This edition of the guide is not intended to be used by mortals
and should not be distributed without the explicit permission of the chief builder.
Players entering builder contests will get a slightly different version.
The O field in #AREADATA (see section III.2) sets some basic information for
lawful areas or ones using rogue guilds:
Dump Room: target of spec_guild_guard and act_graverobber
Jail Room: jail where guards will take outlaws, and the target of act_capture
Death Row: where outlaws are moved before being executed
Executioner's Block: where outlaws are executed
Justice Factor: how harsh the city's justice system is
Review section III.2 for more information on these values and their defaults.
In addition to the rooms specified above, a lawful city will require rooms
with the BARRACKS and FORBIDDEN flags (see Table P in Section VII.2). Barracks
rooms spawn extra townguards. Any PC caught in a forbidden room by a townguard
or a citizen will be flagged as an outlaw.
Outlaws caught in safe rooms will be automatically arrested without a fight.
A large number of citizen mobs in a safe, forbidden area could make for an
interesting game of hide and seek.
There are four types of mobs important to outlaw code:
Jailers have SPEC_JAILER and must load in a room which is NOT the jail, death
row, or executioner's block.
Executioners have SPEC_EXECUTIONER and must load at the executioner's block.
They must also have ACT_SENTINEL.
Townguards have SPEC_TOWNGUARD; these are the mobs who actually hurt outlaws.
They will spawn extra versions of themselves from rooms with the barracks flag
if one is available.
Citizens have ACT_CITIZEN and will cry havoc whenever they see an outlaw or
illegal activity. The miscreant will immediately be flagged an outlaw, and
townguards will be summoned to the location.
There are a variety of conditions under which mobiles will automatically attack
during combat.
Any mobile which is ACT_AGGRESSIVE will attack all players up to 5 levels above
the mob's level. An ACT_AGGIE_ALL mobile will attack all players. If a mobile is
aggressive and has ACT_WIMPY, it will attack any sleeping players. (Otherwise it
will really want to attack but will be too afraid.)
If the player's level is within 4 of the mob, and the mob and the player are
not both good-aligned, the mob may "scream and attack!" the player to assist
the fighting player or the mobile being fought. Good mobiles will never assist
against good players, but any other combination is possible. Another alignment-based
assist is available in SPEC_GUARD and SPEC_GUARD_WHITE, which both cause a mob
to assist against the lowest-align characters who have alignment below 300.
You can also 'fake' assist behavior by making mobiles aggressive, but unable to
see movehidden or invisible. Then invisible players will not incur the wrath of
these mobs until they become visible, and if fighting some mobile in the room
makes the player visible, the resulting aggressive attack will function like an
assist.
As mentioned in section I.3, Lord areas are difficult to write because the areas
must follow several rather stringent guidelines. While you should consult with
the person in charge of your building project for details and advice, you may
find these guidelines a good start:
Mob density
Lord areas have 50-60% mob density, depending on swarminess.
Swarminess
The more exits and entrances a room has, the more swarmy it will be. Narrow
hallways with only 1 way in and out are to be avoided as they are too
un-swarmy. This leads to choke-points which can be solo-ed or duo-ed.
Drift Mobs
Drift mobs ignore exits (except when fleeing or hunting) and simply drift
up and down the vnum list, 1 room at a time. They cannot change terrain
types in this manner. Drift mobs work best in nonsequential rooms, so that
they appear to come from nowhere, for instance, the vnum order in
Unravelling goes 99019912etc if you walk through it. This way,
mobs who might drift in will never show up on scan beforehand.
Sanc
All lord mobs have sanc. Exceptions can be made in the case of mobs who
have multiple immunities and other bonuses, such as giant HP or AC boosts
from unattainable armor. These have to be carefully balanced.
Specs
All lord mobs have damaging or highly inconveniencing specs. This includes:
any breath, cast-mage, cast-psion, cast-kinetic, cast-cleric, cast-wizard,
assassin, sorceror, mindbender, poison, archer, sniper, archerall,
buttkicker, warlord, demon, priest-lite.
Boss specs
The following specs are primarily intended for bosses and should not show
up on common mobs; battle-mag, battle-cle, battle-sor, breath-super,
illusionist, priest
Mob vnums
All lord mobs need to have their own distinct vnum and M reset unless they
load in the same room and stay there. If you need 5 guards, you have to
make 5 different vnum and give each 1 reset. Having 1 vnum w/ 5 resets can
lead to sudden clumpage which can make the area unrunnable and can also
lead premature xp-drain of the area. The only exception are mobs who load
in the same room and stay there, such as balefire beasts. Each room has its
own vnum of beast which loads 3 times.
Aggressiveness
All Lord mobiles must be made aggressive with ACT_AGGIE_ALL or ACT_AGGRESSIVE
unless they are ticket mobs (so their vnum is the value0 of a ticket item.)
Group Focus
Your area should not be designed so that is soloable. Design your area so that
at a minimum three group members are required to survive.
Because of the legend back story of an unbiased contest of fate generated
by higher powers, here are some things to keep in mind for legend building:
Legend areas apart from the central nexus and any additional neutral areas
added in the future should all have 3 identical versions, one for each team.
The only differences should be the color adjectives and the actual vnums.
Typically the area is written for one set of colors and vnums and then
search and replace is used to generate the additional copies.
If the vnum ranges being used only differ in the starting digits, it might
be helpful to code with vnums using the correct last digits and a prefix
such as XXXX that can be easily replaced without overwriting other numbers
unexpectedly, which avoids the need to search and replace each specific vnum.
If you want to 'rotate' an area you can run a search/replace on the exit
numbers D0-D3 with adjustment of any necessary resets.
Also keep in mind that the current listarea program might generate errors for
newly created legend specific planes, poisons, arrow types, etc. which work
fine when the area is actually loaded.
Legend Mobiles:
Legend mobs should not have histories or distinctive names, they were created specifically for the test of fate. Similarly, room descriptions should be kept fairly generic, although any descriptions can be detailed, especially for special rooms or mobs. Look at some of the existing areas for an idea of what to aim for. One notable exception to the rule of being non-distinct are the power point items which have individual names.
All legend mobs need to have the team value set correctly to match the area color unless the mob is in a neutral area and intended to be aggie for all 3 teams.
Teamed legend mobs apart from trainers or other mobs that are not accessible to other teams should have the ACT_AGGRESSIVE flag. Do not use ACT_AGGIE_ALL unless it is a neutral mob that should attack all teams.
Except for boss type mobs, legend mobs should not have Sanctuary, Protection or Werrebocler currently due to the time it takes to kill the mobs. Note that there is now a significant "ramping up" of legend mob power every 50 levels (250-499).
Legend Objects:
For Legend objects a special file exists that controls visibility or use of some objects. Regardless of the actual area file that you modify, these settings are done in teamobj.obj.
The format of entries is as follows:
values for and :
0 no restrictions
1 by original powerpoint owner, e.g. Silver for Silver Citadel
2 by current powerpoint controller
4 by team setting of the object
These values can be combined, i.e. use 1|2 to allow both the original owner and the
current controller of a powerpoint.
Can see controls visibility of an object.
Can use controls use of an object. This is currently implemented for enter (i.e.
portals and nexus) and for push/pull (i.e. levers).
may vary depending on the and . At this point
the only valid option is to give the number of the powerpoint to check, where the
numbers are as follows:
0 Silver Legend Tower
1 Silver Legend Keep
2 Silver Legend Bastion
3 Silver Legend Fortress
4 Silver Legend Citadel
5 Golden Legend Tower
6 Golden Legend Keep
7 Golden Legend Bastion
8 Golden Legend Fortress
9 Golden Legend Citadel
The item with vnum 40721 is visible to all teams. Use is restricted to the members of the team that is the original owner of powerpoint 1, the Silver Legend Keep.
42950 0 3 6 * lever - north door
The item visibility and use is restricted to the team that currently controls the powerpoint 6, the Golden Legend Keep.
Note that skills or spells with slot number 0 cannot be used when building items that require a slot number. For instance, you cannot make a potion that casts farstride.
Distinction; Elder Gods, such as Straul, Acilese and Quixoltan existed BEFORE our world. Local Gods were created on it or by it, such as Kra, Roixa and Tul-Sith.
In the beginning, Straul loved Kisestre, but he was so hideous in personality and appearance that she did not return his feelings, and so he imprisoned her on a barren ball of rock. Unable to free Kisestre, her father Merrighand created 26 companions for her, the original 26 Fae. For thousands of years, the Fae kept the imprisoned Goddess company as she populated her new home with plants, animals, and all forms of life. Gradually, the Fae became more obsessed with their own pursuits, and Kisestre passed away somewhere deep within the forests of Wildwood. Merrighand spoke, decreeing that one day, an Avatar would arise from the peoples of the world, and destroy Straul forever. Merrighand creates the original Immortal Guardians to safeguard the process.
The Fae breed. Their 7th generation on Midgaardia gives birth to lesser creatures; the High Elves.
Two rival mountain Gods (Durr and Abishai) spawn Dwarves and Trolls respectively to fight out their differences. The two races battle on and off for centuries, but no decisive victory is achieved. Abishai's mountain becomes known as Devil's Peak.
The first Fae blood is drawn. Paehandra murders her brother Pascilon. The Fae begin to fight among themselves.
With the Fae divided, Straul chooses this time to sabotage the Ascension and sends his giant armies to destroy Midgaardia. The first War of Giants and Ents ensues. The Dark High Elves and the Dwarves allied with them retreat underground, becoming the High Drow and the Duergar. They plan to ride out the war and resurface in more peaceful times to destroy their own enemies. Against the combined armies of Ents, High Elves, Dwarves and Fae, the Giants are defeated and driven into desolate lands.
For a time, there is peace. The first Kzinti scouts come to
Midgaardia.
Quixoltan creates Bahamut and Tiamat. Bahamut and Tiamat fight, creating legions of lesser dragons in their images. Humiliated, Quixoltan orders a stop to the fighting. Those who continue to fight are reduced to the forms of present day Lizard Folk and Troglodytes. Bahamut and Tiamat, along with the greatest of their followers, are banished.
The 7th generation of High Elves gives birth to mortal elves. The Fae flee Midgaardia for Arcadia and Noctopia. Only Trinh, Countess of Avalon, remains.
Safe in their own realms, the Fae begin warring in earnest. Yorimandil betrays Tesrah and finally defeats her with the help of Malafont.
War breaks out between the Elves and Drow, and Dwarves and Duergar.
Acilese spawns the Ancestors of Man as her own private romantic toys. Though short-lived, they breed at an exceptional rate compared to the Ancient Races, and soon begin to spread throughout the world. Keresh is their major city.
The Dark Fae are winning their war. With the exception of the Battle of Four Seasons, most battles go to Malafont's superior military prowess.
Unable to rally the giants, several of Straul's lieutenants unleash lesser evils upon Midgaardia. Ogres, Orcs and Goblins appear.
The Drow fall into Idolotry, worshipping the spider demon Lloth as though she were a God.
Dwarven general Kra accepts the surrender of the Duergar king.
Malafont is murdered by his own son. He proves to be a lesser strategist. This, combined with the loss of support from the Drow, turns the war against the Dark Fae. Ironically, it ends on Midgaardia with the battle of Avalon. Zydarielle herself, accompanied by legions of ebony archers, attacks the Willow Kingdom. The battle is a one-sided slaughter, and Contessa Trinh is killed. Adrial arrives with the dawn, and the tide turns. Zydarielle herself is slain, and the war is ended.
For a long time, nothing happens. The elves continue to fade, and the humans continue to multiply. In homage of their Fae ancestors, the High Elves spawn the lesser fae creatures of the world; sprites, faeries, pixies and the like.
The plant Demon Glasya arises. Many fall into his worship. He rallies the giants and the Second War of Giants and Ents begins. This time, the conflict is too large, and no race can avoid it. Glasya and Straul will suffer no neutrality. Reveria, Avalon and Keresh are all destroyed. The giants build Igecsoz for their Troglodyte allies. All Lizard Folk settlements are annihilated. The High Drow are wiped out. The Ents dwindle to a fraction of their original number.
It is in this war that many Local Gods are forged; Alesia Sableroix, a human noble who abandoned her privilege to live in the wild, proves to be a crucial factor in the war, continually rallying the dispirited Ents and leading them in battle. After her death, she would ascend as the Goddess Roixa. Theris, daughter of Straul, comes upon a field of human cavalry and revives them, crafting the Ancestors of all Centaurs. She sends her cavalry back into battle, led by her own son, Tul-Sith. Although unable to turn the tide of battle, Tul-Sith and his kind are instrumental in healing the hurts of the world after the war. Kra is killed, and becomes a rallying point for her people. In the end, the Guardians intervene, and destroy Glasya, burying his temple. The giants are struck dumb and left to wander aimlessly, never again to rally under Straul's name.
With the loss of the High Drow, there is no longer enough Dark Fae essence in the universe to sustain Noctopia, and it fades into nothing. Only a handful of Dark Fae survive.
The Children of Acilese forge a new city, Midgaard, in the clearing that once contained Glasya's temple. Humans spread and take over much of the lands once ruled by older races. Only Igecsoz, Mt. Durr and the ancient heart of the Kingdom of the Willows stand independent.
