Sometimes you want to offer a set of choices, and you want to
filter them like cards, but you know those options will only ever
be used in that one place. You could make a card for each
option, and set/require a variable unique to the passage where
they belong (hrm, I should implement req-passage-<title>). But
if you have a fixed deck of choices it’s a bit nicer to have them
and their conditions all in one place.
So I added a <<choices>> macro which lets you make a bunch of
temporary cards inside a single passage and store the resulting
deck in a variable. To define a choice you say <<when>>tags
followed by <<offer>>contents. If you don’t specify card or
sticky-card, it will automatically add card.
<<choices _my_choices>>
<<when>>sticky-card
<<offer>>[[Procrastinate->Start]]
/* etc... */
<</choices>>
<<cardrow `QBN.filter(_my_choices)`>>
To display the choices, we use QBN.filter(deck, limit=none).
This works like QBN.cards(limit) except that it takes a deck of
cards instead of searching all passages. Here we’re showing all
the matching choices, but we could have said <<cardrow
`QBN.filter(_my_choices, 3)`>> to tell it to randomly select 3
choices if it more than that are available.
There’s no way to link to one of these temporary cards. I could possibly come up with a way to do that, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. This does mean that you still have to make a separate passage for the result of each choice, so if you’re working in the Twine editor it’s still a lot of clicking around. But you can’t nest cards forever: you’ll want to break out into a new passage at some point. And this way you’ll tend to use Twine links so the editor can show you the connections. I dunno. Maybe there’s a better way, but I experimented with several things and this is the one that I settled on for now.
So. Let’s add a couple of stats and a couple more choices. In StoryInit:
<<set $stat_points to 1>>
<<set $stealth to 0>>
<<set $strength to 0>>
Then at the top of Start we’ll let you spend your stat point.
We’re going to use setter links again, but use some knowledge of
JavaScript to change two variables at once. In JavaScript you
can follow a variable name by ++ or -- to increment or
decrement it (actually, you can put the ++ or -- before the
variable too, and though there are some subtle differences, it
works the same in most situations). And a semicolon is used to end
one statement and start another one.
Stat Points: $stat_points
Stealth: $stealth<<if $stat_points gt 0>> ([[increase->Start][$stealth++; $stat_points--]])
Strength: $strength<<if $stat_points gt 0>> ([[increase->Start][$strength++; $stat_points--]])
Now we’re ready to add more choices:
<<when>>sticky-card req-stealth-gt-0 <<offer>>[[Sneak Past]]
And the corresponding passage (note that this isn’t a card, just an ordinary passage):
::Sneak Past
A heated argument at one of the stalls distracts the guard
briefly. You take advantage of his lapse in attention to sneak
past.
This will be visible only if you bought stealth. Now, as I said,
there’s no way to link to a choice, so I don’t think there’s
ever any point in having a choice with cover and contents. But the
also- requirements are still sometimes useful. Using my
<<linkif>> widget we can make the strength card always visible,
but only link to something else if the also- requirements are
met.
<<when>>sticky-card also-strength-gt-0
<<offer>><<linkif `QBN.available(QBN.current)` "Bash the Guard">>
That’s <<linkif condition title linktext>> where linktext is
optional. Then of course we need the passage:
::Bash the Guard
You bash the guard over the head (that'll teach him to wear
his helmet) and saunter past as he collapses.
As a further exercise to the reader, take the Localvore example
and change one of the product listings so that instead of
including “current products” and having separate passages for each
product, it’s all inside a single <<choice>> in the business
passage.