8.7. Moving things

| Chapter 8: Change |

| 8.7. Moving things

We have now seen how to change the properties of rooms and things, and also any freestanding values which may have a bearing on the model world. We are not allowed to change the kind of anything during play. Our remaining freedom is to move things around. It would make no sense to move rooms around, because rooms are the fixed reference points in our geography, but anything else is mobile. This even includes things which are supposedly "fixed in place", for unlike the player, we have god-like powers. (There are minor restrictions: backdrops are trickier to move, since they are present in several rooms at once - see the next section. And doors, at the junction between two rooms, cannot be moved.)

Here is how to move something:

move (object) to (object)

This phrase moves the first-named object to the second. Example: move the genie's lamp to Aladdin's Cave; The first object named has to be a thing; the destination must be a room, as here, a container, a supporter, or a person. When something is moved, all its parts and contents (and all their contents, and so on) move with it. If the thing being moved is a person, then the destination is required to be a room or an enterable container. (In particular, a person cannot be carried by another person.) Two options can be used if the object being moved is the player. move the player to Aladdin's Cave, without printing a room description omits the description which would otherwise be produced. A compromise is to use: move the player to Aladdin's Cave, without printing an abbreviated room description which gives a full description if the player has never been here before, but only a brief one if it is a familiar scene. These options have no effect for any other objects being moved.

If the destination is a person, like so:

> move the genie's turban to Aladdin;

then it will be carried rather than worn. We could arrange for it to be worn instead by writing

> now the genie's turban is worn by Aladdin;

"Now..." is a much more flexible phrase than "move": more on this shortly.

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| Example Meteoric I and II A meteor in the night sky which is visible from many rooms, so needs to be a backdrop, but which does not appear until 11:31 PM. |
RB

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