DARKOVER 2.1 Builder Documentation for Darkover MUD MOBILE.TXT Last Updated: 12/17/2000 MOBILE.TXT Index: 1.......The Mobile File 1.1.....Notes on Mobs 2.......Mobile Archetype 2.1.....Ending the File 3.......Example Mobile 3.1.....Actual Example 3.2.....VNUM 3.3.....Name List 3.4.....Short Description 3.5.....Long Description 3.6.....Mobile Description 3.7.....Actions/Affects/Alignment/Mob Type 3.7.1...Action Flags 3.7.2...Affection Flags 3.8.....Attack Type/Race/<>/Secondary Flags 3.8.1...Attack Types 3.8.2...Mob Races 3.8.3...Secondary Flags 3.9.....Level/THAC0/AC/HP/DAM 3.9.1...Level 3.9.2...THAC0 3.9.3...AC 3.9.4...HP/DAM 3.10....Gold/Exp 3.10.1..Aggressive Races 3.11....Positions/Gender 3.11.1..Position List 4.......Comments and Tips 5.......Sample Excerpt 1.......The Mobile File ----------------------- The .MOB file contains all of the information required for Darkover to generate all of the mobiles for your area. The file is a list of mobiles in sequential order by their VNUMs and then ends with a few special lines (see Section 2.1 of this file on how to end the file). 1.1.....Notes on Mobs --------------------- A note from Launt: With mob damage. If you want a mob to hit hard, use +damage roll instead of really good hit dice.. i.e. use +50 damroll instead of 6d12 hit dice for a mob. 6d12 looks like a lot.. but it only averages out to 35 or so damage, and then thats only 20 or so with protection spells on... the moral of the story is, if you want a mob to hit, give it +damage roll. Also, incase some of you don't know this, if a mob is wielding a weapon, its hit dice are NOT used, the weapon's hit dice are.. A note from Rall: All around the mud, gold is way too high. Right now, the only thing that anyone cares about gold for is the finder, because gold is a really easy thing to aquire. We need to really adhere to the guidelines set below in the gold section for all mobs. 2.......Mobile Archetype ------------------------ This is the archetype for a simple mob. The characters '<' and '>' are simply used to offset a numerical value and should not actually be added into a file. This archetype differs from the standard Diku style mobiles. #VNUM name list~ short desc~ long desc ~ mob desc ~ <action flags> <affection flags> <alignment> D <attack type> <mob race> <attack strategy> <secondary flags> <level> <HITROLL> <ARMOR VALUE> <HP dice> <damage dice> <gold> <aggro races> <loaded position> <default position> <gender> 2.1.....Ending the File After the list of mobiles in sequential order by VNUM is done, you must add the following lines to the end of the file: #99999 $~ This should only be put in after the last mobile entry and should only be used once. 3.......Example Mobile ---------------------- The following is an example of a mobile and then a breakdown of its component parts with explanations. 3.1.....Actual Example #6800 mob example~ an example mob~ An example mob stands here setting a good example. ~ The example mob looks very strange. It's hard to make out any solid features. It's as if this mob wasn't really finished and doesn't have any purpose except to stand here as an example. ~ ^1 ^1|^5 300 D 107 2 0 ^1|^3 15 8 3 150d1+1 3d5+3 10000 0 8 8 1 3.2.....VNUM The mobile VNUM is a unique number which that mobile possesses. No other mobile in the entire MUD has this VNUM. However, this VNUM may be used by both an object and a room. Sharing a VNUM with a room or obj implies no form of connection however. 3.3.....Name List These are the words which players must use when interacting with the mob. Be sure to include at least one word from the short and long descriptions of the mob. If you use words not in these descriptions, players will have a hard time trying to do anything to your mob. These names must be separated by a space and the line must have a tilde at the end. For the namelist it is a good idea to have the first word in the list be the primary noun used in referencing the mobile -- not any of the associated adjectives. That is, for the 'undead beast,' the namelist should have 'beast' as the first keyword, then 'undead' as the second one. Be sure to leave ansi out of the namelist. 3.4.....Short Desc This is the description a player sees when the mob is attacking or exiting/entering a room. When the mob leaves a room, players would see "an example mob leaves north". The tilde should be on the same line as the desc. When adding ansi to this line, do not color any leading particles such as 'a' or 'the' or 'an' and so on and so forth. 3.5.....Long Description This is the description a player sees when entering a room a room and the mob is already there or typing look in a room with the mobile. The tilde for this entry goes on a separate line. When adding ansi to this line do not color the entire line -- instead color only the pertinant parts of the line. See intro.txt for more details. 3.6.....Mobile Description This is the description a player sees when examining or looking at the mobile. Try to make this a few lines describing what the mobile looks like and what its purpose is. Do not include items in this description which you have the mob equipped with; they'll show up in the examine anyway, and it looks stupid. 3.7.....Actions/Affects/Alignment/Mob Type The first two numbers are flags (see Section 4.2.2 in INTRO.TXT for use of flags). The first flag is the actions a mob takes. These determine whether the mob is aggressive, can cast cleric spells, etc. The second is the affection flag, this determines is the mob is poisoned, can sneak, has sanctuary, etc. The alignment of the mob can range from -1000 to 1000. This is no longer used on Darkover, so you should not have to worry about this. Set it to a positive number at all times. The mob type determine whether the mob is simple, complex or a Darkover specific mob. The D denotes the Darkover mobs, the kind explained here. 3.7.1...Action Flags 0 No Flags ^0 Special Mob has a special procedure. ^1 Sentinel Mob will not leave room it's in. ^2 Scavenger Mob will pick up items in room. ^3 Not Used For internal use only!! ^4 PMS Low chance that mob will actually Aggr ^5 Aggressive Mob will attack on its own all alignments ^6 Stay Zone Mob will stay in the zone it's loaded in. ^7 Wimpy Mob will flee if hurt badly. ^8 Not Used Not used ^9 Not Used Not used ^10 Not Used Not used ^11 Memory Will remember players who attacked and attack them. ^12 Helper Will assist other mobs. ^13 Not Used Not used ^14 Not Used Not used ^15 Track Mob will track characters down. ^16 AnimatedObj Players will be unable to attack. Good for quest mobs. ^17 Nocturnal Mob will only come out at night. ^18 Daytime Mob will only come out during the day. ^19 Is Cleric Will cast cleric spells. ^20 Is Mage Will cast mage spells. ^21 Is Thief Can use thief skills, will steal from players. ^22 Is Warrior Has warrior abilities. ^23 Nosummon Not used ^24 Nocharm Not used ^25 Stoneskin Mob has stoneskin ^26 Fireshield Mob has a fireshield ^27 Iceshield Mob has an iceshield ^28 Water Only Mob can only be in water rooms ^29 Mob Undead Another way of making a mob undead. ^30 Mount Mob is a mount (can be mounted). ^31 Is Druid Will cast druid spells. Note on flags: -------------- for the mob to track, it must have both the memory and track flags for the mob to be moody (PMS) it needs both the PMS and AGGR flags -- either general aggressive (32) or aggressive vs a specific alignment. The Nocturnal flag is good for bandits, wolves, vampires, and any other nasties. Daytime flag is good for citizens who shouldn't be wandering around at night. Don't set both flags! If you make a mob AnimtedObj, you *MUST* give it the Object race. 3.7.2...Affection Flags 0 No Flags ^0 Blind Mobile is blind. ^1 Invisible Mobile is invisible. ^2 Unused ^3 See Invis Mob can see invisible players. ^4 Sense Magic Useless on mobs. ^5 Sense Life Useless on mobs as of yet. ^6 Not Used ^7 Sanctuary Mob has sanctuary spell. (-20% damage) ^8 Group Do Not Use. There are .zon commands for this. ^9 Curse Mob has a curse spell on it. ^10 No Summon Mob cannot be summoned. ^11 Poison Mob is poisoned. ^12 Unused ^13 Degen Internal use only. ^14 No Invis Mob cannot be turned invisible. Good for quest mobs. ^15 No Charm Mob cannot be charmed. ^16 Sleep Mob has sleep spell on it. ^17 No Bash Bash skill won't work on this mob. ^18 Sneak Mob can sneak. ^19 Hide Mob is hidden. ^20 Fear Fear spell - Mob flees like crazy ^21 Charm Mob is charmed. ^22 Follow Do Not Use. There are .zon commands for this. ^23 Not Used ^24 Infravision Mob has infravision (can see in dark) ^25 Aware Cannot be backstabbed - Do not use on humanoid mobs! ^26 Fly Mob flies. ^27 Haste Mob has haste spell. ^28 FaerieFire Mob can always be seen. Good for fire mobs. ^29 Regen Mob heals at double speed. ^30 SlowHeal Mob heals at 1/4 speed. FaerieFire does not include the +AV penatly that the spell imparts. It only makes a mob permanently visible. 3.8.....Attack Type/Race/Attack Strategy/Secondary Flags The attack type of a mob affects what type of messages will be displayed when the mob is attacking. It is here so you can add color to your mobs. Mob race determines what type of creature your mob is. Please refer to Section 3.8.2 to see what races are available for mobs and what they do. The secondary flags is a bitvector. It is added because we have run out of other bitvectors for mobs. ;) 3.8.1...Attack Types 100 Standard Hit Messages 101 Bludgeon Type 102 Backstab Pierce Message 103 Slashes 104 Blasts 105 Whip 106 Pierce, normal messages 107 Claw 108 Bite 109 Sting 110 Crush 111 Missile 112 Cleave 3.8.2...Mob Races 1 Humanoid 2 Dragon 3 Giant 4 Demon 5 Divine 6 Animal 7 Insect 8 Plants 9 Object - most animated objects should have this 10 Ghost 11 Faerie 12 Troll 13 Undead - use this for most undead. 14 Tree - for the 'tree travel' spell. Dragon types breathe various nastiness at players. Ghosts are not trackable. Ghosts, Demon, and Divine leave no corpse when killed. Any items in their inventory just fall to the ground. Trolls regenerate at 4 times normal speed! A note on Trees. This race type is specifically for the 'tree travel' spell and must stick to strict guidelines. Most trees, treants, and the like should be Plants. You must obtain permission before creating mobs of this type. Trees are loaded in a special zone file so you will need to coordinate these with someone who has account access. Do not load these in your zone file, the mobs however should be within your file. Trees should have the following flags: -action flags: Sentinel (^1) -affect flags: NoSummon, NoInvis, NoCharm, NoBash (^10|^14|^15|^17) Trees may not have the action flag Track (^15). Anything else can vary with the tree. The level of the tree mob is the level a druid must be to travel to the tree or learn its name. No tree should be lower than level 35. In general tree placement needs to be in wilderness, and not in actual areas. The more out of the way the location the higher level the tree should be. Tree location and level must be approved. The name of the tree must be 'tree <other stuff> <name>'. 'tree treant oak sarathaias' and 'tree laurialia' are appropriate. 'tree ancient' and 'treant maple' are not. Do not put the name of the tree anywhere in its descriptions! Read quest.txt for more info on creating trees. Trees must have a qst file to make them speak. 3.8.3...Attack Strategy 0 Standard Attack - Initiates fight randomly, targets tank during fight. This is the standard attack mode on the MUD. 1 Random Attack - Initiates fight randomly, targets random people in room during fight. 2 Lowest HPs - Concentrates on person with lowest hit points. NASTY! 3 Highest HPs - Concentrates on person with highest hi points. 4 Lowest Level - Concentrates on person with lowest level. 5 Highest Level - Concentrates on person with highest level. 6 Brawl Strat - Mob rescues other mobs that are fighting more than 1 player 7 Guard - Mob guards its leader. A few notes on how this stuff works. Strategy selects who the mob should initally attack when it goes aggresive for some reason. It also selects who the target should be for special attacks such as kick, switch, bash, casting, circling, etc. Currently only spell targeting works fully with these options. Fighter based skills are being worked in slowly, but they will eventually be the control of this option as well. 3.8.4...Secondary Flags 0 No Flags ^0 Elemental Fire Mob ^1 Elemental Earth Mob ^2 Elemental Air Mob ^3 Mob Must Stay in Its Element(s) ^4 Elemental Water Mob ^5 At death, two of those mobs pop up! ^6 Internal use only. ^7 Internal use only. ^8 Internal use only. ^9 Internal use only. ^10 Mob is magical. Can only be hurt by spells or magical weapons. ^11 No_limited Wont enter limited rooms. ^12 limited Only enters rooms with limited flag. ^13 Internal use only. 3.9.....Level/THAC0/AC/HP/DAM 3.9.1...LEVEL Level ranges from 1 to 50: 1-10 Newbie 11-20 Low Level 21-30 Mid Level 31-40 High Level 41-50 Special Mobs (kings, dragons, demons) Level is the key factor for judging the other stats, if you find yourself putting really good stats on a mob (higher than what these docs suggest for the level) then consider upping the level of the mob to match the stats. 3.9.2...Hitroll Mob hitroll is generally equal to the mobs level -5. Poor fighters: -5 to -10 Good fighters: +5 to +10 So a 50th level Knight would have 50 hitroll, and a 50th level mage would have 35. A 50th level beast (like a dinosaur) would be 45. You dont need to stick rigidly to these guidelines, they just let you know what ballpark you are looking at. 3.9.3...AC * LEVEL * 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 20 20 20 25 25 25 30 30 35 35 40 40 45 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 80 * AC * * LEVEL * 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85 85 90 95 100 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 * AC * 45 46 47 48 49 50 ---------------------- 185 190 195 200 200 200 Adjust these values up or down depending on the mob: its agility, its size, whether it's a ghost type mob etc try not to go more than 20 points either way. 200 is the max. 3.9.4...HP/DAM For hit/damage dice, the format is xdy+z, where x, y and z are integers and 'd' *must* be lower case. If you do not want to add a constant to the die role, a '+0' still needs to be there. For example: 3d5+10 means the system will roll a five sided die three times and add ten, returning a value between 13 and 25, average 20.5. The same goes for hitpoints. There are two schools of thought on the use of dice: The first (let's call it school 'H') says dont use em, if you want a mob to have 4000 hp then make it 1d1+4000. This allows for greater control over zone mechanics, is quicker to write, and easier to adjust when editing. *NEW* If you built for darkover before version 2.1, it should be noted that the mobs in 2.1 should have approximately 1/3 more hit points than they had in Darkover 1. The other stats remain the same as they were in DO 1. The second school (school 'C') says variety is the spice of life, so if you want a mob to have around 4000 hp make it 2d1000+3000 with a minimum of 3k and a maximum of 5k and average of 4k. This method gives the players something new to confront everytime they face a mob, keeping a zone dynamic and fresh. HP for 40th level mobs is around 15-20 thousand a typical number for 30th level mobs is about 6-10 thousand for 20th level use about 1-2 thousand 10-20th level mobs have from 50-500 hp newbie mobs generally have fewer than 50 hp. use existing mobs as a general guide if your not sure what to use for hp/dam Damage: the key element in damage is the constant bonus you give after the diceroll (this constant is referred to as damroll). if you give a beasty mob 2d40+3 damage, then equip the mob with a beasty 3d6+2 axe he is going to be doing a very UNbeasty 3d6+5 damage when he goes at a player with the axe. Instead give him say 1d15+40 damage, thus he'll be doing 3d6+42 damage. You will also need to consider the ability of a player to get a disarm critical attack. When this happens, the mob will be using the value of what you set for him, and NOT the damage associated with the weapon you gave him. There's no need to come up with weird dice types for damage, traditionalists go for the xd8+y (like 2d8+9) type of thing, others prefer a simple 1dx+y (like 1d16+10) either will get you where you want, using large numbers of dice will lift the averages a bit, but then giving a higher bonus at the end accomplishes the same thing. In general the Damroll (bonus) should be about equal to the mob's level, and the dice should max at about 2/3 the mobs level. ie: 10th level mob- 1d6+10 20th level mob- 1d14+20 30th level mob- 1d20+30 40th level mob- 1d27+40 NOTE: HP and damage are somewhat interchangable, that is you could halve a mob's HP, double it's damage and it'd still be about as hard as it was. However, doing this kind of thing stuffs EXP around a lot. Lowering a mob's damage to something pathetic and giving it mega HP will mean it's exp will go through the roof, while the difficulty of the mob will go down a bit. This is because low damage makes a combat easy to judge and easy to flee from, and high HP means the mob wont heal quickly and you can sit on it all day whittling it down, running away..resting.......... So try keep mobs within the boundaries, but fell free to play with the numbers a bit, see what you get. 3.10....Gold The gold a mob is carrying around is highly dependent on what the mob is and where it is; a 'poor beggar' isn't going to be walking around with 5000 gold pieces, and a 'rich merchant' isn't going to be wandering around town with 2 gold coins in his pockets. Try to keep gold on the low side when assigning it, and use common sense (how much gold is a dog going to be carrying around anyway?). Keep gold amounts for the average mob UNDER ONE HUNDRED, and unless there's a _really_ good reason don't give mobs thousands of coins. Here is the standard I used when readjusting the gold. Level 1-10 = 0-100 gold (no execptions) Level 10-20 = 0-1000 gold for most, max 5000 Level 20-30 = 0-5000 gold for most, max 10000 Level 40-50 = 0-10000 gold for most, max 15000 This is somewhat flexible, but please stick to this, and keep things on the low side of things. 3.10.1..Aggressive Races This bitvector defines what races the mob should be aggro to. This is the replacement for the old aggro system to make it more extensive. 0 No Flags ^0 Not used ^1 Aggro_Human Mob is aggro to Humans ^2 Aggro_Dwarf Mob is aggro to Dwarves ^3 Aggro_WoodElf Mob is aggro to Wood elves ^4 Not used ^5 Aggro_HighElf Mob is aggro to High elves ^6 Aggro_Sprite Mob is aggro to Sprites ^7 Aggro_ShadowElf Mob is aggro to Shadow elves ^8 Aggro_Orc Mob is aggro to Orcs ^9 Aggro_Saurian Mob is aggro to Saurians ^10 Aggro_Minotaur Mob is aggro to Minotaurs ^11 Aggro_Lich Mob is aggro to Liches ^12 Aggro_Faerie Mob is aggro to Faeries ^13 Aggro_Troll Mob is aggro to Trolls ^14 Aggro_Centaur Mob is aggro to Centaurs ^15 Aggro_Goblin Mob is aggro to Goblins ^16 Aggro_Gnomes Mob is aggro to Gnomes ^17 Aggro_Kyri Mob is aggro to Kyris ^18 Aggro_Skaven Mob is aggro to Skaven ^19 Aggro_Elouve Mob is aggro to Elouve 3.11....Positions/Gender The loading position is the position the mob will be loaded in. The default position is the position the mob will enter after interaction with a player. This can do interesting things, depending on your imagination! 3.11.1..Position List The position of the mob is determined by the following: 4 - Sleeping 5 - Resting 6 - Sitting 8 - Standing 3.11.2..Gender List The gender of a mob is determined by these numbers: 0 - Neutral 1 - Male 2 - Female 4....Comments and Tips ---------------------- Mobs are fun. They are what make players go to your areas -- who goes to look at the scenery? But be inventive, be creative and have fun. Make your long and short descriptions make sense. Tips: o For your short descriptions, keep it to a word or two. This cuts down on battlespam. c.f. 'Urgklag the Ultimate King of Orcs' as a short description would be hell in battle. { Urglag the Ultimate King of Orcs send you staggering with his awesome slash! Urglag the Ultimate King of Orcs send you staggering with his awesome slash! Urglag the Ultimate King of Orcs send you staggering with his awesome slash! } 'Urglag' would be fine for a short description. o Long descriptions should be only a single line -- try to keep them from scrolling off to the next line. It just looks neater. If you really want to say a lot about a mob, put it in its long description. -*-*-*- At the very very end of the file, 'close' the file with the following: #99999 $~ 5.......Sample Excerpt ---------------------- The following is an actual excerpt from harpy.mob (one of the best .mob files in the game, IMHO). #14200 harpy winged serpentine scaly~ a #Twinged, serpentine harpy##~ #TScreaming and cackling, here flies a scaly, serpentine harpy.## ~ #TThis woman possesses a stunning beautifull face; her gaze has a most enchanting flair to it. Deep, dark eyes and a delicately sloping nose, her facial features are fair and innocent. Her smile is slightly wicked, though, and the sadness in her eyes may easily be a ruse to mask vile intentions. Begining at her neck, this harpy's body is covered with dull, flesh-tone scales that extend all the way down to her waist. >From there and down to her knees she is sports a coat of filthy, ragged feathers. Each of her legs ends in a large, hooked talon; razor sharp and well used. Wings of similar feathers adorn her back, spanning nearly twenty feet across when spread abreast. She screaches and screams and cackles at your presence; the presence of a meal to share with her beloved sisters.## ~ ^5|^11|^22|^25 ^2|^3|^4|^5|^24|^26|^27 -1000 D 107 1 0 0 35 -17 -6 5d100+3000 4d2+20 0 1 8 8 2 #14201 stalker aerial whispy~ a #W#Cwhispy aerial stalker##~ #W#CTransparent and whispy, this stalker drifts about the skies.## ~ #W#CThis being is vaguely humanoid, made up of whispy, drifting cloud- like material. Its arms are enlongated, and end in over-sized hands with thin fingers. Its face is twisted in a scowl, and is seems to laugh at the intrusion of mortals into its domain.## ~ ^5|^11|^14|^19 ^1|^3|^5|^26 -800 D 100 1 0 ^2 31 -12 -10 10d4+2000 4d2+25 0 1 8 8 0 #14202 vulture jet black~ a #Djet vulture##~ #DA jet black vulture circles the skies here in search of carrion.## ~ #DThis large, preditoral bird is quite fat, being well fed by the harpies. It serves them as a watcher and a pet, being able to fly farther and spy in areas wherethe harpies are msot certainly not welcome. Its eyes are blood red and beady, it ruffles its filthy feathers every now and then to shoo the maggots and flies away.## ~ ^7|^11 ^26 0 D 107 6 0 0 24 -4 -1 20d2+1200 3d3+6 0 1 8 8 0 #14203 harpy elder enchantress beautiful~ an #Telder harpy enchantress##~ #TA stunningly beautiful harpy is here, guarding her eggs.## ~ #TThis harpy possesses a certain beauty and seductiveness that the others lack. She is more lithe and shapely and rests gently on her massive nest.## ~ ^1|^5|^11|^22|^25|^14 ^2|^3|^4|^5|^24|^27 -1000 D 107 1 0 0 35 -17 -6 5d100+7000 4d4+20 0 1 8 8 2 . . . #99999 $~