CHOICE_COUNT returns the number of options created so far in the current chunk. But it's actually possible for a writer to 'fork' a story into different sub-sections, to cover more possible player actions. That means there's no need to actually test all the branches in game to be sure they work as intended. The first choice presented is "Murder!" The simplest use of a multi-valued list is for tracking "game flags" tidily. You can use several logical tests on an option; if you do, all the tests must all be passed for the option to appear. However, it does provide a simple yet powerful system for tracking state-changes in a very flexible way, to enable writers to approximate world models where necessary. This becomes particularly important if the game text is intended to model anything - whether it's a game of cards, the player's knowledge of the gameworld so far, or the state of the various light-switches in a house. Sometimes, the weave structure is sufficient. The numerical value, if needed, can be got explicitly using the LIST_VALUE function. How Did The Red Carpet Become The Iconic Runway For Awards Shows? Weaves are more than just a convenient encapsulation of branching flow; they're also a way to author more robust content. In particular, it allows us to test for multiple game flags in a single line. for not, though it'll sometimes confuse the compiler which thinks {!text} is a once-only list. We resolve these using a . When you start an ink file, content outside of knots will be run automatically. In cases where you don't want implicit types, or you want to round off a variable, you can cast it directly. Equality (==) now means 'set equality' - that is, all entries are identical. Alternatives can be used inside loops to create the appearance of intelligent, state-tracking gameplay without particular effort. It might be noticed that above we refered to variables as being able to contain "content", rather than "strings". The following is better: It's probably also useful to have an is/are function to hand: Lists don't have to contain multiple values. The engine treats this as a valid, intentional, end of flow state. The above example stops where it does, because the next choice ends up in an "out of content" run-time error. Wrapping up simple operations in function can also provide a simple place to put debugging information, if required. They're not quite parts of the language, but they're always available, and they can't be edited by the author. RANDOM is authored to be like a dice (yes, pendants, we said a dice), so the min and max values are both inclusive. In a real game, we'll want to move the flow from one point to another based on what the player chooses. It is fully-featured in terms of logic, and contains a few additional structures to help keep the often complex logic of a branching story better organised. The following statements all assign values to variables: ink supports the four basic mathematical operations (+, -, * and /), as well as % (or mod), which returns the remainder after integer division. You can also split your content across multiple files, using an include statement. Sometimes, a global variable is unwieldy. The most basic ink script is just text in a .ink file. If we have: ... how can the compiler know which blue you meant? But knots won't. In ink, if the choice text is given in square brackets, the text of the choice will not be printed into response. There's also POW for to-the-power-of: If more complex operations are required, one can write functions (using recursion if necessary), or call out to external, game-code functions (for anything more advanced). But should we want to remember what the player has seen, we can - we add in labels where they're needed using the (label_name) syntax. Temporary variables are safe to use in recursion (unlike globals), so the following will work. There are lots of ways to do this, but the most conveninent is to use constants. So the following is the same: The following examples have all included one deliberate untruth, which we'll now remove. Fallback choices are never displayed to the player, but are 'chosen' by the game if no other options exist. (usually with the) The best or most preferable part. Note that the parameter passed to TURNS_SINCE is a "divert target", not simply the knot address itself (because the knot address is a number - the read count - not a location in the story...), TODO: (requirement of passing -c to the compiler). We're overdue a fuller example, so here's one. You absolutely can use diverts to create looped content, and ink has several features to exploit this, including ways to make the content vary itself, and ways to control how often options can be chosen. Ink can generate random integers if required using the RANDOM function. Once-only alternatives are like sequences, but when they run out of new content to display, they display nothing. was not only functional, but actually caused list to invert itself, which seemed excessively perverse. See the sections on Varying Text and Conditional Options for more information. So far, everything in ink has been entirely linear, despite all the branching and diverting. Both of these are described in Running your ink. The below section gives more detailed information on the non-ASCII characters that ink automatically supports. When it runs out of new content it continues the show the final element. Gather points at any nested level can be labelled using brackets. Sometimes, it's convenient to define constants to be strings, so you can print them out, for gameplay or debugging purposes. That was deliberate, because a string defined in ink can contain ink - although it will always evaluate to a string. < does the same in reverse. Interactive stories often rely on state machines, tracking what stage some higher level process has reached. Tokyo had previously identified Vietnam as a fallback position for retreating Japanese troops because it could be more easily occupied, secured and defended. Inside the same block of weave, you can simply use the label name; from outside the block you need a path, either to a different stitch within the same knot: In truth, all content in ink is a weave, even if there are no gathers in sight. At its most basic, it can be used to write a Choose Your Own-style story, or a branching dialogue tree. or "Suicide!". The tunnel syntax looks like a divert, with another divert on the end: This means "do the crossing_the_date_line story, then continue from here". The has or ? Threads can be useful in these cases simply to divide up choices. Enables an extended character range subset of the Latin alphabet - completely represented by the official Latin 1 Supplement unicode range \u0080 - \u00FF. But what if we want a more extended sub-scene? However, you need to remember to divert out of it - the engine won't automatically enter the first stitch once it's worked its way through the header content. That means we haven't begun to discover all the ways it might be used - but we're pretty sure it's going to be useful! (The equals signs on the end are optional; and the name needs to be a single word with no spaces.). If you don't have loops in your story, you'll never notice this behaviour. The use of parameters on knots means they are almost functions in the usual sense, but they lack one key concept - that of the call stack, and the use of return values. There's the kind used for someone reading the code, which the compiler ignores: and there's the kind used for reminding the author what they need to do, that the compiler prints out during compilation: Text content from the game will appear 'as is' when the engine runs. (And this is the real reason for having two different ways to end flow.). So the content printed will ignore square bracketed text, and if the option is once-only, it will be marked as used up. Alternatives can include divert statements. External function declarations in ink allow you to directly call C# functions in the game, and variable observers are callbacks that are fired in the game when ink variables are modified. But its real strength is in writing dialogues with lots of options and lots of recombination of the flow. (If you really want this to work, use a text function to print the colour!). The rest of this section details additional features that allow weaves to nest, contain side-tracks and diversions, divert within themselves, and above all, reference earlier choices to influence later ones. Functions can be called on ~ content lines, but can also be called during a piece of content. Advanced: knot/stitch labels are actually read counts, Sneak preview: using TURNS_SINCE in a function, Gather points gather the flow back together, Options and gathers form chains of content, Example: a conversation with nested nodes, Advanced: Gathers directly after an option, Advanced: Global variables are externally visible, Conditional blocks are not limited to logic, Temporary variables are for scratch calculations, Advanced: sending divert targets as parameters, Example: adding the same choice to several places, Example: organisation of wide choice points, Advanced: defining your own numerical values, Lists don't need to have multiple entries, Part 6: International character support in identifiers, Each list is a different property, with values for the states that property can take (on or off, lit or unlit, etc), Change state by removing the old state, then adding in the new. If Dr Eamonn is in as well, the two won't argue, as the lists being compared won't be equal - DoctorsInSurgery will have an Eamonn that the list (Adams, Bernard) doesn't have. Enables an extended character range subset of the Latin alphabet - completely represented by the official Latin Extended-A unicode range \u0100-\u017F. Oddly for a text-engine, ink doesn't have much in the way of string-handling: it's assumed that any string conversion you need to do will be handled by the game code (and perhaps by external functions.) So far, we've been building branched stories in the simplest way, with "options" that link to "pages". Enables characters for the Armenian language and is a subset of the official Armenian unicode range \u0530-\u058F. In a normal story, threads might never be needed. The simplest mark-up is a comment. In a real game, all three of these options might well lead to the same conclusion - Monsieur Fogg leaves the room. But this flat structure makes certain things difficult: for example, imagine a game in which the following interaction can happen: ...but it can happen at several different places in the story. The very loose structure means writers can get on and write, branching and rejoining without worrying about the structure that they're creating as they go. ...and the compiler will issue an error until you specify. ink is a scripting language built around the idea of marking up pure-text with flow in order to produce interactive scripts. Using the above, we'd have to keep passing the 'return-to' parameter from knot to knot, to ensure we always knew where to return. You can't use too much glue: multiple glues next to each other have no additional effect. After a while, this sub-nesting gets hard to read and manipulate, so it's good style to divert away to a new stitch if a side-choice goes unwieldy. So you will need to write carefully to ensure that all the flows into a tunnel really do come out again. The definitions we use are not exactly standard fare. Read about all the alternatives here. Using -> END in this case will not end the thread, but the whole story flow. Note the first value in a list has the value 1, and not the value 0. For that we use a new operator, has, otherwise known as ?. Text on separate lines produces new paragraphs. ink provides temporary variables for quick calculations of things. This section comes with a warning. We can add new options via a set of nested sub-choices. Let’s jump in the news! This allows us to use the same state machine in multiple places. By default, every choice in the game can only be chosen once. We can also negate it, with hasnt or !? (In other words, separating files has no effect on the game's namespacing). Sometimes it is inconvenient for a writer using a non-ASCII language to write a story because they have to constantly switch to naming identifiers in ASCII and then switching back to whatever language they are using for the story. Oh, and the following is legal and not a great idea: As stories get longer, they become more confusing to keep organised without some additional structure. Once it has run out of flow here it'll then run the other fork. The moral is, don't use these unless you have a clear picture in your mind. Once an option is chosen, a thread is no longer a thread - it is simply the normal story flow once more. They should be given an initial value, which defines what type of variable they are - integer, floating point (decimal), content, or a story address. But when a choice is chosen, the engine will move to that fork of the story and collapse and discard the others. This returns the number of game turns since the game began. Note that we don't need a -> DONE if the flow ends with options that fail their conditions. The compiler will warn you if ambiguous names are used. In this context, the return value, if there is one, is printed (as well as anything else the function wants to print.) For testing purposes, it's often useful to fix the random number generator so ink will produce the same outcomes every time you play. With in-depth features, Expatica brings the international community closer together. ink offers several features to enable non-technical writers to branch often, and play out the consequences of those branches, in both minor and major ways, without fuss. If you really need to, you can make an empty list that knows what type of list it is. Note that the test knot_name is true if any stitch inside that knot has been seen. (And there's no way to "negate" a glue; once a line is sticky, it'll stick.). assigns x to be 0, y to be 2 and z to be 2.4. To allow the game to branch we need to mark up sections of content with names (as an old-fashioned gamebook does with its 'Paragraph 18', and the like.). We can access that using. Deprecated License Identifiers. Here's a standard pattern for asking questions of an NPC. You can also use the standard ! What if we just want to simply ask if Adams and Bernard are present? Function parameters can also be passed 'by reference', meaning that the function can actually alter the the variable being passed in, instead of creating a temporary variable with that value. Currently, the US has roughly $16tn of these $73.1tn contracts, now known as “tough legacy” Libor, standing behind millions of consumer and business contracts where no fallback … (That is to say, they are enums.). You can make your own external functions, though the syntax is a bit different: see the section on functions below. We don't have a xor. We could then describe the contents of any room by testing its state: And we could have options based on combinations of things: We can model devices with multiple states. Below is a listing of the currently supported identifier ranges.
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