6.8. Taking, Dropping, Inserting and Putting

| Chapter 6: Commands |

| 6.8. Taking, Dropping, Inserting and Putting

We may want to change the default refusal message when the player tries to pick up scenery: Replanting demonstrates this case simply.

Removal modifies responses to successful TAKE commands, with the effect that when the player picks up an item, he gets a response such as "You take the book from the shelf."

Croft modifies the DROP command, so that objects dropped on specific surfaces get reported in a special way. Celadon allows the player to drop even objects he is carrying indirectly, for instance on a tray or in a sack.

Morning After introduces a simple rule that changes the behavior of the whole game: whenever the player takes an item he hasn't already looked at, he automatically examines it. This picks up the pace of exploration passages where the player is likely to be collecting a large number of objects.

By default, when the player tries to put or insert an item that he isn't holding, Inform prints a refusal message; Democratic Process and Sand offer ways instead to have the player first pick up the relevant items. (The former applies to single items the player is trying to place; the latter expands coverage to work even if the player uses a command affecting multiple objects.)

Taking also happens as a result of other commands. Such takes can be made unnecessary with a procedural rule to turn off the "carrying requirements rule" under particular circumstances, or presented differently using the implicitly taking activity.

See Modifying Existing Commands for procedural rules to adjust carrying requirements

15
| Example Replanting Changing the response when the player tries to take something that is scenery. |
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200
| Example Removal TAKE expanded to give responses such as "You take the book from the shelf." or "You pick up the toy from the ground." |
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202
| Example Croft Adding special reporting and handling for objects dropped when the player is on a supporter, and special entering rules for moving from one supporter to another. |
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225
| Example Celadon Using the enclosure relation to let the player drop things which he only indirectly carries. |
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90
| Example Morning After When the player picks something up which he hasn't already examined, the object is described. |
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86
| Example Democratic Process Make PUT and INSERT commands automatically take objects if the player is not holding them. |
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87
| Example Sand Extend PUT and INSERT handling to cases where multiple objects are intended at once. |
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The above example does not quite work when we want the player to be allowed to take multiple objects at once before putting them somewhere: we also need to add a couple of "understand" rules borrowed from many chapters later. While the reasons may not be immediately clear, we include the demonstration here for the sake of thoroughness: "Sand" Before inserting something which is not carried by the player into something: if the noun is in the second noun, say "Already done." instead; say "(first taking [the noun]) "; silently try taking the noun; if the player is not holding the noun, stop the action. Before putting something which is not carried by the player on something: if the noun is on the second noun, say "Already done." instead; say "(first taking [the noun])[line break]"; silently try taking the noun; if the player is not holding the noun, stop the action. Understand "put [things] in [something]" as inserting it into. Understand "put [things] on [something]" as putting it on. The Closet is a room. A lentil is a kind of thing. A black-eyed pea is a kind of thing. The closet contains 3 lentils. The Closet contains 14 black-eyed peas. The round tin is a container in the closet. The round tin contains 17 lentils. The square tin is a container in the Closet. The square tin contains 20 black-eyed peas. Sorting is a scene. Sorting begins when play begins. Sorting ends when all the lentils are in the round tin and all the black-eyed peas are in the square tin. When Sorting ends, end the story finally. When play begins: say "Thanks to your cruel stepmother, you're not going anywhere until the lentils and peas are sorted." Test me with "put peas in square tin / put lentils in round tin".

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