The primary active contact any player will have with the weather & time system will be when descing rooms. Players with some coding experience might want to look into using the various functions (see +WT) for descing other things than rooms. They could, for example, be used as switches in character descs.
In most cases (unless a player has been assigned to work on public rooms and for this purpose been given access to the relevant ZMO), players will not own or control the room they will be descing. This means that the room will first need to be setup with the correct parent by the Admin. Indoor rooms to either #54 (for windowless rooms) or #55 (for rooms with windows) and outdoor rooms will be set to #57. It also means that the descs will need to be submitted to the Admin so that the Admin can add them to the rooms.
The desc of each parent room is setup to evaluate a number of different desc components. For example, rooms parented to #55 will evaluate the attributes PRE-DESC, <LIGHTING>-DESC, POST-DESC, WINDOW-PREFIX and OUTSIDE-DESC. In some cases, it may not make sense to use all of the desc components. If so, you can turn off components that you won’t be using by setting an empty attribute (&<NAME>-DESC here=, for example &PRE-DESC here=). However, omitting parts of the desc should only be done after first consulting with the Admin.
The PRE-DESC and the POST-DESC are entirely static and the standard on the game is to use the PRE-DESC to give a very brief general introduction to or overview of a room and to use the POST-DESC to describe prominent exits. The main part of the desc should go in the <LIGHTING>-DESC, which varies depending on the lighting conditions (such as the time of the day, or the presence of artificial lighting or moonlight). It is suggested that players first write one of these variable descs and then adapt this desc for the other variations. For example, write your DAY-DESC first and make small changes for the rest of the <LIGHTING>-DESCs.
The <LIGHTING>-DESC may not consist of multiple paragraphs as it will make room descs far too long. If you want to describe certain features of a room in detail or describe an apartment that consists of a single physical room as multiple virtual rooms, use +views (see +HELP +VIEWS) and +groups (see +HELP +GROUPS).
For example, to turn an apartment consisting of a single physical room into a main room, a bedroom and a study, you might mention the bedroom and the study in both the PRE-DESC (as part of the overview) and the POST-DESC (when you mention doors and other exits) and use the bulk of the desc to describe the main room. You would then write a +view for the bedroom and a +view for the study to include with the other descs that you submit to Staff. You may also request that Staff add fixed +groups for the bedroom and the study.
&PRE-DESC here=One of the parts of the description that never changes, the other is POST-DESC.
&ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC here=What the room looks like by firelight, torchlight, etc., at any time of day.
&DARK-DESC HERE=What the room looks like when unlit.
For instructions on how to turn artificial lighting in a room on and off, see +WT +LIGHT.
&INSTRUCTIONS here= to turn these instructions off. You can suppress any other part of the description the same way, e.g.: &<NAME>-DESC here=.
Children of the Windowless Indoor Parent Room hear audible effects produced by the Storm Generator, but get no visuals.
Keep in mind that at any given time, either ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC or DARK-DESC is displayed, but never both.
&PRE-DESC here=Not quite small, but certainly intimate, this common room is the well-furnished heart of the elegant establishment known as the Maiden’s Blush.
&ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC here=With no windows, this room is left perpetually dusky and tinted glass gives what light there is—provided by finely hewn oil lamps set upon the walls and by the occasional candle—a warm, faintly reddish hue. Small tables surrounded by a few chairs are spaced out through the room, and in the corners and near to the walls are more private seating opportunities such as wooden seats draped in cloth and padded with pillows. Upon the floor there is a large mosaic, the scene depicted seemingly innocent until one looks more closely at the girls frolicking in the pool and upon the meadow surrounding it. The walls are hung with tapestries of a similar nature.
&DARK-DESC here=With no windows and none of the oil lamps upon the walls lit, the room is left almost impenetrably dark. Only the vague outlines of its furnishings can be made out.
&POST-DESC here=A dimly-lit staircase winds its way up to the second floor and through an equally dusky alcove, separated from the common room by an ornate, delicately carved screen, one can reach the Street of Silk.
&LIGHTSOURCE here=0
&LIGHT-OFF-MSG here=[name(%0)] douses the oil-lamps.
&LIGHT-ON-MSG here=[name(%0)] lights the oil-lamps.
&PRE-DESC here=One of the parts of the description that never changes, the other is POST-DESC.
&DAY-DESC here=What the room looks like by natural daylight. Overrides artificial light.
&ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC here=What the room looks like by firelight, torchlight, etc., at night. Overrides moon light.
&MOON-LIGHT-DESC here=What the room looks like at night when the weather is fair or clear and the moon is full.
&NIGHT-DESC here=What the room looks like at night with no artificial light sources and no moon light.
&POST-DESC HERE=A brief description of prominent exits out of the room.
&WINDOW-PREFIX here=Some phrase that lets the viewer know that they’re looking through a window, door, etc., at something outside. For example: ‘Through the window, you can see that ‘. Used by the Storm Generator.
&OUTSIDE-DESC here=A description of what the viewer sees when they look out, for example: [u(window-prefix)] [u(#51/lowercase-short-weather)]. Or [u(window-prefix)] [u(#51/lowercase-long-weather)].
For instructions on how to turn artificial lighting in a room on and off, see +WT +LIGHT.
&INSTRUCTIONS here= to turn these instructions off. You can suppress any other part of the description the same way, e.g.: &<NAME>-DESC here=.
Children of the Windowed Indoor Parent Room receive both visual and audible effects from the Storm Generator.
Keep in mind that at any given time, either DAY-DESC, ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC, MOON-LIGHT-DESC or NIGHT-DESC is displayed, but never more than one. Regarding the WINDOW-PREFIX and the OUTSIDE-DESC, you do not need to use these unless you want them different from the default.
&PRE-DESC here=The entrance into the small manse, situated in an alley off the Main Square, leads into a well-appointed but not particularly large room that takes up most of first floor, save for a smaller alcove to one side. On the opposite side, an archway leads out into a small, walled-off garden, also used as the kitchen.
&DAY-DESC here=Daylight streams in through the archway to the garden. Colourful rugs soften the floor and the white-washed walls are hung with tapestries. Towards the back of the room, a low table of dark wood sits at an angle, with couches and piles of cushions set against both walls beginning at the corner. An oil lamp sits on the table, another is placed on the wall by the alcove, both left unlit during the day. Thin silk hangings separate the main room and the alcove, furnished as a study.
&ARTIFICIAL-LIGHT-DESC here=The flickering light from oil lamps weakly illuminates the room. Rugs, their colour leeched out of them by the night, soften the floor and the white-washed walls are hung with tapestries. Towards the back of the room, a low table of dark wood sits at an angle, with couches and piles of cushions set against both walls beginning at the corner. A lit oil lamp sits on the table, another burns on the wall by the alcove. Thin silk hangings separate the main room from both the alcove and the small garden.
&MOON-LIGHT-DESC here=Cool moonlight streams in through the archway to the garden.. Rugs, their colour leeched out of them by the night, soften the floor and the white-washed walls are hung with tapestries. Towards the back of the room, a low table of dark wood sits at an angle, with couches and piles of cushions set against both walls beginning at the corner. An oil lamp sits on the table, another is placed on the wall by the alcove, both left unlit. Thin silk hangings separate the main room from the dark alcove.
&NIGHT-DESC here=The room lies dark, its furnishings barely discernable. Rugs soften the floor and the white-washed walls are hung with tapestries. Towards the back of the room, a low table of dark wood sits at an angle, with couches and piles of cushions set against both walls beginning at the corner. An oil lamp sits on the table, another is placed on the wall by the alcove, both left unlit. Thin silk hangings separate the main room from the dark alcove.
&POST-DESC here=From within the alcove, stairs lead up to the second floor where a pair of bedrooms can be found.
&OUTSIDE-DESC here=[u(window-prefix)] [u(#51/lowercase-long-weather)]
&WINDOW-PREFIX here=Outside
&LIGHTSOURCE here=0
&LIGHT-OFF-MSG here=[name(%0)] douses the oil-lamps.
&LIGHT-ON-MSG here=[name(%0)] lights the oil-lamps.
&PRE-DESC here=One of the parts of the description that never changes, the other is POST-DESC.
&SPRING-DAY-DESC here=What the place is like during a spring day.
&SPRING-NIGHT-DESC here=What the place is like during a spring night.
And so on. The variations are SPRING-DAY-DESC, SPRING-NIGHT-DESC, SUMMER-DAY-DESC, SUMMER-NIGHT-DESC, AUTUMN-DAY-DESC, AUTUMN-NIGHT-DESC, WINTER-DAY-DESC, and WINTER-NIGHT-DESC.
Don’t put things that are only true in specific weather conditions in the descriptions listed above; it’ll look funny if you describe a blue sky and the weathermaker comes up with rain.
&WEATHER-DESC here=[u(#51/short-weather)] or [u(#51/long-weather)]. You can also add [u(#51/tree-weather)] or any other environmental weather descriptions that have been written. To use the environmental effects, do something like &WEATHER-DESC here=[u(#51/short-weather)] [u(#51/tree-weather)]
&MOON-DESC here=Describe the [u(#53/moon-phase)] moon as it shines on the scenery at night.
&INSTRUCTIONS here= to turn these instructions off. You can suppress any other part of the description the same way, e.g.: &<NAME>-DESC here=.
&HEAR-WEATHER-EMITS here=0 turns the sunrise, sunset, etc. messages from the emits bank off; clearing the attribute turns them on (default) again.
&HEAR-TIDE-EMITS here=1 turns the tide emits on; clearing the attribute turns them off (default) again.
Remember to not put things that are true only in specific weather conditions in the <SEASON>-<TIME>-DESC. If the seasonal variations are small, it is possible to have one attribute simply reference another. For example, &SPRING-DAY-DESC here=[u(SUMMER-DAY-DESC)]. Regarding the MOON-DESC and the WEATHER-DESC, you do not need to use these unless you want them different from the default.
&PRE-DESC here=Like the cesspit of the rich, Flea Bottom grows here beyond the estates of Manse Row. The alley begins as a narrow path between the high walls that are the dwellings of those dignitaries and well fed merchants. Here, the tall trees and well-paved pathways are things undreamed of.
&SPRING-DAY-DESC here=[u(summer-day-desc)]
&SPRING-NIGHT-DESC here=[u(summer-night-desc)]
&SUMMER-DAY-DESC here=The path is cracked and broken, its holes filled with filth and stinking water of unknown make. The summer heat bakes it, turning the grey pools into steaming sinks that fill the air with the putrid smell of dead things rotting in their own excrement. The people here are dirty and covered in sweat, cramped together down the narrow path not wide enough for two to walk abreast. Yet, still there are those who try to force their broken wheelbarrows through the space between huts of ramshackle wood and straw, or the moth-eaten cloth-covered wooden frames that are the potshops in this place of hopeless poverty.
&SUMMER-NIGHT-DESC here=The path is cracked and broken, its holes filled with filth and stinking water of unknown make. The day’s heat is missing, but the stench of putrid pools and the wetness still remains. There are no lights. Only a dark space between the hovels creates this winding path through the impoverished sprawl. Imagination gives birth to monsters in the close-clinging shadows to either side. Rats and bugs scurry down and across the twisting narrow path.
&AUTUMN-DAY-DESC here=The path is cracked and broken, the stones wet and washed by frequent rain that never seems to dry. Water collects into shallow pools that quickly turn fetid, filled with floating bits of matter difficult to identify, unless it is the whole corpse of some dead thing left untouched, against all chance. And like the filth, the people seem to be collected here with nowhere else to go, cramped together down the narrow path not wide enough for two to walk abreast. Yet, still there are those who try to force their broken wheelbarrows through the space between huts of ramshackle wood and straw, or the moth-eaten cloth-covered wooden frames that are the potshops in this place of hopeless poverty.
&AUTUMN-NIGHT-DESC here=Unlit, black pools of fetid water that have collected in the narrow broken path make dangerous and disgusting sinkholes for the unwary. In the gloom, the hovels gather together in predatory fashion, encroaching on the path and the sound of creatures many legged can be heard scurrying unseen. Just beyond the thin straw or moth-eaten cloth that people use for walls here, are a poor and desperate people, starved for coin, for warmth, for food, for hope.
&WINTER-DAY-DESC here=This is place of broken muddy streets filled with frozen filth. The cold has killed the smell, for the time being, but excrement lies steaming in the streets, and since most animals here quickly fall victim to the hunger of the inhabitants, it can only have one source. People huddle together in the huts of ramshackle wood and straw, or the moth-eaten cloth-covered wooden frames that are the potshops, seeking warmth in this place of hopeless poverty.
&WINTER-NIGHT-DESC here=This is place of unlit, broken muddy streets filled with frozen filth. The cold has killed the smell, but in the dark it fills the huddling shelters that line the narrow winding path with a menace. Just beyond the thin straw or moth-eaten cloth that people use for walls here, are a poor and frozen people, desperate for coin, for warmth, for food, for hope.
&POST-DESC here=To the northeast a glow above the squat roofs that lie along the path is a reminder of the quarters of the wealthy near at hand. For there lies Manse Row. In opposite direction only darkness and the labyrinth of Flea Bottom stretches further on.
&WEATHER-DESC here=[u(#51/long-weather)]
&MOON-DESC here=The [u(#53/moon-phase)] fills the reeking narrows with blue shadows, illuminating whatever it is crawling along the broken path and amongst the twisted shelters of the poor. Nothing can make this place beautiful.
Category://System -> WeatherTime