STAC - Customising the system messages by Sandra Sharkey Many adventure players also dream of writing their own adventures. The following short article is aimed at those of you who have bought a copy of STAC. The quickstart file contains some system messages which cover many of the standard responses of an adventure e.g. "You are carrying ..." followed by a list of objects in your inventory. Most of these are standard responses that you would find in many of the early adventures. As they are so standard they can seem very repetitive to the avid player. It is important to make your own adventure as different as possible and one of the easiest ways to begin is to change these messages. However, you must remember to keep the correct meaning of the message. I have listed the messages and some suggestions for alternatives. 9900 You have died. Sorry mate you appear to have popped your clogs! Your life has just been terminated. 9901 Well done! Congratulations! You've finished the adventure ... I hope you didn't cheat. 9902 You scored a total of 9903 points in 9904 moves You have amassed a grand total of points in turns You have collected a tremendous amount of pixy points. And it only took you goes to do it. 9905 Okay. If you insist. Right, that's done. 9906 I can't see that! Sorry, no can do. It's not here. I can't find it. Are you sure it's here? 9907 You are carrying too much already. Your hands are full. You're carrying far too much to pick that up. 9908 Why? You've already got it. I think you've got that. Check your inventory. It's already in your possession. 9909 You don't have that. It's not here. Maybe you dropped it somewhere. You're not carrying that. 9910 You can't do that. You don't need to do that. I'm afraid that's impossible. 9911 Pardon ???? I don't understand. Try wording it differently. That isn't in my vocabulary ... I hope it wasn't rude!! 9912 What now? Tell me what to do. > 9913 You can also see Also here is/are Scattered on the floor you spot 9914 . 9915 Are you sure (Y/N) ? Do you wish to continue (Y/N)? Do you really want to do that (Y/N)? 9916 You are carrying You are holding At the moment you are carrying 9917 nothing. zilch! nowt! 9918 You feel weak, and stumble. Your load is too heavy and you begin to drop things. Your strength is diminishing fast and you can't carry as much. 9919 You drop (for dropall) dropped. 9920 taken. (for getall) You take You pick up 9921 You can't examine that, I'm afraid. No can do for some reason. Sorry, not possible to examine that. 9922 You see nothing special. You don't see anything of importance. There's nothing special about that. 9923 (Control codes) 9925 (Control code) 9926 / (Between score and turns) 9927 Dark in here isn't it? Shine a light, it's dark! It's too dark to see anything in here. 9928 It's no use looking, it's dark. You need a light if you want to look in here. You see darkness, more darkness and even more darkness. 9929 You don't have anything to drop. You're not carrying anything. You can't drop what you've not got! 9930 There's nothing here to pick up. Either it's not here or you don't need it. 9931 : 9932 Text size changed. Your wish is my command. Done. These are just some suggestions. There are other ways of customising the messages to suit your game, e.g. Using the language of the time like prithee etc. The possibilities are many; the end result is up to you. Sandra Sharkey @~Would you all (or some of you!) be interested in a special @~STAC section in SynTax? If so, please write letting me (Sue) @~know and sending any contributions you would like to make as @~my knowledge of STAC is pretty limited! Thanks.