I have been thinking about how to implement some of this.
Yes, we can create these top level Stereotypes, but if they are just names,
all we have done is given the appearance of doing the hard work, while still
not really accomplishing anything.
This doesn't seem to be too smart.
So lets examine in detail the Stereotype you have called a Guard.
Now, you said this Stereotype would basically keep people from using a
particular exit. As far as coding goes, this isn't very hard. But it
is intimately related to how the I-F system chooses to implement exits,
rooms, etc. Lets assume you can do this.
The other aspect of this Stereotype is how it interacts with the Main
Player character. This is where the 'personality' aspects come in.
Some kinds of Guards that I can come up with right now are:
Surly Guard: Doesn't talk much, when you try to talk to him/her, all you
get is terse, angry replies. This is similar to a machine, so it is the
easiest to program. "Don't Do that" or "You can't go there" would be
typical responses from this guard. Since the guard is so surly, people
would have a tendency to not talk to him/her very much. Which is good,
because she/he doesn't have much to say.
Trying to give anything to a Surly guard is futile, as it is always
rejected. Trying to 'ask guard about door' etc is useless since the guard
"doesn't have anything to say about door" etc.
Physically interacting with the surly guard such as 'fighting, hitting,
kissing' etc, is totally ignored.
Showing things to the surly guard is useless as well, since she/he doesn't
react to anything. This guard reminds me of the Troll in 3.gam
Doing things in the presence of guard has no affect on him/her. You could
sit in the room, patiently assembling a bomb to blow up the door, and the
surly guard would not even react to what you are doing.
In fact, the surly guard is actually one of the simplest puzzles in an
Interactive Fiction story, since the only requirement of 'solving the
puzzle' is to figure out what is needed to get the guard to leave,
or make them quit being a surly guard.
This analysis points (by implication) to the existence of a friendly guard
that might make friendly small talk, and have longer 'explanation of why
you can't go that way'
or a knowledgeable guard which knows about lots of different things.
or a fighting guard that fights back
or a reactive guard that does something when you show them a trigger object
or an aware guard that notices what you are doing
or a talkative guard that will tell you things when you are around them.
This still doesn't address the issue of what these different guards
are going to actually say. The simplest way to deal with this is to build
a matrix of (SITUATION,text), so if the story has reached a particular
point in the plot that the guard will say whatever the associated text is.
The problem is, if you have certain things you want any NPC to say at a
certain point in the story, how to make sure the player hears them. (or even
knows that they could have been said )
This needs more thought. Comments?
David (Whitten@netcom.com) (214) 437-5255