Improbable Island Message of the Day (MoTD)

Migration update, better pronoun support (UPDATE: baccy bandit updates too)
Staff – 2023-06-20 15:41:36 [Permalink]
Hey folks, as I go through the game code and find bits that need to be updated, sometimes I write an update that can be reasonably cleanly backported into the current game code, and is too good not to share. In this instance, I'm constantly reminded of this game's lackluster pronoun support whenever I try to do anything where I've gotta output different text for each pronoun, and how I've basically got a cobbled-together hash of $heSheThey crap spewed all over the codebase, so I figured now's as good a time as any to centralize it into a proper Pronoun Support System. As a test, I've enabled access to a this tool inside Places; you can now write a Room or Page description that goes like:

The Joker looks you up and down, then says in a stage whisper to his friend, "Look at [obj]. [Ais] such a badass, [xis]n't [sub]?" who replies, "I think [sub] certainly think[sxs] of [ref] that way, but whether [sub] [xis] or not, well, that remains to be seen."

And these little square-bracket codes will evaluate the character's pronouns and change their content on the fly, so that the player reading that paragraph sees:

The Joker looks you up and down, then says in a stage whisper to his friend, "Look at him. He's such a badass, isn't he?" who replies, "I think he certainly thinks of himself that way, but whether he is or not, well, that remains to be seen."

or,

The Joker looks you up and down, then says in a stage whisper to his friend, "Look at her. She's such a badass, isn't she?" who replies, "I think she certainly thinks of herself that way, but whether she is or not, well, that remains to be seen."

or,

The Joker looks you up and down, then says in a stage whisper to his friend, "Look at them. They're such a badass, aren't they?" who replies, "I think they certainly think of themselves that way, but whether they are or not, well, that remains to be seen."

Aye that's right, this wee thingy is clever enough to know when to use Is or Are, Was or Were, Do or Does, when to add an s or an es or an ies to the end of a word, all without having to furtle a check-pronoun Contrivance from the Scrapyard. Having said that, I'm sure I've missed some stuff out, so check out the complete-so-far list of pronoun-aware text replacement codes and let me know of any I've missed.

Work continues on the server migration, I'd tell you how close I think I am but that would absolutely jinx it so I won't, and I'll just tell you that I enormously appreciate your continued support both financial through donations and moral/emotional through y'all cheering me on whenever you see me in chat.

Have fun,

~CMJ

Update 2023-16-20:
Another thing about this server migration is that I'm coming across bits of the game that I started to add neat features to back in 2021 and then got distracted by something else, and I go to upload these new files and go "Whoops, that's only half-done, I'd better finish it off." So last night I finished off some half-baked 2021 work on the Baccy Bandit at the Prancing Spiderkitty; it has a collector now!

(what the hell does that mean?)

Every stop on each reel has a number on it now. Beneath the reel display are sixteen randomly-chosen numbers, this is the collector line. When one of those numbers appears on the winline, the number in the collector line lights up, and it stays lit up between spins. Light up all sixteen numbers and you get eight cigarettes and a new set of numbers to light up. Go try it, it'll make more sense than me trying to explain it in text here.

(and as I was typing this, I was idly spinning the reels, and got three Watchers for 50 cigarettes! With a hold! So I held all three and spun the forth reel and got four Watchers for 500 cigs! Which would send me into Debugging Hell if I didn't understand that actually random means that unlikely things happen sometimes)

Have fun!

~CMJ

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