In my game the player does not know which cardinal direction they are facing. Unfortunately the {exit:name} automatically displays the cardinal direction, and {object:exit_name:text} only displays the text without a link (I am guessing this is because an exit does not inherit defaultobject). Too bad there isn't a {exit:name:text} option. I do want to use the exit's [GO] verb and the rest of it's functionality.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I am using the exit's alias (north, south, east,...) in my code so I cannot change these without majorly messing up the game.

Like this?
You can still go North, East or South from the first room, or "go R1" to goto R1 from Room.
I wonder if deleting these lines will prevent that??? (Testing now)

 <inherit name="northdirection" />

<!--Saved by Quest 5.8.6836.13983-->
<asl version="580">
  <include ref="English.aslx" />
  <include ref="Core.aslx" />
  <game name="test_01">
    <gameid>79c3e824-e31a-4cc9-997a-b70fddc30a8d</gameid>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <firstpublished>2021</firstpublished>
  </game>
  <object name="room">
    <inherit name="editor_room" />
    <isroom />
    <beforefirstenter type="script">
      msg ("So, what shall I call you?")
      get input {
        player.alias = result
        msg ("Hi {player.alias}, how are you today?")
      }
    </beforefirstenter>
    <object name="player">
      <inherit name="editor_object" />
      <inherit name="editor_player" />
    </object>
    <exit alias="R1" to="R1">
      <inherit name="northdirection" />
    </exit>
    <exit alias="R2" to="R2">
      <inherit name="eastdirection" />
    </exit>
    <exit alias="R3" to="R3">
      <inherit name="southdirection" />
    </exit>
  </object>
  <object name="R1">
    <inherit name="editor_room" />
    <exit alias="Room" to="room">
      <inherit name="southdirection" />
    </exit>
  </object>
  <object name="R2">
    <inherit name="editor_room" />
    <exit alias="Room" to="room">
      <inherit name="westdirection" />
    </exit>
  </object>
  <object name="R3">
    <inherit name="editor_room" />
    <exit alias="Room" to="room">
      <inherit name="northdirection" />
    </exit>
  </object>
</asl>

Yep, it does prevent using direction to move.
"N" or "North" doesn't work
but you can "go R1".

Does that mean I would have to alter every exit manually? If so, that would unfortunately be a no go. I have hundreds of exits that would need altering. I do greatly appreciate the insight however. That's an approach that I haven't considered and may look into for other purposes.

Just click off the option to have the exit link, then do something like {command:exitname}

jmnevil54
It seems that would work perfectly. I simply access the alias of the exit and use it with the go command:

some_string = "{command:go " + ext.alias + ":" + some_exit_descriptor + "}"
msg(some_string)

now all my exits will show the desired description rather then the exit's direction. Such a simple solution. I was making this way more complex then it really was.

You could try modifying the core function ProcessTextCommand_Exit if you want to do this for all exits.

Something like (off the top of my head):

  <function name="ProcessTextCommand_Exit" type="string" parameters="section, data">
    <![CDATA[
    exitname = Mid(section, 6)
    colon = Instr (exitname, ":")
    if (colon = 0) {
      exit = GetObject(exitname)
      if (not exit = null) {
        alias = GetDisplayAlias (exit)
      }
    }
    else {
      alias = Mid (exitname, colon + 1)
      exitname = Left (exitname, colon - 1)
      exit = GetObject (exitname)
    }
    if (exit = null) {
      return ("@@@open@@@" + ProcessTextSection(section, data) + "@@@close@@@")
    }
    else {
      verbs = GetDisplayVerbs(exit)
      command = LCase(StringListItem(verbs, 0)) + " " + alias
      style = GetCurrentLinkTextFormat()
      return ("<a style=\"" + style + "\" class=\"cmdlink exitlink\" data-elementid=\"" + exit.name + "\" data-command=\"" + command + "\">" + alias + "</a>")
    }
    ]]>
  </function>

Then you can do something like {exit:exitname:some descriptive label} like you do with {object: