Is it possible to generate random text?

I'm making a text based game and I had an idea, but not sure how to accomplish it. It's pretty boring seeing the same thing over and over when you attack an enemy, I have it to where it always says "You miss!" or "You hit the enemy. The hit did X damage." I also have a death message that just says "You have died! For this you lose X exp." I was wandering if there was a way to randomize what text came up. Like, have more than 1 hit messsage, maybe have the "You hit the enemy." one, along with "You strike the enemy with your sword." and others like that.

I tried making a small sample program, just to see if it would work. But I have no clue on how to do it. So I just did random guessing with the random function. I couldnt get anything to work.

If anyone could inform me on how to do this. It would be great.(And yes I know, text based games are boring anyways. But im trying to add a little change to it, make it more interesting =) )

There are plenty of guides covering how to do a min and max for a random range, then just have a switch/case for each number. At first do it without a default in the switch/case so that you know you are generating numbers within your specified range... then if you want a message that will be the most common message, you set a default value and extend your range a bit.

Variations on this perhaps?

Code:

---

void strike ( string weapon, string monster, int damage ) {
  if ( damage > 100 ) {
    cout << "You hand the " << monster << " a crushing blow!!" << endl;
  } else if ( damage > 50 ) {
    switch ( rand() % 3 ) {
      case 0:
        cout << "You did " << damage << "to the " << monster << endl;
        break;
      case 1:
        cout << "You strike the " << monster << " with your " << weapon << endl;
        break;
      case 2:
        cout << "Your " << weapon " << inflicts " << damage
            << " upon the " << monster << endl;
        break;
    }
  } else if ( damage > 10 ) {
  } else {
    cout << "The " << monster << " laughs at your feeble attack" << endl;
  }
}

---

Or you could give each monster / weapon / armour it's own set of messages which you choose from.

Killing specific monsters with specific weapons get rather unique messages for example.

Perhaps something like this:

Code:

---

const char *win[] = {
    "You win!", "Congratulations, you just won!", "You seem to have beaten me . . .", "You won . . . this time"
};

cout << win[rand() % (sizeof(win)/sizeof(*win) )] << endl;

---

* Sorry, Prelude.

[edit] Too slow. [/edit]

You mean Salem? :p ;)

Consider the language(text) you are using and create lists of verbs, adverbs etc from which you can make random selections following simple grammatical rules to create what appears, superficially anyway, to be distinct sentences. This is really a variation on what's been previously described, but here's an example to give you some ideas

Code:

---

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>

namespace
{
std::vector<std::string> adjectives;
std::vector<std::string> adverbs;
std::vector<std::string> verbs;
}

void SetAdjectives();
void SetAdverbs();
void SetVerbs();

int main()
{
SetAdjectives();
SetAdverbs();
SetVerbs();

std::string monster="rat";

srand(time(0));

std::cout<<"You "<<
        adverbs.at(rand()%adverbs.size())<<
        " "<<
        verbs.at(rand()%verbs.size())<<
        " the "<<
        adjectives.at(rand()%adjectives.size())<<
        " "<<monster<<std::endl;
}

void SetAdjectives()
{
//..or load from file
adjectives.push_back("cursed");
adjectives.push_back("horrible");
adjectives.push_back("wicked");
adjectives.push_back("rancid");
adjectives.push_back("churlish");
adjectives.push_back("dirty");
}

void SetAdverbs()
{
//..or load from file
adverbs.push_back("deftly");
adverbs.push_back("swiftly");
adverbs.push_back("efficiently");
adverbs.push_back("maniacally");
adverbs.push_back("smugly");
adverbs.push_back("whimsically");
}

void SetVerbs()
{
//..or load from file
verbs.push_back("biffed");
verbs.push_back("chopped");
verbs.push_back("flensed");
verbs.push_back("hit");
verbs.push_back("struck");
verbs.push_back("whacked");
}

---

That's overly complex to me... :rolleyes: But it's realistic, yeah.

You might even want to consider using different sentence structures for the messages, here's an example.

Code:

---

std::cout << "The " << badadjective() << " " << monstername << " " << action() << " as you " << goodadjective() << "  " << strike() << " it with your " << weapon << ".\n";

/*
"The filthy mountain troll flinches in pain as you forcefully strike it with your flaming sowrd of justice."
*/

---

Maybe keep 5 or so of these "sentence templates" and alternate between them randomly.

No, the edit was for Salem, and the * was for Prelude: http://eternallyconfuzzled.com/articles/rand.html