****************************************************************************
 * [S]imulated [M]edieval [A]dventure multi[U]ser [G]ame      |   \\._.//   *
 * -----------------------------------------------------------|   (0...0)   *
 * SMAUG 1.4 (C) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998  by Derek Snider      |    ).:.(    *
 * -----------------------------------------------------------|    {o o}    *
 * SMAUG code team: Thoric, Altrag, Blodkai, Narn, Haus,      |   / ' ' \   *
 * Scryn, Rennard, Swordbearer, Gorog, Grishnakh, Nivek,      |~'~.VxvxV.~'~*
 * Tricops and Fireblade                                      |             *
 ****************************************************************************

SMAUG has a very rich, full featured set of online building, creating and
editing commands, that go way beyond just area creation.

There are commands to edit and create not only rooms, mobiles and objects,
but resets, shops, repairshops, bulletin boards, mudprograms, spells,
herbs and more.

At the time of writting this text file, no good documentation was prepared,
but here is a brief summary of how area creation works with SMAUG.


--> 03/31/97, new olc help files have been provided by Herne of RoD, and
    can be found in this directory as Room.help, Object.help, Mob.help,
    Resets.help and Prog.help


To create and edit rooms, one must be a "Creator" (level 53), and have an
assigned room range of "vnums" (virtual numbers).  The command "rassign" is
used by a high level god to assign a range of numbers to a Creator.

Once a Creator has a vnum range assigned, they can type "goto #", where #
is the vnum they wish to create.  Once at this new location, they can
use "redit" to edit the various aspects of a room.

The "vnums" command can be used to see what number ranges are already in
use.

Similarily, the "oassign" and "massign" are used to give out object and
mobile ranges respectively.  For an immortal to create and edit objects
and mobiles, they must be at least a Savior (level 54).

For creating objects and mobiles, the commands "ocreate" and "mcreate" are
used.  The syntax being "ocreate <vnum> [vnum] <name>", where the first
vnum is the number to use, the second (optional) vnum can be used to make
this new object a duplicate on another existing object.

Once an object or mobile is created, the oset and mset commands can be
used to edit them.

Newly created objects, mobiles and rooms all have a special flag called
the "prototype" flag.  When this flag is set, all changes to an instance
of that object or mobile will change the base or "prototype" structure.

When the area is completed, it is installed by a (very) high level god
with the "installarea" command.  This process will make the area into a
real game area, and remove all the prototype flags.


A note on resets:

Resets are typically a messy and confusing issue for builders.  Included
with the SMAUG distribution are several ways of dealing with resets.

The "reset" command will allow you to do manual, low level reset editing.
This includes adding, inserting, deleting and editing resets directly by
number and type.

The reset command also has support to do room based reset commands, which
is a lot more natural and easy to understand.

Finally, there is "instazone" (and "instaroom") command.  This lets you
set up your area in the most natural way... placing mobiles into the rooms
you want them in... making them wear the equipment you want them to wear...
setting everything up how you want it, then simply type "instazone", and
it will create resets based on the way your area is set up.

The recommended way to do resets, is to use instazone first... then use
the other reset commands to fine tune your area.

Lastly, mudprogram editing (via mpedit, opedit, rpedit), can only be done
by a Demi God, since they can be very dangerous to your mud.

Many steps have been taken to try and make mudprograms safer, including
making mudprograms on prototype areas restricted (commands like mpforce,
mpadvance etc are restricted), but mudprograms can still lock up your
mud if they are made to cause a loop.


As of release 1.02, the ability for more than one immortal to work on the
same area has been added.

An example of this would be a scenario as such:
Bob has an area (Bob.are), and has agreed that he wants John to help him
with it.

A high god can BESTOW John with Bob.are ("bestow John Bob.are"), and then
John can assign himself Bob's area ("aassign Bob.are"), and use loadarea,
savearea, and have full editing access to Bob's area.