7. Editing Socials

Social Commands

socedit <social name>

Edit the social with the given name, if it exists, otherwise create a new social with that name.

Sample Socedit Screen

-- Social name: [mark]     Act Number: [66]
1) Name                    : mark
2) Hide                    : 0
3) Minimum Victim Position : Standing
4) Minimum Level           : 0
5) Message to character with no argument given:
You lift your leg and mark this room as your territory.
6) Message to others with no argument given:
$n lifts $s leg and marks $s territory.
7) Message to character with an argument given:
You lift your leg and mark $N as your property.
8) Message to others with an argument given:
$n lifts $s leg and marks $N as $s property.
9) Message to victim:
$n lifts $s leg and marks you as $s property.
A) Message to character, argument given but victim not found:
Sorry, your victim is not around.
B) Message to character, victim is self:
You lift your leg and mark yourself as your territory.
C) Message to others, victim is self:
$n lifts $s leg and marks $mself as $s territory.
Q) Quit

Special Characters for Socials

First off there are a couple a special characters you can use in socials. In all cases the uppercase refers to the victim of the social and the lowercase refers to the doer of the social. (note you cannot use the uppercase characters for commands with no victim).
These special characters are:

$E  $e  -  resolves to he, she or it depending on the gender of the object 
           receiving or doing the action of the social
$M  $m  -  resolves to him, her or it
$N  $n  -  resolves to the name of the doer ($n) or the victim ($N)
$S  $s  -  resolves to his, hers or its

Building A Social

Building a social is remarkably easy, all you do is type in the messages to be displayed when someone uses the social. To get started think of a social you'd like to build. Type in socedit [name of social] and we're ready to begin.

The first thing on the socedit screen is the name of the social, this can be changed at any time you want to change the social's nam. Just make sure you don't try to give it a name that is already taken.

Hide represents the minimum level a player has to be to see the social. Generally this is left at zero, so that all players can see the social.

The minimum victim position is the minimum position the victim can be in so that the social can be performed on them (ie you cannot dance with a player who is sitting down). Choose an appropriate minumum position for your social from the following list:

 1) Mortally wounded
 2) Incapacitated
 3) Stunned
 4) Sleeping
 5) Resting
 6) Sitting
 7) Fighting
 8) Standing

Next up is the minimum level of the social, which is the minimum level of the player to be able to use the social. Generally this should be kepy at zero, but if you change it, remember to change the hide value as well so players cannot see socials that they cannot use.

Finally, we come to the text of the social itself. This is divided into eight different things that the social displays to different people depending on what the player typed. Any of these can be left undefined if you think that the social should not be perfomed in that particular way.

The Different Social Messages

Message to character with no argument given is the message the charater get if no victim is given. This can be a warning that the social needs a victim or a special case of the social (ie the player just grins, the grin is not directed at someone).

Message to others with no argument given is the message all other players in the room get if the player tries to type in the social with no victim. If the player receives a warning, then this should be left undefined. If the player does perform some action when there is no victim given then this should reflect that action.

Message to character with an argument given is the message that that the doer of the social sees when s/he types in the social with a character's name given. If the social cannot be performed on other players just leave this space undefined.

Message to others with an argument given is the message that the other characters in the room, save for the victim, see when the social is type in with a victim given.

Message to victim is the message the victim of the social will see.

Message to character, argument given but victim not found is the message that the doer of the social will see if s/he types in a social with a victim but that victim is not in the game. Usually this is a short message informing the doer that the victim of the social cannot be found.

Message to character, victim is self is the message that the character sees when the victim given is also the doer of the social.

Message to others, victim is self is the message everyone else in the room sees when the character performs the social on him/herself.