Items in CoffeeMUD

ITEMS are things which players manipulate in the world. Some items are visual only, some are able to be picked up, some worn, or eaten.

Item Types

Items come in a variety of flavors. From a code-base side, there are "Standard" items and "Generic" items, with the standard items offering more pre-built definition, and the generic item being more flexible for builders to use. From a builder perspective, there are "ARMOR", "WEAPONS", "CLANITEMS", "TECH", "ITEMS" and "MAGIC ITEMS" which can be displayed with the respective LIST command parameters.

Archon-Only Items

Certain items contain so much power that only an Archon may wield them. This is sometimes due to game balance, and at others due to potential misuse of processor time in using the item (could create lag if lots of players were using them at the same time). Archons are allowed greater latitude in CPU usage than a typical player.

MODIFYING ITEMS

Items will have a variety of fields depending on the item type. Not all items will have all of the fields listed below:

Name

The name field is the short name of the item. It should fit inside the sentence "You pick up (item name)."

• Color codes in item names often cause problems:
  • If you give the name a color code, be sure to properly close off that color code so it doesn't bleed into other text.
  • Color-coded items should not be valid for learning in crafting. Give them the Prop_NoCraftability effect to prevent crafting difficulties. Consider making a non-colored version of the item for artisans to learn how to craft.
  • GMODIFY items with color in their name requires you to target the color string as well (or use substring searches).
• The name of an item should be either a proper name ("Bob") or an article and a noun, such as "a pair of pants" or "some pants".
  • This will allow things that modify the item to properly apply descriptions, such as when the item is ruined.

Other considerations for item Naming can be found in the World Building Guide

Display

The display should be a sentence describing how the item appears unattended in a room. It should be a very short sentence with the item noun (some description of the item, not necessarily the name) a passive verb in present tense (sits/lays) and a location (on the ground/here/nearby) and end in punctuation.

Description

This is a longer description of the item. Feel free to be very descriptive (or not very descriptive if the item is uninteresting).

Level

This is the item's level. In general, a player may only use an item their level or lower, and can only pick up an item up to 5 (need to confirm) levels above their level.

Material Type

This is the base GenEnvResource that the item is made of, which will have a variety of impacts to how the item is treated for certain purposes.

Wear Location

For items that can be worn, a determination for what sort of body parts the item covers. There are parameters for wearing on all of the locations listed, or any single location listed.

• Example, a bracelet is worn on ANY ONE of the locations LEFT WRIST||RIGHT WRIST, while handcuffs are worn on ALL locations LEFT WRIST&&RIGHT WRIST.

Layer

For armor, this determines if it covers clothing underneath it. Items must be 2 layer sizes higher than the lower layer to wear over it. Layers at the underclothes level are generally negative.

Rejuv/Pct

This field has lots of meaning. A rejuv of 0 means that the item will only spawn in a saved room on server boot. A numerical value for an item not in a mob's possession will indicate the number of ticks (~ 4 seconds) before this item will respawn if it is removed from its start room. A numerical value for an item in a mob's possession determines the percent chance that it will not spawn when the mob spawns. The RESETWHOLE behavior can also provide some other ways of controlling how items and mobs rejuv.

Notes

• Avoid using the term RUIN for item descriptions, since players may often DROP ALL RUIN to get rid of trash. (Note, items with Nordic runes are called RUNIC.)
• The bonuses an item provides affects the item's derived Power Level. For a guide on how to scale item's power levels, visit the Loki's Guide on Item Power Level section.