ckolderup/picaro — Issue #4: Dynamic room descriptions
Author: irondavy
Created: 2012-01-25 16:52:34+00:00
State: open
Labels: Open Questions

I'm not sure if this is a function we need but we might want to consider how room descriptions are generated. If an item changes state, or is removed/destroyed, the room description might need to update to reflect that. Naturally, if we just say that the room state is fixed, people will write it accordingly.

It's hard to imagine, though, how you'd tell a player that there's a takable item in the room in a way that would still make sense after the item has been taken. I see three solutions, but perhaps there's something I'm not considering:

* Room descriptions are conditional based on room state, or maybe counter? More work & more complex.
* Room descriptions include descriptions of all items in the room. Kinda messy.
* Room descriptions include a flat list of all items in the room. Kinda boring.

In the latter two cases, I'm guessing we'll need some way of saying the item is immediately known to the player or not. Having the player explore for items seems important, especially since we don't currently have nested items (right?).