Re: Zone resets

From: Patrick Dughi (dughi@imaxx.net)
Date: 06/20/00


> >         - zone resets; i don't want to force a zone through _x_ resets and
> > _y_ mob_activity turns each time they return to active status.  However,
> > if I don't, things from spec_procs, mob_progs, or simple random
> > distribution of mobs (wanderers) will be messed up.  I could just reset
> > the zone once and give it a number of mob turns, which would get most of
> > it running.  Wouldn't exactly be true to form though.
>
> I would save positions and anything else you feel is important to a seperate
> file.  Also great for a little world persistance across reboots.

        World persistance I'm not quite as worried about - it sounds fun
to put in, and an interesting challenge, but I'm not sure how much players
would care - or even notice.  I've still got to fix up the database
access.

> >         - commands which depend upon a mob/obj/room's existance.  goto,
> > where, and locate being forefront in my mind.  How could you tell that the
> > silvery shield was held by the grey warrior unless I loaded every zone
> > into memory, ran though the zone reset, and then looked for it?
>
> Modify the spells to have a limited range, so locate object and similar
> effects only work if you're near the zone (assuming you load them up by
> proximity of players).  If you need the search capability for immortals (do
> they really need to access a zone they aren't building in?), I'd probably use
> an index file with names and locations and/or an online hash index.

        Now that you mention it, they don't need that ability really.
Having a hash ability should be enough when they aren't in the zone
themselves.

>
> >         - ? something else i've missed perhaps?
>
> If you switch out objects, you either need to make standalone instances of
> players' equipment, do selective object switching, or leave objects completely
> in memory.

        I haven't made up my mind about this.  I was tempted to go with
standalone instances.  It does make much of life easier, and I prefer to
think that I'm saving enough memory elsewhere to have the liberty to spend
it here.  This will be slightly modified by a suggestion from the same
people who introduced me to the idea of the binary tree world structure, a
new field  - number of items.  That way, if you have 20 waybreads, it's
merely one item with an additional field, combined in the same way the
mob/obj stacking snippets do.  It was pointed out that aside from 12-20
items for worn equipment, a small number of collected items from the
current zone, most of an  adventurer's inventory is food, drink, copies of
scrolls/potions/etc.  Most characters do not hold 100 unique items.
                We'll see.

> >         I'm sure someone else has had to deal with this before; how have
> > you handled it, or how do you think it should be handled?
>
> If you want more bang for the buck, switch out room and mob long descriptions.
> That's where most of your memory will be recovered, and you don't generally
> search descriptions anyway.
>
        Another teriffic idea.  I'll have to see how this works - though,
aren't mob long descs still just pointes to the original string?

                                        PjD


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