| Posted by
| Nick Gammon
Australia (23,158 posts) Bio
Forum Administrator |
| Message
| That's a nice big lot of questions! :)
I'll take them point by point...
Scan command
Scan is a skill, if you haven't learnt it, the mud will say "Huh?".
As Lordrom, you can learn it like this:
sset self scan 100
That means you have set yourself to know the "scan" skill with 100% proficiency.
Now you can type "scan north" and you will scan in that direction.
How do I edit what you see when you type in score?
That is hard-coded into the server source, in file player.c, function do_score.
You would need to change the C code to make it do something different, and then recompile.
Do most people start from scratch?
I can't speak for most people, but I would take at least a few existing areas (some of the VNUMs are required anyway) and then add to them. Mind you, a MUD with "stock areas" isn't very interesting, so I would at least reword the descriptions and maybe move things like shops around so it isn't too obvious you are using a stock area.
Then I would add brand new areas on (eg. outside the main city). There is a certain amount of infrastructure already there (eg. in New Darkhaven, Darkhaven Academy) such as shops, places you can practice skills, learn languages and so on, which you would have to redo from scratch if you got rid of all of it.
Using the area editor is a big step also, what do I do?
For me, the area editor simplifies things a great deal, as you can see how the area fits together fairly easily (eg. from the cross-reference screens), which is hard to do without it. However there are alternatives, see below.
Start by opening an existing area (eg. newacad.are) and then click on the "+" signs to expand out the mobs, objects, rooms, shops and repairs. Then investigate each one, and see how they work. There is built-in help, and a fair bit of cross-referencing.
What commands do you use to edit anything and everything in SMAUG?
"Everything" is a big field. You really need to browse through the various wizard commands (type WIZHELP), and also see my examples in the SMAUG FAQ. I can't really spell out every last thing, because: a) I would be here forever; and b) I really need to know what you are trying to achieve.
You can edit/change things in a number of ways:
1. Edit the various files (area files, class files, race files, command files, skill files) with a text editor, and manually make changes. This can be pretty tedious.
2. Use the built-in On Line Construction (OLC) commands. eg. "sset" to make a skill. There are commands for making rooms, objects, mobs, skills and so on.
3. Use the Area Editor (available from this site) that simplifies at least some of that. In particular, it makes editing area files simpler (but there are files other than area files). You can also use it to edit commands, skills and socials.
How do I choose which port the mud site runs off?
It defaults to 4000, using the Windows port, you have to recompile to change that.
How do I add temples so that when you log into the mud and depending on your god/temple, that tells you where you will start.
Not sure about that. The normal starting room is hard-coded (although once you have logged in your starting room will be where you were last time). To implement different starting rooms I imagine the source would need changing.
The MUD you mention has probably changed the source code (the C files). Most people will take the stock code and improve on it, thus adding an individual flavour to it. Teaching C programming is outside the scope of what I can do here. You either learn C, and also learn how the existing code works, and then change it, or make do with what it currently does.
Suggestions
Before changing things too much, I would become familiar with how it currently works. Play on your own or with friends for a while (just as a mortal first) to get the hang of the shops, academy, weather, mobs and so on. Then play around as an immortal, learning the commands for building, changing skills, player management and so on.
Also play around with the Area Editor and try making new areas.
I suppose you could say that some of the stuff is not totally obvious how to use it, but it has been written by MUD enthusiasts over the years, who primarily wrote it for themselves, and then released their code to the world, so others can enjoy the fruits of their labours. However almost all of this stuff is unpaid work, and you can't really expect fancy installers, and everything to necessarily be perfectly straightforward.
You have said you want things spelled out, not FAQ, however the FAQ do answer a lot of questions. There isn't much point in repeating it all here. Browse the SMAUG FAQ on this site, it covers quite a bit of ground about building and running SMAUG.
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- Nick Gammon
www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com | | Top |
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