| Chapter 3: Things |

| 3.3. One-way connections

Connections are ordinarily two-way, but do not have to be. One of the map connections in the Mammoth Cave simulation was made by the sentence:

> The Debris Room is west of the Crawl.

Besides reading this sentence at face value, Inform also deduced that the Crawl was probably meant to be east of the Debris Room: in other words, that the path between them is a two-way one. When Inform makes guesses like this, it treats them as being less certain than anything explicitly stated in the source. Inform will quietly overturn its assumption if information comes to hand which shows that it was wrong. That might happen in this case if another sentence read:

> The Hidden Alcove is east of the Debris Room.

These two sentences are not contradictory: Inform allows them both, simply accepting that the world is more complicated than it first assumed. There are relatively few situations where Inform has to make educated guesses, but when it does, it tries always to follow Occam's Razor by constructing the simplest model world consistent with the information in the Source text.

We can even explicitly make a route which turns around as it leads between two rooms:

> West of the Garden is south of the Meadow.

Finally, if we want to establish a route which cannot be retraced at all, we can specify that a particular direction leads nowhere:

> East of the Debris Room is nowhere.

6
| Example Port Royal 2 Further implementation of Port Royal, with a few more unusual map connections.

"1691" Fort James is a room. "The enclosure of Fort James is a large, roughly hexagonal court walled with heavy stone. The walls face the entrance to Port Royal Harbour, and the battery of guns is prepared to destroy any enemy ship arriving." Thames Street End is south of Fort James. "The ill-named Thames Street runs from here -- at the point of the peninsula -- all the way east among houses and shops, through the Fish Market, edging by the round front of Fort Carlisle, to the point where the town stops and there is only sandy spit beyond. Most of that stretch is full of people at all hours. Imported goods are moved off of ships and taken to distributors; exported goods are brought to be loaded; and there is one public house and brothel for every ten inhabitants. Lime Street, wider and healthier but not as rich, runs directly south, and to the north the road opens up into the courtyard of Fort James." Lime Street is south of Thames Street End. If we check out a map of historic Port Royal, we find that Thames Street End bends around the northwest tip of the peninsula and becomes the (very) roughly north/south Fisher's Row. We can't put Fisher's Row south of Thames Street End, though, because Lime Street is already going that way. So instead, let's have a map connection that bends around from west to north: West of Thames Street End is north of Fisher's Row. Now continuing west along Thames Street, or north along Fisher's Row, will bring us around the corner in question. Asymmetric map connections should be used carefully. They're good for representing the layout of the real world, which tends not to be laid out on a convenient square matrix, but if exits are not described clearly they can be disorienting for the player. So let's be sure to make things clear: The description of Fisher's Row is "A waterfront street that runs south towards Chocolata Hole, where the small craft are harboured. It also continues north around the tip of the peninsula from here, turning into the east-west Thames Street." Meanwhile, suppose Fort James is in a prominent position, raised a bit from its surroundings; maybe the player should be able to go down from there, as well as south, to get to Thames Street End. Thames Street End is down from Fort James. But we don't want the reverse to be true: Up from Thames Street End is nowhere. Water Lane is east of Thames Street End. "Here Thames Street -- never very straight -- goes steeply southeast for a portion before continuing more directly to the east. Water Lane runs south toward Queen Street, and facing onto it is the New Prison -- which, in the way of these things, is neither. It did serve in that capacity for a time, and in a measure of the villainy which has been usual in Port Royal from its earliest days, it is nearly the largest building in the town." East of Water Lane is a room called Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge. Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge has the description "To the southwest is the fishmarket; directly across the street is the entrance to a private alley through a brick archway." The Fishmarket is southwest of Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge. The Private Alley is south of Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge. "You're just outside the tavern the Feathers. To the north, under a pretty little archway, is the active mayhem of Thames Street, but the alley narrows down to a dead end a little distance to the south." The Feathers is inside from the Private Alley. "Newly built with brick, replacing the older Feathers tavern that used to stand here. It sells wines in quantity, as well as serving them directly, and the goods are always of the best quality. There's a room upstairs for those wanting to stay the night." The Feathers Bedroom is above the Feathers. Thames Street by the King's House is east of Thames Street at the Wherry Bridge. "The King's House is reserved for the use of the Governor, but he does not live in it, and it is frequently being rented out to some merchant so that the government will at least derive some value from it. It is nearly the least interesting establishment on Thames Street, and the crowd -- which, to the west, is extremely dense -- here thins out a bit." Thames Street before Fort Carlisle is east of Thames Street by the King's House. "Here Thames Street, formerly a respectable width, narrows to a footpath in order to edge around the front of Fort Carlisle, underneath the mouths of the cannon. There are no buildings on the harbour side of Thames Street at this point, which means that you have an unusually good view of the ships at dock, water beyond, and the Blue Mountains rising on the other side of the harbour." South of Thames Street before Fort Carlisle is a room called Fort Carlisle. The description of Fort Carlisle is "Handsomely arrayed with cannons which you could fire at any moment -- though of course there are ships at dock which might be in the way." Queen Street End is south of Lime Street. Queen Street Middle is east of Queen Street End. Queen Street East is east of Queen Street Middle and south of Private Alley. Queen Street at the Prison is east of Queen Street East. Test me with "d / u / w / e / n / s".

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