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Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

I'm sure its my stupidity again but where can I find/see Zone number for the zone when I open a zone in mapper?

In ZMud zone number was by the zone name by default when you chose the zone.

Pretty much used to it and it was handy when new zone was mapped and I had to incorporate its starting point into my scripts via #teleport etc.

Now I've no idea how to find the zone number.

Hopefully I made enough sense for some to answer that.

EDIT: And with risk to ask too much in one thread. While I'm using Pro, I'd really get my hands on Zmapper scripting functions. Is there some sort of tutorial for ZMapper functions within Pro? Or is there a standalone ZMapper tutorial somewhere?

Thanks.
Prog

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

Hmm, guess he took that out. Was it ever in CMud's version of the mapper before? This might be a blurring between what's supposed to be there and the new mapper stuff.

Programmatically, the function %zonenum() will give you the zone number.

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:03 am

There were zMapper mapper tutorials but they focused more on functionality and not the API so probably not what you looking for. It's been posted once or twice but the easiest way to get the API is just download zMapper and install it.

So I can add it to my list of projects what kind of tutorials were you looking for?

[Note: This isn't a promise of delivery just understand what the request is for if and when I find free time]

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

Zone number issue: Yeah, using %zonenum after I had fully mapped a zone crossed my mind and I tried it, however, it was weird.
I use #te zonenum zone_first_room syntax for pinpointing where I currently stand when I change an area or go to an area.
After I had mapped this one area out and used %zonenum to get the zone number and used the syntax I gave above, *it didn't teleport me*. I even double-checked the zonenum directly from Map DB via Access and the number was correct. Then I tried using just name instead of zone number together with roomvnum. Tried it with and without quotes (#te "area name" 2343 vs #te area name 2343). Still nothing. At this point I was stumped and didn't know what to do next. NOTE: This was the first time I tried mapping under CMud.

Tutorials: Well, I was thinking something along the lines of general functions and commands I could use via COM. Generally, something
like ZMud's/CMud's tutorials are, though I'm unsure if ZMapper even has many additional functions though it is promoted as a "deeper map scripting". If there are only handful of commands, maybe there's some place where they're pointed out. To be honest, I haven't
gone towards ZMapper online documentation just yet, I figured that as CMudPro uses its functionality, there'd be something about ZMapper within its documentation, but so far I haven't found anything.

Bottom line: One of the reasons I started to use CMudPro actually was the "internal" ZMapper functionality (I have no idea how to put it any better), if thats not the case or documentation is extremely hard to come by, maybe I'll just settle with CMud original instead eventually. No hard done.

Prog

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:24 pm

The zMapper API *is* built into CMUDPro. But to get the documentation (what little there is), you need to download zMapper and install it. That will give you the zMapper.HLP file which contains the API info. It will eventually be added to the online help files, but not until after the mapper rewrite because the new mapper might change some of this API.

When your %roommode is set to absolute mode, then you don't actually need to specify a zone number in the #teleport command. Each room in your map has a unique ID value. Just use the room ID value in #teleport and it will take you to the room no matter what zone it is in. I use this all the time myself.

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

Nods, I understand though wouldn't ZMapper have its separate trial then in which case I'll loose access to documentation once it runs out? I suppose as an alternative I can always just install it, get to the documentation and print it out, or something...

Wow! I didn't actually even know you can do #teleport'ing like that in case %roommode is set to 1. I have always used #te zonenum first_roomvnum. This is a very excellent suggestion and I'll definitely start to use it for any upcoming maps I might do. Thanks.

Prog

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:38 pm

The documentation is just in a help file (zmapper.HLP). You don't lose access to this file at all...it's just a normal windows help file. Just copy that file to another directory and then uninstall zMapper.

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

Aha, even better then Very Happy

Prog

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:12 am

You don't need the zone number to teleport. You can either teleport to a short id, or to an (absolute) vnum. I know what the documentation says, but I've never have provided the function a zone number and it works just fine. It works because I have forced the room mode to be set.
So with this scheme one can either

Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:55 am

Btw, your example:

#TELEPORT {"FIRST ROOM"}

is a bit superfluous. The {} act as string quotes with variable expansion allows. So you are essentially using two sets of quotes, which is bad style. You should just use:

#TELEPORT "FIRST ROOM"

or

#TELEPORT {FIRST ROOM}

Your example of using @target is correct. Just wanted to clear up the bad syntax with {} and "" since it usually indicates a misunderstanding of what the {} are really doing.

If you have any experience with PHP, the " quotes in CMUD are like the single ' quotes in PHP (which are used for literal strings) and the {} quotes in CMUD are like the double " quotes in PHP (which allow variable expansion). The reason CMUD doesn't use single ' quotes anywhere is because of the confusion caused when using ' as an apostrophe, which is common with MUD text.

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

I just took a shot and installed ZMapper to get the help file. However, maybe I'm doing something wrong but this help files only gives general knowledge how to draw a map and such but doesn't talk at all about functions/commands ZMapper might contain.
In a nutshell, I just need info about what and which coming from ZMapper I can actually use within CMudPro. If I can't find any information
at all, I suppose I'll just end up buying CMud then, heh.

I'm going to install ZMapper once again to see if I can get any actual help while actually running the program, though.
EDIT: Scratch that. Apparently I had already installed ZMapper back in a day because trial had ran out. So I don't know what to try next.

Prog

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:08 pm

Since you alread installed it, go to the zMapper install folder and look for the .hlp file it willl probably be "C:\Program Files\zMapper\zmapper.hlp" You can use this file with out the trial.

As for the reference, open the help file and look under "Using zMapper with zMUD" and you will see the full API for all zMapper objects.

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

Well, thats the thing, it seems that it should be there but I can find it. When I open the Zmapper.hlp I get the first Getting Started page, I can only move towards and forwards using the arrows to see other pages. Contents button doesn't seem to work at all. I'm guessing that
is the thing that is supposed to give me the list of everything the help file contains.

I've tried for several times now and still the same outcome.

Thanks for the help.

Prog

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

There is a .cnt file containing the contents. You have to copy both. If you have zMapper installed and are launching the help by double clicking on the .hlp then it should automatically find the contents file.

Magician Joined: 28 Jan 2007 Posts: 430

That solved it.

Thanks!

Prog