Chapter 6: Commands
6.8. Taking, Dropping, Inserting and Putting

We may want to change the default refusal message when the player tries to pick up scenery: Replanting demonstrates this case simply.

Removal modifies responses to successful TAKE commands, with the effect that when the player picks up an item, he gets a response such as "You take the book from the shelf."

Croft modifies the DROP command, so that objects dropped on specific surfaces get reported in a special way. Celadon allows the player to drop even objects he is carrying indirectly, for instance on a tray or in a sack.

Morning After introduces a simple rule that changes the behavior of the whole game: whenever the player takes an item he hasn't already looked at, he automatically examines it. This picks up the pace of exploration passages where the player is likely to be collecting a large number of objects.

By default, when the player tries to put or insert an item that he isn't holding, Inform prints a refusal message; Democratic Process and Sand offer ways instead to have the player first pick up the relevant items. (The former applies to single items the player is trying to place; the latter expands coverage to work even if the player uses a command affecting multiple objects.)

Taking also happens as a result of other commands. Such takes can be made unnecessary with a procedural rule to turn off the "carrying requirements rule" under particular circumstances, or presented differently using the implicitly taking activity.

* See Modifying Existing Commands for procedural rules to adjust carrying requirements


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* Example  Replanting
Changing the response when the player tries to take something that is scenery.

WI
199
* Example  Removal
TAKE expanded to give responses such as "You take the book from the shelf." or "You pick up the toy from the ground."

WI
202
*** Example  Croft
Adding special reporting and handling for objects dropped when the player is on a supporter, and special entering rules for moving from one supporter to another.

WI
225
* Example  Celadon
Using the enclosure relation to let the player drop things which he only indirectly carries.

WI

By default, Inform only lets the player drop those things which he is carrying -- that is, those directly in his possession. Things inside satchels or on portable trays have to be taken first.

If we want to change this behavior, we might add a dropping rule that distinguishes between carrying and mere enclosure (introduced back in "The location of something" in the chapter on Things):

"Celadon"

The Tea Room is a room. The player carries a black lacquer tray. The lacquer tray is portable. On the lacquer tray are a celadon teapot and a napkin.

Before dropping something:
    if the player does not carry the noun and the player encloses the noun:
        say "(first taking [the noun] from [the holder of the noun])";
        silently try taking the noun;
        if the player does not carry the noun, stop the action.

Instead of taking the napkin:
    say "It seems to be stuck to the tray, possibly by an underlying wad of gum."

Test me with "i / drop teapot / i / look / drop teapot / drop napkin / i / drop tray".

90
* Example  Morning After
When the player picks something up which he hasn't already examined, the object is described.

WI
86
*** Example  Democratic Process
Make PUT and INSERT commands automatically take objects if the player is not holding them.

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87
**** Example  Sand
Extend PUT and INSERT handling to cases where multiple objects are intended at once.

WI


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