Category:  Immortal  Topic:  smob



	A smob is a data construct.  It originally meant a
sub_mob but as I coded more and more this became meaningless. 
Currently a SMOB is any mobile that has been changed from the
static mob in the database.  The idea behind all this is memory
efficiency, but it makes for quite a headache sometimes in the
code.  If you write a function that changes a mob in any way, you
must test to see if it needs to be converted into a SMOB first. 
There are numerous examples of this in the code, and I imagine
most of you won't be needing to know the details anyway! 
	Almost any action you take on a mobile, especially if it
makes that mobile unique in any way (ie changing it's stats
through battle or spell casting) will convert it into a SMOB. 
This is important when doing OLC and write_zone, as SMOBS will
not be saved many times.  If they are, they will not be saved in
their modified form.  This can be circumvented with specific OLC
functions.  If you have any specific questions, post a question
on a board, or talk to me personally.  --Ben Greear aka Grock