11.3. Helping and Hinting

| Chapter 11: Out Of World Actions and Effects |

| 11.3. Helping and Hinting

IF is difficult to play: often harder than the writer ever suspects. Players are held up by what is "obvious", and they stumble into unforeseen combinations, or spend inordinate amounts of time working on the "wrong" problems. Too much of this and they give up, or post questions on online forums. Against this, many IF authors like to include in-game hints.

There are many approaches, which differ on two main issues.

First: do we spontaneously offer help to the player? The difficulty here is detecting the player's need: Y ask Y? tries to spot aimlessness, while Solitude has a novice mode where it is reasonable to assume that help is almost always needed. On the other hand, suppose we require that the initiative come from the player. Will a novice know to type HELP? Responding to questions starting with WHO, WHAT, etc. shows how to redirect any attempt to ask a direct question into a HELP request. At the other end of the scale, wearily experienced players may type HELP all the time, out of habit, cheating themselves of the fun of frustration: if so, Real Adventurers Need No Help provides the nicotine patch against this addiction.

Second: how do we decide what help is needed? Normally the player only types HELP, which is unspecific. The simplest approach offers a menu, diagnosing the player's problem by obliging him to make choices: see Food Network Interactive. Listing all the possible problems in the game may give away too much, though, since players may not have reached the puzzles in question yet; so some authors prefer to create menus that adapt to the current state of the game (commonly called "adaptive hints"). None of the examples demonstrate this variation because it can be a bit long-winded to set up, but several adaptive hint extensions are available for Inform.

Failing this, we can also try to parse commands like HELP ABOUT MICRODOT, as in Ish. Trieste takes a similar tack, except that instead of offering hints about puzzles, it offers help on game features (such as how to save), and lists all the available topics if the player types simply HELP.

Finally, and perhaps most stylishly, we can try to deduce what the player is stuck on from his immediate circumstances and from what is not yet solved: this needs a powerful adaptive hints system like the one in The Unexamined Life.

See Getting Started with Conversation for a way to redirect a player using the wrong conversation commands

See Footnotes for another medium by which hints could perhaps be transmitted

111
| Example Y ask Y? Noticing when the player seems to be at a loss, and recommending the use of hints. |
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392
| Example Solitude Novice mode that prefaces every prompt with a list of possible commands the player could try, and highlights every important word used, to alert players to interactive items in the scenery. |
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Observation of novice IF players suggests that they often have a hard time figuring out how to get started, especially if they are encountering the game in a context where they don't have time to settle in and read instructions. Here we provide some training wheels to help them learn to communicate. This is divided into several parts. The first part is the system of rules for general guidance, which could be excerpted and used anywhere. The second part is a scenario using these rules. "Solitude" Part 1 - General Rules When play begins: say "Have you played interactive fiction before? >"; now novice mode is whether or not the player consents. The rationale for asking the question this way, and not another, is that novices asked whether they would like instructions very often say no, even if they need them. Novice mode is a truth state that varies. Novice mode is true. Stopping novice mode is an action out of world. Starting novice mode is an action out of world. Understand "novice mode off" or "novice off" as stopping novice mode. Understand "novice mode on" or "novice on" as starting novice mode. Carry out stopping novice mode: now novice mode is false. Carry out starting novice mode: now novice mode is true. Report stopping novice mode: say "Novice mode is now off." Report starting novice mode: say "Novice mode is now on." Before reading a command when novice mode is true: say "[line break]Some options to try:[line break]"; follow the novice suggestion rules. The novice suggestion rules is a rulebook. A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he look rule): if not looking and not going, say " [bold type]look[roman type]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he check inventory rule): if the player carries something and we are not taking inventory, say " [bold type]inventory[roman type] (I)". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he put things on rule): if the player carries something and a free-standing supporter is relevant, say " [bold type]put[roman type] something [bold type]on[roman type] [the list of relevant supporters]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he take things rule): if a gettable thing is relevant, say " [bold type]take[roman type] [the list of gettable relevant things]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he examine things rule): if an unexamined thing is relevant, say " [bold type]examine[roman type] (X) [the list of unexamined relevant things]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he enter things rule): if a relevant thing is worth entering, say " [bold type]enter[roman type] [the list of worth entering relevant things], or [bold type]get out[roman type]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he open things rule): if an unlocked openable thing is relevant, say " [bold type]open[roman type] or [bold type]close[roman type] [the list of unlocked openable relevant things]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he lock things rule): if a closed lockable thing is relevant, say " [bold type]lock[roman type] or [bold type]unlock[roman type] [the list of closed lockable relevant things]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he eat things rule): if the player carries an edible relevant thing, say " [bold type]eat[roman type] [the list of edible relevant things carried by the player]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he wear things rule): if the player carries a wearable relevant thing, say " [bold type]wear[roman type] [the list of wearable relevant things carried by the player]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he turn things on rule): if a device is relevant, say " [bold type]turn on[roman type] or [bold type]turn off[roman type] [the list of relevant devices]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he go places rule): if a room is adjacent, say " [bold type]go[roman type][exit list][if in darkness] or try other directions in the dark[otherwise]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he enter doors rule): if an open door is relevant, say " [bold type]go through[roman type] [the list of relevant open doors]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he interact with people rule): if another person is relevant, say " [bold type]kiss[roman type] or [bold type]wake[roman type] [the list of relevant other people][if the player carries something], or [bold type]give[roman type] things [bold type]to[roman type] someone[end if]". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he ask for help rule): say " [bold type]help[roman type] to see a more complete set of instructions". A novice suggestion rule (this is the suggestion that he turn off help rule): say " [bold type]novice mode off[roman type] to turn off this guidance". Last novice suggestion rule: say "[line break]". The suggestion about asking for help is no good unless we provide some. This might take any of a number of forms, but for the sake of example we'll use an easy way out: Include Basic Screen Effects by Emily Short. Include Menus by Emily Short. Include Basic Help Menu by Emily Short. After taking inventory when novice mode is true: say "To get rid of any of these objects, [bold type]drop[roman type] it." A thing can be examined or unexamined. Carry out examining something: now the noun is examined. A thing can be seen or unseen. A thing is usually unseen. Definition: a thing is relevant if it is seen and it is visible. Before printing the name of something (called the target): now the target is seen; if novice mode is true, say "[bold type]". After printing the name of something: say "[roman type]". Definition: a supporter is worth entering: if the player carries it, no; if it is enterable, yes. Definition: a container is worth entering: if the player carries it, no; if it is enterable and it is open, yes. Definition: a person is other if it is not the player. Definition: a person is another if it is other. Definition: a thing is free-standing if it is in a room. To say exit list: let place be location; let count be 0; repeat with way running through directions: let place be the room way from the location; if place is a room: increment count; say "[if count is greater than 1] or[end if] [bold type][way][roman type]". Definition: a thing is gettable: if it is scenery, no; if it is fixed in place, no; if it is a person, no; if the player is carrying it, no; if the player is wearing it, no; yes. Part 2 - On the Ground Antarctic Research Station is a room. "Though not always the most stimulating of environments, the station is far from your ex-wife and most of the things in the world that annoy you, namely the other 6+ billion people. There is a second room to the south." The station contains a radio. The radio is a device. It is fixed in place. South of the Station is Sitting Room. The description of the Sitting Room is "Just big enough for a very [comfortable chair]." The Sitting Room contains an enterable supporter called a comfortable chair. The chair is scenery. A monograph about penguins is in the Sitting Room. Blistering Cold is a room. "It is white out here and very very very cold." The white door is a door. "[The white door] leads to [the other side of the white door]." It is west of the Blistering Cold and east of the Antarctic Research Station. Test me with "i / x radio / x door / s / i / x chair / x monograph / sit in chair / get up / n / open door / enter door".

317
| Example Query Catching all questions that begin with WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and similar question words, and responding with the instruction to use commands, instead. |
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52
| Example Real Adventurers Need No Help Allowing the player to turn off all access to hints for the duration of a game, in order to avoid the temptation to rely on them overmuch. |
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273
| Example Food Network Interactive Using a menu system from an extension, but adding our own material to it for this game. |
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285
| Example Ish. A (very) simple HELP command, using tokens to accept and interpret the player's text whatever it might be. |
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274
| Example Trieste Table amendment to adjust HELP commands provided for the player. |
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230
| Example The Unexamined Life An adaptive hint system that tracks what the player needs to have seen or to possess in order to solve a given puzzle, and doles out suggestions accordingly. Handles changes in the game state with remarkable flexibility, and allows the player to decide how explicit a nudge he wants at any given moment. |
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