Welcome to Ember's OLC Guide.
Version 1.11 (12/3/1997)
Html Version (3/20/99)

What's in here ?


0. Word from the Author

        Hiya dear builder! You're looking at what one day will (hopefully) be a complete manual for OLC, as it is used on MUDweiser. All comments, ideas or bugs can be mailed to
boydky@ece.orst.edu and I would like to encourage everyone to do so. This manual is based on a manual by Ambiorix, Administrator of Shadow MUD, ambiorix@dark.x.dtu.dk, and if you think something important is missing, let me know and I'll add it. Thank you for trying to make MUDweiser an even nicer place!
        Note that this manual won't cover most topics that are discussed in the online help system of Realms. Help in OLC can be accessed either through '
HELP ' or '? ' depending on what you ask help on. So I won't be bugging you any longer with this rather boring introduction, off to the building !

General notes (readme.1st)

        First a little comment about notation in this manual. When I type some text between quotes, it means you have to type all what's in between. When I use
<>-brackets, it means that you have to replace the thing what's in between with the appropriate value. For example 'HELP BUILDING' and 'HELP '. Buttons you have to press straight away, I've typed between []. I'll try to use capitals to enhance readability.

        Ok, now let's get started. First thing you need is your own area. You can't create this yourself, so you'll need to ask an CRE or IMP. So if you need a new area just leave me a note or write one an email.

        Once someone has created an area for you (and probably the first room too) he'll tell you a number. This is the
vnum (virtual number) of your area. You'll need it when you want to travel to your area, or in some other occasions as well. So let's say your area has vnums 6500-6599, and the first room has vnum 6500. We'll work further on from this example.

        Don't forget to read '
HELP BUILDING' and *** 'HELP GUIDELINES' ***, assuming they exist on your mud. Even when you've read them before, it won't hurt you to check again if anything has changed. If there is no help on that, I just have not made the help entries yet.

2. GUC (or General Useful Commands)

        When you have Builder status you'll have access to a couple of extra commands. Most of these commands have online help, so I'll be short about them here.

GOTO:
This command is used to travel . It takes a room vnum or character name as an argument. So to go to your area you type ''GOTO [vnum/char]', where [vnum] is a vnum in your area. To leave your area you can type 'GOTO 3001' or 'RECALL', which is the same, or GOTO anywhere else. Just try not to annoy other builders who are building.
STAT:
This command can be used on mobiles, rooms and objects of your own area. The output is like the 'identify' spell, but STAT will show ALL the info about the subject. Occasionally, you may need to specify whether you are stat-ing a mob or an object by using stat obj [obj], or stat mob [mob], and to stat a room type stat room.
ALIST:
Try and see what happens. This command is very useful when you forgot the vnums of your area.
BEACON:
This sets your recall point to wherever you are. It's a good idea to set this to the first room in your area, or to your immortal rooms if you have them.

3. Areas. (And how little you can change about them*grin*)

        Ok, here we are, ready to have a look at the area configuration. To get into OLC mode, type '
EDIT AREA' when you're standing in your area or type 'EDIT AREA [your area vnum from "alist"]' from anywhere else in the mud.

        One thing to keep in mind is, that once you are in OLC you can always just press
[ENTER] to get an overview of the subject you're currently editing. When you do it now, you'll get an overview of some variables of your area.

        So if you press
[ENTER] you'll get a list that looks like the following (I took the old Mud School as an example) :

> Name: [ 2 ]{ 1 5} Hatchet Mud School
> Filename: [ school.are ]
> Security: [ 9 ] Type [ normal ]
> Builders: [ None ]
> Flags: [ added changed ]
> Age: [ 13 ]
> Players: [ 1 ]

        Some of these fields you can change yourself, others you can't because of insufficient security. If you can't edit anything, don't bother trying. You shouldn't really need to. If you really feel that something in the area data needs changing, ask a IMP or CRE or note them. What follows is an explaination of the fields you probably can configure yourself.

*** First the name ***
        It's kinda obvious what the purpose of this field is, but may I draw your attention to the exact syntax of this field :

{ 1 5} Hatchet Mud School
^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        So first you type the suggested level range, between {}, a space, then your own name followed by spaces till it counts up to 8, then another blank space, and finally the 'name' of the area. If you're not sure you typed the spaces right, you can always do an 'ALIST' to see if the name is correctly lined up. If your name is too long, shorten it to 8 letters or just use one space no matter what.

        You shouldn't have to worry about any other fields, as they will be filled out automatically or by a high immortal.
Don't try to change those other values yourself please, you would do more harm than good.

        As soon as all these fields are changed to your wishes, you can save the changes by typing '
ASAVE AREA' when in OLC mode. You can leave OLC mode by typing 'DONE'.

4. Rooms. (To be in one or not to be in one)

        Before we continue, let's assume you're now standing in the first room of your freshly created area. In our example it would be room 6500 of
vnums 6500-6599. Again, you can simply enter OLC mode by typing 'EDIT ROOM'. Pressing [ENTER] will give you an overview of what you have so far. When you do it now, it will look like :

> Description:
>
> Name: [ ]
> Area: [ 1] {xx xx} Yourname Area name
> Vnum: [ 6500 ]
> Sector: [ inside ]
> Room flags: [ none ]
> Characters: [ Yourname ]
> Objects: [ none ]

        First I'll explain the use of the flags in this overview, and I'll get to creating rooms and exits later. The flags '
Area' and 'Vnum' are filled out automatically, so no need to worry about them. 'Name' is the name of the room, as it will appear above the room description. Therefor the name should be short, but very clear. Also, most words in the name start with a capital etc etc.

        Then we have '
Sector'. Although it doesn't seem to be important to set this flag correctly to some builders, I must tell you that it is! For instance otherwise you would see the sun come up in the east when you're underwater, for instance. Or when you're in a small closed room, you would be able to 'call lightning' and so on... So although it's purpose might not be immediately clear to you, you better set the 'Sector' flag correctly. Try '? SECTOR' to get a list of possible flags. If the sector type you're looking for is not in the list, you should take the type that comes closest to what you need.

        The last flag you can set is the '
Room flags'. Try '? ROOM' to get a list of these flags. Most of them are rather obvious to what they mean. **** WARNING **** Use ONLY following flags for normal room creation : dark, mo_recall, no_mob, safe, indoors, solitary, pet_shop or private. Other flags are rather dangerous to tear down gameplay, and if you're wanting to use any of the others ALWAYS ASK A HIGHER IMM FIRST. Flags like IMM_ONLY, HERO_ONLY, GOD_ONLY, IMP_ONLY and stuff should be only used for rooms in the immortal zone(usually rooms 1200-1299)

        Finally there's the room description. Enter the description editor by typing '
DESC' when in Room Edit Mode. On a new line, enter '.h' to get a list of available options in the editor. Type in your room description (remember to follow the rules as mentioned in the GUIDELINES, be imaginative), then try '.s' and NEVER forget '.f' Leave the editor by typing a '@' on a new line and your first room is finished.

General rule for making goods descriptions:
        Stay in the 3rd person. An area looks much better if "you feel as if...." and "you see...." are replaced with "most would feel...." and "... is visible here."
        If your area does not repeat rooms, don't make all your descriptions the same. If every room desc in your area begins with "Blah is visible here, with blah to the north, and blah in all other directions. A feeling of blah is here. blah blah blah...." it gets boring quick.

        Use good grammar and spelling. Professionally made original areas make a mud look good. Common grammatical errors such as your/you're, there/their/they're, it's/its, etc. may sound the same when you're talking, but they look different. Trust me when I say that IMPs hate going through area files to correct grammar of lesser gods.

        Don't make a desc too long or too short. 3 lines is the shortest any good and a good length to stick to is 5 or 6 lines. More than 8 lines is excessive and more than 10 lines is too much, except for very special rooms.
Excessive color causes lag, so avoid it except to emphasize.

********* SAVE OFTEN ****************
        Type 'ASAVE AREA' in OLC mode or 'ASAVE ' when in normal mode to save your newly created room, and type 'DONE' to leave OLC mode. Have a look at your freshly created room... Pretty neat huh :)

********* EXITS *********
Now that your first room is finished, you might want to expand your area. This brings us to the 'exits' part, a part which I seperated from the rest because this one is usually a problem for newbie builders. First thing to do now is, when in room edit mode, type 'HELP EXIT', which will give you a brief summary of available options.

        Note that before EVERY exit creation command you need to type the direction in which you want to create/add the exit. Let's first have a closer look at the DIG command. This command accepts a room vmun as argument and does actually two things for you : it creates the room with the given vnum (if it didn't exist already) and then creates a two-way link to that room. By checking you prompt, you'll see that you immediately moved to the new room, ready to edit it. So if you're standing in room 6500 and you wish to create a room with vnum 6501, north from room one, you type '
<DIRECTION> DIG 6501' when standing in room 6500. Be careful, as although you can delete an exit/link, you can't delete any rooms. Also, olc commands overwrite normal commands, so most abbreviations for directions won't work, for instance 'n dig 6501' will change the name of the room to 'dig 6501'. This is due to the mud thinking "n" is an abbreviation for "name" instead of "north." This may vary between muds.

        The
LINK command is rather obvious : it will just create a link between two existing rooms. *** WARNING *** If you link a room to itself, you'll create a loop from which you can't leave.

        The link command is followed by the
ROOM command. I can't be clear enough about this : USE THIS WITH GREAT CAUTION and NEVER USE IT JUST FOR FUN. The ROOM command creates a one way link, meaning that the player can go in that direction, but then can't return that way any more. As you probably have played some muds yourself, you know how nasty and frustrating this can be.

        Finally, you have some things to make your exits a little more '
alive'. You have the option to lock the door with a KEY (make an object of type 'key', give your door the 'closed' and 'locked' flag, and try the KEY command), give the exit a name (useful for doors, for instance you could name a door in the floor 'Grating' and then you can 'open grating' instead of 'open down'), and give the exit a description (when a player looks in that direction, he'll see the desc). Exit descriptions are usually one line and only need to be used if there is something significant in that direction.

        If you mess up, you can always delete links you've made with the
DELETE command(usage: '<DIRECTION> DELETE' ). Normally, when you delete a link from one room to another in the first room, the exit should be deleted in the second room too, although this is not always the case. So I can advise you to check both sides of the link after you deleted it, to ensure you there are no leftovers of that link.

        
Once again, all help can be found in 'HELP EXIT' when in OLC mode, and when editing exits, never forget that you have to TYPE A DIRECTION IN FRONT OF YOUR EXIT COMMAND.

5. Objects. (The tough part)

        The tough part yes, not because of the editing (which is fairly simple), but because everyone wants HIS equipment to be used over that of another. I must ensure you that we have the idea that most objects must be 'casual', like in real life, and that only very few objects can be 'special'. It's somebody's job to check new areas, and too often they find too much equipment that is just too good to be brought in the game. First you have to follow the rules when creating an object, but this doesn't mean you have to give ALL your objects extra affects. The same thing goes for scrolls and potions. There's no need for instance to make a potion that contains sanctuary, haste and bless, as this will unbalance the game... Unless, of course, you put it on a level 90 mob. I know this may sound rather awkward, but we know that if most equipment is 'casual', all this equipment will be used, and only then.

        Enough of my moralising talks, let's get on with the Objects. I suppose you already know by now how to create a new object. Just in case, you can create a new object by typing '
EDIT OBJECT CREATE <VNUM>' or you can edit an existing object by typing 'EDIT OBJECT <VNUM>'. Pressing [ENTER] will give you an overview of what you have so far.

        Again, there are lots of fields that you can edit. I won't be discussing every field here, as most of them are either very clear, or
either have good help in OLC itself (usually it's '
? ' to obtain a list of possible values). I'll discuss here some of the fields, which I think are the most important.

        First I draw your attention to the linearity that needs to be present in the three followin fields : name - short desc - long desc. I'll start with an example. A sword could have as Name 'fighters sword', as Short Desc 'a Fighter's Sword' and as Long Desc 'A well-crafted sword lies here on the ground.'. Notice that the
MAIN KEYWORD (sword) is present in all three the fields. The Long description is what you see when you LOOK at the object, or what you see when the object is lying on the ground in a room and you LOOK. Short Description is used whenever you perform an action on the object (take, drop, wield, ...) and so should be rather short, but also providing enough information (like 'a sword' would be of no use, as the player won't know which sword). Finally the name is the name the mud uses to address the object. Note that a Long description should always have a verb in it (e.g. blah lies at your feet ... a blah catches your attention ... someone lost a blah here... use your imagination!).

        Be sure to set the wear flags correctly. An item that you want someone to be able to pick up should for instance have the '
take' flag. A weapon needs to have the 'wield' flag etc. Also never forget to set the weight and the cost (rather set these too little than too much, check the existing objects to have an idea of these values). Although their purpose might not be immediately clear, they have one.

        Armor values are not corrently listed in the help files. A good system is to make ac vs. slash, bash, and pierce equal to 1/2 the level of the object, and ac vs. magic 1/3 of the level, rounded up. As an example, a level 15 piece of armor might have values 8 8 8 5. Special values are OK, for instance a magic robe of level 20 might have values 3 3 3 25 because it's resistant to magic, and a certain type of armor might have values 9 2 9 5 because it does not protect well against bashing. Attempt to use common sense. These standard values may vary between muds. Ask an IMP if you're not sure. Note: this is for a 100 level mud. If the mud you're on has 150 mortal levels, for a level 120 piece of gear, ac of 60 60 60 40 may be excessive.

        Final thing I want to discuss about object are the AFFECTS. Before I explain how to set them, let me make clear that
***** IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT MAKE EXCESSIVE AFFECTS ***** There's no need to try to make big ones, as someone will check every item in a new area before connecting it. This is not to bug you, but just to keep a certain balance in gameplay. Same thing goes for the other values you can set, like damdice for weapons ('HELP WEAPON_DICE'). Ok, so now to add an apply, you use the command 'ADDAFFECT '. For instance 'ADDAFFECT WISDOM 2'. Again, PLEASE RESPECT BALANCE FOR THESE KIND OF APPLIES. Note: you have to type out the affect in full. ADDAFFECT WIS 2 won't work on standard EmberMUDS.

6. Mobs. (The little nastly living creatures)(mobiles)(MONSTERS!)

        Now let's bring some life in your new area. Adding mobs is very like adding objects. Enter Mob Edit Mode as usual by typing '
EDIT MOB CREATE <VNUM>' to create a new mob, or 'EDIT MOB <VNUM>' to edit an existing mob. Pressing [ENTER] will give you once again an overview of what you've got so far. Many of the fields are kinda clear, I'll just try to explain some of the more difficult stuff about mobs here. BE CAREFUL THOUGH NOT TO CREATE A MOB WITH THE NAME OF AN EXISTING PLAYER. This will prevent the player from loging in. If we find anyone abusing this, he'll loose his building privileges or more.

*** IMPORTANT ***
        For the values in hitdice, damdice, manadice, ac there are some helpfiles included with the mud. THESE VALUES ARE NOT BINDING, meaning that you don't HAVE TO USE THESE, but use them with only small deviations possible. Please respect these values, as they are important to keep the balance on Realms. If you are creating mobs that have a level where values are not given, try to average the values to the appropriate level.

*** IMPORTANT ***
        Furthermore, you can reread the notes about the use of 'name', 'short description' and 'long description', which I explained earlier in the paragraph about objects. Note that with mobs you have the opportunity to type an extra description (using the editor), and I encourage you to make use of this. Try to type a couple of lines about what the mobile looks like, what it's doing, even things like what it smelly like.

        Other values which may need some explaination are align (how good the mob is... -1000 is satanic, 1000 is angelic), gold (don't load your mobs with too much gold... try to stay around 20 gold per level for a normal mob, with a general max of 500 gold or so) and hitroll (usually you can take the same value as the level of the mob, with variations for mob type).

*** IMPORTANT ***
        Be very careful when filling out the IMM and RES fields. For instance making a mob IMMune to weapon and magic makes it invulnerable. Do not use these flags without any clear reason. Same thing goes for the affects. Don't use these for no reason. And for instance a mob with dark_vision hasen't got much sense either. Avoid this.

*** IMPORTANT ***
        So the only field left that needs some extra info is the 'act' field. With '? ACT' you get a list of possible flags. Here I'll give some extra info on some of these flags.

Sentinel :makes the mob always stay in the room it resets.
Scavenger :makes the mob pick up things it finds lying around.
aggressive: mob will attack everyone near him of lower level.
wimpy : mob will flee when it drops below certain hp level.
stay_area : mob will never leave the area it resets in. YOU MUST EITHER SET THIS FLAG OR HAVE A NO_MOB ROOM AT ALL EXITS TO YOUR AREA, UNLESS YOU ASK AN IMP TO DO OTHERWISE!
pet : mob will be a pet (see section about Pet Shops)
undead : mob won't be able to be resurrected

        The other flags are either not in use, or either are you not supposed to use them. These flags include
train, gain, practice, is_healer and killable_shopkeeper. If you absolutely wish to use one of these flags, ask me first.

Appendix A : Resets. (Or How bad Can it Get ?)

        Now that you have object, mobiles and rooms, it's time to populate your area with all these nice thingies. Making resets is not difficult at all, just read this section very carefully, and once you'll get the hang of it, it will be very easy.

        First thing to know is that resetting stuff should happen WHEN IN ROOM EDIT MODE. Go stand in a room in which you want to reset a certain thing and then type 'EDIT ROOM'.

Syntax:
RESET <number> OBJ <vnum> <wear_loc>

RESET <number> OBJ <vnum> in <vnum>

RESET <number> OBJ <vnum> room

RESET <number> MOB <vnum> [<max #>]

RESET <number> DELETE

RESET <number> MOB <vnum> [<max #>]
Is probably what you want to do first, to your entire area, so you can put objects on the mobs later. Set max # to the highest number of mobs you want in the ENTIRE area. Otherwise only one of each will reset. The <number> field will matter more in the objects section. The <number> is the order of what is reset first in that room.

RESET <number> OBJ <vnum>
Room just stick an object on the ground. Simple. Watch out, if there is a scavenger mob reset into the same room, it won't be on the ground long.....

RESET <number> OBJ <vnum> <wear_loc>
Puts an object onto a mob. A list of wear locations can be found with ? wear, or just use 'none' to put it in inventory. The <number> field is very important, as it determines which mob loads that specific object. If you're not sure you did it right, type RESET to see resets for that room.

RESET <number> OBJ <vnum> in <vnum>
Puts an object inside another (i.e. a ring into a jewlery case, a sword into a chest...). Again, the number field is important. You can get a list of current resets in the room by typing 'RESET' with no arguments, and you can delete unwanted resets by the command 'RESET <number> DELETE'.

More online help can be found at '
HELP RESET'.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE ***
        It is very important that you enter the resets very tidy and logical. First reset the mob, then its equipment, and only after that reset the next mob in the room. If you would reset the two mobs first, it is very likely that all the objects will reset on only the last mob. It's always good to check with 'RESETS' after you finished all resets in the room to see if everything resets as desired.

Appendix B : Shops. (Let's think business!)

        Shops can be added when in MOB EDIT MODE. If, for instance, you want to make the existing mobile with vnum 6506 a shopkeeper, try '
MOB EDIT 6506'. The one and only command for shops is 'SHOP' (don't be so surprised!). Simply typing 'SHOP' when in Mob Edit Mode will give you a list of possible options.

        This is fairly simple, so I'll just try to give you an idea on how it works by following example. Let's say I want to make the existing mob with
vnum 6506 a shopkeeper, and he sells item 6501 (food), item 6502 (food), and item 6503 (which is a drink-container). All these objects you make first as discussed in previous chapters. The commands to accomplish this are :

EDIT MOB 6506
SHOP TYPE 0 FOOD
SHOP TYPE 1 DRINK-CONTAINER
SHOP HOURS 0 23
[makes him open all day... use 8 17 to make him open 8 am to 5 pm etc....]
SHOP PROFIT 120 80
[makes him charge 120% of cost to buy, and he pays you 80% to buy it from you }

[goto the room where the shopkeeper is supposed to reset]
EDIT ROOM
RESET 1 mob 6506
RESET 2 obj 6501 none
RESET 3 obj 6502 none
RESET 4 obj 6503 none

        As you can see, you first reset the shopkeeper, and then all the items he's supposed to sell in his inventory. Note that the items you reset on the shopkeeper need to be OF THE EXACT SAME TYPE as the type(s) defined in the SHOP LIST. If this is not the case, the item will simply reset in the shopkeeper's inventory, without him offering to sell it.

        Perhaps a last warning about shopkeepers :
NEVER (I repeat NEVER) make a shopkeeper with the intention of having him die. Although a baker doesn't seem to have much money for instance, he can gather a fortune when everybody starts selling all kinds of food to him. It would be a spoiler if you could get rich like that in a couple of seconds. A good way to do this is to make him level 100 with 30000 hit points and affected by sancturary and have hitroll of 200 and things like that. Making shopkeepers immune to weapons and magic is OK if they truly must not be killed, such as if you make a jewler who buys stuff for millions and you have to put that much gold on him.

Appendix C : Pet Shops. (Try to understand it at first reading!)

        Pet Shops are kinda annoying to get started with, but once you've done it, it's rather simple, as it is with so many things. First things first. Start with the room which you want to make the pet shop. First thing you need to do, after you've finished making the room, is to give the room the '
pet_shop' flag.

        Then reset a mob in this room which will be the pet shopkeeper. Notice that you DON'T have to use the SHOP command on this mob. Then the tricky thing is that you have to create a dummy room with vnum exactly one higher than the pet shop room vnum. There shouldn't be any exits in this room, and it shouldn't be part of your area actually. It's just a dummy room, solemly created to reset the pets in. Create pets in exactly the same way as you created mobs, and then add the '
pet' flag. Make these pets reset in the dummy room.

Hint: use as name for the dummy room 'pet reset room' and type a short description about the fact that the room is not part of the game. That way, you'll always know the purpose of the room (and so will we) :)

        I think this covers it. If something's not to clear, try and experiment, it's not as hard as it seems.

        I have not actually tried to make a pet shop. This is all based on help files and the like.

Appendix D : Commonly Asked Questions (CAQ's) -- AND answers!

Additional Help
        You can find additional help in many ways. First, there's always the online help. In OLC you can type 'COMMANDS' to get a list of possible commands, and then you can type 'HELP' to get more help on almost any of these commands. Try '?' in OLC to get a list of extra help files. 'HELP OLC' works too, and for the specific editors, try 'HELP REDIT' 'HELP OEDIT' 'HELP MEDIT' 'HELP AEDIT' If nothing else works, you can send a note to Kyle, or email me.

Zmud Special Keys
        I've got lots of questions from people who had some problems with the .x commands inside the editor. This is usually due to the fact that they're using Zmud as Mud Client. In Zmud, the dot '.' is a special character, reserved for speedwalking. So all you have to do to fix the problem is to either replace that special key in Zmud or switch them off. This can be done by going through some menu opions in Zmud itself.(I believe that in some versions there are 2 icons in the bottom right corner, a gun and a computer. I think clicking on the computer fixes this problem. Either that or turn off parsing from the menus or something weird like that.)

Deleting Stuff
In OLC it's not possible to delete items, mobs or rooms. Instead, you can just change all the fields of the thing you don't need any more, and re-use it. Like if you want to get rid of a certain item you made, just make it into another item you do need. If you just made too many items, change everything to "none" "0" "trash" or whatever seems right for that field.

Appendix E: Recent Additions(add stuff specific to your mud here!)

Random object loading:
        To have your mobs load objects of a certain type, use the "chance", "number", and "types" commands to define these, and use ? randobj to see valid arguments for the "types" command.

Anti-class flags:
____Anti-class flags: In the "extra" section of objects, you can add flags so an object can not be worn by certain classes. PLEASE do this wherever it makes sense... i.e. Full plate mail should be definately anti-mage, and maybe anti-cleric, anti-thief, or anti-nightblade too.

Additions changes to original builder's help guide by:
Kyle Boyd
boyd1@proaxis.com

Edited for HTLM by:
Tristan Coysh
thealphamatrix@hotmail.com

MUDweiser @ :
mudweiser.mudservices.com 9000
(may change, if you can't connect, try www.mudconnect.com to see if the
address there has changed.)