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Molly · 10-16-2003, 05:41 PM

WORK WITH YOUR CODER, TO EXPAND YOUR OPTIONS :

A lot of things can be added to the OLC, to make the zones more varied and fun, and to give the Builders a much larger set of tools to work with.

These additions are usually quite simple codewise. When I ask our Coder for a new feature to be added to the OLC, he usually produces the addition in a few minutes.

Quicksilver already mentioned the hidden Portals, and the opportunities they offer for creating exits that are really ‘secret’. Any Twink can learn to type SEARCH (or whatever command you have for hidden exits) a few times in each room, while only the good players read descriptions. Unfortunately any TWINK can also learn to type GET ALL, and this simple command would expose the portal in stock code, with the message: ‘A portal: You can’t get that!’
So don't forhet to ask your Coder to add a HIDDEN Flag to the OLC, and to make it so that it also eliminates the blank line you otherwise get when making an ‘invisible’ object using the color code. Only then are your invisible objects really invisible.

In our Mud we went one step further with the portals. We’ve made four different Portal Types; Room, Hole, Bush and Water, all with different messages to actor and room. This is of course mainly cosmetic, but it looks a lot nicer if you see ‘Actor dives into the water. Splash!’ instead of plain ‘Actor enters the water’. Or ‘You squeeze through the bush, thorns scratching your arms.’

The next thing we added was CLIMB, DESCEND and JUMP Objects, which also are Portals, but with different messages and commands. So now we can climb rocks, descend stairs or jump ravines. These things may or may not show up as objects in the room, dependant on how obvious you want the exit to be. A funny addition to our Jump Objects is that if you are riding, you have to first order your horse to jump the obstacle. Otherwise the mount just refuses, and you fly over the hurdle on your own, landing quite painfully on the ground on the other side.

Next we added LISTEN, SMELL, TASTE, FEEL descs for rooms and objects, and the option to look BEHIND, ABOVE and UNDER objects. All these are just extra descs. Mainly they add some flavour and atmosphere to the rooms and objects, but they are also great for Quest info, especially combined with hidden portals or containers.
Now you can enter a room, where a large bed stands against the off wall. ’Look bed’ tells you that the bedspread hangs all the way down to the floor, ‘Look under bed’ reveals a chamber pot, and ‘look in pot’ shows the key that someone accidentally dropped there. Much neater than just planting the key on a mob, as is usually done.

We also added several new sectors; for instance DESERT (where the hot sun damages you during daytime), UNDERWATER (where you drown within a few second unless you use a waterlung) and SPACE (where you die almost instantaneously without a spacesuit and also are unable to move around much without using a spaceship).

The drawback with these otherwise neat additions is of course that the already existing zones lack them, and have to be updated manually. We still have about 50 of the oldest zones that need to be updated to the new code, which is a boring and rather thankless job. But mercifully there sometimes are shortcuts. For instance our Coder just added Mob Classes, meaning that our Mobs now are a lot more intelligent and use different fighting methods, dependant on Class. So our Mage mobs now cast various spells on you, and even occasionally summon their own minions to help them in the fight. When I grumbled a bit to him about all the extra work this created for me, he obligingly supplied a script, which in one split second set the new abilities on all mobs with the word ‘mage’, ‘magician’ ‘sorcerer’ or ‘witch’ in the alias list. Then he went on doing similar things for the other Mob classes. This may not have caught all of them, but I bet it caught about 90 %, because we use multiple aliases a lot – which is another good habit a Builder should adopt.

Erdos is quite right that many things are easier made in code than scripts. Builders and Coders also tend to think differently, and produce very different solutions to the same problem, because they attack it from different angles. But it is when a Coder and Builder work closely together, that the best solutions come up. So, work WITH your Coder - that usually produces the best results.

10-16-2003, 05:41 PM	#9
Molly Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Sweden Home MUD: 4 Dimensions Posts: 574	WORK WITH YOUR CODER, TO EXPAND YOUR OPTIONS : A lot of things can be added to the OLC, to make the zones more varied and fun, and to give the Builders a much larger set of tools to work with. These additions are usually quite simple codewise. When I ask our Coder for a new feature to be added to the OLC, he usually produces the addition in a few minutes. Quicksilver already mentioned the hidden Portals, and the opportunities they offer for creating exits that are really ‘secret’. Any Twink can learn to type SEARCH (or whatever command you have for hidden exits) a few times in each room, while only the good players read descriptions. Unfortunately any TWINK can also learn to type GET ALL, and this simple command would expose the portal in stock code, with the message: ‘A portal: You can’t get that!’ So don't forhet to ask your Coder to add a HIDDEN Flag to the OLC, and to make it so that it also eliminates the blank line you otherwise get when making an ‘invisible’ object using the color code. Only then are your invisible objects really invisible. In our Mud we went one step further with the portals. We’ve made four different Portal Types; Room, Hole, Bush and Water, all with different messages to actor and room. This is of course mainly cosmetic, but it looks a lot nicer if you see ‘Actor dives into the water. Splash!’ instead of plain ‘Actor enters the water’. Or ‘You squeeze through the bush, thorns scratching your arms.’ The next thing we added was CLIMB, DESCEND and JUMP Objects, which also are Portals, but with different messages and commands. So now we can climb rocks, descend stairs or jump ravines. These things may or may not show up as objects in the room, dependant on how obvious you want the exit to be. A funny addition to our Jump Objects is that if you are riding, you have to first order your horse to jump the obstacle. Otherwise the mount just refuses, and you fly over the hurdle on your own, landing quite painfully on the ground on the other side. Next we added LISTEN, SMELL, TASTE, FEEL descs for rooms and objects, and the option to look BEHIND, ABOVE and UNDER objects. All these are just extra descs. Mainly they add some flavour and atmosphere to the rooms and objects, but they are also great for Quest info, especially combined with hidden portals or containers. Now you can enter a room, where a large bed stands against the off wall. ’Look bed’ tells you that the bedspread hangs all the way down to the floor, ‘Look under bed’ reveals a chamber pot, and ‘look in pot’ shows the key that someone accidentally dropped there. Much neater than just planting the key on a mob, as is usually done. We also added several new sectors; for instance DESERT (where the hot sun damages you during daytime), UNDERWATER (where you drown within a few second unless you use a waterlung) and SPACE (where you die almost instantaneously without a spacesuit and also are unable to move around much without using a spaceship). The drawback with these otherwise neat additions is of course that the already existing zones lack them, and have to be updated manually. We still have about 50 of the oldest zones that need to be updated to the new code, which is a boring and rather thankless job. But mercifully there sometimes are shortcuts. For instance our Coder just added Mob Classes, meaning that our Mobs now are a lot more intelligent and use different fighting methods, dependant on Class. So our Mage mobs now cast various spells on you, and even occasionally summon their own minions to help them in the fight. When I grumbled a bit to him about all the extra work this created for me, he obligingly supplied a script, which in one split second set the new abilities on all mobs with the word ‘mage’, ‘magician’ ‘sorcerer’ or ‘witch’ in the alias list. Then he went on doing similar things for the other Mob classes. This may not have caught all of them, but I bet it caught about 90 %, because we use multiple aliases a lot – which is another good habit a Builder should adopt. Erdos is quite right that many things are easier made in code than scripts. Builders and Coders also tend to think differently, and produce very different solutions to the same problem, because they attack it from different angles. But it is when a Coder and Builder work closely together, that the best solutions come up. So, work WITH your Coder - that usually produces the best results.