Inform7: Change a room's description depending on where the player came from

Question

I'm pretty new to Inform and it seems like this shouldn't be too hard to do but I haven't yet found a way. I want to change a room's description based on where the player came from. Something along the lines of:

The Town Square is a room. "As you enter the small town square, [if yourself came from West]
  the rising sun makes silhouettes of the roofs and spires to the East.[otherwise]your long
  shadow strides before you as the Sun rises behind.[end if]"

What's the best way to go about this?

Richard Locke Richard Locke · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-13T21:23:23

I found a reasonable solution:

The last location is a room that varies.
Orientation is a direction that varies.

Before going to anywhere, now the last location is the location of the player.
After going to anywhere:
    now orientation is the best route from the last location to the location, using even locked doors;
    continue the action.

The Town Square is a room. "As you enter the small town square, [if orientation is east]
the rising Sun makes silhouettes of the roofs and spires to the East.[otherwise if orientation is west]
your long shadow strides before you as the Sun rises behind.[end if]"

The "using even locked doors" modifier ensures this will work even if a door closes and locks behind the player. The solution does assume that the player has come via a reversible route, which may not always be the case e.g. if the player has teleported.

Inform7: Change a room's description depending on where the player came from

1 Answers