-ð- SYSOP HANDBOOK for LEGENDS (LEGENDSlite) version 6.1 -ð- Documentation and program written by: Jeffrey D. Hoffman Copyright (c) 1992-1995. All Rights Reserved. "Your journey has only just begun." (tm) Forward Part I: Introduction Welcome to the sixth chapter of the #1 entertainment package for TBBS. The release of this version marks an imporant achievement in the history of LEGENDS with the addition of more than seventy (70!) new features and enhancements. As always, here is only a sampling of the acclaim LEGENDS has received from SYSOPs all across the world: "LEGENDS is the best on-line entertainment I have ever been in." -ð- Robert Becker -ð- "This version of LEGENDS is totally optimized ... it really smokes." -ð- David Mack -ð- "Thanks for your wonderful game." -ð- Mark Barauskas -ð- "The TDBS game all others will be judged against." -ð- Adam Rosien -ð- "Thanks for taking the time to call me voice ... Not many TBBS authors do that now, so I do appreciate that." -ð- George Matyaszek -ð- Professional TBBS SYSOPs know that the #1 choice for entertainment on their system is LEGENDS. For nearly five years, LEGENDS has been the forerunner in attracting new members and keeping existing members calling frequently. There is no other entertainment package for TBBS that is more popular than LEGENDS. Part II: What is LEGENDS? LEGENDS is an interactive role-playing environment which supports up to sixty-four (64) players in real-time. Players select from a variety of races and occupations offering a wide range of combat, magic, and thief skills. They can explore a vast fantasy world of townes, forests, mountains, dungeons, and swamps. In addition, players compete and work together to complete quests that are scattered throughout the realm to gain experience and incredible magical items. These quests restart automatically, so that new adventurers can explore and complete a quest as if it were new. Unlike simple text adventures, players interact with other characters who are on-line with them through in LEGENDS' awesome role-playing environment. In addition to communication, players can fight and adventure together, cast magic spells at one another, and share items. The world that comes with LEGENDS can be expanded infinitely by either Implementors (who's powers and abilities you control) or by adding expansion modules that are now available. Implementors have complete control to create items, rooms, monsters, events, exits, stores, and more. Part III: What is LEGENDSlite? LEGENDSlite is the same interactive role-playing environment that LEGENDS uses. It offers all the playability and excitement of the LEGENDS game. The only difference is that this software lacks the capability to add Implementors. LEGENDSlite is designed for SYSOPs who want professional, entertaining role-playing for their users, but don't want the hassles of selecting and keeping track of Implementors. LEGENDSlite has full support for add-on quests, and since the quests reset, it is hands-off software. Once installed, players can journey through all of the quests, and you never need to go in a do things to keep the world interesting - just add a few modules every now and then and *presto* an all new challenge for the players. Chapter I: Installation Installation of LEGENDS or LEGENDSlite version 6.1 is extremely easy. The following section explains, in detail, how to get LEGENDS or LEGENDSlite up and running on your system as fast as possible. There are a variety of customization features you will want to use, so read carefully. Because LEGENDS and LEGENDSlite are based on the same gaming engine, there is no demonstration of LEGENDSlite. Universally, I will refer to LEGENDSlite as LEGENDS for the remainder of this documentation, unless a specific difference requires your attention. Both software versions operate the same way from a player's perspective. -ð- NOTE -ð- LEGENDS version 6.1 is not compatible with the old databases of prior versions of LEGENDS. If you are currently running a previous version of LEGENDS (that means any version from 1.x to 5.0) you have several upgrade options. Please refer to section II for information on upgrading! Part I: Installing the demonstration version of LEGENDS -or- Upgrading ANY version of LEGENDS 5.0 or earlier. This section will guide you through the installation process for LEGENDS 6.1 on your TBBS system. If you are running a previous version of LEGENDS 5.0 or earlier, you can specify so by answering prompts within the installation software. Complete these steps to install LEGENDS version 6.1. 1. Create a new directory for the LEGENDS software within your TBBS directory. During this section, I will be installing into a directory called LEGENDS6. The complete path would be: C:\TBBS\LEGENDS6 2. Extract the LEGENDS version 6.1 archive into this directory. You will find that only two files are extracted (other than the documentation which includes four text files): INSTALL6.EXE and LEGENDS6.DAT. 3. Execute INSTALL6.EXE. This intuitive installation program will prompt you to determine if you are already running a version of LEGENDS 5.0 or earlier. If you answer "Y," you will be prompted for the path of your old version. Supply that and you will receive a registered version of LEGENDSlite installed upon your system. If you answer "N," then the demonstration version of LEGENDS will be installed. 4. To add LEGENDS to your BBS menu structure, edit your .SDL file and add the following line: Entry: L -> LEGENDS version 6.1 Priv=0 A1=-------- A2=-------- A3=-------- A4=-------- ANS=- IBM=- KEY=L TYPE=200 Opt Data=c:\tbbs\legends6\legends6.tpg /Q 5. A high-scores listing showing the top ten heros, the best fighter, mage, cleric, and thief, along with the best adventuring party is generated by the ghost task (see below) provided you have activated that option in the LEGENDS6.CFG file. If you have done so, you need to make a menu item for players to read that file. Entry: S -> LEGENDS version 6.1 CHAMPIONS LISTING Priv=0 A1=-------- A2=-------- A3=-------- A4=-------- ANS=- IBM=- KEY=S TYPE=1 Opt Data=c:\tbbs\legends6\txtfiles\scores.txt 6. Compile the .SDL file. 7. LEGENDS requires that a special program called DEMONTSK.TPG be run once a day. This program does several important maintenance features including aging old players, resurrecting monsters, restoring inventory in the stores, regenerating all the indexes, restarting the quests, and other features. Using CEDIT, add the following Ghost Task to your system: Entry #, Occurs on Line 16 at 23:60 on Sun,Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat Type = 200 OptData = c:\tbbs\legends6\demontsk.tpg /Q A time of 23:60 causes this ghost task to be activated automatically when your BBS is run. I use this on the assumption that your system is shut down each day for an external batchfile maintenance to run. 8. Run your BBS. Part II: Upgrading LEGENDS(lite) 6.0 to LEGENDS(lite) 6.1 If you are already running LEGENDS version 6.0, the INSTALL6.EXE program will detect the software and make the correct upgrades to the software. At the end of the installation, you will be running either LEGENDS or LEGENDSlite (depending on your keyfile or game status) version 6.1 Part III: DeamonTASK version 6.1 As mentioned above, LEGENDS requires that a ghost task execute DEMONTSK.TPG. This improved maintanence program has a wide array of new skills that previous versions lacked. Aside from the standard chores that previous versions did, including reindexing, restocking the stores, etc. it also performs several functions that are vital to gameplay. Although previous versions ran for a short time and then stopped. DeamonTASK 6.1 is designed to run all day, if you activate that option. For purposes of speed, monsters are no longer resurrected by LEGENDS automatically when they are killed. Instead, the DeamonTASK resurrects them upon running. If the DeamonTASK is set to run all day, then it will continue to resurrect monsters are an interval also specified in the .CFG file. Another new feature is known as ATMOSPHERE MESSAGES. These interesting messages are broadcast to players based on their positions in the realm to add description, such as moving shadows, townespeople passing in the street, etc. If the DeamonTASK runs throughout the day, players will receive these messages. However, whether or not the DeamonTASK runs all day is, once again, up to you. See the following section for information on how to customize the DeamonTASK. Part IV: Customizing LEGENDS with the LEGENDS6.CFG file. -ð- NOTE -ð- The LEGENDS6.CFG file is ignored in most cases by the demonstration version of LEGENDS. This section is designed to explain each of the features in the LEGENDS6.CFG file which is useful for anyone running the registered version of LEGENDS or LEGENDSlite 6.1. Customizing you LEGENDS environment is very easy. A simple text file called LEGENDS6.CFG includes all SYSOP-definable aspects. This section walks through what each function does. invisible.users When on, this feature turns in-coming LEGENDS players invisible to the normal users of the board. This protects the identity of the players in the game from other players. In addition, when on, as the players leave LEGENDS, the userlog is restored to visible. titlescreen.quests When on, this feature will automatically list all of the quests that are installed on your BBS. This proudly displays how large a system you are running and helps to attract players. attribute.reroll When on, this feature allows users to reroll the series of seven attributes they receive during character generation. suicide.lockout This is one of the many ways to prevent cheating in LEGENDS 6.1. When on, players who SUICIDE their character must wait until the ghost task is executed before they can enter the game again. This solves the problem of players who create a character, drop her gold, suicide, create a new character, drop her gold, and so on. After a time, they have built up quite a sum of money. This feature prevents that. limited.yell The YELL command is one of the most CPU intensive commands in the software. As a result, by turning this feature on, you are limiting the distance of the YELL command to specific regions in the game. This also adds realism to the game, so that players have to be in the same area to hear one another, while players at opposite ends of the realm can't hear one another. deamontask.shutdown This line allows you to specify whether or not the ghost task runs constantly throughout the day, and if so, what time of the day it shuts down. An example setting is 22:00:00 to shut down at 11:00pm. Otherwise, if you want the ghost task to shut down immediately after running in the morning, you can enter 00:00:00 here. scores When on, the ghost task will generate a comprehensive score sheet in the TXTFILES\ directory called SCORES.TXT. This includes the top-ten adventurers, along with the names of the best fighter, thief, cleric, and mage in the realm. In addition, it also lists the most powerful adventuring party in the realm. unused.characters The number of days specified following this line allow you to set how long the ghost task will let a player remain unused before removing her from the realm. The recommended setting is 25 days. atmosphere.messages If the ghost task is running constantly throughout the day, this feature is active. It allows you to specify at what intervals atmosphere messages are issued to the players that are online at that moment. An example setting is 5 minutes. If you do not want these messages showing, use 0 minutes. monster.resurrection If the ghost task is running constantly throughout the day, this feature is active. It allows you to specify at what intervals monsters will be resurrected. The recommended setting is 15 minutes, but that can be changed based on how active your system is. reindex.daily When on, the ghost task will reindex all of the databases in the game. This is extremely time consuming, and locks players out of the game until it has completed this process. Part V: The demo version versus the registered versions The demonstration version of LEGENDS is fully functional and allows complete exploration of the environment. Players are limited to playing only once per day and, considering that players leave the game when they are killed, this can be quite frustrating. In addition, there are introduction and closing messages, as always, that players and Implementors have to sit through each time they enter the game. Equally, Implementors can only enter the game once per day. Although they can try each CREATE and EDIT command available to them, their changes will not be saved, so as a result, in the demonstration version, the world can not be expanded. Next, the demonstration version ignores most of the settings in the LEGENDS6.CFG file. There are several settings that are defaulted to during the demonstration version. Those settings are the following: 1. The suicide lock-out is active. 2. Resurrection failure is active. 3. The YELL command is limited to zones in the game. 4. Users are not turned invisible to other users of the board when they enter the game. 5. The quests installed in the system are not displayed on the title screen. Finally, the you can not install any expansion quests onto an unregistered system. The module installation program will fail if you attempt to install a purchased quest. LEGENDS, LEGENDSlite, and all official expansion modules are distrubuted on Safe Harbor Computers BBS. With one call you can purchase any of these products with a visa, mastercard, or discover and *instantly* download the unlocking keyfile for that software. Safe Harbor Computers BBS - 24hrs a day, seven days a week! (414) 548-8155 for 19.2k baud -or- (414) 548-8140 for 2400 baud. If you have not called before, log in under your REAL NAME and at the first menu, select the item which allows you to REGISTER AS A TBBS SYSOP. Simple fill in the requested information and you will get instant registration to download bugfixes, post messages for technical support, and read about new product announcements - in addition to being able to purchase online! Part VI: Editing players and adding Implementors Within LEGENDS, you have two special commands that are available to yourself (as a God of the realm, having full privilege) and anyone else you grant full privilege to. These commands are the EDITPLAYER command and the FINDPLAYER command. These commands are explained below. EP (EDITPLAYER) By specifying a character's name, you can edit that character from anywhere within the realm. This command brings up an editing screen, which is described below, that allows you to edit various attributes about a player or Implementor. FP (FINDPLAYER) This command summons a list of all active players in LEGENDS. In addition, it also lists all of the Implementors you have created. You see a variety of information about players and Implementors including various attributes about the characters and any privilege settings for the Implementors. In addition, you can find their current location with this command also. OFFLINE In addition, this command also allows you to check to make sure that everyone that LEGENDS 'thinks' is online, really is. Typing OFFLINE (return) will cause LEGENDS to check and confirm that everyone is online that is listed in the WHO'S ONLINE listing. LEGENDS will also remove any characters that are not really online. Section I: Editing a player/Implementor When you use the EDITPLAYER command, the following screen is drawn and allows you to edit the player's attributes: 0: USER'S REAL NAME Last on: 01/01/96 Alias: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Privilege: .............. Race: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Occupation: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Aligment: °°°° Title: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° To hit: °°° To damage: °°° To defense: °°° Hitpoint adj: °°° Spellpoint adj: °°° Reaction adj: °°° Lockpick adj: °°° Resurrection adj: °° Experience: °°°°°°°°° Level: °° Hitpoints: °°°°°° Max hitpoints: °°°°°° Spellpoints: °°°°°° Max spellpoints: °°° Cur weight: °°°°.°° Max weight: °°°°.°° Gold: °°°°°°°°° Account: °°°°°°°°° Base weapon: °°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Attack verb: °°°°°°°°°° Base damage: °°°°° Num attacks: ° Armor class: °°°°° Immune to: .°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° Resistant to: .°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° ALIAS, RACE, and OCCUPATION There fields hold just what their name suggests: The name of the character, her race, and her occupation, respectively. There fields are determined by the player when they create their character. PRIVILEGE Like the A1-A4 fields in TBBS, the PRIVILEGE field determines if this player is an implementor, and if so, what powers does she have? Each position represents a different ability. To grant an ability to a player, all you need to change the corresponding position from a period (.) to an (X). The positions are as follows: Position 1 Can have multiple characters. 2 Can use the %E and %LE commands. 3 Can teleport. 4 Can summon monsters. 5 Can create exits. 6 Can create events. 7 Can create items. 8 Can create monsters and use GIVE command. 9 Can create rooms, zones, and atmospheric messages. 10 Can create responses. 11 Can create spells. 12 Can use the REPLACE command. 13 Can edit ANY thing, including players. 14 Can see identity of a player and their location. ALIGNMENT You can specify if the player is GOOD, EVIL, or NEUTral in the ALIGNMENT field. TITLE This is the title that the player has set for herself within the game. TO HIT This adjustment determines how much skill a player has at attacking above her own experience level. For every point in this field, she is attacking at an equal number of levels above her current level. For example, a level 5 fighter with a to-hit of 5 would fight at the skill of a level 10 (5+5) player. TO DAMAGE The value in this field is added to the total amount of damage a player can do every turn. TO DEFENSE This field adjusts a player's natural armor class during play. The lower this number, the better the player's overall armor class. HITPOINT AND SPELLPOINT ADJUSTMENT These fields hold numeric adjustments that are added to a player's hit- and spell-points when they advance. The higher these numbers, the more hitpoints or spellpoints (respectively) a player will gain each level. REACTION ADJUSTMENT This field is, basically, how beautiful or ugly is this character. The higher the number in this field the better the player looks and the more that NPCs will want to deal with them. A zero in this field is average looking. A negative number means that the player is repulsive to look at., LOCKPICK ADJUSTMENT This field, similar to the to-hit field, determines the skill at which a thief picks locks. In addition to the failure risk that she runs with her skills, she can pick at a higher skill level if the number in this field increases. EXPERIENCE and LEVEL This field holds the amount of numeric experience the player has received from killing monsters and solving quests. The field ranges from 1 to 1 billion, but it stops having any meaning after 100,000,000 as that is the amount of experience needed to advance to level 60. Likewise, the LEVEL field holds the current experience level, based on the EXPERIENCE field, that this player has achieved. HITPOINTS and SPELLPOINTS These fields and their maximum counterparts are used to determine if a player not only has spell points, but how much they have, along with how much damage they have taken out of the maximum they can support. WEIGHT ALLOWANCE The current weight field determines how much weight the player is currently carrying in her inventory. The maximum weight field holds the maximum amount of weight allowance this player can carry. GOLD and her ACCOUNT This field holds the amount of gold that a player has in her current inventory. Likewise, the ACCOUNT field holds the amount of gold that the player has deposited in the bank during her travels. BASE WEAPON, VERB, and DAMAGE The base weapon field contains the name of the weapon that the player is carrying when she is created. The default for this field is "Fists." In addition, the verb fields holds a verb which describes how she attacks during combat (ie Swings, slashes, etc.) Finally, the DAMAGE field holds an amount of damage that the player inflicts when she is using this base weapon. NUMBER OF ATTACKS This field determines how many attacks per round the player gets in combat. The default is one attack per round, but magical items can increase that. ARMOR CLASS This field determines how well a player can be hit. The lower the number in this field, the more difficult it becomes to hit her. IMMUNE TO and RESISTANCIES Throughout the game, players can become immune and resistant to certain forms of attack. These are built up in string fashion within the two appropriately named fields. The default for these fields is a single period (.) in each. Although, as the game goes on, one or more of the forms of attack (listed below) could appear chained within these fields with periods seperating them. The forms of attack that a player can become immune to are FIR, ICE, ACI, ELE, PHY, WEA, and DEA. Consult the IMPLEMNT.TXT file for descriptions of each of these attack types. Part VII: Warranty LEGENDS is distributed on as "AS IS" basis only, without warranty. Neither Jeffrey D. Hoffman, nor the authorized dealers of LEGENDS shall have liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused by this software. This included, but is not limited to, any interruption of service, loss of business or anticipatory profits, or consequential damage resulting from the use of this software. Part VIII: License Agreement Purchasers of LEGENDS are expected to honor their license agreement. This software is copyrighted, and licensed to the purchaser for your individual and exclusive use on a single CPU at a time. Any reproduction for use by other persons is a violation of our copyright and your license agreement. Carefully read the following terms and conditions. Use of this product constitutes your acceptance of the terms and conditions, and your agreement to abide by them. 1. THIS IS AN END-USER LICENSE. You, the original purchaser, are granted this license for the use of LEGENDS software under the terms stated in this agreement. You may not assign or transfer the software or this license to any person without the express written consent of Jeffrey D. Hoffman. Any attempt to sublicense, assign, or transfer any of the rights, duties, or obligations hereunder is void. 2. THE LEGENDS SOFTWARE IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. Once you have paid the required single copy license fee, you may use the software as long as you like provided you do not violate the copyright or any of the following conditions. 3. SINGLE CPU LICENSE. You may use the software on any computer for which it is designed as long as it is not in use on more than one computer at the same time. You must pay for additional licenses if you want to use this software on more than one computer at the same time. 4. BACKUP COPIES. You may make as many backup copies of the software as you require to avoid loss. You are responsible for all backup copies you make, and must assure that they do not result in any use of the software which would conflict with the provisions of paragraph 2 above. 5. SOFTWARE MODIFICATION. You may not make any changes or modifications to the Licensed software not expressly authorized by Jeffrey D. Hoffman. This includes but is not limited to disassembly and reverse engineering the software. 6. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. This Software is Commercial Computer Software under the Federal Government Acquisition Regulations and agency supplements to them. The Software is provided to the Federal Government and its agencies only under the Restricted Rights Provisions of the Federal Acquisition Regulations applicable to commercial computer software developed at private expense and not in the public domain. 7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. In no case shall the Liability of Jeffrey D. Hoffman exceed the license fees paid for the right to use this software or One Hundred Dollars ($100.00), whichever is greater. 9. THIS AGREEMENT MAY NOT BE MODIFIED. This agreement may not be modified except by a written instrument signed by Jeffrey D. Hoffman. This license constitutes the entire agreement and understanding between you and Jeffrey D. Hoffman, and supersedes any prior agreement or understand whether oral or written relating to the subject of this License. Part IX: LEGENDS Software Support Jeffrey D. Hoffman can be reached on Safe Harbor BBS, which is also the first place for new releases, bugfixes, and new product announcements. Error reporting and troubleshooting assistance is readily available online. Safe Harbor Computers BBS - 24hrs a day, seven days a week! (414) 548-8155 for 19.2k baud -or- (414) 548-8140 for 2400 baud. On the information super highway, Jeffrey D. Hoffman can be eMailed at the following internet address: JDHOFFMA @ STUDENTS.WISC.EDU Thank you for running LEGENDS on your TBBS system! "Don't be Disillusioned by Imitations!" (tm)