Objects can inherit the code of one or more material objects that matches its material as well as any class objects that match its class (basic name like fish, cat, chair etc) read the command called material to learn how to manipulate an objects materials.
eg: Any object with material = '_living_' will react in whatever way a 'material called living' object is scripted to do. Wrap the word in underscor
If you have an object with material = '_living_|_glass_' it will react as both a living and a glass thing. (seperate multiple material names with a vertical bar - and there can be many of them eg: _living_|_monster_|_hungry_|_roaming_|_gumpy_)
read the info on swap to learn how to easily manage these in cowScript
NOTE: this next section is out-of-date as Thorn considered this an easy way to by-pass some aspects of cow and create a specially materialed object without earning the right to do so.
Since objects 'made of' a material will inherit that 'material' object's colour and worth, they also inherit its material.
This also applies to class. if there is a 'class called fish' and you create a fish, it will inherit the classes colour and material, as well as adding on the 'fish' to the material as well.
This, however is not a dynamic thing, so changing a materials material, or a classes material will not update all of the objects made of that material (not now anynow).
So as you can imagine: create bowl made of china create the material called china code your 'material called china' object to break when dropped.. and your bowl, and any other objects made of 'china', will break when dropped.
If you change the 'material called china' to shatter when dropped, then instantly all objects made of china will shatter when dropped.
If you created a 'class called bowl' and coded this, or gave it some specific materials, then a newly created bowl would inherit those.
I suggest you set the switch to 0 of your materials and classes otherwise they will be reacting and doing all sorts of things.
WARNING: arrives|leaves|shout|switch|modify trigger words will be heard by switched off objects and if you so choose you can switch them on via these.
This inheritance happens in real time (no copying and pasting of code here) and it does not alter the code of the object made of china, so it can be coded to do things quite independently of the material group it belongs to.
So you can code your bowl made of china to do additional things as well as shatter when dropped.
As yet there is no override.. if the material object is triggered, then that will happen whether you wanted it to or not. and what order these happen is is a mystery
Also there is no limit to the number of 'material' objects that can be made. This means there may be 3 'material called china' objects scattered around cow, and all of them will be used when a china object is interacted with.
So possibly (if this is not happening already) when an object is killed its material is changed to 'dead' so it wont react the same way a 'living' object does.
As a special bonus for reading this far, you discover you can now view groups of objects based on their material: mode material(door) This just does a simple pattern match so the above example will show open and closedoor as well as all other sorts of door.
Notice how you can click on a material and see all with that material.. what more could you want?
Oh yes.. click on the name of the object and you find it, thus locating it in cow and setting it as your target.
While Im on the topic, mode trigger now displays in the view window.