Section 7:    #POPULATE

Here is how populations are called:

  1. #[vnum]
  2. populator name~
  3. [percentage] [count] [table]
  4. [sector-types]

Here's the breakdown of the #POPULATE format:

  1. #[vnum]

    The vnum is the number used to reference your populator. There should only be one populator of any given vnum at one time. (See our discussion of vnums in the introduction to the #AREAS area header.). This number may be used in future code-changes, so be sure to apply one!

  2. populator name~

    This name uniquely identifies the populator in the #POPULATE section. No other populator of the same name may exist in the MUD (a good naming convention is to use the name of the area in the identifier, like "shamrockCafePopulator01"). Do not forget to put a tilde (~) at the end of the populator name.

  3. [percentage] [count] [table]

    [percentage]

    Percentage is the chance the populator will call an encounter table for a particular sector at the area's reset. Although the area does reset, the populator or its corresponding encounter table needn't guarantee any mobiles or objects. The percent is a natural number, raning anywhere from 1 to 100.

    [count]

    The count is the number of calls to the encounter table per reset. The count is given in terms of mdm+n, where m is a natural number, d means "dice" and n is a whole number. In other words, 2d5+3 means "two 5-sided dice plus three", or a range of 5 to 13 calls to the encounter table.

    [table]

    Table is the vnum of the encounter table the #POPULATE entry will call. This means any vnum, short or long. A call to a short vnum is a call to an encounter table within the area file itself. A call to a long vnum is a call to an encounter table outside of itself, for example, :15:1678. Yes, this does mean you can call on ANY encounter table made up in the mud using this entry.

    Note: Keep in mind encounter tables called by the #POPULATE area header can only have mobile and object calls. No executables!

  4. [sector-types]

    The sector-type follows the conventions of room sectors. Dawn determines a populator based on the sector-type the player is at, so a forest area may give one set of populations, and a field another set. You can, optionally, use more than one sector per populator, that is, "1 2 5 ...". To do so you need only add a space between each sector-type. This can be convenient in a single area with multiple sector-types.

Section 8:    #ENCOUNTERS

Here is how encounters are called:

  1. #[vnum]
  2. encounter name~
  3. [percentage] [minLevel] [maxLevel] [count] [table]
  4. [sector-types]
  5. [day | night | time]

To use the example found in Shamrock's Cafe, we have this:

#ENCOUNTERS
#1
shamrockCafeEncounter01~
50 0 60 1d2+0 1
2
#2
shamrockCafeEncounter02~
50 0 60 1d1+0 2
1
night

Here's the breakdown of the #ENCOUNTER format:

  1. #[vnum]

    The vnum is the number used to reference your encounter. There should only be one encounter of any given vnum at one time. (See our discussion of vnums in the introduction to the #AREAS area header.) This number may be used in future code-changes so be sure to apply one!

  2. encounter name~

    This name uniquely identifies the encounter in the #ENCOUNTER section. There may only be one encounter of a given name in the MUD at a time (a good naming convention is to use the name of the area in the identifier, like "shamrockCafeEncounter01".) Do not forget to put a tilde (~) at the end of the encounter name.

  3. [percentage] [minLevel] [maxLevel] [count] [table]

    [percentage]

    Percentage is the chance a player will trigger an encounter table in a particular sector. Although a player wandering through a woodland may trigger an encounter table, the encounter table needn't guarantee an encounter, so a player won't always have an encounter. The percent is a natural number, ranging anywhere from 1 to 100.

    [minLevel] [maxLevel]

    These are the minimum and maximum levels of the players that can trigger an encounter table. The minimum level is 0, the maximum is 60. You can narrow this down, e.g. minLevel of 15 and maxLevel of 35, even to the point of having an encounter table triggered for one level of player only. Note: you CAN overlap the levels between encounters. Each one will be checked if the encounter occurs.

    [count]

    The count is the number of calls to the encounter table per trigger. The count is given in terms of mdm+n, where m is a natural number, d means "dice" and n is a whole number. In other words, 3d3+2 means "three 3-sided dice plus two", or a range of 5 to 11 calls to the encounter table.

    [table]

    Table is the vnum of the encounter table the #ENCOUNTER entry will call. This means any vnum, short or long. A call to a short vnum is a call to an encounter table within the area file itself. A call to a long vnum is a call to an encounter table outside of itself, for example, :15:1678. Yes, this does mean you can call on ANY encounter table made up in the mud using this entry.

  4. [sector-types]

    The sector-type follows the conventions of room sectors. Dawn determines an encounter based on the sector-type the player is at, so a forest area may give one set of encounters, and a field another set. You can, optionally, use more than one sector per encounter, that is, "1 2 5 ...". To do so you need only add a space between each sector-type. This can be convenient in a single area with multiple sector-types.

  5. [day | night | time]

    This option allows the builder to narrow encounters further by time of day. Bats come out at night, while hawks come out in the day. The setup is like so: 

    day

night

time 4 16

    The argument "day" means anytime from 6am to 6pm (6 to 18), "night" means anytime between 6pm to 6am, and "time 4 16" above means anytime from 4am to 4pm.