chapter 33 "QCS: Creation"
Creation breaks down into three categories. "Things", rooms, and
doors. Let's look at things first:
Thing creation:
---------------
In this category we're including NPC's, weapon, armor, unspecial items,
tables, furniture, books and containers. Basically things that actually show
up somewhere. A door is a very special sort of object and does not fall
under this category.
To make a new thing, the syntax looks like this:
create THING FILENAME
The THING is the category of item we are creating. The FILENAME is
the name of the file that will contain this item's configuration data.
You may enter an absolute path, or you may simply enter a filename. If
you enter a filename, QCS will attempt to figure out the best place
for this file. If your current working directory has a name QCS understands
as being compatible with the type of object you are making (for example,
your cwd is /realms/you/npc and you are making an NPC) it will use that.
Otherwise it will search parent and children directories for a
directory name it understands this way. Finally, if it can find no
compatible directories for your file near your cwd, it will put it in
the appropriate directory in your home area (in this case,
/realms/you/area/npc ).
Avoid a relative path. It probably won't work the way you think.
When the command completes, FILENAME will be a file containing the
data for your generic thing, and a copy of that generic thing will appear
in the room you are in.
If, for example, you entered:
%^GREEN%^create npc cowboy%^RESET%^
The room you are in will contain a generic NPC which *does not*
answer to the id of "cowboy". This NPC is just a generic NPC whose
filename is (probably) /realms/you/npc/cowboy.c and isn't yet a real
cowboy. You'll need to use the "modify" command to make a proper
cowboy out of him.
Room creation
-------------
Naturally, if you create a room, a new room will not appear inside
your current environment. Instead, the syntax of the "create" command
is different when you want to create a new room.
You may have noticed that you can't use the "create" command to make
a new room adjacent to your workroom. This is for your protection and
my sanity. Files which contain the directive "SetNoModify(1)" are
immune to QCS manipulation.
Rooms like your workroom, the default start room, the void room, etc,
are set nomodify. This is because if you screw it up, you will be
sorry, and I just don't want to hear it.
So, suppose then that you're in your sample room (one room east
of your workroom) and you want to make a new room. You might issue
the following command:
%^GREEN%^create room south testroom1%^RESET%^
What this does is copy the room you are in (in this case,
/realms/you/area/sample_room.c) to a new location (perhaps
/realms/you/area/testroom1.c). But the neat thing is, this new room
does not have the same exits as the room you are in. The new room
has just one exit, leading back to where you are.
The net effect of all this is that when you issue this command,
you make a new room in the direction you specify, and this
new room looks just like the room you're in, only the exits are such
that you can travel back and forth between the rooms.
Door creation
-------------
Doors are funny things. In Dead Souls, they aren't objects in the
conventional sense of a thing which occupies a room you're in. Rather,
they are really daemons which attach to adjoining rooms. If that doesn't
make sense to you, don't worry. You're not alone.
The syntax for door creation is much like that for room creation.
After you create that room south of your sample room, you can now create
a door between them:
%^GREEN%^create door south sample_door%^RESET%^
This brings into existence a generic door (closed by default) which
is between the two rooms.
