Building 101 and Beyond

Building 101 and Beyond

So what's a B-Bit and how do I get one? or What the heck are these lumps of clay?

New players are sometimes surprised that they can't immediately start building when they arrive at EMuck. In order to build on EMuck you need a Builder bit, or B-bit. Players have to 'earn' their B-bits by successfully furnishing their apartments. This process is an attempt to keep players from leaving poorly-built objects around the muck by ensuring that any player building has the basic skills necessary to, at the very least, furnish his or her own place.

In order to help you furnish your apartment, you're provided with two lumps of clay and 4 blank actions. To get these, just type @furnish. A good tip before you start in on your lumps of clay is to decide what actions you'll assign to them BEFORE you start naming and describing the objects. This will avoid the all too common situation of looking at two very lovely objects that don't easily lend themselves to actions. Another tip is to remember the actions that are already commands, like 'get' and 'look' - don't plan on being able to use these as valid actions.

Emuck's building-meister Eddie suggests linking your lumps to clay to your room if the lumps are to be objects of the room, otherwise actions linked to them may cause the objects to move.

The tools you'll need to use to form your lumps into lava lamps and get those actions groovin' are pretty basic. You'll note that most of the commands have corresponding 'o' commands - the 'o' stands for OTHERS and is what other players will see. For example, the DESC is what the person looking at your object will see, the ODESC is what everyone else in the room will see someone looks at your object. If you object is, for example, a lava lamp, then the DESC and ODESC might be :

@desc lava lamp=It's a red lava lamp	[player types 'look lava lamp' and sees "It's a red lava lamp"]
@odesc lava lamp=looks at the lava lamp	[player types 'look lava lamp' and others in the room see "player looks at the lava lamp"]

The commands you'll need are:

@desc = what players see when they look at your object or action
@odesc = what others see when they look at your object
@succ = What players see when they pick up your object or use your action (think SUCCess)
@osucc = What others see when someone picks up your object or uses your action
@lock = You can lock your objects or actions so that only specific players can pick them up or use them.
@fail = What players see when they try a locked object or action
@ofail = What other players see when a player tries a locked object or action
@link = links an object to a room
@attach = attaches an action to an object

Some things to remember when furnishing your apartment:

Describe your actions too. No, it's not technically necessary for your actions to work properly. However you will find that invariably SOMEONE will try to look at your action instead of just invoking it, and will complain at you because they can't get it to work. Do them (and you) a favour and just describe the action. It won't take long, and it can be as simple a description as "to use this action, just type [whatever]"
Describe the doorway to your apartment. It's an action too. However for people wandering along the muck your apartment door can be an important reflection on you. And on the muck you have the opportunity to make that door/entryway look any way you want it to - trying doing that in Real Life!
@lint is your friend. If you're not familiar with @lint, it's one of lar3ry's fabulous creations. This program is used to check rooms for building problems BEFORE you call an admin to have your apartment inspected. This can reduce the amount of time you'll have to wait before getting your B-bit.

When you've shaped your lumps of clay into objects and have your actions working, muckmail the admins that you're ready to have your apartment inspected. Assuming every checks out A-okay, the B-bit is yours! It's that easy!

If you still think that this sounds like a lot of work, keep in mind that the objects that you make from your lump of clay can be anything you want them to be. If you have grander plans for what you'd like to build, remember you can use your objects for your subsequent building endeavors. Think of them as freebies - anything else you build once you have your B-bit will cost you tickets.

The articles presented in this newsletter represent the views and opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of AmberThree Productions or EntertainMUCK.