Last year, with help, I added cslib_object to cslib, to help simulate objects. I’ve been using it for a while now and I thought I’d report back on where it works well and where it sucks.
Feel free to ignore this post if you aren’t interested in objects 
First, the explanation
As an example, here’s a ‘monster’ object:
First define your fields:
*create monster_field_1 "name"
*create monster_field_2 "tagline"
*create monster_field_3 "description"
*create monster_field_4 "type"
*create monster_field_5 "location_id"
*create monster_field_6 "strength"
*create monster_field_7 "madness"
*create monster_field_8 "damage"
*create monster_field_9 "run"
*create monster_field_max 9
Then create the ‘master’ object: this is what you will reference in your code:
*create monster_id 0
*create monster_name ""
*create monster_tagline ""
*create monster_description ""
*create monster_type ""
*create monster_location_id 0
*create monster_strength 0
*create monster_madness 0
*create monster_damage 0
*create monster_run 0
Now create various instances:
*create MONSTER_STONE_GARGOYLE 1
*create monster_1_name "Stone Gargoyle"
*create monster_1_tagline "An ambulant stone horror with wings"
*create monster_1_description "Description TBD"
*create monster_1_type "Lesser Monster"
*create monster_1_location_id 0
*create monster_1_strength 40
*create monster_1_madness 3
*create monster_1_damage 5
*create monster_1_run 90
*create MONSTER_ANCIENT_VAMPIRE 2
*create monster_2_name "Ipswich Cobb"
*create monster_2_tagline "An ancient vampire"
*create monster_2_description "Description TBD"
*create monster_2_type "Greater Monster"
*create monster_2_location_id 0
*create monster_2_strength 35
*create monster_2_madness 4
*create monster_2_damage 4
*create monster_2_run 90
*create monster_count 2
Usage example
Let’s say I have a scene with a monster but it might be one of several. As an example, let’s say it is the vampire Ipswich Cobb.
First we ‘get’ the monster:
gosub_scene cslib_object get "monster" MONSTER_ANCIENT_VAMPIRE
Then we simply do something like:
You encounter ${monster_name}, ${monster_tagline}.
*if (monster_type = "Greater Monster")
Your amulet of banishing is useless against a ${monster_type}.
*else
Your amulet of banishing has a ${50 - monster_strength}% chance of success.
When This Works Well
I’ve found this to be really successful in examples like the above where you have quite detailed ‘objects’, with only one of each type appearing in a scene (if coding this for real, the amulet would also be an object)
While there is a fair bit of work in the setup, the syntax is really simple and easy to follow in the code itself.
When This Sucks
This completely breaks down when you need to check more than one object of the same type in a scene, because there is only a single instance and one will overwrite the other. (you can create more than one instance by defining monster1, monster2 etc upfront but it is confusing and a real pain)
Where this failed spectacularly for me was when I wanted to have conditional menu items. Because you will have multiple menu choices in a single scene (and a different number depending on the scene), it quickly gets difficult to handle. This isn’t even counting the fairly restrictive way that *choice works.
So in this case, I found arrays by far the better option. For example, each location will have an associated menu item with a status of visible/selectable/etc
*create UNKNOWN 0
*create UNAVAILABLE 1
*create VISIBLE 2
*create SELECTABLE 3
*create COMPLETE 4
*create STATUS 1
*create NAME 2
*create TAGLINE 3
*create LOC_RAILWAY 1
*create loc_1_1 2
*create loc_1_2 "The Railway Station"
*create loc_1_3 "the tracks are rusty and overgrown with weeds"
*create LOC_TOWNSQUARE 2
*create loc_2_1 3
*create loc_2_2 "The Town Square"
*create loc_2_3 "a depressing, windswept place"
*create LOC_TOURIST_BUREAU 3
*create loc_3_1 1
*create loc_3_2 "The Tourist Bureau"
*create loc_3_3 "the place looks almost derelict"
Each menu item then becomes:
*if (loc[LOC_TOURIST_BUREAU][STATUS] = SELECTABLE)
#Visit ${loc[LOC_TOURIST_BUREAU][NAME]} - ${loc[LOC_TOURIST_BUREAU][TAGLINE]}
*gosub_scene touristbureau
which is reasonably easy to follow. (It also guarantees that if the same menu item appears in different scenes, the text will always be the same)
Takeaway
I remember now what every beginning programmer has to learn: you can’t use objects for everything (looking at you,Java). But where they work, they work well.
TL;DR
Works well for small numbers of large objects. Not so good for more than one object of the same type in a single scene.