Post by chriscrawford on Feb 19, 2016 8:16:13 GMT -8
I've gotten the HistoryBook display working, but now I am facing some serious design problems. The worst concerns the display of combat conditions. When another actor attacks the Protagonist, we must display the sentence in the HistoryBook display, but we can't give away what auragon that actor is attacking with. So we draw the sentence without the attacking auragon. But later, for purposes of future reference, there's no point in hiding the attacking auragon. How do I resolve this contradiction?
I could write an entire "go back and fix it" routine, but that would be a big hassle. It's the ideal solution.
Or perhaps I could confine the HistoryBook contents to a single day. In other words, after a new day starts, we wipe out the HistoryBook display and start all over. This has the advantage of keeping the HistoryBook short -- I don't have to worry about running out of display space or having the player scroll through a huge long HistoryBook. But would the player ever want to consult the HistoryBook for previous days?
Perhaps the HistoryBook could be displayed one day at a time. Each display presents just one day of history. If you really want to see what happened two days ago, you ask for that particular day and get that one day's history.
I'm not sure what to do.
But the woes just keep on coming. The actual display of the combat sentences is just wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem is that Fate is the Subject, and when Fate is the Subject, he is not displayed. So a typical combat sequence is displayed as follows:
{} {tap actor for combat} {Camiggdo}
{Camiggdo} {attack} {Koopie}
{Koppie} {defend} {Camiggdo} {with red auragon}
{} {defender wins} {Koopie} {Camiggdo} {green auragon} {red auragon}
This last sentence is all wrong. Linguistically, it should take the form {Koopie} {defeats} {Camiggdo} {green auragon} {red auragon}, with the two auragons directly underneath their respective users, pointing upward. But the engine requires that Fate be the Subject so that the reaction scripts work properly.
Then I have two sympols appearing in the HistoryBook without any apparent sentence...
I could write an entire "go back and fix it" routine, but that would be a big hassle. It's the ideal solution.
Or perhaps I could confine the HistoryBook contents to a single day. In other words, after a new day starts, we wipe out the HistoryBook display and start all over. This has the advantage of keeping the HistoryBook short -- I don't have to worry about running out of display space or having the player scroll through a huge long HistoryBook. But would the player ever want to consult the HistoryBook for previous days?
Perhaps the HistoryBook could be displayed one day at a time. Each display presents just one day of history. If you really want to see what happened two days ago, you ask for that particular day and get that one day's history.
I'm not sure what to do.
But the woes just keep on coming. The actual display of the combat sentences is just wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem is that Fate is the Subject, and when Fate is the Subject, he is not displayed. So a typical combat sequence is displayed as follows:
{} {tap actor for combat} {Camiggdo}
{Camiggdo} {attack} {Koopie}
{Koppie} {defend} {Camiggdo} {with red auragon}
{} {defender wins} {Koopie} {Camiggdo} {green auragon} {red auragon}
This last sentence is all wrong. Linguistically, it should take the form {Koopie} {defeats} {Camiggdo} {green auragon} {red auragon}, with the two auragons directly underneath their respective users, pointing upward. But the engine requires that Fate be the Subject so that the reaction scripts work properly.
Then I have two sympols appearing in the HistoryBook without any apparent sentence...