This is Ginger's Book of Idiosyncrasies, explaining little niggly bits and/or miscellaneous activities, as well as the exact way to interpret all those symbols she uses in her examples. Additions to this book are welcome; please send her email at fever@netcom.com with any little toys you'd like to see included.

Pages you may currently view are:

The Page of Symbols

This page explains the syntax Ginger uses when she tells you how to type a command in any of the help documentation she writes.

If a phrase is enclosed with these: < >, you are asked to replace whatever is between them with something else. Therefore, if you see: <my name> you would put your name (Bob, Ralph) in place of the <my name> in the command, *without the < >s*.

If a phrase is enclosed with there: ' ', it refers to the word or phrase between them, without the 's included. If you see: type 'east', you need to type east on a line by itself and hit return. No 's. If you see: 'help @open', that's what you need to type (no 's).

Comments in parentheses: () explain a command. Most of the time, what I want you to type is on the left, and what you're doing when you type it is on the right.

Any commands I refer to you typing are to be typed when you are logged into a character on the MUCK itself. Guest characters can type anything beginning with 'help' ('help @succ', 'help number', etc.), but cannot use the @set, @link, or other building commands.
To get a character on FurTooniaMUCK, send email to ftadmin@furtoonia.net with a character name, an alternate in case there already is someone with your name, your real name and email address, and a password for your character.

The Page of Dealing With Programs

Programs are nasty little critters if you don't understand them, but they can be tamed and controlled. If you've got an effect you'd like to have in your building, most likely there's a program available to deal with it. First, type 'programs' and look through the pages in there. If you don't find anything good in there, try 'plib', the program library, and be ready for spam (lots and lots and lots of stuff scrolling down your screen)! Once you have the program's name, and its database number (see 'help number'), then you are ready to get some help setting the program up; here's how to wrangle that program into giving you that help.

First of all, type '@view #<db# of program>' (for example, '@view #6800'). When this works, it will say something like 'command to view: @list <db#>=1-12--Run this command?' Type 'y' and hit return, and it will list some help docs, or an explanation of the program.

If it doesn't work, it will reply 'There are no documents for that program, sorry.' Then your next step is to type '@list <db# of program>=1-12' on your own, to see if there are any comments hidden there. There sometimes are, even when people haven't set up @view. The 1-12 lists lines 1-12 of the program; you can list more if you need to, but tht's usually spammy enough for the first test of a program, to see if it has help docs.

If @view and @list don't work, don't despair! There are two more ways of finding out how that program works. Make a personal exit, or action, on yourself, and link it to the program, like so:

  

   @act <actionname>=me                       (ex: @act test=me)
   @link <actionname>=#<db# of the program>   (ex: @link test=#19)

Now, see what that action does; type <actionname> #help, or just <actionname> by itself, and see if it does anything. Sometimes these commands will tell you syntax, or other important information.

NOTE: If it's a program that affects descriptions, try creating an object and typing: 

    @desc <objectname>=@<program db#, WITHOUT THE #>
          ( for example:      @create testobject
                              @desc testobject=@5020 )

This will put a description on the object with a call to the program in it. Now look at the object, and see if the program tells you anything.

If all else fails, type 'examine #<database number of program>'. It will return the name of the person who owns the program. Page or page #mail him or her and see if they can help! Or ask a wizard or helpstaff; they probably know. Try the other steps first, though! :)

Things You Should NOT Do When Building

Do not make multiple exits for multiple names.
If you want someone to be able to type either 'north' or 'n' to be able to go from room A to room B, do NOT make two exits, one called 'north' and one called 'n', from room A. You can give exits multiple names. Name your exit 'north;n'. For more on this, see The Book Of Exits.
Do not leave your exits unlinked.
Unlinked exits can be @chowned to others, taken, and @recycled. Though server upgrades are eliminating this problem, it is still a good idea not to do this. If you want fake exits in your rooms (type 'help bogus'), @link them to $nothing with '@link [exitname]=$nothing'. The @succ and @osucc will show when the exit is triggered. If you want to use the @fail and @ofail messages, type '@lock [exitname]=[exitname]' as well.
Do not name objects things like 'This_is_a_Test_Object', 'this;is;a;test;object' and 'ThisIsATestObject'.
Only player and program objects may not have spaces in their names. All other objects may be named with spaces between words, and do not need underscores or run-on names. This includes rooms and things (type 'help types'). Only exits may use the 'north;n;bedroom;b' kind of notation; see the link to the Book of Exits above.
Do not leave anything you own set 'chown_ok'.
The "C", or chown_ok, flag means that anyone who wants to can just walk up and take that object away from you. You will not get it back if they take it. See The Book of Flags section about the "C" flag.
@link all your objects to something, or when you get swept, they will end up Under the Base of the Tree and be lost forever.
When you create a new object, its parent is often set to #2, Under the Base of the Tree, for reasons the server is keeping to itself. When you get swept and you are carrying an object linked to #2, the object is sent home--to #2, and you probably will never see it again. Just type '@link <object>=me' and you will never lose your things.
Do not page a wizard for help before you have paged a helpstaff member.
Wizards are there as a last resort. The helpstaff signed up to be on the helpstaff because they wanted to be helpful, and aid people with their building (and other) problems. The wizards are very busy trying to keep the MUCK up and running.

 

Commands You Didn't Know Existed (on FurToonia)

Just a quick note--I keep putting up help documentation nobody reads. All the "book of..." files are available online, as buildhelp (Easy Book of Building), exitshelp (Book of Exits), and the Book of Flags is available in the Tourism Office, South, then SouthWest from Town Square. Some other commands you didn't know existed are:

 

From here, you may:
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