Introduction to TinyMUCK for TinyMUDders

An introduction to TinyMUCK

I assume that you are familiar with TinyMUD, and know how to create
things, link rooms, descibe and lock things.  If you do not know
these, you should read the other piece of documentation, the USER's
guide to TinyMUD.

The purpose of this document is to describe TinyMUCK features,
excluding those involving programming.

ACTIONS

@action <name>=<place>

Sets up an action and attaches it to an object, room, or player.
Actions are similar to exits, in the sense that you can @link them to
exits and they can take you places and such.  Hence, actions can be
thought of as movable exits, as they move with the object/player
carrying them.

@action alone will create an action, and you can then use @attach to
attach actions to things.

Actions will always work in the owner's rooms, but outside of those,
they will only work if a location is set JUMP_OK.

Object actions work whenever an object is in the room.  Player actions
can only work for the player who owns them.

LINKS

Links in TinyMUCK can not only be applied to Rooms, they can also be
applied to objects, players, and even other exits.

The LINK_OK flags when applied to objects and players have the same
effect, allowing other players to link to the particular object or
you.

Linking an action/exit to an object means that a succesful activation
of the exit will bring the object to you.  If that object is with
another player, then it disappears from his inventory and is brought
to you

Linking an action/exit to a player means that a succesful activation
of the exit will bring you to the player, provided that the player is
JUMP_OK.

Linking an action/exit to a room takes you to that room when
successful.

Linking an action/exit to other actions/exits is what is termed a meta
link.  When a meta-link is triggered, all the exits that it was linked
to will be triggered at that time.  As a result, all those exits will
occur, moving objects around or any other things.  (It will not move
players to rooms or destinations, however.)

The syntax for the creation of a meta-link is:

	@link a = b; c; d; e

Where b c d e are all actions.

Let's say 1234 brings an object to room a, and 4567 moves another
object to room b.

@link hey=1234; 4567

hey

Will do both of them at once.

CHOWN_OK

The CHOWN_OK flag may be set by players on objects they own.  When
that is done and another player picks it up, (It MUST be picked up),
the other play can type @chown <objectname>, and the object will
become his.  Actions are not inherited, however, so a true @destroy
function will have to be implemented later.

@odrop

Objects, Rooms, and players now have a drop and an odrop field that is
settable by:

@drop <object>=<message>
@odrop <object>=<message>

These work exactly like @succ and @osucc, though they apply to various
objects differently.

When applied to things, it gives the message when a person drops
something.  When applied to links, the @drop tells the player
entering, and the @odrop tells others that he has entered.  When
applied to people, the @odrop tells others how you died, and the @drop
tells the person who killed you how you died.

For instance.  A thing called "desk"

@drop desk=You drop the desk with a sigh.
@odrop desk=drops the desk with a sigh.

drop desk

(you see)
You drop the desk with a sigh.
(others see)
Whoever drops the desk with a sigh.

A link/exit.
@drop out=You slide down the chute and end up in a dark place.
@odrop out=slides down the shute and enters from above, looking
surprised.

When you enter the room, you see..
You slide down the chute and end up in a dark place.
(others see)
Whoever slides down the shute and enters from above, looking
surprised.

For people.

@drop me=Whoever drops over, flops, and dies.
@odrop me=Whoever drops over, flops, and dies, with blood sprouting
from all over.

Wizard types, kill Whoever=100

(He sees:)
Whoever drops over, flops, and dies.
(Everone else except you)
Wizard killed Whoever!  Whoever drops over, flops, and dies, with
blood sprouting from all over.

(You yourself will see the usual messages..)

PROPERTY LISTS

Property lists (p-lists) are an extension to objects, players and
rooms for TinyMUCK.  Each object will now have a p-list that can be
checked against in locks and the like.  p-lists are basically string
pairs, and can be anything.

The GENDER flag will now be a part of p-lists instead of being part of
the flags.

Syntax for setting properties:

	@set <thing>=property:type

For instance,
	@set me=sex:male
	@set me=hair:red

Locks use the same syntax

	@lock out=me | sex:male

Locks check the person's properties and the properties of everything
she's carrying at the moment.

To unset properties, simply use:
	@set <thing>=property:

To remove all properties, type:
	@set <thing>=:

Properties stay on until removed, and an object can have as many
properties as it likes.

Locks against properties are paricularly useful in situations where
you want any number of things to allow a player in, but don't want to
fix the number.  Just lock it to the property, and give the player a
thing that has the property.

PAGE

Page can now include a message.  To include a message with page, just
type:

	page <person>=message.

The ABODE and HAVEN flags are optional and may change from game to
game depending on the player.

Abode is independent from link, so you can set home to here even
though it's not link_ok.

EXAMINE

Examine now shows you the owner of a place if you don't control it.

PRONOUN SUBSTITUTION

Revison:
	%n -- name
	%s -- subjective
	%o -- objective
	%p -- possessive

From now on, all these may be substituted by the players themselves.
By doing,

	@set me=%o:its

for instance, all @osucc, @ofail will have the substitution template
replaced with `its.'  Defaults will remain the same as before, so if
you are male/female and not some exotic sex, all those will still
work.

An interesting side effect is that from now on, %a, %b and so on will
all be settable by players.  What it means is up to all of you
concerned.

@PROG

See MUF programmer's manual.