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                    JOURNAL FOR MONDAY 29TH OCTOBER, 2018
______________________________________________________________________________

SUBJECT: Now you can have your own critters!
   DATE: Mon 29 Oct 22:13:58 GMT 2018

After some hard work and late nights, I’ve just updated the public dev branch.
What’s new? We now have mobiles that actually move around! They can also use
any of the player or scripting commands.

The final definition of the frog has changed slightly:


       Ref: M3
      Name: a small frog
     Alias: FROG
     Reset: AFTER→1m
   OnReset: A frog hops into view.
    Action: AFTER→10s JITTER→20s
  OnAction: $ACT croaks a bit.
          : $ACT leaps high into the air.
          : $ACT hops around a bit.
          : N
          : S
          : E
          : W

  It is a small, lime green frog. It's slimy and croaks. What more can you
  say?
  %%


Instead of using an $ECHO command I’ve reintroduced the $ACT command. This was
a very contentious addition to the Java version, so only the scriptable $ACT
variant is provided. The $ACT command allows actions to be acted out. Using the
frog example above, these lines:


  OnAction: $ACT croaks a bit.
          : $ACT leaps high into the air.
          : $ACT hops around a bit.


would produce the messages:


  The small frog croaks a bit.
  The small frog leaps high into the air.
  The small frog hops around a bit.


Notice that the name ‘a small frog’ becomes ‘the small frog’. Automatically
changing names that start with ‘a ’ to ‘the ’ seems to produce better
messages.

The reason the ACT command was contentious when added was because it let you
do things like:


  >act produces a large haddock and proceeds to slap you around the face with
  it.
  Diddymus produces a large haddock and proceeds to slap you around the face
  with it.


Fun, but some people objected to this silliness/freedom :(

I have updated all of the OnAction lists in the provided zone files. You will
need to update your own, or changed, zone files in a similar manner. Until you
do, any old OnAction lists will be ignored — well actually ‘Eh?’ will be
returned for an invalid command but you won’t see the message. Contact me if
you need some help :)

Other zone file updates I’ve made: I’ve added in the barkeep and flower girl
from the Java version of WolfMUD. The barkeep has some new actions :) A mouse
has been added to the tavern. It moves fast and is useful for triggering
locking issues and data races quickly. I’ve also separated the fire from the
fireplace narrative. Having the fire separate from the fireplace allows some
actions to be added that start ‘the fire…’ rather than nonsense like ‘the
ornate fireplace…’

I’ve been testing all of this for days with the race detector on. If anyone
finds, or thinks they find, any problems at all then please let me know!

  diddymus@wolfmud.org

Otherwise, all of these changes will make it into v0.0.11 on Halloween.

Only 1 day left till Halloween… /\oo/\

--
Diddymus


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