Building guide

This article is meant to serve as a summary of the commands and resources builders have available to them. Relevant help files will be mentioned as well, in case a player wants more information. There will be little or no references to programming. There will be no discussion about specific player creations. There will also be no discussion about features that are not part of the default player's feature set.

Conventions

Text you type is in monospaced font, and often proceeded by the word "command:". For example, type:

@describe here as This is a beautiful room.

Text in italic type denotes a placeholder for something you would type, usually an object. You may use a pronoun, an object number, or the name of an object you are holding or that is in the current room with you. AN object can also refer to a player.

Sample output is displayed in long quotation format, such as:

Player's Room

You see Player sleeping here.

You can go south.

Your First Room: Welcome to ChatMud

You start in this room. The room comes predescribed with a summary of important useful commands. Feel free to look at them. If you have already changed the room description, use

help introduction

to review the commands. This section will show you how to personalize this room, and how to customize other objects you create in the future.

Me is here: Pronouns to know

Many of these commands are in the form of "verb object to object". For example, "@rename object to newname" will rename "object" to "newname". For objects you are holding, you can use a word from the object's name. There are some objects that you will want to manipulate that you cannot hold, and they can often be accessed via special words. The most common ones are below. Examples of when they are commonly used are used throughout the guide.

• Me: the player typing the command
• here: the room the player is in
• area: the area containing the room with the player

Changing Names: The @rename Command

Command: @rename object to newname

This changes the name of something. Most frequently you will use it to change the name of the room you are in; use the command @rename here to newname to do this. You can also change the name of objects you hold. You cannot change your own name unless you ask an administrator.

Looking at things: The Look Command

Command: l object

This allows you to read the description of objects, rooms, and other players. For example, typing "l here" will look at the room. Typing "l me" will look at yourself. If you haven't set a description, your default description hints that you should type "@describe me as" to do it.

Describing things: The @describe Command

Command: @describe object as description

This command allows you to change the description of an object, which is displayed when you look at it. You start out with no description at all, so you can type

@describe me as text

to describe yourself. You can also describe the room and any objects you create this way.

(Advanced) Setting Messages on things: The @messages Command

Command: @messages object

If you want even more customization options, you can change the default messages on objects you own, including yourself. The @messages command will display the available messages for the object you specify. To change a message, simply replace the text after the word "is" with the message you want. For example, by typing @messages here, I receive the following output:

@ground here isn't set.

@who_location here is "%T"

@victim_ejection here is "You have been expelled from %i by %n."

@ejection here is "You expel %d from %i."

@oejection here is "%N unceremoniously %{!expels} %d from %i."

If I want to change the ground message of this room, which is the word that represents the floor, I could type

@ground here is the soft wooden floor

Messages for rooms, objects, and players are all different. Messages can also be set on exits and areas. For more information about messages, such as how to add correct pronouns to them, type help @messages.

Creating and destroying Things

You have a room, and you described it, but it's totally empty apart from you, and maybe some other players who came to say hi. Let's fix that!

Your Next Room: The @dig and @del Commands

Commands: @dig direction to new room name

Command: @del exit

By using the @dig command, you can make a new room that connects to this one in the given direction. The exit, new room, and an exit returning back to the current room are all created, assuming the exit was one of the standard compass directions (n, e, s, w, ne, se, sw, or nw), up, or down. If it is not one of these directions, you will only make a single exit, and can create the return exit yourself.

You can also use @dig to create an exit to an already existing room. To do so, you need to know the room number of the destination room. Then simply replace the new room name with this room number to create the link.

To disconnect a room, use the @del command followed by the exit you want to delete. Both the exit in the current room, and the reverse exit, are deleted, but all rooms stay intact.

A door into your Room: the @door and @undoor Commands

Command: @door exit as door name

Command: @undoor exit

Command: @door-c exit

For decorative purposes, you can attach doors to your exits. For example, you might attach a wooden door to your east exit by typing

@door e as a wooden door

You can remove the door in a similar manner. To configure the door, use the @door-c command, which opens a menu of options. These are:

• Key: lets you set up a key for the door which you need to be holding in order to unlock the door, via the unlock command.
• Autoopen: Sets whether moving in the direction of a closed door will cause it to automatically open, so that you walk through into the next room.
• Autolock: Sets whether the door automatically locks when closed.
• Autoclose: Sets whether the door automatically closes after it has been opened, and how long it remains open before automatically closing.
• Transparent when closed: Sets whether people can see through a closed door into the next room when looking in that direction.
• Group: An advanced option that lets you open many doors all at once with one key.

Traveling Around and Conversing

Talking to those in Earshot: The say Command

Command: say text

This sends a message to everyone in the same room as you. It is the most basic form of communication. To learn about other forms of communication, check out the communications guide.

Getting Information

Other informational commands

• @quota: You are limited to making 1000 objects, which includes rooms, exits and anything you make with the @create command. This command will tell you how many more objects you can make.
• @audit <playername>: This allows you to see what objects you or another player owns.