I did a search for this and half way through 11 pages, I found that the action (I believe that is the correct word.) was taken away or at least melded with “look at #object#”. However, I have read that you can create it again. Is that in the “game” file of the tree to the left or do I have to type it for each and individual object? Also where, once I create the command or verb “examine”, “ex” or “x”, do I write the description specifically for the objects? Look at is in the “room” tab at the bottom. Where would the print message for examine be?

When I write my stories I like to give as much description and detail as possible to the player so they know what something looks like. I have to have a balance in my game for both fun and game play. I understand it will be a lot of work to have almost every thing have a “look” and an “examine”. I want each room to give basic description of what is most important when they walk in. I want “look” to give a little more detail and if I feel the need I want it when “examine” is used to give the best possible description, meaning full detail. Most likely 9 times out of 10 this will not effect a player unless a hint is given that it must be done to get out of a room. But I want my players to know what the game will be if they choose. They will still have to use their imagination, but I just want that extra something if they so desire. Some people I am sure will not even bother examining anything unless it is part of a puzzle and which would be very rare and just try and rush through it, but I am hoping others will appreciate the work put forth into the game that there is some thing more to it.

Thank you.

Yeah, examine and look are synonymous commands in Quest and most other text adventure games.

I'm just doing this off of the top of my head, but if you're looking to make the examine command provide a more detailed description, it will involve a fair amount of typing, as you'll have to provide 2 different descriptions for every room, object and character in the game. And you'll have to make sure you make it clear to the player that the commands work differently in your game because many people are used to the standard uses of the look and examine commands.

I don't see an examine command in the library elements, so I guess you can just create your own examine command, presumable with the command pattern "examine #object#". Then I would have a script on the command that would display the alternate description. So, for example if you have the expanded description stored in an attribute called ext_desc, the script would be:

msg (object.ext_desc)

Or if you're not using the code editor, you'd select the Print Message script, choose "expression" from the dropdown box and then enter "object.ext_desc" in the text field.

So, it's not too difficult. You'd just have to remember to add the "ext_desc" attribute to all of the rooms and objects, and then add the description to that attribute. Of course, you can call the attribute whatever you want. Does that make sense?

Or you could just add "examine" as a verb to your objects.

That's true. You'd still need to put the extended descriptions somewhere and write a script to handle them, so that part of my original response is still valid though.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, wouldn't that be more work though? He would have to add examine as a verb to every object in the game, whereas making it a command he would just create it the once and it would work with all of the objects. That being said, if he's going to be adding extended descriptions to every object as it is I guess it's not that much more work.

Ultimately, I think either way would work so I guess use whichever one makes most sense to you.

hehe, just try to create the verb 'examine' for an object and see what happens. It doesnt work, i tried it before i saw this post (usually when you look at something you're just giving it a passing glance, where if you examine it you are looking at it closely).
If you try to add the verb examine, the game tells you "verb would clash with command: lookat"... So how do you get around that?

Easy. Make a command called "examine" like I suggested in my previous post. It doesn't create an error like that.

I just used the verb like Alex had said for now, then most likely when I feel more comfortable with the code I will try making the command like sgreig suggested. From experience creating the verb works fine, it is just a bit tedious. Now I am wondering how often I am actually going to use a verb. In my head I play it out on how much of a "general" description do I need and how much of a "better" description do I "really" need and can the two be combined into the normal "look at" command sufficiently.