Variables / (If:) in Harlowe

becky

Hi all,

I am delving into Twine for the first time and am really struggling to understand the correct usage of some of the macros. I have a passage where, after three links are clicked, I want a fourth link to appear. I tried doing this with variables, but it just isn't working:

{(set: $ticket to false)
(set: $ledger to false)
(set: $leaflet to false)
}

[Examine the paper ticket]<getticket|
(click-replace: ?getticket)[(set: $ticket to true)[Description of ticket.] ]

[Examine the ledger]<getledger|
(click-replace: ?getledger)[(set: $ledger to true)[Description of ledger.] ]

[Examine the leaflet]<getleaflet|
(click-replace: ?getleaflet)[(set: $leaflet to true)[Description of leaflet.] ]

(if: $ticket is true and $ledger is true and $leaflet is true)[Content appears]

The variables appear to be changing, but the hook after the (if:) never appears. I then tried to find my error by creating a simpler passage where just one variable triggers a link to appear, and that passage isn't working either.

{(set: $ticket to false)}

[Examine the paper ticket]<getticket|

(click-replace: ?getticket)[(set: $ticket to true)[Description of ticket.] ]

(if: $ticket is true)[Content appears]

I'm assuming something is wrong with the ability of (if:) to detect the variable change, but I'm not sure what. Any help is appreciated.

prof_yaffle

Your assumption is correct. By the time the player clicks on any of the options the (if:) macro has already been run and there's nothing to cause it to rerun.

There's two options:
1: move the initialisation macros into an earlier passage. The best option would be to put it in a new passage which is tagged 'startup' so the flags get set when the story is run. Then change the click-replace lines to redisplay the passage:

[Examine the paper ticket]<getticket|
(set: $here to (passage:)'s name)
(click-replace: ?getticket)[(set: $ticket to true)[Description of ticket.] (goto: $here)]

[Examine the ledger]<getledger|
(click-replace: ?getledger)[(set: $ledger to true)[Description of ledger.] (goto: $here)]

[Examine the leaflet]<getleaflet|
(click-replace: ?getleaflet)[(set: $leaflet to true)[Description of leaflet.] (goto: $here)]

(if: $ticket is true and $ledger is true and $leaflet is true)[Content appears]

The first line gets the name of the current passage in order to be able to redisplay it.

2: Place the check into a (live:) macro so it is run periodically

{(set: $ticket to false)
(set: $ledger to false)
(set: $leaflet to false)
}

[Examine the paper ticket]<getticket|
(click-replace: ?getticket)[(set: $ticket to true)[Description of ticket.] ]

[Examine the ledger]<getledger|
(click-replace: ?getledger)[(set: $ledger to true)[Description of ledger.] ]

[Examine the leaflet]<getleaflet|
(click-replace: ?getleaflet)[(set: $leaflet to true)[Description of leaflet.] ]

(live: 1s)[(if: $ticket is true and $ledger is true and $leaflet is true)[Content appears(stop:)]]

The (stop:) macro is there so the live doesn't keep running after the conditions are true.

becky

Thanks, that makes sense.