6.11. Waiting, Sleeping

| Chapter 6: Commands |

| 6.11. Waiting, Sleeping

The standard WAIT command makes time pass at the same rate that it would anyway - one minute per turn. In a game where events happen at specific times of day, though, we might want to give the player more control. Nine AM Appointment shows how to give the player a WAIT 10 MINUTES command, while Delayed Gratification lets him WAIT UNTIL a specific time of day.

Ordinarily, Inform also refuses to allow the player to SLEEP and WAKE UP: the commands exist, but have no effect. Change of Basis lets the player put himself into a sleep state in which he cannot do anything. A somewhat more interesting expansion on this idea would be to let the player sleep and have dreams; there are no examples specifically of dream states, but we might consult the examples on scenes about how to disrupt one environment and move the player to another, entirely new one.

See Scene Changes for ways to move the player to a new environment such as a dream state

374
| Example Nine AM Appointment A WAIT [number] MINUTES command which advances through an arbitrary number of turns. |
WI

If there's some reason the player needs to be at a specific place and time, we might want to allow him to wait a number of minutes at once. "Nine AM Appointment" Waiting more is an action applying to one number. Understand "wait [a time period]" or "wait for [a time period]" or "wait for a/an [a time period]" or "wait a/an [a time period]" as waiting more. Carry out waiting more: let the target time be the time of day plus the time understood; decrease the target time by one minute; while the time of day is not the target time: follow the turn sequence rules. The one nuance here is that after our wait command occurs, the turn sequence rules will occur one more time. So we need to subtract one minute from the parsed time to make the turn end on the desired number of minutes. Report waiting more: say "It is now [time of day + 1 minute]." And if we want to ensure that the player doesn't (accidentally or intentionally) put the interpreter through a really long loop, we could put an upper limit on his patience: Check waiting more: if the time understood is greater than one hour, say "You really haven't got that kind of patience." instead. The Specialist's Office is a room. The secretary is a woman in the Office. Instead of asking the secretary about "[appointment]", say "'Hang on just five more minutes,' she says, in a distracted manner." Understand "appointment" or "specialist" or "doctor" as "[appointment]". At 9:45 AM: say "At [the time of day in words], secretary glances at you and gives a reassuring smile." Test me with "ask secretary about appointment / wait five minutes / g / g / wait 61 minutes / wait for half an hour / wait for a quarter of an hour / wait for an hour".

375
| Example Delayed Gratification A WAIT UNTIL [time] command which advances until the game clock reaches the correct hour. |
WI

45
| Example Change of Basis Implementing sleeping and wakeful states. |
WI

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