A View of Green Hills

Example 80

★★★

A LOOK [direction] command which allows the player to see descriptions of the nearby landscape.

Suppose a game in which the player is wandering an open landscape with long vistas, allowing him to LOOK in some direction, or even look at an adjacent location.

Play/modify in Borogove

Play in Quixe

"A View of Green Hills"

Corinth is a room. Athens is east of Corinth. Epidaurus is southeast of Corinth and east of Mycenae. Mycenae is south of Corinth. Olympia is west of Mycenae. Argos is south of Mycenae. Thebes is northwest of Athens. Pylos is south of Olympia. Sparta is east of Pylos and south of Argos. Delphi is northwest of Thebes.

Understand "look [direction]" as facing.

Facing is an action applying to one visible thing.

Carry out facing:

let the viewed item be the room noun from the location;

if the viewed item is not a room, say "You can't see anything promising that way." instead;

try looking toward the viewed item.

In rules about action handling, "noun" refers to the first object that the player has mentioned in his command, so if the player typed >LOOK WEST, "let the viewed item be the room noun from the location" would be processed as "let the viewed item be the room west from the location", and so on.

We can at need override the default behavior, if it is not going to be appropriate for the player to see the next room over. There is only sky above at any time, so…

Instead of facing up:
   say "Above you is bright sky."
 
Understand "look toward [any adjacent room]" as looking toward. Understand "examine [any adjacent room]" as looking toward.
 
Looking toward is an action applying to one visible thing.
 
Carry out looking toward:
   say "You make out [the noun] that way."

This design allows us to create descriptions for rooms (as seen from the outside) which will work regardless of where we're looking from. For instance:

Instead of looking toward Athens:
   say "Even from here you can make out the silhouette of the Acropolis."
 
Test me with "look north / look south / look up / look east / east / look west".

Test me with "look north / look south / look up / look east / east / look west".

Corinth

>(Testing.)

>[1] look north
You can't see anything promising that way.

>[2] look south
You make out Mycenae that way.

>[3] look up
Above you is bright sky.

>[4] look east
Even from here you can make out the silhouette of the Acropolis.

>[5] east

Athens

>[6] look west
You make out Corinth that way.