", an object that has no such verb, I get "You can't wash;clean it", which is not what I want. Realising the error of my ways I resolve not to use options with verbs.

But even after deleting those verbs they seem to be there! If I now try "wash frob" in gameplay it says "You cant wash;clean it", even though there no longer is any such verb. Also, if I try to define a new verb with only "wash" the editor will automatically extend it to "wash;clean", no matter what I do. I have reloaded the game but the ghost of "wash;clean" is still there. I still cannot define a verb that is only "wash".

Is there a way to get round this or will that verb be in my game forever?

[KVonGit]

Hello.

I see the web version doesn't list the verbs, like the Windows version does...

Okay... This is a terrible hack, but it seems to work. Add this to your game's start script in code view:

// create string to test against command patterns
test_string = "wash frob"
// create an object to move the command to (moving a command into our new object will disable it)
create ("verb_graveyard")
// search the commands, finding the one that matches our command pattern
foreach (cmd, AllCommands()) {
  if (IsRegexMatch(cmd.pattern, test_string)) {
    // found it; move it to the verb_graveyard object, which is out of play, thus disabling it
    cmd.parent = verb_graveyard
  }
}

---

That works in a test game I created for this. It creates a new object named verb_graveyard, which the player will never see because it has no parent object. Then it finds the command that matches the pattern "wash frob" and moves that command into the verb_graveyard object, which is a way to disable the command. If a command is in an object or a room, that command will only work when the player is in that same object or room.

[troglodyte111]

Thanks for the quick reply. Now I don't get the "You cant wash;clean it" in gameplay, but I still cannot use a new verb "wash", it also seems to be eaten by that script. Also when I try to define "wash" the editor still autofills it to "wash;clean".

[KVonGit]

Oh, sorry about that. I was thinking you completely got rid of "wash". Hmm...

EDIT: useless information

One problem is that you can't see the verbs in the online editor.

Another is that we don't know the name of your verb, because you can't name it because you can't see the verbs in the online editor. =)

Okay, maybe we can find it by matching the pattern...

The actual pattern Quest creates when we add a new verb and call it "wash;clean" is ^wash (?<object>.*?)( (with|using) (?<object2>.*))?$|^clean (?<object>.*?)( (with|using) (?<object2>.*))?$

We cant put that in our script in the online editor, though, because the <> with trip it up. So, we replace < with Chr(60 and > with Chr(62).

Here is some code to test things, for the game's start script. It won't do anything besides print each command that matches the regex pattern which I think Quest will only assign once, to the command you wish to delete/disable:

regex = "^wash (?" + Chr(60) + "object" + Chr(62) + ".*?)( (with|using) (?" + Chr(60) + "object2" + Chr(62) + ".*))?$|^clean (?" + Chr(60) + "object" + Chr(62) + ".*?)( (with|using) (?" + Chr(60) + "object2" + Chr(62) + ".*))?$"
foreach (cmd, AllCommands()) {
  if (cmd.pattern = regex) {
    msg ("Found matching command: " + cmd)
  }
}

If this only prints this message once, we'll know we can use this to find the right command (and only the right command) without messing up any other commands.

As far as being stuck with "wash;clean" auto-filling in places, I don't know how to get rid of that... and it seems you can't use "wash" or "clean" alone, else it defaults to "wash;clean".

Might need to see if @alexwarren can possibly get to the file from the server side and delete that verb/command from the code.

[alexwarren]

Send me a link to the game and I can edit it.

[troglodyte111]

Many thanks for fast help - impressive! The game is huge and I shouldn't burden you with, and I have several instances of the problem. I found a workaround: delete the verbs for "wash" and "clean" and create a command with pattern "wash #object#; clean #object#" instead. This seems to solve the problem in all respects. There seems to be no obligatory auto-extension for commands.

Perhaps I simply should avoid verbs. I like the idea of verbs because the code becomes more modular. The unavoidable auto-extension with deleted verb names seems to me an issue that should be corrected at some point.

[KVonGit]

If you have Windows, you can install Quest, and then the editor will allow you to directly work with the verbs in the game (and a few other things, too).

---

I tend to avoid creating new verbs, myself. I normally name my new commands with "cmd_" added before the command name. So, my wash command's name would be cmd_wash. Then, using the Windows version of Quest, I can just add a wash attribute to my object. Then, I have my command's script check if the object has the wash attribute to handle things that way.

Online, we can't access the Attributes tab on objects; so, that makes it harder, but it's still doable. On the object's Features tab, we can tick "Run an initialisation script for this object" then a new Initialisation Script tab appears. This script will run once when the game first loads. There, we can add attributes to our object.

// Define `wash` string attribute on this object
this.wash = "You gently wash " + GetDefiniteName(this) + "."

...or:

// Define `wash` script attribute on this object
this.wash => {
  if (not GetBoolean (this, "washed")){
    this.washed = true
    msg ("You wash " + GetDefiniteName(this) + ".")
  }
  else {
    msg ("You've already washed " + GetDefiniteName(this) + "!")
  }
}

We could also just do this for each object in the game's start script online, too, but it's less messy when using the initialisation scripts.

[troglodyte111]

Thanks for the tip!