3.19. Carrying capacity

§3.19. Carrying capacity

The containers and supporters created so far have been boundlessly capacious: or rather, though we seldom notice the difference, have had a maximum carrying capacity of 100 items. This is clearly unrealistic for a small purse or a modest mantelpiece. We can impose upper limits with sentences like so:

The carrying capacity of the jewelled purse is 2.

The bijou mantelpiece has carrying capacity 3.

Attempts by the player to overfill, or overload, will now be rebuffed with a message such as "There is no room on the mantelpiece".

The player is not a container or a supporter, but nevertheless does have a carrying capacity: this is interpreted to mean the maximum number of items which can be carried at once.

The carrying capacity of the player is 4.

These restrictions only apply to the player (and other in-world characters): as the omnipotent creators, we are not restrained by them. Nothing prevents this:

The carrying capacity of the jewelled purse is 2. The diamond, the ruby and the sapphire are in the purse.

The player will be able to remove all three items, but only put two of them back. (This is probably something we only want very occasionally: perhaps to create a sack stuffed almost to bursting point.)

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