[Tads3] knowledge / 'seen' / npc knowledge base

["steve breslin" <versim@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Is there a programmatic reason we have two concepts for PC knowledge, 
'knowledge' and 'seen'? Would it be desirable to collapse these two into one 
term? Are any objects both seeable and knowable, such that the one doesn't 
necessarily imply the other?

Also, I would suggest we add an optional NPC knowledge base to the main 
library. I think this would be extremely simple, and would further simplify 
PC knowledge setup.

Here's a plan for all this:

Every time we encounter code which wants to add an object to the 'knowledge' 
or 'has been seen' base, the code checks if the actor in question *has* a 
knowledge vector, and if so (being sure not to add the same item twice) adds 
the relevant item to the vector (and otherwise not of course). The PC will 
have a knowledge vector by default. All the game writer will have to do to 
arrange an NPC knowledge base would be to create a vector for that actor. 
Alternatively, there could be a mix in class 'ObjectCanLearn' or something; 
but it seems so simple that separating this into a separate object wouldn't 
be necessary.

Then in all actors the knowledge base can/will be a simple vector, and any 
code which wants to check -- if a player has heard of a topic or seen an 
object or whatever -- will just index the knowledge vector.

Does this seem like a worthwhile simplification, or am I missing some 
subtlety which precludes this?

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