[Divunal-devel] Problem and obstructions

[Michael Dartt]

1) The Solid Steel Doorway in the Grand History Book Room is acting
strangely: I've run "reference solid steel doorway to steel door", and
that synonym is showing up when I "scrutinize solid steel doorway", but I
can't actually refer to the object by the name "steel door".  It works
once, and then doesn't work thereafter. However, the door I created in the
room (solid oak door) works just fine when referred to as "oak door". 
I've tried rerunning the reference command, but it doesn't change
anything.  Anyone have any clue as to what's causing this or how to fix
it?  (I'll be happy to take care of it then.) 

2) How about having obstructedBy "tags" in room descriptions, so that if,
e.g. a door is opened or closed, the descriptive text would change?  In
the Grand History Book Room, part of the description reads like: "To the
south stands a large archway with a steel door.  You see several shelves
of books in the room beyond the arch."  Thing is, if you close the door,
you can still see the shelves.  Using an HTML-like tag, we could see
whether something described in the room can be obscured by an
open-/closeable thing and display it (or not) based on the thing's state,
so that when entering the GHBR's description, you'd have, e.g.:

	...To the south stands a large archway with a steel door.
<obscuredBy="solid steel doorway">You see several shelves of books in the
room beyond the arch.</obscuredBy>

When someone enters the room, the appropriate function/program checks to
see what text it should show, and when something is opened or closed, the
text could be checked and, if necessary, changed again.  This could be
used in myriad nifty ways.  :-) 


--Mike