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Molly · 11-14-2002, 12:57 PM

In 4D we are using a version of the Wilderness Grid, that was developed by and converted to Circle code by Edward Felch,

Regrettably I don't have the address to the website any more, but as far as I can remember I just did a search for 'wilderness' on the net to find it. I am sure you could do the same, or e-mail any of the addresses above for info.

What the wilderness code does is generating the rooms, exits and a generic room name and desc for each type of sector (field, forest, hill, mountain etc.) - about 15 different choices in our mud. So when you change the sector of the room, the code automatically changes the room name and desc. It also generates pretty nice looking maps, wich can be displayed directly on the player's screeen, or - (which is the choice we made in 4D) - be shown when you type the command MAP. You can choose the generic descs yourself, and make them as long as short as you like. (In this case I'd suggest short ones, to mark the zone as a travel area). You can make the grids as large or as small as you like. And all this in a matter of minutes.

For a new mud the grid presents a way to quickly create a world large enough to play in, an alternative to using the stock zones. The wilderness grid is also really useful for travel areas, but naturally it has its limitations and drawbacks, mainly the repetitive descs. For instance, I wouldn't recommend using the grid for indoor zones, where you'd expect individual and more elaborate descs.

I use it myself for 'space areas' like oceans, Outer space, and large forests and other country areas, which by nature are somewhat monotonous. Then I just connect the 'real' zones up or down from the grid, in the appropriate places.

To make our Builders independent of the assistance of a Coder, we provide 2 different sized generic grids (10x10 and 20x20), which can easily be changed to new vnums for those who want to use grids in their zones. These grids contain the basic descs, plus generic exit descs as well as listen and smell descs. Then the Builders can combine them in any way they like, change the descs or room names, add extra descs, etc.

Basically the grids work like any other zone, so you can make mobs and objects for them and reset in the normal way. It's up to each Builder what they want to make of them. Personally I put a lot of extra work into my grids, usually adding individual descs to most of the rooms. The grid code still saves a lot of time creating the actual rooms and connecting them, which is very time consuming in Circle.

11-14-2002, 12:57 PM	#5
Molly Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden Home MUD: 4 Dimensions Posts: 574	In 4D we are using a version of the Wilderness Grid, that was developed by and converted to Circle code by Edward Felch, Regrettably I don't have the address to the website any more, but as far as I can remember I just did a search for 'wilderness' on the net to find it. I am sure you could do the same, or e-mail any of the addresses above for info. What the wilderness code does is generating the rooms, exits and a generic room name and desc for each type of sector (field, forest, hill, mountain etc.) - about 15 different choices in our mud. So when you change the sector of the room, the code automatically changes the room name and desc. It also generates pretty nice looking maps, wich can be displayed directly on the player's screeen, or - (which is the choice we made in 4D) - be shown when you type the command MAP. You can choose the generic descs yourself, and make them as long as short as you like. (In this case I'd suggest short ones, to mark the zone as a travel area). You can make the grids as large or as small as you like. And all this in a matter of minutes. For a new mud the grid presents a way to quickly create a world large enough to play in, an alternative to using the stock zones. The wilderness grid is also really useful for travel areas, but naturally it has its limitations and drawbacks, mainly the repetitive descs. For instance, I wouldn't recommend using the grid for indoor zones, where you'd expect individual and more elaborate descs. I use it myself for 'space areas' like oceans, Outer space, and large forests and other country areas, which by nature are somewhat monotonous. Then I just connect the 'real' zones up or down from the grid, in the appropriate places. To make our Builders independent of the assistance of a Coder, we provide 2 different sized generic grids (10x10 and 20x20), which can easily be changed to new vnums for those who want to use grids in their zones. These grids contain the basic descs, plus generic exit descs as well as listen and smell descs. Then the Builders can combine them in any way they like, change the descs or room names, add extra descs, etc. Basically the grids work like any other zone, so you can make mobs and objects for them and reset in the normal way. It's up to each Builder what they want to make of them. Personally I put a lot of extra work into my grids, usually adding individual descs to most of the rooms. The grid code still saves a lot of time creating the actual rooms and connecting them, which is very time consuming in Circle.