Claim Building on CrystalMUSH
Introduction
A claim on CrystalMUSH is a small area of connected rooms that is placed randomly in the ranges. One of the rooms is a landing site, where the Crystal Singer lands his or her sled; one other room contains a crystal vein for the Singer to find and cut. The locations of the crystal vein and landing site are set by the builder. Once a Singer lands on a claim and cuts all of the crystal from the vein, the claim is reset and placed in the ranges again for the next Singer to find.
These pages are intended to help the beginning builder complete a claim area. Some of the information is available in the claim building instructions available on CrystalMUSH by going to the Claim Nexus (off the OOC room) and looking at the Claim Builder's Information object, and some is available through the 'news building' command. Some was gleaned from building my own claims, or contributed by other claim builders. Where possible, I've used code from real claims to illustrate.
This guide is split into five sections:
Getting Started
Planning your claim area, @digging your first room, @linking its exit from the Claim Nexus, creating a master claim object, @parenting rooms to your master claim object, and the room description structure on your claim. Also, what registers to add to your master claim object to make the inspection process more efficient.Room Guidelines
Describing the rooms in your claim area. Includes instructions for setting up descriptions that change with the time of day, seasons or tides, and for setting up underground rooms that require a lamp to see.Exit Guidelines
Exit naming and attribute guidelines. Includes instructions for hiding an exit and locking an exit to an object, a command, and the tides.Puzzles and Pitfalls
How to set up the more common traps on your claim: injuries, preventing a sled from launching, damaging a cutter, destroying a carton of crystal.Finishing Up
What to do when you have finished building. Includes checklists for making sure your claim is finished, and instructions for using the +check, +spell and @edit tools.
If you haven't built a claim before, even if you have done other building, it is a good idea to read through the guide completely before you start so you understand the overall process. If you have built a claim before, please re-read Getting Started before you begin.
A small note...Currently, I am on Revision 2 of the Claim Building guide. This is what has changed since the last revision, in July 1997:
I'd like to thank everyone who offered comments or suggestions after the first release of the Claim Building Guide, especially Aria and Shane.
Once again, if you have any suggestions for code that should be added, or notice errors, please +mail Inanna on CrystalMUSH or e-mail me at hales@cadvision.com. I welcome and appreciate your input! Thanks, |
Text Conventions used in this guide
Messages, prompts, and other output that appears on your screen are shown in formatted, non-bold text. If part of the output is a variable, the variable name will appear in italics and encased in <>:
I don't see that.
High Ledge created with room number <room number>
Commands that are to be entered also appear in formatted text, if the text is on a separate line. Variable names appear in italics and encased in <>.
@link Unlinked 165 = #9476
@link <exit name> = <room dbref>
Functions and commands that are to be entered appear in bold, formatted text in the body of a paragraph:
[u(#3527/tide_level)] returns "high", "medium", or "low".
Type ex #354.
Attributes and MUSH commands that are referred to in the body of a paragraph appear in normal text. If the command or attribute does not begin with a special character (i.e., @, /, + or &), the command will appear in single quotes:
You will @link one of the available exits from the Claim Nexus.
The &local_desc attribute stores the room description.
You can look at the code attached to any object you own with the 'ex' command.
Text in the body of a paragraph that may be unfamiliar or require explanation appears in normal italic text:
Each time you add a room or exit, you will use up building credits.
Each of your rooms will inherit this code from your master claim object.
Text in the body of a paragraph that is meant to be emphasised appears in normal, bold-faced text:
You must @parent each of the rooms on your claim to the master claim object.
And finally, any item which appears in single or double quotation marks here should be entered without the quotation marks, unless specifically noted.
Variable Naming
In most commands, a room, object or exit's name and dbref (its reference number in the MUSH database) can be used interchangeably if you are in the same room or, in the case of an object, if you are holding the object. The table below shows the variables that are used most often in this guide. Unless the variable specifies to use the name or dbref, you can usually interchange the following:
| <room> | The room's dbref, or the word "here" if you are in the room. |
| <exit> | The exit's dbref, or any of the names or aliases specified in its @name attribute if you are in the same room as the exit. |
| <master> | The master claim object's dbref, or the word "master" if you are holding the claim object or it is in the same room with you. |
Therefore:
@link <exit name> = <room dbref>
indicates that you should use the actual name of the exit and the dbref of the room when performing this command (at this time). For example, if the exit name was "Unlinked 165" and the room's dbref was "#8887":
@link Unlinked 165 = #8887
However,
@parent <room> = <master>
indicates that you could use the room's dbref or the word "here" if you are in the room, and the master claim object's dbref or the word "master" if you are holding it. If the master claim object's dbref was "#1283" and the room's dbref was "#8887", any of the following could be used:
@parent here = master
@parent #8887 = master
@parent here = #1283
@parent #8887 = #1283
Next step: Getting Started »