RE: [Adonthell-devel] Item categories

[Mike Avery]

> > Technically though, this possibility raises question insofar as how
> > item categories are defined.  If we want to be able to let 
> the player
> > use unusual objects as weapons (such as a candle-stick), what is the
> > check to find out if it is wieldable, or how much damage it does?
> 
> Possibly via the Categories property, which at present is a 
> simple list
> of strings. So if you'd want an item to act as a weapon, you'd add
> "Weapon" to the list. But you'd also had to provide further attributes
> needed by a weapon.
> 
> Now I also see what you probobly mean by categories, and whether they
> are defined yet. The answer is no. Of course we can define a list of
> obvious categories ("Weapon", "Armour", "Light", "Poison", ...) and
> stick to these. But the whole category thing is meant to be really
> flexible. Say, if I would need to mark all items from a certain place
> for use in the plot, I would add an according category. Any scripts
> could then check whether an item comes from, say, the cursed 
> graveyard.

OK, this makes perfect sense now.  I was mistakenly understanding the
category to be a defining template, but this is not the case.  You are
absolutely right Kai, if an item is both a lightsource and can be wielded,
then it should subclass both classes, and have a list of relevant
categories.  I took categories to be hard boundaries concerning a item's
properties rather than a list of arbitrary relevance.  So categories are not
labels which are used to define an item's nature.  I understand the aproach
now.


Mike