I've been playing 'Things That Go Bump In The Night' and examining the differences between what I've been doing and what Tim Hamilton does, specifically room descriptions.

When you enter one of my rooms it gives a textual description of the whole scene and all the objects, which is then followed by links to those objects. Hamilton, on the other hand, simply describes the various exits. I guess he's leaving it up to the player to 'examine/look at room' before the player gets a full description. This makes sense, since it cuts down on the amount of text a player has to read when moving backwards and forwards between rooms.

Currently, I've been explaining:
You are in a forest. It is surrounded by tall pine trees that sway gently in the wind. Behind them are magnificent, steep red mountains.
You can see pine trees and mountains.[/i]

Yet Hamilton would just say:
You are in a forest.
You can see pine trees and mountains.

I'm curious to know how much we give away in our descriptions and what works best in terms of descriptions. I'm tempted to describe my rooms with a lot of glorious detail to help build the picture, but should that only come when the player bothers to 'examine trees'? Do you give a full description of a room only when you enter the first time?

In my opinion, your description is far better. I would also flag the trees and mountains as scenery, so the player can look at them, but gets a hint they are not plot items. For first time only text, I would do "first impression" kind of stuff that is not important to the plot.

I think it would depend. You know that in writing, style of writing is usually checked first time, then as you write more stories they just check the plot? (Perhaps not even that if you are really good.) Same applies to IF. Tim's got real good exp, so players find it good. If you are starting out, your description rules.

Thanks both for your replies. I'm seeing the point of good descriptions on first entry to a room, then no description when they re-enter, except a summary of the original description when they 'look'.

Hi think that both approaches are sort of correct. You have already mentioned mountains in the description so to me I personally don't think you need to show again as a visible object. I like to think that players will visibly pick out these words by the eye. And then ask to (look mountains) of which then you can give out the relevant description.
As opposed to Hamilton would just say:
You are in a forest.
You can see pine trees and mountains.
As you can see you are in a forest gives no description at all so visible objects are needed.
No disrespect intended Terry.

Thanks for the responses so far.

If I wanted 'climb tree' to reveal a bit more of the scenery to help build a bigger picture, but not give anything in the way of objects or other things key to the plot, should 'climb tree' be an option? Back in the day before hyperlinks you had to try everything and 'climb tree' was not necessarily given as an option, but climbing them reveals a little extra to the scenery.

Perhaps I should ask the question another way. Assuming trees can be climbed to offer a better view, which works best?

Option One

(Entering for the first time)
You are in a dusty courtyard, which is surrounded by pine trees gently swaying in the breeze. In the distance are steep, red mountains. To the west is a single-storied reception, and to the south is the sea glistening in the late afternoon sun. There is a table in the centre of the courtyard.
You see a table.
You can go west.

Option Two

(Entering for the first time)
You are in a dusty courtyard, which is surrounded by pine trees gently swaying in the breeze. In the distance are steep, red mountains. To the west is a single-storied reception, and to the south is the sea glistening in the late afternoon sun. There is a table in the centre of the courtyard.
You see a table, pinetrees and mountains.
You can go west.

And, btw, how do I get the description to only appear on the first visit, but still be there when the player types 'look'? I know this question was asked and answered in http://www.textadventures.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3328&p=22079&hilit=room+description#p22079 but there was an issue raised regarding a conflict with 5.3. Can I still use The Pixie's solution without issue?

I personally think option one is the way to go. But remember that's just one opinion. And I love the idea of climbing a tree to get a better look. Imagine that you could see something on the roof of a single storey house or shed, that you would not be able to see otherwise. Very clever thinking there could be an object waiting. Terry
By the way could you set up a look command just to print off the original description in that one location?

I think this will help: http://quest5.net/wiki/Firsttime

demonboy wrote:
(Entering for the first time)
You are in a dusty courtyard, which is surrounded by pine trees gently swaying in the breeze. In the distance are steep, red mountains. To the west is a single-storied reception, and to the south is the sea glistening in the late afternoon sun. There is a table in the centre of the courtyard.
You see a table, pinetrees and mountains.
You can go west.

In my game it look like this:
You are in a dusty courtyard, which is surrounded by pine trees gently swaying in the breeze. In the distance are steep, red mountains. To the west is a single-storied reception, and to the south is the sea glistening in the late afternoon sun. There is a table in the centre of the courtyard.
You can go west to the house.

Thank you. Pertex, how were you able to include the hyperlinks within the description rather than them defaulting to the end?

<description>This is a <object verbs="examine/climb">tree</object>.</description>

And I removed the "You can see" section in the core functions.

The problem is, that you can't do this if you are working with the GUI. You have to do it with a texteditor. Using the GUI removes this tags

No problem. I started out with the GUI but I don't have an issue with hard coding (the simple bits anyway). Thanks for the heads up.

Just be careful, demonboy. If I'm right, I think what Pertex is saying is that if you add those tags via the code editor, or a text editor, just switching back to the GUI will cause the tags to be removed - so if you plan on using the GUI at all, I would save adding those hyperlinks for when the game is done so you don't have to keep re-adding them.

Ah, I did wonder. That would be a real PITA because I still use the GUI for most my work.