[1345] in Coldmud discussion meeting

[COLD] Details in $places ($detail_frobs)?

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mon Aug 25 17:25:01 1997 )

From: "Luther, Clay" <clay@selsius.com>
To: "ColdStuff Mailing List (E-mail)" <coldstuff@cold.org>
Cc: "'mud@dante.selsius.com'" <mud@dante.selsius.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 16:18:55 -0500

In my old MOO(s), I would extend $rooms (and $things) so that they could
include themselves in the description of a room.  These "details" added
much to the depth of the MOO, since a player could look at, even fiddle
with, something described in the room.  Personally, I dislike the
mechanical look of many muds with regard to room descriptions, ala

	Sameold Room
	You're standing in a same-old room.
	Bob is here.
	Contents: a sofa, a bed, a mirror
	Exits: south, north

preferring instead more language-natural descriptions, ala

	Sameold Room
	You're standing in a same-old room. A large sofa is pushed up
against a window on the north wall. Bob is resting comfortably on the
sofa. A large four poster bed dominates the middle of the room. On the
far wall, a gilded mirror reflects your image. There is a door on the
north wall and a the bathroom door on the south wall.

These rooms and contents are identical, but the second one appeals to me
more.

In the GodNet MOO years ago, we had details working at this level.
Sometimes the details were implemented "lightly" as a list of aliases
attached to a state description (details could have multiple states -
for example a lamp detail could be implemented lightly with two states
(on/off) and appropriate descriptions for the states).  Sometimes
details were implemented "heavily" as $detail_objects, which $rooms knew
to include in their descriptions (exits, likewise, were included if a
particular msg property was set).

It seems that this is a job for Super Frob in Cold Muds (eg,
$wearable_frobs are details for users).  Unfortunately, being relatively
new to Cold, I am frob impaired.  I'd appreciate hearing other people's
ideas on this.

Thanks.

---
Onegaishimasu.

Clay Luther
clay@selsius.com

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