As you might notice if you've taken the time to glance at A Guide to Building an Area on Dawn of the Ages (if you have not, do so now), the area file is a very structured document. It begins first with an #AREA statement, followed by <help>, #MOBILES, #OBJECTS, etc. Each statement, called an area header, tells the mud what is what in the area file. For example, under #MOBILES will go the mobs found in the area, objects are found under #OBJECTS, rooms are under #ROOMS, and so on. For Dawn of the Ages areas, you'll notice there are ten such headers, followed at the end by a #$ that ends the area file. We're getting ahead of ourselves; let's start with the topmost area header, #AREA :
#AREA
redBeerInn.are~
The Red Beer Inn~
{ ALL } Nekhupshmut The Red Beer Inn~
1 123
As mentioned before, the first line #AREA is an area header. It tells the mud that this file, named "redBeerInn.are" (found on the second line), is publicly called "The Red Beer Inn" (line three), is open to all players (line four), is built by Nekhupshmut, and takes up vnums 1 to 123 (line five).
This last line needs a little more elaboration. In many ROM muds, the numbers displayed by the fifth line are the numbers given to you by the IMP (Immortal Most Played? IMPortant Mud Person? the king of all gremlins which haunt even the best-laid-out areas? *shrug*) in charge of areas. These numbers often are given in blocks of 100, so you might be given number 4700 to 4899, two hundred rooms, or some similarly-bound numbers. The numbers have been given the name "virtual numbers" or "vnums" for short, and assist the core programming of the mud in sorting out and distinguishing objects, room, and mobiles from their counterparts. On Dawn, the vnum system has changed, and the immortals no longer require you to start with a specific number. In fact, starting with "1" will be just fine. Just make sure to use natural numbers, please. (i.e. 1, 2, 3, ...)
One more note before going on. The lines given above under #AREA must be given in the order as they appear above; if not given in this order, the area may not function correctly. This holds true for most of the code in the area file, as you'll find out later.
So we're ready to begin the next section, <help>:
<help> <topic name="area"> <topic name="Red Beer Inn" level="1"> The Red Beer Inn is found just outside the gates of Midgaard. It's a friendly place, run by the retired trollslayer Karn, and boasts the finest in Ayreonian ales. One can also find comfort in the Inn's historic beds, slept in by several of the continent's most famous heroes. </topic> <topic name="Karn" level="51"> Karn was once Astrogoth's right-hand dwarf. But the loss of a forearm, together with the flowing of the River of Time, forced this one-time mighty trollslayer to give way to the younger generation. Nonetheless, Karn is one bad-ass dwarf. Players shouldn't mess with him. </topic> </topic> </help>
Notice a couple things about <help>. First, the whole thing is written in Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, for short. (See The World Wide Web Consortium for more information.) One has an opening tag (<help>), followed by another opening tag (<topic name="area">), etc. At the end of the given help text there is a closing tag (</topic>) followed by another closing tag (</help>). These tags are need if one wishes to give help about a certain area, tell what it is about, who may be there, when it was founded, how it was founded, and so on. Note the <help> is not necessary to allow the area file to run, and most ROM muds do not have this feature. At Dawn, however, though it is not necessary to have the <help> area header, it is highly recommended.
Second, one can place helps into the document that are level restricted. In other words, if you want players to see one thing about the area, and you want immortals to have access to more information about the area, you can specify this in the <topic> tag. This can be useful if you want players of higher level to know of a quest in the area, you wish immortals to know of possible god-like items in the area, and so forth.
Let's go through the <help> section line by line:
<help>
The above is the opening of the <help> area header. Next:
<topic name="area">
This tag will place all susequent <help> entries under the 'area' branch of the mud's help-tree. In other words, when a player types "help area", she will find the subtopics for your area in the help file. The next line follows as:
<topic name="Red Beer Inn" level="1">
Another opening tag, which, when a player types "help red" or "help beer" or "help inn", will present the information given between the above tag and the closing tag (more on this below). You'll notice the 'level="1"' written there; this specifies to the mud that only players level 1 and up (i.e., all of them) should see the help entry. The next bit is the <help> you wish the player to see about your area:
The Red Beer Inn is found just outside the gates of Midgaard. It's a friendly place, run by the retired trollslayer Karn, and boasts the finest in Ayreonian ales. One can also find comfort in the Inn's historic beds, slept in by several of the continent's most famous heroes.
When a player types "help red" or "help beer" or "help inn", the above information is what she will see. After this information is given Dawn requires a closing tag:
</topic>
For every opening tag given, an appropriate closing tag must be given. If this is not done the area will not work properly. Next we have another opening tag:
<topic name="Karn" level="51">
This tag presents information on 'Karn' for whoever types in "help karn". Notice the information is restricted to players level 51 and above, that is, immortals. Again, this can be a useful device for builders who want players only of a certain level to have access to the information given about the area. Lastly we have the rest of the <help>:
Karn was once Astrogoth's right-hand dwarf. But the loss of a forearm, together with the flowing of the River of Time, forced this one-time mighty trollslayer to give way to the younger generation. Nonetheless, Karn is one bad-ass dwarf. Players shouldn't mess with him. </topic> </topic> </help>
The information on Karn is given, followed by a closing tag for the topic on 'Karn', another closing tag for the topic on 'area', and one last closing tag for the opening <help> tag. Once all the correct tags are in place, the help section is done.
Now for a slight detour. The #MOBILES area header is next in the Guide, but we will start with something simpler and perhaps more basic, the #ROOMS.