<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>HOWTO listings (user documentation)</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <HR> <H1>How do I create a room?</H1> <div align=right><I>author: eXile</I></div> <HR> Below is a script that sets up two rooms and an exit between them. <FONT SIZE=-1> <PRE> -> construct room treehouse The Tree House Constructed the room 'treehouse' (in eXile) This room has also been set to your home, since you don't have any others. -> construct room backyard The Backyard Constructed the room 'backyard' (in eXile) -> home The Tree House Flat, gray and featureless. Terribilis est locus iste. There is nobody here but you. -> edit treehouse.description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Entering the forest editor <footnote 10>: If you're not sure how to use the editor, enter '.quit' immediately (without the quotes), and read 'help editor' Limitations: 200 lines, 10000 characters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flat, gray and featureless. Terribilis est locus iste. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + .wipe Editing Buffer Cleared. + This is a tree house. This is a tree house. + .end \Saving editor buffer... -> edit backyard.description ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Entering the forest editor <footnote 10>: If you're not sure how to use the editor, enter '.quit' immediately (without the quotes), and read 'help editor' Limitations: 200 lines, 10000 characters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flat, gray and featureless. Terribilis est locus iste. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + .wipe Editing Buffer Cleared. + This is the Backyard of eXile's place. This is the Backyard of eXile's place. + .end Saving editor buffer... -> construct exit rope backyard Constructed the exit rope in treehouse, which leads to somewhere (backyard) -> go rope You walk through the exit The Backyard This is the Backyard of eXile's place. There is nobody here but you. -> construct exit rope treehouse Constructed the exit rope in backyard, which leads to somewhere (treehouse) </PRE> </FONT> <P> Now using the edit command we can change the exit's description and the 'through'. Remember you have to edit both instances of the 'rope' exit. <P> Happy construction! <HR> <H1>How do I create a room?</H1> <div align=right><I>author: subtle</I></div> <HR> You create rooms and exits using the <B>construct</B> command. An individual may usually have up to four rooms. For example, if I wished to create a treehouse, I might type: <P> <PRE> construct room treehouse Paul's Treehouse </PRE> <P> The first word to the construct command is the <B>id</B> of the room, and the rest of the line is 'called' property. The called room property is put at the top of the room description, in the centre of the screen, when someone in the room uses the <B>look</B> command. <P> The easiest way to go to your new room is the <B>trans</B> command, which moves you to one of your own named rooms. For instance, you would type 'trans treehouse' to go to your new treehouse. (If you had built one). <P> When you enter, you'll notice that it looks kind of empty. <H2>Setting up a room</H2> One of the more useful commands when setting up a room is the <B>inspect</B> command. This command shows some information about how the room is set up at the moment. Our new treehouse might look like this: <PRE> ----------------------------------------------------- /players/subtle/treehouse is a room owned by subtle. ----------------------------------------------------- There is nobody here but you. There aren't any objects in this room. The portrait reads: Someone is [in] [somewhere]. ----------------------------------------------------- </PRE> This screen shows the rooms id (/players/subtle/treehouse), who it is owned by (subtle), as well as the rooms portrait. As you can see, a rooms portrait consists of two parts, a 'relation', and the actual portrait. The relation is the 'in' part, and the portrait is the 'somewhere' part. The rooms description and called property may be viewed normally with the <B>look</B> command. <P> The portrait itself shows what appears when someone does a <B>where</B> command on someone in this room. For instance, 'where subtle' would return 'subtle is in somewhere' at the moment. For a treehouse, we're simply going to change the 'somewhere' to be 'the treehouse': <P> <PRE> -> portrait the treehouse The portrait now reads: [subtle is in] the treehouse -> </PRE> To change the relation property (which you might want to do when creating a hill - no-one is ever 'in' a hill), you use the <B>relation</B> command: <P> <PRE> -> relation The portrait now reads: [subtle is on] the treehouse -> </PRE> (We might use this trick later to create a room that is on top of the treehouse) <P> Using the <B>look</B> command, we can see what the room looks like at the moment: <PRE> -> l <B>Paul's Treehouse</B> There is nobody here but you. -> </PRE> To add a describe, we use the <B>room describe</B> command, and the editor. The editor has some more advanced features, allowing you to fix mistakes and delete lines, but for now, there are only 3 things you need to know about it. <P> When you're in the editor, you have a + prompt, and whatever you type will appear in your description, unless it starts with a period '.'. There are many period commands, but the best ones are ".end" (to finish editting), and ".wipe" (to wipe everything and start over). <P> We start the editor: <PRE> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Entering the forest editor <footnote 10>: If you're not sure how to use the editor, enter '.quit' immediately (without the quotes), and read 'help editor' Limitations: 6 lines, 480 characters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + </PRE> We can now type in a simple description: <PRE> + The treehouse is of the normal wooden variety, albeit rather rickety. Several comics are lying scattered around. The treehouse is of the normal wooden variety, albeit rather rickety. Several comics are lying scattered around. + .end Saving editor buffer... You change the description of 'treehouse' </PRE> When you type in descriptions, type whole paragraphs on one line if you can. This will make the program automatically word-wrap them to the width of whoever is looking at them. <P> Using the <B>look</B> command now shows us our complete room! The next section shows you how to create exits between rooms (for the go command), and mentions a little more about room management. <P> SEE ALSO: construct inspect portrait relation look where describe room </BODY> </HTML>