Step 3: Scenery

What This Version Does

The zoo feels more alive now. Every area has things to look at — iron fences, flower beds, hay bales, rabbits, parrots, waterfalls, rope perches. You can examine all of them, but you can't pick any of them up. They're part of the environment.

What's New (Compared to V2)

V2 had a few scenery objects (sign, booth, goats, toucan). V3 fills out the world with scenery in every room, and explains the SceneryTrait in detail.

What You'll Learn

SceneryTrait

SceneryTrait is one of the simplest traits, but it's one you'll use constantly. It does exactly one thing: prevents the player from taking the entity.

const fence = world.createEntity('iron fence', EntityType.SCENERY);
fence.add(new IdentityTrait({
  name: 'iron fence',
  description: 'A tall wrought-iron fence with animal silhouettes.',
  aliases: ['fence', 'iron fence', 'railing'],
}));
fence.add(new SceneryTrait());
world.moveEntity(fence.id, entrance.id);

When the player types take fence, they'll see: "iron fence is fixed in place."

But examine fence still works — SceneryTrait doesn't block examining. The entity still has an IdentityTrait with a description.

Why Scenery Matters

In Sharpee, items are portable by default. If you create an entity with IdentityTrait and nothing else, the player can pick it up, carry it around, and drop it wherever they want.

That's usually not what you want for environmental objects. You don't want the player stuffing a park bench into their backpack. SceneryTrait is how you say "this is part of the world, not a collectible."

EntityType.SCENERY vs SceneryTrait

These are two different things that happen to have the same name:

• EntityType.SCENERY is a label. It tells the engine "this entity represents scenery." But by itself, it doesn't prevent taking.
• SceneryTrait is a mechanism. It's the thing that actually blocks the taking action.

You need both for a proper scenery object. EntityType.SCENERY without SceneryTrait would be scenery that the player can pick up — which is almost never what you want.

When to Use SceneryTrait

The rule of thumb: if you'd find it strange for the player to put it in their pocket, it's scenery.

Aliases Make Scenery Discoverable

Scenery objects should have generous aliases so the player can refer to them naturally:

aliases: ['fence', 'iron fence', 'wrought-iron fence', 'railing'],

If the room description mentions "a wrought-iron fence," the player might type examine wrought-iron fence, examine fence, or examine railing. All of those should work. Aliases make that happen.

Commands to Try

> look                  See the room with all its scenery
> examine fence         Look at the iron fence
> take fence            "iron fence is fixed in place."
> south                 Go to the Main Path
> examine flowers       Look at the flower beds
> examine bench         Look at the park bench
> east                  Go to the Petting Zoo
> examine hay bale      Look at the hay bale
> examine rabbits       Look at the rabbits
> west; west            Go to the Aviary
> examine parrots       Look at the parrots
> examine waterfall     Look at the waterfall
> examine perches       Look at the rope perches

The Code

See src/v03.ts for the complete, commented source.

Key Takeaway

SceneryTrait prevents taking. Without it, everything is portable by default. Use SceneryTrait for anything that's part of the environment — and give it plenty of aliases so the player can find it naturally.