OLC

From Wormhole Sci-Fi MUD Homepage

OLC is the on-line creation system. OLC is not a standard component of basic CircleMUD, although most MUDs have included functionality of this kind, nowadays. In Wormhole, only immortals may use OLC. The key advantage of OLC is that allows changes to be made without the need for a reboot before the changes take effect.

Another advantage of OLC is that is permits people with no knowledge of the formats for game files such as .wld, .obj etc to develop areas... although some people in the developer community think that it's best to understand what's going on inside the game, since off-line editing allows bugs to be tracked down.

OLC allows several kinds of changes to be made to the game:

• REDIT - room edit, allowing typos to be fixed, doors to be specified, etc. Some people even write whole areas using OLC, although this is a very slow way to build a new area.
• OEDIT - object edit, allowing items to be changed, typically for balance purposes, although it is possible to create all-new items this way, if you want.
• MEDIT - mobile edit, allowing mobiles to be balanced to make them tougher, easier, richer or whatever. Unlike the other OLCs, MEDIT is imperfect, since some of the changes you can make require a reboot. For example, a mobile's hitpoints, normally specified as "dice plus adds" are not calculated correctly until after a reboot. The "adds" component is always left out, leaving you with a very fragile mobile, e.g. 1d50+450 would actually give you a mobile with hitpoints between 1 and 50... which sucks if you're trying to test the area. Use the developer port, and reboot.
• ZEDIT - zone edit, permitting you to specify what mobile loads in a room, what equipment it's wearing, etc. This is easier to achieve by looking at the .zon file itself, since then you don't have to find the right room before making a change... and you can see the "bigger picture", and copy and paste common sections... but ZEDIT is available if you need a quick fix without causing a reboot.
• SEDIT - shop edit. Currently buggy. Do not use within Wormhole MUD. Use it on a developer port if you must.
• XEDIT - X edit is for producing personalised equipment, or unique items and mobiles for use as quest clues or actors, or just for fun.
• TRIGEDIT - used for editing scripts (sometimes referred to as triggers).

Known issues:

• Every instance on an OLC'd object changes as soon as the immortal has finished making the change. XEDITed items with the same original vnum will become 'vanilla' versions of the item if OLC is used on the basic item while a personalised item is in-game.
• Mobiles already in the game do not change when MEDIT is used, but any loaded thereafter will be 'new generation' ones (except for the problem with hitpoints, noted above)
• When OLC is used to create brand new mobiles and objects, it throws the .zonlike element of spaceships out of whack. Any ship that spawns after OLC has been used to create an item or mobile with a lower vnum than the item/mobile in the ship's .zonlike will cause the wrong things to be loaded. This is due to a mismatch between virtual numbers and absolute numbering, and only affects ships' contents.
• There is no OLC for ships.