============================================================================== THE HUNT SYSOP INSTRUCTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is a lot of behind the scenes options sysops can do in The HUNT. This file talks briefly about each. Whenever I mention "sysop" in this file, I'll really be talking about the game coordinator: the person who looks after the game if anything goes wrong or whatever (not that anything ever will!). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ INITIAL CONFIGURATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the HDATA directory is a file called HCONFIG.DAT. If this file does not exist (like when the game is first installed), the first time you run The HUNT, it will prompt you to create the default config file because it can not find any current one. Create it so you can get into the game. Next we want to edit the Config options. There are quite a few options you may like to change, but in particular, you'll want to change the minimum SysOp access in the game to something higher than 10, and you'll want to change the SysOp password to something other than "DONNA". Every copy of The HUNT installs set up like this, so everyone knows the password and with an access level of 10, everyone will be able to get in and mess with the game. To edit Config options, create a character and get into the game. At a normal game prompt where it waits for a direction or other command, hit [$] to get into the SysOp options. You'll be prompted for the SysOp password, so type "DONNA". The SysOp menu will appear (I'll talk about it all soon!). Hit [C] for the Config Options. From here you can change a variety of options, but in particular, you want to change the [P]assword and minimum [A]ccess level for SysOp (coordinator) access. Make the password whatever string you like, but it is not case- sensitive. Set the minimum access level to any integer value ( < 32767 ). Set this up so that few people have access to the SysOp options. If too many people have access, it ruins the game as people create super-characters for themselves and mess with other player's characters. That's it for the essential configuration you should do. The other Config options have been set and tested to make the game thoroughly playable and fun for everyone. Still, feel free to change anything you like. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SYSOP OPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To get to the SysOp/Coordinator options menu, from the standard in-game prompt, used to move around for example, hit [$]. If you have enough access on the BBS you'll be prompted to enter the SysOp/Coordinator password. If you don't have enough access, hitting [$] won't do anything. This way only certain people of a certain access level can get in. The following is a description of the available SysOp options. Some of them will hold off being explained until further down so they can be explored more in-depth... [L]ist all players: Accessing this option will display ever player currently in the game. Characters currently alive will be displayed light grey, while dead ones are dark grey. The name is first displayed. Then they're state is shown as 'N' for Normal or 'R' for In-Room. Next they're location is displayed by the filename and location in the file they're currently in. Really this info isn't too useful. It was originally good for debugging, but I just left it in so SysOps can see how exactly how many people are playing. [E]dit a player's stats: There's a lot to this option. Let's discuss it in detail later. [S]ave all player data: This option will save all players in the game as they're currently depicted in memory. [C]onfig options: There's a lot to this option too. Let's discuss it in detail farther down in GENERAL CONFIGURATION. [@]Release all criminals: This will reset all NPC Criminals in the game so that they're all free and have never been caught. [#]Build full criminal list: This option is hardly even needed. It creates a new file of the NPC criminals in the city by searching through all of the .LOC location files in the HLOCS directory. When you add new NPC criminals to the game, CAT won't list them right away. If someone goes to the location containing the new NPC, CAT will then have him/her on file. Otherwise, you must use this option for the game to take note of everyone so CAT will list them. Using this option will not have any other effect on your current game. [%]Reset High Hit Scores List: Running this option will reset CAT's list of the Exterminators getting the most hits in fights. Not too exciting. People like to see their name in lists though. Run it whenever you get bored. [!]Restart game: This is the big one. This will nuke everyone and release all of the criminals. Everything will be reset; like right out of the so-called box. The only thing unaffected is CAT's bulletin of [V]ictorious Exterminators. People worked hard for their names in the list. Let's let them keep their fame. [~]Drop out of the game: You probably won't ever need this option either. Confirming this option will abort you out of The HUNT immediately, not saving anything. Basically if you think you've messed up some game data and have not yet saved your mistake, you can abort out preserving your last saved data. [R]eturn to game: This is an exciting one, but I don't want to ruin the mystery. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GENERAL CONFIGURATION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The SysOp Config options ([C] from the SysOp menu) menu is pretty self- explanatory, but I'll beat you over the head with all the details... [P]assword: This string is used by SysOps to get into the SysOp options. You have 11 alpha-numeric characters available. Case does not make any difference. The default password is "DONNA". [A]ccess: Enter the minimum access level people must have to even have access to all of these SysOp options. This value is a long integer. The default access level is 10. [F]ights: This is to set the number of fights per day a player is allowed. The maximum is 9999 and the default number is 20. [D]rinks: The number of drinks a player is allowed is set through this option. The maximum is 9999 and the default number is 4. [S]ex/day: This is the number of times a player can sleep with a prostitute in a day. This value is usually set low because the benefits from this activity can be desirable. The maximum is 9999 and the default number is 1. [I]nactive: If a player does not play the game for a while, after this many days they are removed from the game to make room for new users and lose clutter. The maximum value is 9999 and the default is 21. [E]xperience: When a player is defeated and transported back to the city medical facility, they lose experience. The value is the percentage of experience they lose. The more experience they have, the greater the cost and incentive not to lose. The maximum value is 99 and the default is 10. [1]File: New players and players returning the next day after being killed must start somewhere. This string states the .LOC file in the HLOCS directory to find the player start position. Because this string is a filename (without the .LOC extension), limit yourself to 8 characters. The maximum chars allowed is 39 but anything past 8 won't be useful until MS fixes DOS up properly. The default string is "HMED". [2]Location: This string is the actual location in the .LOC file mentioned above that players start out at when first joining and after being killed. Usually this would be a medical clinic of some kind and most likely within the controlled city walls. The default string is "City Medical Clinic" which can be found in the "HLOCS\HMED.LOC" file. [R]eturn: After making changes, you would normally return to the sysop menu with this option and your changes will be saved. [X]Exit: If you accidentily screwed something up and don't want to save your changes, you can return to the sysop menu without saving your changes via this option. The old config info will thus be preserved. [@]Defaults: Accessing this option will reset all of the config options to their defaults (as mentioned throughout above). These defaults were tested for more than a year and have been found to be very playable. Thus they are recommended, but really it's up to you in the end. NOTE: This will also reset the SysOp Access level to 10 and the SysOp Password to "DONNA". Be sure to change these so no one can mess with your game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITING PLAYERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Player Editting options ([E] from the SysOp menu) menu is, again, pretty self-explanatory. Let's pummel ourselves with the details though. You will first be prompted for the name of a player to edit. Invalid names, obviously, don't work, so you can only edit players currently in the game. Once inside the Player Editting options, detailed information about the player chosen will be displayed. Let's look at each of the available editting options... 1>Strength: This value represents the player's strength as percentile. 0 is the lowest and the player will fail at every Strength related activity, unless very lucky. 100 is the highest and a player with this will succeed at every Strength related acitivity, unless very unlucky. This luck factor guarantees that everyone has at least a small (5%) chance of doing anything. It also let's everyone always have a small chance (5%) at failing any attempts. 2>Melee: This value represents the player's skill in hand-to-hand combat. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. 3>Range: This value represents the player's skill in distance combat. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. 4>Dexterity: This value represents the player's natural speed and agility. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. 5>Stamina: This value represents the player's Maximum health and hardiness. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. %>Stamina: This value represents the player's Current health and hardiness. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. 6>Charisma: This value represents the player's attractiveness and ability to influence and/or manipulate others. Like Strength (above) the lowest is 0 and the highest is 100. M>oney: This is the amount of money a player is currently carrying on-hand. The maximum amount is 999999999. B>ounty: This is the amount of money a player has waiting to be picked up form a Bonuty Collection Office. The maximum amount is 999999999. $>Bank: This is the amount of money a player has in their bank account. The maximum amount is 999999999. D>efeats: This is the number of times a player has been defeated. The maximum number is 32767. K>ills: This is the number of fights a player has won. The maximum number is 32767. ,>Medkits: This is the number of medkits a player is currently carrying. The maximum number is 32767. F>ightsLeft: This is the number of fights a player has left today. The maximum number is 32767. (>DrinksLeft: This is the number of drinks a player has left today. The maximum number is 32767. )>DrinksLeft: This is the number of times a player can have sex today. The maximum number is 32767. U>ser: This string is the name of the user passed to The HUNT from the BBS via the DORINFO file. The maximum number of character is 25. N>ame: This string is the name of the player being currently editted. The maximum number of character is 25. T>CharText: This option will allow you to change the various player text displayed when encountered, beaten, etc. It is exactly the same as changing them via [O]ptions from the main game prompt. S>tatus: Pressing this option will toggle a player from being currently alive or currently dead. *>RemoveChar: Accessing this option will permanently remove all traces of this player from the game. It has the same effect as when a player is removed due to inactivity, except there is no Word on the Street message. #>LastOn: This is an old debug option. This value represents the last time the player was playing. It's horribly complicated to try and explain how this value works. If you really want to know, get a book on C and look up the "time.h" library. C>lass: This number is the player's class level. In the actual game, the lowest level is 1 and the highest is 10. However, this option can let you set it anywhere between 0 and 32767, but strange things might occur so try and control yourself. X>pr: This is the player's number of experience points, gained mainly through defeating criminals. The maximum value this can be is 999999999. P>ower: This option will let you choose a new mutant power. The choices menu will look the same as when a new player chooses a mutant power. V>PowerVal: Some mutant powers only have a limited number of times they can be used per day. This value represents the number of times reamining a player can use their mutant power today. This value will have no effect on most powers, only Healing Hands and TK-Locate. W>rite: This option will save the current information for this player. R>eturn: This option was a really marvellous programming feat. Are you sitting down? It will return you back to the SysOp menu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MISCELLANEOUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BULLETINS In the HTEXTS directory, there is a text file called HBULLETS.TXT. If you'd like to add a bulletin for all players to see as they enter the game, create the bulletin as a text file, and enter the file's name in HBULLETS.TXT. See the instructions in HBULLETS.TXT for more detailed instructions, but it's pretty darn simple. MULTI-NODE Hooking up The HUNT on a multi-node BBS is very easy, unfortunately only one user can play at a time. The HUNT will take care of ensuring this. Simply hook up both nodes up to run the same game in the same directory. The HUNT will take care of the rest! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE ~~~~ That about covers the in-game SysOp functions. There's a lot of other information of possible interest in other files you may want to take a look at... README! .TXT - A file just telling you what's all in the HUNT.ZIP file. INSTALL .TXT - Some information about setting The HUNT up on your BBS. CREATION.TXT - Detailed information about expanding The HUNT's world. REGISTER.TXT - Registration information! Read this one for sure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ QUESTIONS ~~~~~~~~~ If you have any questions about these SysOp functions, or anything at all really, just drop me a note. I can be reached most easily by writing email to "bkyle@sfu.ca". Also, check out my door release Web Site at http://www.sfu.ca/~bkyle. Good luck! - Brent "Cowboy" Kyle, creator of COLORS, ex-sysop of Trauma Hounds BBS. ==============================================================================