§14.3. More on adapting verbs
If we need an adaptive message with a verb which doesn't belong to Inform's built-in set, all we need do is define it. In the previous chapter we defined verbs by giving them meanings, but in fact that's optional. For example:
To retrofit is a verb.
defines a verb without telling Inform what it means. Inform will throw a Problem message if we try to write text like:
Flash retrofits the meteor beam.
because, after all, it doesn't know what "retrofit" means. But it does still know how to print it, so this works:
"[The actor] [retrofit] the Mecha-Mole."
which might come out as "Dale retrofits the Mecha-Mole", or "Barin's archers retrofitted the Mecha-Mole", and so on.
This is especially neat for writing a single response to an action which works regardless of who the actor was. For example, the Standard Rules include:
say "[The actor] [put] [the noun] on [the second noun]."
And this can make either:
You put the revolver on the table.
General Lee puts the revolver on the table.
![]() | Start of Chapter 14: Adaptive Text and Responses |
![]() | Back to §14.2. Adaptive text |
![]() | Onward to §14.4. Adapting text about the player |
Some of our default actions establish relations between items in the world, and reporting on the relation ("You are now carrying the fedora") can be a valid response alongside reporting on the action itself ("You take the fedora"). To do this, we need to teach Inform explicitly which relations are the results of actions, then check this when reporting on actions:
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Some of our default actions establish relations between items in the world, and reporting on the relation ("You are now carrying the fedora") can be a valid response alongside reporting on the action itself ("You take the fedora"). To do this, we need to teach Inform explicitly which relations are the results of actions, then check this when reporting on actions:
Some of our default actions establish relations between items in the world, and reporting on the relation ("You are now carrying the fedora") can be a valid response alongside reporting on the action itself ("You take the fedora"). To do this, we need to teach Inform explicitly which relations are the results of actions, then check this when reporting on actions:
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