Zugg Software :: View topic - some zMUD questions including mapping Armageddon

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

Hello everyone. Well, I've decided to buy zMUD, as it just seems like the best thing around. I have some problems with mapping, though. I've sent them to Zuggsoft, but with the preface that I wasn't sure if I was going to buy. Now that I decided for sure to buy (when I get home), I figured I'd go ahead and post. Here's basically what I sent them:

So far, I really like zMUD. Automapping is one of the major reasons I'm buying a mud client. However, I've had some problems with automapping in zMUD. I use Armageddon which has room descriptions in the following format:

Caravan Road [ESW]
Stretching itself out here is a long road, paved in rough yellowy
brown sandstone, covered with reddish dust and sand, and wide enough that at
(edited for brevity)
the main gate, highlighting its ominously smooth stones.
To the south, the raucous sounds of carousing belch forth from
a large building, mixed with the scents of grilling meat and alcohol.
(edited for brevity)
A human soldier of Tektolnes lounges in the shade of the statue here.

or

The Gladiator and the Gaj Tavern -- Main Room [NES]
This common room composes the bulk of the Gladiator and the Gaj
Tavern, a bustling establishment founded in the Year of Suk-Krath's
(edited for brevity)
news from the arena.
To the north, a scarred tarp of carru hide leads out onto the busy
Caravan Way. Flickering yellow and orange light spills out from the
(edited for brevity)
sleeping area, while a door lies behind the bar, most likely a back
room.
A wall here is designated as a message board.

I've set up zMUD to read this using a couple of different settings.
However, the most frustrating part is that it keeps working fine for a period of time, then will just stop working out of the blue. I will then go and mess with the configuration settings over and over and finally it will sort itself out and work again. A little while later, this cycle repeats. It's all very frustrating and is only really workable in the city. I don't think I could stand to do this outside where I could get killed while trying to get it working again.

Basically, what settings would you recommend for this? FYI, there are no NW, SW, etc directions. Only NSEWUD. The other wringle is that the room descriptions can change slightly between day and night (if that matters).

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

FYI - I just paid, so now I'm now the proud owner of a shiny new zMUD license :)

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

This is SO frustrating. Here's my config:

Version: 19
Name Start: 0
Desc Start: 1
Desc End: 7
Exit Start: 0
Exit End: 0
Exit in Prompt: 0
Exit in Name: 1
Exit contains key: 0
Name paragraph: 0
Desc paragraph: 0
Exit paragraph: 0
Bracket prompt: 0
Short exit names: 0
vNum in Name: 0
Exit keyword:
Exit after keyword: 0
Match room name mode: 1
Use Descriptions: 1
Entire exit paragraph: 0
Single char exit: 1
Autoprompt detect: 1
Complex prompt: 1
Prompt char: >
Name ends in period: 0
Number prompt: 0
No MUD Prompt: 0
Room Name Propercase: 0
[Map Script]

[Map Explore Script]

[End]

I just do NOT understand why it doesn't parse. The most frustrating thing is that there's no good visual indication of what's going on. Zugg, I think this would be a BIG area for improvement. Right now it's all a black box and I can't tell what's going wrong.

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

Update - more in the frustrating experience. I went through reconfigure again and it didn't work. So I exited zMUD and reconfigured and it actually seemed to parse the name, desc and exits. So then I changed my prompt from > to >12/12 34/34< where that last one is my health, etc. This broke it. I exited zMUD, started it again and reconfigured it again. It worked again at that point.

I'm just so frustrated. I don't understand why it works sometimes but not others.

Here's the config when I do an export:

Version: 19
Name Start: 0
Desc Start: 1
Desc End: 6
Exit Start: 0
Exit End: 0
Exit in Prompt: 0
Exit in Name: 1
Exit contains key: 0
Name paragraph: 0
Desc paragraph: 0
Exit paragraph: 0
Bracket prompt: 1
Short exit names: 0
vNum in Name: 0
Exit keyword: exit
Exit after keyword: 0
Match room name mode: 2
Use Descriptions: 1
Entire exit paragraph: 0
Single char exit: 1
Autoprompt detect: 1
Complex prompt: 1
Prompt char: >
Name ends in period: 0
Number prompt: 0
No MUD Prompt: 0
Room Name Propercase: 0
[Map Script]

[Map Explore Script]

[End]

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Best I can tell you is that you selected a very hard mud for the automapper to figure out.

What I see from you posts is that the exits are in the room name line, then you have information added to the description about each exit.
First thing to do is see if your mud had a command to display the exits on a seperate line. This is usually named 'autoexit'. I don't expect this to be the case.
Next thing is try to modify your prompt (you mentioned doing this already), making your prompt bigger with more information is better for you and for the mapper. The mapper looks for a lot of numbers in a single line to find a 'Complex prompt'. Since I don't expect you will have an actual exit line then you need a prompt line that will consitently be detected to end the description paragraph.

Editting for shortness is all well and good, but you should have provided one complete sample, with as much data as possible. One example shows a mob and the other what I think is an item. In either case a blank line or 2 here might make all the difference.

Last resort is to build your own triggers to capture and #TAG all the information necessary to making a room. Again this requires at least one full sample. Almost always though a throrough reading of the help pages on Manual Mapping will avoid this. In fact they say very much the same things, but go into a little bit more detail what each configuration item does.

My best rate at mapping any mud is still 999/1000. I have yet to encounter any mud that required me to #TAG things. Proper use of #SUBSTITUTE often makes it more readable to both me and the mapper, of course I never really liked any mud that refused to put exits on a single line (in the name and putting them in the prompt count).

Rough guess from what you posted,
Exits in Room Name, checked.
Single Character exits, checked.
Room Name paragraph 1.
Room Name line 0.
Room Description paragaph 0.
Room Description line 0.

Apprentice Joined: 28 Oct 2003 Posts: 164

This thread wound up being completely related to:
http://www.zuggsoft.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13556