Playing CGMud

CGMud, Copyright 2001 by Chris Gray
AmigaMUD, Copyright 1997 by Chris Gray


		    Playing in the Standard Scenario

This document provides information on how to get the most from the
standard scenario. It doesn't give away any clues on how to solve the
quests in the scenario, however. Also, another document provides
information on using the building facility in the scenario. The
information provided here is by no means complete - figuring out what
to do is often part of solving quests. This document covers:

    - basic commands

    - communication

    - basic navigation

    - the special places around the mall

    - the mail system and bulletin boards

    - quests

    - combat in the Proving Grounds


Basic Commands

There are many commands available in the standard scenario. Some are
only operational in certain locations, and many are only applicable to
certain situations. For reference, the complete list of standard
commands (but not how to use them or what they do) can be obtained
from the game using the "words" command.

Many commands have several alternative forms, often including
abbreviations and optional parts. For example, all of the following do
the same thing:

    n
    north
    go north
    walk to north
    Jump to the north.

The parser in CGMud takes care of things like capitalization, some
punctuation, words like "the" and "a", etc. so they are usually not
specific to any commands. Most verbs, especially common ones which
deal with objects, can work with several objects at once. E.g.
entering:

    look at the vase, the lamp and the table

is the same as entering:

    look at the vase. look at the lamp. look at the table

Always keep in mind that the CGMud scenario does not "understand"
the commands you type - it is just responding to them in a way that
has been chosen. So, you do not have to worry about getting the
grammar right all the time, but you do have to spell things correctly,
or at least spell them the same way as is done in the scenario!

In some situations there may be more than one object with the same
name in the room, in an inventory or in a container. When you try to
refer to any of them, the scenario may complain that your reference is
ambiguous. In such situations you must specify by number which of the
similar items you mean. For example, if you have purchased a couple of
sacks in the proving grounds, and the second one contains two apples,
then you can use:

    take apple #1 from sack #2

to take one of the apples from the sack. This numbering system can
also be used to disambiguate among items which are similar but not
identical. For example, if you have both a short sword and a long
sword, you can refer to them as "sword #1" and "sword #2". In all
cases, the order is that which appears when the inventory, contents
list, or whatever is printed. Beware that items added to a list always
go to the end of the list, so that item numbers do not stay fixed when
you remove and then re-add something in a list.

Most of the information in this section will be trival to people who
have played other MUDs or computer adventure games, but it is included
for completeness. Some of the basic commands available in the standard
scenario are:

    - movement commands:
	n, north
	s, south
	e, east
	w, west
	ne, northeast, north-east
	nw, northwest, north-west
	se, southeast, south-east
	sw, southwest, south-west
	u, up
	d, down
	enter, in, into, inside, take entrance
	exit, out, outside, leave, take exit
	follow, unfollow

    - information commands:
	look around - show the current room and its obvious contents.
	    If you are using the CGMud client program, you can use
	    the '5' key on the numeric keypad to do a "look around".
	look all - look at all obvious objects in the room
	look at <object> - look at the object
	look <direction> - look in the given direction
	look in <container> - show what is in something
	examine and l are synonyms for look
	exits - show the obvious exits in this room
	inventory, inv, i, take inventory - show what you are carrying
	shop, prices - show what is for sale in a store

    - manipulation commands:
	get <object>, take <object>, pick up <object>,
	    pick <object> up - pick up something from this room - it
		is added to your inventory
	get all - try to take all obvious objects in the room
	drop <object>, put down <object>, put <object> down - remove
	    something from your inventory, and leave it in the room
	drop all - try to drop everything you are carrying
	give <object> to <character> - give something to someone else
	give <n> blutos to <character> - transfer money
	put <object> in <container>
	insert <object> into <container>
	take <object> from <container>
	fill <container> from <object>, fill <container> with <object>
	empty <object>
	unlock/lock <object> with <object>
	buy <object>, purchase <object> - buy something in a store
	play, erase, eat, use, activate, deactivate, light,
	    extinguish, wear, read, touch, smell, listen, open, close,
	    push, pull, turn, lift, lower

    - player environment commands:
	quit, bye, off - leave the game
	time, date - show the time at the server
	verbose, terse, brief, superterse, superbrief - control the
	    level of detail produced when descriptions are given when
	    you enter a room
	echo - control whether or not you will explicitly see things
	    you say, whisper or pose
	ats - control whether or not "unsafe" output has '@'s put in
	    front of it. "Unsafe" output is output produced by
	    apprentices, rather than by full-fledged wizards.
	wizard, hide, who - miscellaneous
	password - change your password
	prompt - change your default prompt
	name - change your character name
	width <n> - set your output display width in characters
	height <n> - set your output display height in characters
	    [these are automatic if you are using the CGMud client]
	cursor <colour> - set the colour of your graphics cursor
	icon <colour> - set the colour of graphic icons that you see
	aliases - list command aliases
	alias <word> - delete a command alias
	alias <word> <words> - define a command alias

    - some special commands:
	register, r - trigger any special action for this room
	hint - ask for a hint in this room
	info - ask for information in this room
	with <object> do <command> - available for wizards

Hint: the background colour used in room images and graphics will
vary. This makes the choice of a colour to use for your cursor difficult
The simple solution is to change its colour whenever it is not showing
up very well. Changing the colour of icons no longer really matters,
with the new screen layout of the CGMud client. Also, this new client
caches icons with their colour, so any icons it already has cached
will not change colour.


Communication

To many MUD players, communication is the most important part of the
game. A MUD can be a social environment, where people get together to
play out roles, share ideas and opinions, etc. Thus, many MUDs have
very extensive communication facilities. The standard CGMud
scenario doesn't have as many as some MUDs, but it does have most of
the basic facilities.

The most important communication ability in a MUD is speech. Anything
that a character (or non-player character) says out loud can be
"heard" by everyone in the same room. The basic command for speaking
is the "say" (or "tell") command. Everything in the command after
the "say" is spoken out loud. Other players in the same room will see
it, prefixed by "XXX says: ", where 'XXX' is the name of the speaking
character. As a shortcut, any line which starts with a double-quote
(") is a speech request. E.g. if character Fred types:

    "Hi folks!

then other characters in the same room would all see:

    Fred says: Hi folks!

One special case is recognized here. The form "tell XXX to YYY"
results in:

    Fred says: XXX YYY

i.e., the 'to' is removed. This allows a more natural form for
commands which attempt to get someone or something to do something.

When you are in a conversation with others, it can be easy to forget
to type the '"'. Also, it is handy to have short-hand forms for things
that you often say. To support this, the standard scenario has a "chat
mode". You go into this mode by typing "chat". In this mode, anything
you type is taken as speech - no special prefix is needed. To get out
of chat mode, simply enter a line containing only a period (.). While
in chat mode, a regular command can be entered by prefixing it with an
exclamation point (!). In chat mode you can define "chat aliases"
which are short-hand forms which are automatically expanded. You can
see your current set of chat aliases by just typing "alias". You can
remove a chat alias by typing "alias word", where 'word' is the word
whose alias you wish to remove. You can define an alias by typing
"alias word other-words", which will make 'word' an alias for 'other-
words'. If an input line in chat mode does not start with 'alias',
then the first word is checked for being an alias word. If it is, then
the 'other-words' of that alias are spoken instead of the alias word.
"chat" can be abbreviated as just "c". You can give a chat input line
on the the end of a "chat" command, and it will be processed as if it
had been entered in chat mode. Here is an example chat session (what
other people see is prefixed by ==>) for character "Fred":

    input> chat
    chat> alias
    You have no chat aliases.
    chat> hi there world
    ==> Fred says: hi there world
    chat> alias h1
    Chat alias 'h1' does not exist.
    chat> alias h1 Hi folks!
    Chat alias 'h1' added.
    chat> alias h2 Greetings everyone.
    Chat alias 'h2' added.
    chat> alias
    Chat aliases:
      h1 => Hi folks!
      h2 => Greetings everyone.
    chat> h1
    ==> Fred says: Hi folks!
    chat> alias h1
    Chat alias 'h1' removed.
    chat> h1
    ==> Fred says: h1
    chat> !wave
    ==> Fred waves.
    chat> .
    input> c h2
    ==> Fred says: Greetings everyone.
    input>

Sometimes, you want to say something to one person without others in
the room overhearing it. This can be done using the "whisper" command,
as in:

    whisper to Sam Help me fool Joe!

or just:

    wh Sam Help me fool Joe!

Note that in the standard scenario, every other character in the room
has a 10% chance of overhearing any whisper.

Part of communication is what you look like and what you are doing.
When other characters look at you, they see your description. You can
change your description by using "register" in the Beauty Shop. Doing
things for appearance is often called "posing". In the standard
scenario there are two kinds of poses. One kind is an action that can
be seen, the other is something that can be heard. If the room is
dark, only the audible poses will work. The supplied action poses are:

    blink, blush, bow, cower, cringe, curtsey, dance, drool,
    gesticulate/gest, glare, grovel, grimace, grin, frown, hop, nod,
    pout, shudder, shiver, shrug, smile, smirk, sneer, spit, tremble,
    twitch, wave, wince, wink, yawn

The supplied audible poses are:

    applaud, burp, cackle, cheer, chuckle, clap, cough, croak, cry,
    fart, gasp, giggle, groan, growl, grumble, grunt, hiccup,
    hiccough, hum, laugh, moan, mutter, purr, scream, sigh, snarl,
    sneeze, snicker, snore, sob, whine, whistle

Both types of poses can be given alone or with a following adverb. The
available adverbs (and their abbreviations) can be seen by using any
of the pose words, followed by an invalid adverb like "?".

You can do arbitrary actions using the "pose" or "emote" command. To
prevent trickery, however, the output generated by "pose" is
distinguishable by the other characters. Pose can be abbreviated as a
colon. E.g.

    blink
    ==> Fred blinks.
    snore loudly
    ==> Fred snores loudly.
    pose waves vigourously
    ==> Fred => waves vigourously
    :grins idiotically
    ==> Fred => grins idiotically
    :gives Joe 1000 blutos
    ==> Fred => gives Joe 1000 blutos

Note: the system administrator can set a global flag which will stop
the system from including the "=>" in the output from a pose. You
should echo one of your own poses to see if that has been done, and,
if so, beware of output indicating events that are "too good to be
true".

The "echo" command can be used to turn on or off the echoing of poses
to you.

Sometimes you might want to simply have a message seen by other
players in the room, without having it identified as a pose or as
speech. This can be done with the 'emit' command, which can be
abbreviated as just a period. This is most useful if the administrator
has allowed free poses. In that case, if you enter:

    .It is quiet here - too quiet!

then everyone in the room will see:

    It is quiet here - too quiet!

If, however, the administrator has left the system in its default
state, without free poses, then everyone in the room will see:

    [Fred] It is quiet here - too quiet!

thus identifying who is generating the message.

A similar command is the "page" (or "pa") command. This can only be
used by apprentices and wizards, and simply sends the text directly to
the named player.

Some players prefer to be seen strategically placed or just lounging
around. This can be done using objects which are furniture, and the
commands:

    sit on <object>, lie on <object>, stand on <object>,
	sit in <object>, lie in <object>, stand in <object>,
	standup, stand up, get up

The building commands allow builders to create such furniture.

Scenarios will always have bugs, and some players are annoyed by
spelling mistakes, bad grammar, etc. The commands "typo", "bug",
"gripe", "complain" and "bitch" can be used to send in complaints
about things. The remainder of the command line will be logged to the
CGMud log file on the server, along with the type of complaint, the
location it is given in and the owner of that location. The System
Administrator can then forward the complaints to the appropriate
person. If you know who is responsible for a problem, you can also
send MUD mail to that person.


Basic Navigation

The movement commands were listed above. If you are using the CGMud
client program, you can also use either the numeric keypad or the
mouse to move around. The numeric keypad is arranged like this:

	7 | 8 | 9
	---------
	4 | 5 | 6
	---------
	1 | 2 | 3

If you think of the '5' key as where you are standing, then the
remaining keys will move you in the direction that the key is in
relative to the '5' key. I.e. the '7' key moves you northwest, the '8'
key north, the '9' key northeast, etc. The '5' key, as mentioned
previously, will do a "look around". On keypads which have '+' and '-'
keys, they will move you up and down respectively.

A variant of the keypad is normally depicted in the right half of the
graphics window. The buttons there are labelled with the directions in
which they will move you when clicked using the left mouse button.
Also present are 'I' and 'O' buttons for moving in and out. The center
button is labelled 'L' for "look". The set of buttons looks something
like this:

			  +--+ +-+ +--+
			  |NW| |N| |NE|
		      +-+ +--+ +-+ +--+ +-+
		      |I|		|U|
		      +-+ +-+  +-+  +-+ +-+
			  |W|  |L|  |E|
		      +-+ +-+  +-+  +-+ +-+
		      |O|		|D|
		      +-+ +--+ +-+ +--+ +-+
			  |SW| |S| |SE|
			  +--+ +-+ +--+


The left-hand side of the graphics display usually shows an overhead
view of the area you are in. A small "cursor" somewhere in the area
represents where you are. Sometimes the cursor can move around in a
fixed view (such as on the town streets). You can move around by
clicking within the overhead view area. If you click to the left of
the cursor, then you will move west; if you click above and to the
right of the cursor, then you will move north-east; etc. Note that
your character does not move to where you click; it tries to move in
the direction corresponding to the direction of your click from the
location of the character cursor.

When either the numeric keypad or a mouse click is used to move
around, the corresponding typed movement command will be echoed in the
text window.

You should explore the mini-mall and the town streets carefully. Not
all doors outside are used, however. Outside, you will find a bulletin
board, Questor's Office and the Builder's Guild. The offices in the
Builder's Guild will not let you in unless you are an official builder.
Official builder status can only be granted by SysAdmin, the special
character normally run by the administrator/owner of the computer
running the CGMud server.

One way to find out what is what is to get a player familiar with the
scenario to give you a tour. You can do this by "follow"-ing them.


The Special Places Around the Mall

When you initially enter the game, you are in the "Arrivals Room",
which is one of seven rooms around the "mini-mall". The rooms here
provide a variety of services. The Arrivals Room is the northeast
room. The north room is the Mail Room, where you can register for the
MUD mail system and pick up any MUD mail addressed to you. MUD mail is
described in more detail later. The northwest room is the Garbage
Room, where you can drop stuff that you have caused to be created (by
buying it for example) and have it totally destroyed. To the west is
the Lost and Found Room, where stuff dropped around town often ends
up (the Caretaker likes things tidy).

To the southwest is the Beauty Shop. You can change your character's
description if you "register" here. Keep in mind that whatever
description you type in here, either directly or in an editor, is
always prefixed by your name. (This prevents some forms of trickery.)
If you are using the CGMud client program, then you will see three
additional buttons on your graphics screen, labelled "Icon", "Cursor"
and "Desc". Clicking on the third is just another way to edit your
description. Clicking on the first will put you into another mode
where you can edit your "icon", which is the 16 pixel by 16 pixel
representation of you that shows up on the CGMud client graphics
windows of other players in the same room as you.

In icon edit mode, you can click on one of the square places in the
large, bordered rectangle to toggle (on -> off, off -> on) that pixel
in your icon. The three new buttons will be replaced by buttons
labelled "Done", "Cancel" and "Clear". Clicking on "Done" will exit
from icon editing and make the currently displayed icon be your real
icon, sending the updated form to anyone in the room with you.
Clicking on "Cancel" will exit icon edit mode, leaving your icon as it
was when you entered the mode. Clicking on "Clear" will clear all
pixels in the edited display.

If, in the normal Beauty Shop display, you click on the "Cursor"
button, you will go into icon edit mode, but editing your smaller
cursor instead of your icon. This cursor is the small figure that you
see on your screen to represent your position in the current area.

To the south in the mall area is a small store, in which you can buy
several useful items. The pen and pad in particular are useful, since
they are needed in order to write MUD letters to other players, or to
write bulletins to post on the bulletin board out on the street.

To the southeast in the mall is a bank. Here you can use commands:

    balance - determine your current bank balance here
    deposit <n> - deposit <n> blutos to your account
    withdraw <n> - withdraw <n> blutos from your account

Builders can build other banks (and stores) elsewhere. Note that each
bank is independent - you cannot withdraw funds from a different bank
from which you deposited them. The main use for bank deposits is that
money in a bank is safe, unlike money being carried around, which is
lost when you are killed in a combat area.


The Mail System and Bulletin Board

The scenario has an in-MUD mail system. In order to use it, you must
"register" in the Mail Room. This will allow you to "get mail" there
to pick up any letters sent to you. To send letters to other players,
you must first buy a pen and a pad from the store in the mall. With
them, you can then do something like:

    write letter to Joe

to write a letter. You will be prompted to enter the letter line by
line. When done, you can read the letter, and if you don't like it, just
drop it in the Garbage Room. To actually send the letter off, you must
"post letter" somewhere where there is a mailbox. Sometime later the
Postman will pick up the letter on his rounds, and take it to the Mail
Room, where it will be available for pickup.

The bulletin board, located on the north side of the west street in
the town, works similarly. You write a bulletin (they look a bit
different than letters, since they aren't "to" anyone in particular)
using something like:

    write bulletin

Then, go to the bulletin board and:

    post bulletin		or
    put bulletin on board

You can remove your own bulletins from the board using:

    take bulletin #<n> from board

where <n> is the number of the bulletin to remove.

Find out what bulletins are on the board using:

    read board			or	read notices

and read an individual bulletin using:

    read bulletin <n>		or just 	read <n>

The bulletin board only has room for 20 notices. If you post another
one when it is already full, then the earliest one will be discarded.


Quests

Adventure games are meant to be played by only one player (perhaps
with human helpers), but MUDs are meant to be played by several
players, often at the same time. This means that puzzles or challenges
presented by a MUD are usually of a different nature than those in an
adventure game. Most such challenges, or "quests" can be solved by any
number of different people, often with people working independently on
them at the same time, without conflict.

In the CGMud scenario, there is a character called "Questor" who is
the awarder of completed quests. Five of the six quests in the
scenario are solved by telling him something or giving him something.
He is located on the south side of the west street in the town. A
notice board outside his office lists the quests. Cryptic clues are
available here as well as elsewhere on occasion.

The "dagger", "egg" and "heart" quests involve the Proving Grounds
area (to the north and west of the town). This means that to solve
them, you will need to enter the combat area and survive to solve the
quests. The other three quests ("pear", "squirrel" and "whatzit") can
be solved without going into the Proving Grounds area. The "heart"
quest is by far the most difficult.

Note that Questor's office, like a couple of the quest areas, will
only admit one player at a time. There are a couple of reasons for
this. One is the pear quest. The other is that this prevents other
players from overhearing any solution words that are spoken to
Questor.


Combat

Combat is often a part of MUDs. Some MUDs seem to exist only to allow
combat. Others are more concerned with social interaction or with
puzzle solving. The standard CGMud scenario offers a bit of all
aspects of mudding. Combat can only occur in specific areas - in
particular only in the "Proving Grounds" area. If you never enter that
area, then you will never have to deal with combat. Combat is usually
just your character hacking away at various monsters controlled by the
scenario, but combat between players (sometimes called "player
killing" or just "PK") is also possible.

The combat in the standard scenario is pretty straightforward.
Ambitious SysAdmins and wizards are free to make it more realistic,
add magical combat, add attributes, add more varied monsters, add
bigger monsters, change the way experience works, etc. Currently, each
character (whether player or non-player) has the following combat
attributes:

    Current Hitpoints - this is the amount of "life" you have left. If
	this number reaches 0, then you "die" (which isn't permanent
	in this scenario, but can be a significant punishment).
	Hitpoints are regained in a number of ways, including just
	wandering around waiting to heal naturally.

    Maximum Hitpoints - this is the maximum amount of "life" that you
	can currently have. As you gain more experience, this maximum
	will increase.

    Experience - this is a measure of how much game experience you
	have gained by defeating other characters in combat. The
	bigger the defeated opponent, the more experience is gained.

    Level - this measure is rather artificial, and is really just a
	more coarse measure of experience. In some other MUD systems,
	certain capabilities only come into play when you reach
	certain levels. This value does affect how likely you are to
	hit a target.

    Strength - this is a measure of your character's physical
	strength. The stronger you are, the harder you hit and the
	more resistant to damage you are. The amount of damage you do
	is also affected by what weapon you are using. A two-handed
	sword does much more damage than your bare hands.

    Speed - this is an indication of how dextrous you are. It affects
	how likely you are to hit a target, and your speed in relation
	to a monster affects which of you will hit first.

    Protection - this value indicates how resistant to damage you are.
	Lower values are better here. This value can be improved by
	wearing armour and using a shield.

The "status" command gives you a summary of your current combat
readiness. For example:

    input> status
    Fred: Hit: 9/10 Exp: 2 Lvl: 0 Str: 5 Spd: 5 AC: +7 Bl: 25
    Weapon: short sword
    Armour: leather armour

This shows that character "Fred" currently has 9 hit points out of a
maximum of 10, has 2 experience points, is of level 0, has strength
and speed 5, has an "armour class" (protection level) of +7, and has
25 blutos (money). The current weapon, armour and shield of the player
are shown if there are any. Wizards can apply "status" to others.

For mostly historical reasons, a character must be initialized for
combat. This is normally done by walking into the Proving Grounds. The
"status" (or "st") command does nothing until this has been done.

The most commonly used combat command is of course the "hit" command,
with its synonyms "fight", "attack", "kill", "h" and "k". Also useful
is the "wield" command to select a weapon to use. The commands "wear"
and "use" can be used to don armour and ready shields, respectively.

All "monsters" have 3-character abbreviations for their names. So, if
you are confronted by a "fighter goblin", you can attack it by typing
only "h gob".

The commands "fightterse/fightbrief", "fightsuperterse"/
"fightsuperbrief" and "fightverbose" affect the output resulting from
combat. The default mode is "fightverbose", which shows all of your
attempts to attack others, and all of their attempts to attack you. In
"fightterse" mode, the "status" command does not show the current
weapon, shield and armour (unless "status full" is used), and messages
about misses in combat are not shown. "fightsuperterse" mode also
leaves out messages about attacks which hit, but do no damage. The
terse modes can be useful when fighting a large group of opponents,
since they make it easier to keep track of the damage you are taking.
Whenever you are hit in combat, the message includes your current and
maximum hit point values.

Three of the six quests in the standard CGMud scenario are in the
Proving Grounds, and hence require combat to complete. The largest
quest, the "Heart" quest, does not require combat as an integral part
of the quest, but its setting in the Proving Grounds means that combat
will occur while solving the quest. The Proving Grounds area is by far
the largest in the scenario.


The Great Outdoors

To the north of town is an area which uses a different type of display,
based on graphics tiles. It presents an overhead view of the world,
and lets you see other characters some distance away. This is a very
new part of the world, so there isn't really much there. Also, there
is no online building for tile areas.