Messages

1

Building Board / Re: Day/Night script

« on: September 08, 2016, 04:33:31 pm »

Butbutbut....it was SUPPOSED to work!  I dunno why it doesn't work *sniff*.  In fact, we tweaked it and tweaked it on the buildport and it really seemed to me that it was working but when I tried it in the game, well, it just didn't work *sob*.

2

Scripting Board / Re: Scripted Quest Rewards you would like to see

« on: October 06, 2015, 04:02:33 pm »

a) DT detector (tells you if there is a DT in the zone).

An automatic DT detector (depending on how 4D is set up, and how the script works) might be taxing on 4D itself (particularly if it's a random script which fires every few seconds). Might be better to hard code this. A DT detector that has a cool down but gives a list of DTs in the zone / adjacent rooms would be better, but I was thinking one a DT detector which you hold (like a diving rod), and overrides the cardinal direction commands.

The first one just suggests a detector which tells you: yes, there is or no, there isn't.  For this, all you need is code which searches for room-flags to find all the dt rooms.  Add a zone-flag for any zone with a dt room and then use either a script or a hard code with checks for the zone flag.  I think the zone flag should be accessible no matter which room in the zone you're in.

I see two possible problems with this.  The first is that I (as a non-coder) find it simple to say, "Sure, easy-peasy!  Just get someone to write code that does this!"  The second is if dts here are not hardcoded but are triggers or a mix.  On TBA, I can easily do a search for any triggers that are named dt, deathtrap or whatever and then find out if they're used or not.  The only thing I would have trouble finding is a scenario like so:  You irritate a mob and the mob turns a room into a dt.  I don't think I've ever seen anything like that and I don't expect I ever will.  4D and TBA don't have all the same code so I don't know if it's possible here.

3

Suggestions & Ideas / Re: Is there a library, could it contain an interactive book?

« on: April 29, 2015, 07:30:27 pm »

Sure, it's doable, but personally, if I planned to do one, I'd rather follow a book that's already written and just copy it in.  Because of the work involved, I'd prefer it to be one of the simpler books for younger people, not one of the d'n'd books for more adult readers (adult as in reading level, not situations which I wouldn't write anyway and Molly wouldn't accept!)

You can compare these two (not well, but I think they give a sense of the difference between them):
http://www.fightingfantasygamebooks.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=45&Itemid=9
http://www.cyoa.com/collections/classics/products/the-abominable-snowman

Right now all my books are in storage so I can't give better examples.  If you need a fix of interactive fiction now, you can try:
http://chooseyourstory.com/Stories/

There's more info on different types of interactive, there's a wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamebook

I have to admit that the subject interests me to the extent that many of my partly written zones are done with interactive elements.  This makes them interesting for muds that only have one person on at a time, but not so good if there's a chance of two people being in the zone at the same time.

4

General Discussions / Mud Connector random mud pick

« on: April 20, 2015, 07:21:13 pm »

Hey!  There we are at the (almost) top of the page?  Did we hook any new fish?
http://www.mudconnect.com/

(No offense meant to any fish or non-fish, old or new)

5

News & Announcements / Re: Weekly Puzzle / Trivia contest

« on: August 28, 2014, 03:49:15 pm »

Off topic, I'd like to point out that some of the Scarlet Pimpernel books can be found online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/o#a45

The Laughing Cavalier (a prequel)
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel (short stories)
I Will Repay
The Elusive Pimpernel
Lord Tony's Wife
Eldorado

6

Building Board / Re: GlobalTime triggers

« on: August 28, 2014, 03:25:30 pm »

It's not broken yet   Date shows that the port has been up 2 days, 3 hours.

7

Building Board / Re: GlobalTime triggers

« on: August 26, 2014, 10:20:26 am »

We've now verified that either time or globaltime will only work if a mort is in the zone, except for room 27553 (mob 27516) which triggers consistently whether or not a mort is logged in to the build port.  I wondered if it might be the mobs but the message I input checks only for the room, not for if the mob loaded or not.  It seems that the room may not know its vnum if no mort is present.

My understanding is that globaltime is to prevent this situation.  In the other zone, the triggers are working with a time trigger (as opposed to a globaltime trigger) even if no mort is present.

8

Building Board / GlobalTime triggers

« on: August 25, 2014, 09:29:59 pm »

Hi, my name is Parnassus and I'm generally over at TBAmud.  I've been invited to consult on some zones on the 4D build port.  This has been really interesting but there are some differences between TBA and 4D codes which gets a bit confusing.

This particular question has to do with Time triggers.  Over at TBA, a time trigger only hits when someone is on the mud.  This can sometimes make problems because if nobody is on the mud at the time named in the trigger and someone comes on after that time, things can be out of place.  That's where the GlobalTime kicks in.  These triggers fire regardless of occupancy.  That's my understanding, at least.  Also, on TBA, triggers affect lower Imm levels while on 4D, they don't.

Kvetch and I have been trying to troubleshoot a time trigger that was on various rooms.  Before I looked at it, she reported that it worked with some rooms but not others.  I could not find any problems with the trigger except that it stopped working on any rooms.  I ran through my gamut of tests, took it all apart, put it back together exactly the same way, and it worked on all rooms.  The next time I checked it, it was again not working on any rooms.  I found that when I logged in a test character, it started working on all rooms again.  Kvetch found that without a test character, some rooms would work and some wouldn't but apparently only when I wasn't logged in.  We've tried both Time and GlobalTime with the same outcome.  She's got the same sort of trigger working in a different zone which fires consistently.

Right now, one room is triggering while the rest aren't.  Any ideas of what might cause this sort of behavior?  The triggers are all properly attached and run if my test character is on.  Without a test character, one or no rooms trigger.