Changes Thumbnail

        Although there were over 275 changes made for MUD version 4E(35), only two need explaining in detail:

1)      We now have the concept of HOUSEs. A house is an organisation of mortals, all of whom can refer to the other playing members of their house by that house's name. Example: members of a house called TESTERS can type TESTERS ALL QUIT NOW and the message &quit;ALL QUIT NOW&quit; will be sent to all members of TESTERS (except for the person who issued the command). This grouping facility is the ONLY formal function a house has! However, it is expected that players will put the concept to good use by joining together with their like-minded fellows for reasons that only they understand... Personae can only be a member of one house at a time, and must be WARRIOR or above (so newbies don't get hassled the moment they enter).
        Houses are PURELY FOR MORTALS. They can only be created by MAGE-level personae - not even arch-wizzes can create them directly. Wizzes can not be members of houses; they lose their house membership when they make wiz.
        When a house is created, the name of its creating mage is stored. That persona can not create another house while the first one exists. There is a command, UNFORM, which will liquidate a house, however it can only be performed by the house's leader. Although the player who created the house starts off as its leader, they need not necessarily continue in that capacity: when a persona is killed dead dead, for example, that persona loses its house membership and will have to re-apply.
        There are a number of commands related to houses:
        FORM <str>
                Creates a new house, named <str>. This command is for mages only: they must not have created a currently-extant house before, nor be a member of any other house. There are some restrictions on what <str> can be, but they're all fairly common-sense...
        MEMBERship
                Tells you what house you're in, if any. This information is also given in SCORE. Captains get a full list of all members. Note that QW etc. will indicate to house captains whether people are in their house or not, too.
        RESIGN
                Removes you from your house. If you are the leader, then the house's most senior captain takes over (unless there are no captains, in which case the house dissolves).
        DESCRIBE <str>
                Adds <str> to the description of the house of which you're leader (prepending a space if it already has a partial description). DESCRIBE RESET resets it to &quit;&quit;. House leaders can only do this if there are no other members of their house: it acts as the house's constitution. If you're not a member of a house, DESCRIBE acts much like a weakened form of LOOK.
        JOIN <hse>
                Petitions the captains of <hse> to admit you as a member. The request remains until either you are accepted, you quit, or the house dissolves. You can have several requests to JOIN houses outstanding at any time.
        ADMIT <pla>
                Used by house captains to admit people who have asked to JOIN the house. All other outstanding requests by <pla> are then rescinded.
        EXPEL <pla>
                Throws <pla> out of the house, ie. revokes their membership. EXPEL <str> works, too, so it doesn't have to be done when the player named <str> is actually in the game.
        PROMOTE <pla>
                Used by the house leader to increase <pla>'s standing in the house. If an ordinary member, <pla> is made into a captain; if a captain, <pla> is made most senior captain (ie. next in line if the leader dies). PROMOTE <str> will work, too. There is a limit to the number of captains a house can have: one leader, one senior captain, then one ordinary captain for every 5 ordinary members. It IS possible to have too many captains (eg. 1 leader, 1 senior captain, 5 ordinary members: promote one member to captain, get 1 leader, 1 senior captain, 2 ordinary captains, 4 ordinary members).
        DEMOTE <pla>
                Decreases <pla>'s standing in the house. It is only used by house leaders to make a captain into an ordinary member. DEMOTE <str> will also work.
        MERGE <hse>
                Merges your house with another house. The leaders of both houses must type MERGE, and the house of the one to type it first is subsumed by the house of the one who typed it second. Example: house AAA has leader AL, captains AC1 and AC2, and members AM1, AM2 and AM3; house BBB has leader BL, captain BC1 and members BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4. If the leader of house AAA types MERGE BBB and then the leader of house BBB types MERGE AAA, house AAA is absorbed into BBB and ceases to exist. House BBB is as it was before, but with leader BL, captains AL, BC1, AC1, AC2, and members BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, AM1, AM2 and AM3.
        Things to note:
        a)      Non-members are told they're not members if they reference a house by name (whether any of its members are playing or not). I decided that on balance this is to be preferred, although it does mean that suspected names of secret houses can be verified by non-members (but membership itself can't be).
        b)      Typing a house's name, with no <str> following, will give you that house's description (if it has one), as set by the founding mage using the DESCRIBE command.
        c)      WHERE <house> as a mortal from the Tearoom always selects you as the <house> member in question, if you're actually in it.
        d)      House leaders are told when a member has left the house (if they're logged in when it happens). They can therefore on occasion deduce the identity of an invisible persona, eg. if they were attacked by an invisible house member and killed them.
        e)      When you apply to JOIN a house, that house's captains are told your name and your level whether or not you are invisible. Furthermore, they remain able to do so (via the MEMBERShip command) until you quit or are ADMITed.
        f)      You have to be a warrior at the time you make your application to join a house, but not at the time it is accepted. If you've since dropped a level, you can still get in. Likewise, accepted house members who go down levels are not ejected. Novice house members can exist.
        g)      House captains are told when an application has been accepted or denied by their house, but not by other houses. If someone has two outstanding applications and one is accepted, the second application will simply be removed without comment, as if the player concerned had quit.
        h)      House captains in fights who EXPEL FOE will be told FOE's name (if FOE is in their house), whether FOE is invisible or not. People who are EXPELled are, likewise, always told who EXPELled them.
        i)      House-related messages get colour codes (default is white on brown).
        j)      Mail can be sent to all members of a house by giving the house's name in the &quit;To:&quit; field, however replies will be to the sender only. If you want to reply to the house, use RH. You will have to use a persona which is a member of the house concerned to reply, though.

2)      Much as I dislike them personally, some of the more common emoticons (aka &quit;smileys&quit;) are now translated into commands. I've taken these from various sources, not all of which agree, to get a consensus as follows:

	EMOTICON        COMMAND
	:)              SMILE
	;)              WINK
	(the above are the only midget emoticons accepted)
	:-)             SMILE
	:-))            SMILE "a lot."
	:-)'            DROOL
	:-)~            DROOL
	;-)             WINK
	:-O             GASP
	:-D             LAUGH
	:-G             GRIN
	:-*             PUCKER
	:-#             PUCKER
	:-X             PUCKER
	:-}             LEER
	:-Y             WHISPER
	:-h             WHISPER
	:-v             SAY
	:-V             SHOUT
	:-@             SCREAM
	:->             SMILE "devilishly."
	:-7             SMILE "wryly."
	:-(             ACT "looks glum."
	:-|             ACT "looks unimpressed."
	:-||            ACT "looks angry."
	:-e             ACT "looks disappointed."
	:-o             ACT "looks taken aback."
	:-t             ACT "looks cross."
	:-C             ACT "looks staggered."
	:-T             ACT "looks tight-lipped."
	:-I             ACT "looks indifferent."
	:-&             ACT "looks tongue-tied."
	:-/             ACT "looks undecided."
	:-\             ACT "looks undecided."
	:-L             ACT "keeps a straight face."
	:-x             ACT "keeps quiet."
	:-0             ACT "is speechless."
	:-w             ACT "speaks with a forked tongue."
	:-W             ACT "speaks with a forked tongue."
	:-s             ACT "is incoherent."
	:-S             ACT "is incoherent."
	:-9             ACT "licks <their> lips."
	:-d             ACT "licks <their> lips."
	:-a             ACT "licks <their> lips."
	:-q             ACT "licks <their> lips."
	:-[             ACT "bares <their> fangs."
	:-]             ACT "bares <their> fangs."
	:-b             ACT "sticks out <their> tongue."
	:-6             ACT "sticks out <their> tongue."
	:-P             ACT "sticks out <their> tongue."
	:-p             ACT "sticks out <their> tongue."
	:-U             ACT "opens <their> mouth."
	:-u             ACT "opens <their> mouth."
	:-Z             ACT "looks confused."
	:-z             ACT "looks confused."
        The ACTs in the above are actually sense-sensitive, so if you're blind then you won't get eg. a "looks cross" message. Oh, and guests are allowed to do these, too, unlike normal ACTs.
        Because ; and ACT are the same as :, you can do things like ;-( and ACT -( too if you want - I made ;-) a special case.

        There are some other new commands, briefly:
        FAQ
                the MUD DeMystifier, to help with newbies
        LEVEL
                says how many points you need to go up a level
        DEPosit <obj>
                DROPs things you're KEEPing
        REPly <str>
                sends <str> to last person to speak to you
        QN
                short for QUICKSCAN

        In addition to the above, you should note that the following aren't quite the same as they were before:
        WHOX (aka QWX)
        HI/BYE
        the SPRING
        colds
        the extra time given to finish a mobile bash
        the colour zones on stamina that determine points lost for for fleeing

        Finally, mode F3 users now have access to the full set of control characters that the game can handle. Type /^ (slash up-arrow) to enter &quit;control mode&quit;; thereafter, you can type up-arrow followed by a character and it will be translated into a control character. Example: if you type ^P (ASCII 94 80), it will be treated as a control-P (ASCII 16). /^ again leaves this mode. While in control mode, ^^ means ^ on its own, ^+ means delete and ^- means backspace. All other ^ combinations ignore the ^ and just return the character following it.


Copyright © Multi-User Entertainment Ltd. (muse@mud.co.uk)
30th September 1998: changes.htm