Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- sd:rogueima_plan [2026/09/08 15:55] – external edit 127.0.0.1
+++ sd:rogueima_plan [2026/09/09 03:27] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1269: / Line 1269: @@
 village is a place; it is not yet inhabited.
-==== Step 28. A level script ====
+==== Step 28. A level script, and people who answer questions - DONE ====
-Brynn is 84x30 of map text followed by directives:
+A level's map text is now followed by directives:
-  "DENIZEN Farmer_Jim 19 17 The_apples_look_lovely_this_year. The_farmin'_life_for_me! ..."
+  DENIZEN Farmer_Jim 19 17
-  "SHOPKEEPER RANDOM 53 9"
+  CHAT  The_apples_look_lovely_this_year.
-  "NOMONSTERS"
+  REPLY job   I_work_the_orchard._Apples,_mostly._It's_a_living.
+  REPLY name  I'm_Jim._Farmer_Jim,_on_account_of_the_farm.
-Underscores for spaces, because the parser splits on them. ''LevelFactory''
+''DENIZEN'', its inline chats and ''NOMONSTERS'' are NetWhack's, read the way
-has a comment saying all of this //"needs to be put into some kind of script
+''DungeonMaker'' reads them -- split on spaces, ''_'' standing in for a space
-and attached to the level file, and not written here"// — and it is right. Our
+inside a token -- so **Brynn's own four denizens parse as written**. ''CHAT''
-''level_table'' already holds a source pointer; this is the format it points
+and ''REPLY'' are ours.
-at.
+=== Why a directive and not punctuation ===
+''job:I'm_a_farmer'' reads well and would work. Split on the **first** colon
+and the answer can contain as many more as it likes, so no escape is needed
+for the colon at all -- a keyword is one word and cannot contain one.
+Two things argued against it:
+  * The format already has **exactly one escape**, ''_'' for space. A
+    backslash rule would be a second one to learn, and every directive added
+    later would inherit both.
+  * Inferring the //kind// of speech from a punctuation mark cannot tell a
+    keyword from a random line that happens to contain a colon.
+A directive says which it is instead of leaving it to be guessed, and the next
+thing we want -- ''GIVE'', ''QUEST'', ''SHOP'' -- is another word rather than
+another mark.
+=== Talking: Ultima IV's three cases ===
+NetWhack has only the middle one. An NPC there holds a list of lines and says
+one at random; there is no interactive speech in it anywhere. The other two
+are Rogueima's.
+^ case ^ what happens ^
+| nothing to say | //"They do not seem to want to talk."// |
+| random speech | Farmer Jim says, "The apples look lovely this year." |
+| keyword replies | a page of its own, and you type words at it |
+  Farmer Jim -- and you are talking to them.
+    I work the orchard. Apples, mostly. It's a living.
+    Ask about a subject -- try NAME, or JOB. BYE to stop.
+    Say:
+An unknown word gets //"They shrug, and say nothing about that."//; ''BYE'' or
+an empty line ends it. Matching folds case, so ''JOB'' and ''job'' are the
+same question.
+''npc_mode'' makes the three-way choice **a value rather than a shape of
+code**, so it can be checked without reading a screen. Replies win over chats:
+somebody who will hold a conversation should not be reduced to muttering one
+line at you.
+=== Nothing copies text ===
+The script stays in the program image and an NPC holds **pointers into it**.
+''print_script'' turns the underscores back into spaces on the way out, rather
+than rewriting the source the way ''replace('_',' ')'' does -- so a level can
+be built twice without its script having been consumed. A keyword ends at the
+space that follows it in the script, since it has no terminator of its own.
+=== Verification ===
+  denizens created          4        chat lines             21
+  keyword replies          20        "JOB" finds an answer   yes
+  "wombat" does not       yes        modes: 2, then 1, then 0
+The three modes are read off one denizen stripped in stages: with both, it
+converses; with its replies taken away it falls back to random; with its chats
+gone too it has nothing to say.
+=== An ordering bug ===
+''init_objects'' and ''npc_init'' ran **after** ''load_all_levels'', so the
+script put four denizens into the node array and ''init_objects'' immediately
+emptied it again -- ''npc_count'' read 0 and the village was deserted.
+Everything a level writes into has to exist before the level is built.
 ==== Step 29. Branches, and stairs that know where they go ====