SugarCube: Best way to replace references to "story" in built-in messages

Erik Temple

What I am building is not a story or a game, and I'd like for there to be no chance of confusion when users see error messages such as "Apologies.  This story requires a less obsolescent web browser" or "Save is missing the required game data".  What is the best-practices way of replacing these references w/o resorting to editing the HTML file after building?

CoraBlue

Well there are two files that would need to be changed if you want to do this 'pre-building' I think.

One is the header file. Code.js if you're using vanilla headers, header.html if you're using Sugarcube.

I believe you're also going to have to change engine.js in the Twine directory. If I were going to do this I'd make a backup (engine.js.old) and do a find replace for game and story with notepad++ or something. Make sure not to accidentally change the word history by accident.

I THINK that would be all there is to it, but I can't be too sure without trying.

Erik Temple

I'd like to be able to do it without hacking the header either, since I'm using SugarCube and it is frequently updated. But I suppose if that's the only good option... Kind of wish there was a Messages object that could be overridden from twee source as needed.

I don't use Twine (I'm using Twee); I don't think that there is a file comparable to engine.js. I may have to switch to Twine eventually though (I doubt my colleagues would be willing to use a text editor); does engine.js really include messages that wouldn't be seen in a Twee game?

CoraBlue

Generally only if theres a problem with the engine xD

But yes, this is from engine.js. You may recognize it if you've ever worked with Twine and custom Macros.

alert("There is a technical problem with this story ("+s.title+": "+e.message+")."+softErrorMessage)}}var softErrorMessage=" You may be able to continue playing, but parts of the story may not work properly."

If any Twine/Sugarcube programmers are listening, I too would support a custom variable for something like this. Set a game variable in the beginning to a default (story) and be able to change it with something like $projecttype.

Erik Temple

I see that message with my Twee WIP, but it seems to be generated by SugarCube (it's in the SugarCube source file main.js).

TheMadExile

The SugarCube header distribution is not fractured into multiple files, there is only one: header.html.  Currently, the only good option would probably be to run a script which would read in the header, search & replace phrases (not individual words, you'll break something), and write out the "patched" header.

Erik Temple

Some of the messages in SugarCube (and maybe in the vanilla headers too, I don't know) are maybe a bit snarky or confusing, at least for the audience I have in mind. For example I'd need to make "Apologies.  This story requires a less obsolescent web browser" much more helpful. It would be great if eventually there were a way to customize any message from source code (good for non-English stories too, obviously).

Thanks for confirming!

L

Based on this thread I've decided to add a special "identity" StorySetting which contains the noun that the game uses for these messages:
"There is a technical problem with this [story]" - error on script passage parsing
"Sorry to interrupt, but this [story]'s code has got itself in a mess" - error during in-progress game
"This [story] requires a newer web browser. Sorry." - error on IE7 (or any browser that doesn't support JSON or querySelector)
"NOTE: This [story]'s HTML file contains embedded images that may be too large for this browser to display." - error on IE8 when images are used.
"NOTE: The [story] contains a function that patches History.prototype.display, but takes the wrong number of arguments."
"Are you sure you want to restart this [story]?"
"Your browser couldn't save the state of the [story]."

By default it's set to "game".