SMAUG server FAQ

Well, for one thing the files are .C files and not .CPP which means they are C and not C++. Thus things like cout, and << will not work.

Second, using "cout" is wrong anyway because all that would do is display something on the screen of the server which is hardly what you want - you want the stats to go to the player.

What you need to do to change the login sequence, is to change the way "nanny" works in comm.c.

Remember, the server is handling multiple players doing things all the time, so it is not a simple matter of asking a question and expecting an answer. eg.

printf ("What is your name ...");
gets   (name);

This would fail for a number of reasons, for one thing, printf would only go to the terminal of the server, and the gets would hang the server until you reply, which means all the other players would have a "dead" server.

Each player has a descriptor, which stores its state, and in that is a thing called "connected" which is how far they have got through the connection sequence.

This is a "switch" that checks the state, like this:

    switch ( d->connected )
      {
         case CON_GET_NAME:
            /* process getting their name */
         break;

         case CON_GET_OLD_PASSWORD:
            /* get their password */
         break;

         case CON_CONFIRM_NEW_NAME:
            /* confirm their name */
         break;

/* and so on */

      }	/* end of switch */

To send a message to the player you use "write_to_buffer" like this:

	    write_to_buffer( d, "Please type Yes or No. ", 0 );

Here are the states, from mud.h:

/*
 * Connected state for a channel.
 */
typedef enum
{
  CON_PLAYING,		CON_GET_NAME,		CON_GET_OLD_PASSWORD,
  CON_CONFIRM_NEW_NAME,	CON_GET_NEW_PASSWORD,	CON_CONFIRM_NEW_PASSWORD,
  CON_GET_NEW_SEX,	CON_GET_NEW_CLASS,	CON_READ_MOTD,
  CON_GET_NEW_RACE,	CON_GET_EMULATION,	CON_EDITING,
  CON_GET_WANT_RIPANSI,	CON_TITLE,		CON_PRESS_ENTER,
  CON_WAIT_1,		CON_WAIT_2,		CON_WAIT_3,
  CON_ACCEPTED,         CON_GET_PKILL,		CON_READ_IMOTD
} connection_types;

You would need to:

1. Add a new state to the above enum
2. Decide whereabouts in the login sequence the new question was to go
3. Change the existing sequence to add your new state, eg.

   Change:

   
   	write_to_buffer( d, "\n\rWhat is your sex (M/F/N)? ", 0 );
   	d->connected = CON_GET_NEW_SEX;
   

   To:

   
   	write_to_buffer( d, "\n\rDo you want me to roll your stats? ", 0 );
   	d->connected = CON_ROLL_STATS;
   

4. Handle the reply(s) to this question. eg. add this code to inside the switch statement:

   
            case CON_ROLL_STATS:
               /* do your new stuff */
            break;
   

   If you need to ask more than one question, then you need to repeat this process for each question. Read the "nanny" function to get the feel for how this works.

5. Eventually go back to the old sequence (ask the remaining questions). eg. after getting their stats you would do this:

   
   	write_to_buffer( d, "\n\rWhat is your sex (M/F/N)? ", 0 );
   	d->connected = CON_GET_NEW_SEX;
   

Now you are back into the original login sequence.