Not shown under exits, but with long desc?

Posted by Di0r on Mon 10 Mar 2008 10:41 AM — 3 posts, 20,644 views.

#0
I'm using SMAUGFuss just now alongside AreaEditor, and I'm wondering there's a way to make an object not immediately visible to a player unless they type "look <keyword>" to look at the object.

I want to have a notebook object that's not visible anywhere in the objects list that appears under the "Exits:" display in a room. It'll be mentioned in passing in the room's description (..."as well as a notebook on the desc"), so that a player can type "look notebook" to look at it. The thing is, I'm not sure which flags to use -- "hidden" and "invis" seem to be the best choices, although I don't want to have the player need to use skills to see/find the object; I just want them to be able to type "Look notebook" and see a description of it. Ideally I'd like to actually give a long description of it when the player looks at it.

Is there a way to do that with Area Editor, or a way to do it in the game itself?

(Apologies if this sounds newbish. It may very well have something to do with me being a newb.)
USA #1
INVIS would only work out if they cast 'detect invis' or get true sight or some other means, and then if they already have the affect on them when they enter the room they'd see it without the need to type 'look notebook' at all. HIDE wouldn't work for what you're after because they'd need to use search to find it. The real answer is that, like pretty much anything else that you can envision, of course this is possible, but it's probably going to require you (or your coder if that's not you) to add a flag and a function to the code to make it work the way you've got in mind. (On a side note, I think you meant desk rather than desc in that example snippet of the room's description.) If you are able to add code to make a new flag that lets an object be invisible to players who haven't yet looked specifically at the object then it's a very simple matter to add a flag to Area Editor so that you can use Area Editor to continue to build with. Though you might also note that Area Editor is not a perfect solution for SmaugFUSS areas because of the differences between the reset system in SmaugFUSS versus the one used by Smaug.
Australia Forum Administrator #2
Yes, the Area Editor is not compatible with the new SmaugFUSS area files at all, as they now have "keyed" data.

The saving grace is that the raw area files are somewhat more readable now.