Endings

Most IF games need to have an ending somewhere (other than by the player issuing a QUIT command); many have multiple endings, some of which may count as more successful in others. In adv3Lite (as in adv3) the way to end the game once the player has either won, died, lost, or otherwise come to an ending is to use the finishGameMsg(msg, [extra]) function.

The msg parameter can be either nil (in which case nothing is displayed), a single-quoted string, such as 'YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF YOUR QUEST', or a FinishType object, which displays the message associated with that message, of which the library defines four:

• ftVictory: 'YOU HAVE WON'
• ftDeath: 'YOU HAVE DIED'
• ftFailure: 'YOU HAVE FAILED'
• ftGameOver: 'GAME OVER'

Either way, the ending message is displayed surrounded by asterisks, e.g. *** YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OR YOUR QUEST *** or *** YOU HAVE DIED ***, following which the player is presented with a number of options. These options always include QUIT, RESTART and RESTORE, but may also include any additional options you specify in the extra property, which is specified as a list that can contain any or all of the following options:

• finishOptionUndo: UNDO the last turn.
• finishOptionFullScore: Show the full score (i.e. the total score and the achievements that go to make up that score).
• finishOptionScore: This is simply a flag that causes the final score to be shown along with the other information at the end of the game.
• finishOptionCredits: Show the credits for the game.
• finishOptionAmusing: Offer the player some amusing (or at least, interesting) things to try.

For example, if the object of your game is to escape from a burning house and reach the safety of the road, you might end the game when the player character sets off down the drive from the front of the house. The definition of the drive location to achieve this might then look something like this:

drive: Room 'Front Drive' 'front drive'
    "The front drive sweeps round from the northwest and comes to an end just in
    front of the house, which stands directly to the east. A narrow path runs
    round the side of the house to the southeast. "
    
    east = frontDoorOutside
    southeast = sidePath
    
    northwest()
    {
        "You stride off down the drive to safety. ";
        finishGameMsg(ftVictory, [finishOptionUndo, finishOptionFullScore, 
                 finishOptionCredits]);
    }
    
    regions = outdoors
;

If your game offers the "Amusing" finish option you'll need to do a bit more work to define what it actually does. This can be as basic as offering a few suggestions like "Have you tried feeding the chile soup to the pet tiger, or asking Mavis about her underwear, or turning the blender to 'superspin' when the chocolate sponge is in it?" to displaying a full-blown menu with a whole range of options. Whatever you want to do you do it by modifying the finishOptionAmusing object to defining a doOption() method which should normally finish by returning true (to tell the library that the option has successfully completed and it should now show the list of options again). For example:

modify finishOptionAmusing
   doOption()
   {
       "Have you tried feeding the chile soup to the pet tiger?\n
       Or asking Mavis about her underwear?\n
       Or setting the blender to 'superspin' with the cholocolate sponge inside?";
       
       return true;
   }
;   

Or:

modify finishOptionAmusing
   doOption()
   {
       amusingMenu.display();
        
       "Done <.p>";      
       return true;
   }
;