Help-file for Dirt 3.1 (Abermud)
This file describes the contens and use of the files found on this directory.
Not all of these may be present at all times since some are generated by mud.
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o README
------
This file.
o DESC
----
The directory where the players descriptions are kept.
o MAIL
----
The directory where the mail from/to players is kept.
o ZONES
----
This diectory contains the source files for the rooms, objects and mobiles.
There is one file for each zone. This is where you would make changes or
create new zones etc.
o WIZ_ZONES
----
This directory contains the description of the rooms, objects and mobiles
that have been made on-line by the wizards. A file called ID_COUNTER will
be created here, it stores the id_counter variable from the game in case
the program is killed.
That variable is used to assign a unique ID to each in-game created item
so that one may refer to them on reset for example. If this file should
become currupted for some reason, it is important that you place a number
in it that is greater then any of the ID's of the items in the other files.
Other then that, you needn't think about the ID_COUNTER file.
The files in this directory should generally never be modified from outside
the game.
o actions
-------
Datafile for the actions. Like kiss, bow, applaud, bounce etc...
o banned_chars
------------
A list of banned character names, one name on each line. Those will not
be able to enter the game. If a ! appears as the first (and only)
character on the first line of the file, the result will be *reversed*,
ONLY those characters listed can play. A * may be used as a wildcard,
it represents 1 or more characters of any kind.
Example: If the file contained two lines, a ! on the first and a * on
the 2nd, all players would be permitted, as they also would if the file
was empty or if it didn't exsist.
Example: fuck* will not allow names like fucker, fucking etc.
o banned_hosts
------------
A list of hosts that the game will not allow any characters coming from,
(except priveliged ones, see data/prived)
It can be used to allow access from all but a few troublesome hosts, or
it can be used to restrict access to the mud to only a few hosts
(ie make it local/private) if the first line contains a ! by itself,
(same as above).
Examples:
If the file containd the line *.uio.no all hosts ending on .uio.no will
be banned. But if the first line in the file was ! _only_ those hosts
would be able to get on, making it a 'private' mud for the University
of Oslo, Norway.
o bootstrap
---------
Tells mud which files to read initial data from, not very interesting
to others than the implementors.
o buletin[1-3]
------------
Information from the game administrators to the Everyone (1), Wizards and
higher (2), and Arch-Wizards (3).
o couples
-------
Who has been married.
o credits
-------
Persons who have made important contributions to the development of
the DIRT/AberMUD source-code.
o *.i
---
All files ending with .i (Example: mudlist.i) can be displayed by a
player using the info command. (In the example above, the player would
type "info mudlist"). Useful if you want to inform the players of something.
o fullhelp
--------
This file is searched when the "HELP <command>" command is used. It is first
filtered so that only information the player is allowed to see gets through.
Gives a brief description of each command.
o help[1-4]
---------
A list of possible command-names. It is shown when HELP is typed.
[1] is for everyone, [2] for Wizards, [3] for Arch-Wizards and [4] for Gods.
o hours
-----
A list of time intervals which controls the mud's opening hours.
The lines say when the mud is open. If the file does not exist, or if it
is empty, the mud is assumed to allways be open. Otherwise, it will be
closed for all but the game operator outside of the time-intervals.
Example1: On a weekend-only mud the file would contain one line:
Friday 16:00 -> Monday 8:30
Which means that the mud is only open from 4pm friday to 8:30am monday.
Example2, a mud which is open except during working hours but all day
weekends could contain these lines:
Mon 18:30 -> Tue 07:00
Tue 18:45 -> Wed 07:00
Wed 17:30 -> Thu 07:00
Thu 18:00 -> Fri 07:35
Fri 16:00 -> Mon 08:35
The day's name can be abbreviated as long as it's still unique. Of course
the file can contain as many intervals as you wish, also several each
day if for some reason this was wanted.
The players will be notified 15 and 5 minutes before closing time.
o illegal
-------
A list of illegal character names. You can use ! and * here too like above.
o info
----
This file is shown when INFO is typed without arguments.
o levels
------
How many points are required to advance to each level. The first line
say how many levels there are, don't change that number, as a change in
the number of levels will destroy the carefully balanced combat-system.
Feel free to change the points-requirements though.
o locations
---------
Locations, loaded at boot time. generated from the ZONES files, dont
make changes here.
o messages
--------
A database of messages that are shown in various situations.
o mkdata.log
----------
Log-file for the program that generates the locations/mobiles/objects
files from the ZONES files.
o mobiles
-------
See locations above.
o motd
----
The Message-Of-The-Day. This file is printed every time someone logs on
to the game.
o nologin
-------
As long as this file exists, only priveliged players (see data/prived) will
be allowed to enter the game. It is created by the SHUTDOWN command and
removed by the OPENGAME command.
Its contens will be printed when someone unsuccessfully tries to enter.
o objects
-------
Information about objects, read when you enter the game. It is generated
from the source-files in the ZONES-dir. so any changes here will go away.
o pflags
------
Which MASK bits and PFLAGS a player is given when he changes status.
Read at boot time.
o prived
------
A list of priveliged players, one name on each line. Normally, only gods
should go here. The priveliged players will be able to do some things
when their level can't be tested on, like:
-Enter the game even if a file 'nologin' exists,
-Enter even if their host is banned,
-Use the UNVEIL command, if they also know the unveil password.
o reset.list
----------
Human-readable format of the reset data, used for debugging.
o setins
------
Wizards prompt and travel-messages.
o syslog
------
System log-file. Written on player entries and exits. Some commands are
logged too, like pflags, frob, etc.
o uaf_rand
--------
Contains all the information on the players, like score, level, passwd etc.
o verbs
-----
See 'locations' above. Generated from verbs.src
o verbs.src
---------
Defines the verbs (commands) that are allowed.
o wiz.txt
-------
The "Welcome to Wizard" message.
o wizlist
-------
Generated by mud and read at boot-time. There is normally no need to
edit it, but if you do, kill the mud first or the changes will go away.
o zones
-----
See 'locations' above.