Eithers within eithers?

BinkVallen

I'm in the process of moving over a game I started making in Quest over to Twine (Twine is a lot easier to use for gamebooks I've found), and I've run into a problem. I'm trying to have either macros nested within other either macros, but it's not working when I do it. Here's an example of what I'm going for:

You entertain yourself by (either:"goofing around online","playing with your (either:"cat","dog","hamster")","watching TV") until you get tired and go to bed.

This was possible in Quest by nesting {random} statements, but Twine doesn't seem to like it. Am I just typing it wrong, or is this impossible in Twine at the moment? I can do something like this if I absolutely have to:

(set: $pet to (either:"cat","dog","hamster"))

You entertain yourself by (either:"goofing around online","playing with your $pet","watching TV") until you get tired and go to bed.

but I want to know if there's another option that doesn't involve a new variable before I take that route. Thank you!

Claretta

Remember Twine isn't exclusively Harlowe. Some things may be more possible in other story formats. That said, yes, you're just typing it wrong.

Try:


You entertain yourself by (either:"goofing around online","playing with your cat", "playing with your dog", "playing with your hamsrer","watching TV")


In your case there's no need for the nested statements.

BinkVallen

I probably should have specified that the example is a simplified version of what I want to do. The actual message is much longer and has many more options in the nested either, so writing it over and over again would be really messy. Also, I would want the three options (in the case of the example, "goofing around online", "playing with $pet", and "watch TV") to all have the same probability of happening, so writing it out for each different pet would throw that off.

And do you know a story format that it might be possible in? I'm not too familiar with the differences between them yet.

Claretta

The simplest way to do what you're asking would be to first randomise a variable to 1, 2 or 3, then:

If variable is 1, answer = goofing around
If variable is 2, answer = playing
If variable is 3, answer = TV

Sage

I might actually be able to help with this one. You can randomize it first and assign it to a tempVariable and then use the tempVariable in place of the other.

Wouldn't that do it?

BinkVallen

Alright, that's probably what I'm going to do. I tried using a variable and it works, so that's good. The sad part is I now have to go think up names for a bunch of new variables. Blehhh. :P Oh well, whatever it takes. Thanks for the speedy replies!

Is there a special way of doing temporary variables in Twine that's different from regular variables? (I assume that means that the variable only exists in the passage it's declared in, although I may be wrong.)

Sage

If you are talking about garbage collection and memory leaks, I assume that since this is all browser-based, then no.

I would say that if you just threw the word Temp on the front and never used it again, though.... we could call it disposed of.

InspectorCaracal

On the first topic: you actually can nest (either:)s, according to my tests. The trick is to remember that you want each possibility to be a string, and that the (either:) macro is not supposed to be in the string.

In other words, I moved the nested (either:) outside of the quotes and concatenated it with the prefix string.

You entertain yourself by (either: "goofing around online", "playing with your " + (either: "cat", "dog", "hamster"), "watching TV") until you get tired and go to bed.