============================================================================= CYBERSPACE Version 1.12 ============================================================================= Cyberspace was created by Patrick Hunlock, based on the Holodeck by Jon Boede. The program and design team for Cyberspace is: Eric Alvarado Kelly Christiansen This program is *SHAREWARE*. If you like this program and plan to make it a permanent part of your BBS or you plan to use this game in local mode to design your modules at home please register it with the Authors. After a 30 day trial period please send $30.00 to.... Cyberspace 201 West Stassney Austin, Tx 78744 Checks should be made out to Kelly Christiansen This program is not crippled. Registration is lifetime (yours, not your computers) and if you register you will be entitled to download any furture major releases, as well as whatever source code is current. When registering please include a mailing address so that the program can be sent to you. (you can download it if you would rather, but I still need a mailing address). In order to register, please either print out the registration form and fill it in, on make a hand written copy of the form and fill IT in. You can call my bbs at (512) 243-0049 or reach me at the following e-mail addresses: 1@5121 Vnet 1@5295 WWIVnet 1@15295 WWIVlink Or send regular mail to the registration address and we will send you back a letter by surface mail. People who use the program and do not register but still have reports they would like to make are encouraged to do so, as the most important thing is making this program the best it can be. :) PLEASE POST the cybr_112.exe file on your BBS for downloading! (and it is a good idea to post the instruction files for downloading as well. The easier it is for your users to run the program, the better your Cyberspace will be.) ============================================================================= Some notes about what Cyberspace is ============================================================================= Cyberspace is a game only in so much as you and your users make it a game. You can use it to make text style adventures, play your RPG games in a 3-d environment instead of on a flat message base, create ANSI art gallerys, or whatever you and your users choose to make of it. Cyberspace uses quite a few files so you should probably have the line FILES=30 in your config.sys file to prevent problems. Cyberspace also comes with two external programs.. INIT.EXE - This will "BIG BANG" your universe. Destroying any existing universe and creating a new one. MAINT.EXE - This "defragments" your Cyberspace files and can recover quite a bit of disk space. It's recommended you run this about once a week. It also will repair your Cyberspace files if they ever become so corrupted you can not run /RECOVER. To run maint with the RECOVER option, make sure you are in DOS and in the Cyberspace subdirectory. Then type MAINT /RECOVER. IMPORTANT: This command is case sensitive. the word /RECOVER must be in all caps. Be sure you make a backup of ALL the *.dat files before you run maint. ============================================================================= INSTALLING CYBERSPACE upgrading from vrs. 1.06 or lower ============================================================================ Cyberspace is not compatible with versions this low, and my suggestion is: If you have a realy good universe going, set up a seperate copy of cyberspace for vrs. 1.12. If your universe isn't that good or you're not that attached to it, then delete your old files (the WHOLE directory), put mainprog.exe in the subdirectory and run it. Then start fresh ============================================================================= INSTALLING CYBERSPACE upgrading from vrs. 1.07 and higher ============================================================================= Put the mainprog.exe file in your cyberspace directory make a copy of your *.dat files Run MAINT. (if for some reason you have crashed data files, copy in your old data files and run MAINT again.) ============================================================================= INSTALLING CYBERSPACE for the first time ============================================================================= Install Cyberspace in it's own directory then run the INIT program. Now create a batch file in your WWIV directory that looks kind of like this. @ECHO OFF CD CYBER %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 CD ***************************************************************************** FOR NON-WWIV BBS'S, TRY THIS GENERIC BATCH FILE: @echo Off Cd Cyber For example: If your bbs is in a subdirectory call c:\bbs and cyberspace is in a sub- directory called d:\games\cyber your batch file would be: @echo off d: cd\games\cyber cyber c:\bbs\chain.txt Yes, you MUST call cyberspace from a batch file. ***************************************************************************** If your bbs does not write out chain.txt, any chain.txt written out by any door convertor will work. We haven't found any door convertor that won't. NOTE: If cyberspace wont run from your bbs, first run it from DOS and make sure it runs there. If it doesn't, make sure you ran INIT.exe. If it still won't run, call the board. If it does run, make sure you don't have max time or max sec. level on your bbs set to more than 255 for ANYONE INCLUDING THE SYSOP!!!!!!!! Cspace isn't desigined to handle variables in those areas higher than that. If all this checks ok, and it still won't run, call the board. The support board number is 512-243-0049. It is up 24 hours a day, and someone is usualy around to answer questions. Now to set up Cyberspace in WWIV run chain edit with the following parameters. The name of your batch file followed by %1 (registered %1 /r) Dos Interrupts are not used. Ansi is optional Shrinking the BBS is optional. When you first enter Cyberspace you will be given ownership of the first room. You should run the following commands... /WIZARD Go into sysop maintenance mode. /DESCRIBE And then enter a description of the void. /SHARE Allow other users to create their own rooms. /DEFAULT 300 300 sets the new user startup level. Set it to less if your hard drive is cramped for space. It costs 10 credits to create an object, 20 to upload an ansi pic, 30 to dig a room, so make sure your users have enough credits to play with at the start or they will lose intrest very quickly. /ANSION Run this to allow ANSI pictures to be attached to objects and rooms. If your HD is cramped for space do not run this command. /RATE 2 This sets the rate at which users find Cyberspace construction credits. NOTE: If you are running a USR HST (or HST DS) then you should also run the command /HIGHSPEED. THis tells Cyberspace to PACE the character output for your 300,1200, and 2400 baud users. You only need to run this command if you have LOCKED your baud rate at 38400. For your high speed callers Cyberspace will crack out text as fast as the modem will take it.. But for the low speed callers Cyberspace will send text faster than the modem can take it. Users of HAYES high speed modems do not need to use this command. Other high speed modem users may have to experiment. One small tip. Before you open cyberspace up to your users, go into it and create a nice, large area full of rooms, objects and descriptions for them to wander through. We have found that a lot of creative people are so used to just hitting a command and letting the game play itself, that if they don't have an example to look at, they don't know what to do. They might /dig a room or make one object, but that will be it. If you give them stuff to look at and explore, they'll get involved too. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.12 ============================================================================= There aren't realy any new commands. Most of the changes for 1.12 was tighting code, the removal of Colony (which makes the release file smaller, and belongs to someone else now anyway) and bug fixes. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.11 ============================================================================= 1] The words HERE and ME are now reserved cyberspace commands. Practical applications of this. /LOOK HERE, /DESCRIBE ME, /KEY EXIT = ME, etc. 2] The Logon Process now displays the time of the last network connection. 3] WWIVlink support is now implemented.} 4] "Q" will now completely abort a newscan. "B" will bypass the base. 5] Wizards can break out of forced newscans now. 6] /SUBSCRIBE will show a user all subscribable message bases which are not post restricted to wizards and which can be subscribed to. The user can also choose to subscribe to these bases. 7] On "create a name" message bases - the sysop can configure either >UNKNOWN< on a no entry or the user's default handle. 8] When posting on a message base as a WIZARD, the user number will appear as #1 instead of #2- for those snooty bases which have hangups over #2 accounts :) 9] /DLOG has been added. This is a detalied animation log which will allow you to see what message an animation has, if any, as well as the index number of the animation and the index number of it's location. 10] /FEEDBACK will now send a message to the sysop. 11] /AUTOMESSAGE will now allow you to change the automessage from inside cyberspace. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.10 ============================================================================= *** SPECIAL NOTE TO REGISTERED USERS! This version of cyberspace expects a file called REGISTER.DAT with your registration code in it. If you do not have this file please call 1-512-398-2127 and scream at me! 0] Cyberspace can now work off COM1, COM2, COM3, *AND* COM4. However COM3 and COM4 support is not standardized - you will have to experiment to see if this version of cyberspace will work on COM3 or COM4. 1] Since the animation cache lockup problem persisted the cache is now reset everytime an animation is programmed or de-activated. This seems to have solved the problem. 2] Put in a status bar on the local side so the that sysop will know who is on and certain information about that user. F2 will toggle the status bar from top, bottom, and none. 3] Fixed a bug in the wizard /inv command that allowed the wizard to see how many credits that everyone else had but not his own. The wizard can now see his own credits again without becoming a non-wizard first. 4] Fixed /bio, /mail and /tag so that they only show one time instead of every time the user hits a key. BIO's themselves are made much more stable in cspace and the user can re-do their bio just by typing /BIO . 5] Four new display macros have been added..... @ANSI - aborts macro if user does not have ansi. @DORINFO - Writes out a DORINFO1.DEF file for the user @DOORFILE.SR - Writes out a DOORFILE.SR file for the user. @COLONY - Run the built in colony game. @COLONY was basically a diversion for me when I got bored of working on cyberspace. It's a land conquest game. I threw it in as an lark. For all intenten purposes it's a part of cyberspace - however for your users it will pretty much be a door. COLONY - once started can be reset by typing /COLONY INIT. Three of these macros aid in the execution of external doors from cyberspace. Cyberspace still automatically writes out CHAIN.TXT whenever @PROGRAM is encountered, however if the program you are calling does not use CHAIN.TXT then you may be able to get it to work with @DOORFILE.SR, or @DORINFO1.DEF. (Fresh Water Fishing, and Yankee trader for instance both use DORINFO1.DEF and can not use CHAIN.TXT. A sample implementation... @SAY1 Please wait while trade wars loads. @DORINFO @PROGRAM TW.BAT Welcome back to cyberspace! 7] The Tildie (~) character in a description now will insert the name of whoever is looking at the object. This does not work in the message bases. 8] When a user is logging into cyberspace - it checks for the existance of a file called GAMEMSGS.TXT in your current directory. If the file exists and is more that 12 bytes in length the file will be displayed at logon. This was put in primarilly for BBSCHESS which has the ability to inform a player that it is his/her turn in chess - or if they have been challenged. To utilize this your batch file for cyberspace would look like this. CD BBSCHESS -M > GAMEMSGS.TXT CD CYBER 9] /BOMB can now be carried by the creator. Also, a /BOMB will now explode when inside of something and a person looks at the description of the object it is in. The cost of a /BOMB has been reduced from 500 credits to 200. 10] A special type of bomb has been implimented called /TRAP. An object that has been declared a /TRAP will NOT look any different from a normal object and will not go away when it "explodes". A person that walks into an area with a /TRAP in it is sent back to room 1 and all their shadow objects vanish. including an @say1 in the /TRAP's description will print a message to the screen when the /TRAP goes off. a /TRAP costs 250 credits. To make an object a /TRAP, you type /trap 11] A third type of /BOMB called an a-bomb has been created. This bomb costs 500 credits and when it goes off, the person that activated it will be blown to room 1 and EVERYTHING (except shadow objects) is scattered into random rooms all through Cyberspace. Shadow objects simply vanish. To make an object an /A-bomb, type /abomb . 12] A tag game has been implemented. To start this game, the sysop must become /wizard. Once /wizard, type /tag . This must be a person in the room, but there is no restriction on how many people the wizard may tag. The next time one of those people log on, they will be told that they have been tagged and told to type /tag to tag someone else. Since the person must be in the room, there is now a reason to go dark when leaving Cyberspace. It will be much harder to get tagged if someone has to guess where you are. Non-wizards may only tag someone if they have been tagged first. 13] Vehicles are finally in place. To make a vehicle, first type /room . this will create a room inside the room you are standing in. Then type /vehicle . This will change the room into a vehicle. Vehicles are able to move through exits that are not keyed and it is possible for several people (once the multi-user form of Cyberspace is implemented) to get in a vehicle and move around Cybespace together. Once the vehicle has been made, it is necessary to go into the vehicle and type /vexit in order to change the exit from an ordinary exit to one that will move with the car. 14] Animations and objects now return to the room that they were created in instead of everything defaulting to room 1. If you wish to change this /home room to something else, the command /GO-HOME has been installed. /Go-home = will set the objects home to some other room. When /recover is run, the objects /home will be reset, however, to the room they are standing in when /recover is run. This will prevent animations from escaping from their areas and make it possible for people to go to a different location when /home is typed if desired. 15] You can now use the /EXAMINE command to view the flags you have set on an object. As with all commands /EXAMINE will only work on objects you own or created (unless you are in /WIZARD mode) 16] Message bases are now active in cyberspace. To declare a message base go wizard and type /MBASE . Next answer the questions - they are all fairly straight forward. There is no limit to the number of message bases you can have in cyberspace. If you are a registered user then refer to NETHOOK.DOC for details of how you can use cyberspace to carry an unlimted amount of WWIVnet message bases. The commands associated with message bases are..... /MBASE - Turn an object into a message base - or a message base into an object. /SCAN - Newscan a single message base. /NEWSCAN - New scan all the message bases you have subscribed to. 18] /GO-PUT is now allowed. /Go-PUT = . This works pretty much the same as /Go-DROP, /GO-OK, and /GO-FAIL links in syntax. Whenever anything is /put inside an object with a /GO-PUT link it is automatically sent to the /GO-PUT location. This has little application outside of file handling (see below). 19] If a shadow object has a /PRICE on it and you try to take it then you will be asked to pay the /PRICE of the object before you are allowed to take it. 20] ANSI has been *VASTLY* speeded up in cyberspace. GETS scripts can be uploaded in views as well. 21] F4 will now toggle you between LOCAL and REMOTE mode. Since *MANY* cyberspace commands are restricted to local wizards *ONLY* if you have need to issue one of these commands (or you need to do something when there's a 300 baud caller on the line) - hit F4 and the remote user will be placed "on hold" while you work. Hit F4 again to go back on-line. *WARNING* it is not recommended you hit F4 when you do not have a user on line. 22] File uploads and downloads are now permitted within Cyberspace. If you wish to allow this feature in Cyberspace you must first become a wizard and go to a room and issue the /REVIEW command. This serves three purposes 1] It activates Cyberspace's file handling routines. 2] It designates the room you are in as the room to which all newly uploaded files are sent to. 3] It disables bombs of all types in the set of data files the /REVIEW room is located in. It is highly recommended you place tight security around your /REVIEW room. You can do this by creating an object in your room and leaving it there. Declare it to be /SHADOW and take a shadow copy of the object. /KEY the entrance to the room to the shadow object. Now you can be fairly sure that no-one other than you can enter the /REVIEW room. If you wish to allow your co-sysops into the room then you can make your key accessable to them long enough to get a shadow copy of the key. The /REVIEW command itself can not be issued over the remote - it must be issued from the local keyboard. When an upload takes place several things happen. The object the file is being uploaded to is changed from an OBJECT to a FILE. The user is forced to enter a file name and a description. Once the file is uploaded it's /Go-Drop is set to the room it was uploaded in and the FILE is instantly teleported to your /REVIEW room. If you /KILL the file the attached file will automatically be deleted. If you drop the file it will automatically go back to the room it was uploaded in (Maybe the user who uploaded the file had the file in mind as a reward for solving a quest). You can also have a series of objects leading to designated "file" rooms via /Go-put. So you can just put the file in the right object and have it teleport to the right category room. A user is credited 15 credits for each file uploaded (And time re-imbursed inside of Cyberspace). Once the file leaves the /REVIEW room the user is credited 50 credits. If you /KILL the file no credits are given. If the file remains as a valid download then it costs 50 credits to download the file and the user who originally uploaded the file will receive the credits. Thus a user who uploads very popular files will find his "purchasing power" in Cyberspace very much enhanced - while a user who uploads unpopular files will quickly find that his/her ability to download files is greatly diminished. If you set the /PRICE on a file (wizard only) you can add greater or lesser value to a file. A file with a price of 0 would be a free download while a file with a price of 500 credits would be very expensive to download indeed and require quite a few popular uploads. The Cyberspace commands /KILL and /RENAME have special meaning when dealing with files. In the first place only /WIZARDS can use these commands on a file. /KILL will ask you if you want to delete the physical file as well as the Cyberspace object. /RENAME will not only rename the object but the associated file as well. One final note - only /WIZARDs can move files - to an ordinary user files are etched in stone even if they created them. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost is security - the last thing you might want is for a user to pick up a file and drop it in the void. Second - moving files in Cyberspace is a very time consuming process. Since the file object is bound to a physical file on the disk then whenever you pick up an object and drop it someplace else it is moved physically on the disk. Say you have a file in your "GAME" room (D:\CYBER\FILES\GAMES\FILENAME.ZIP) now you pick up the file. The file will be moved to the default directory - (D:\CYBER\FILES) - then if you drop it in RECOMMENDED GAMES it will be moved to the directory you have assigned to the RECOMMENDED GAME room. All of this is completely automatic and invisible to you - but it introduces some delays in Cyberspace that only a wizard (hearing the disk drive rattle) might feel comfortable with. One final note - Cyberspace uses DSZ to handle *ALL* transfers. You must have OMEN technologie's DSZ program somewhere in your path in order for transfers to run. Here is a list of the new Cyberspace commands which have been added for file transfers. /REVIEW - (Wizard) Activate the file commands and designate the current room you are in as the room to which all new files are uploaded to. /PATH - (Wizard) allows the wizard to enter the path name all files in the current room will reside in. If no /PATH is assigned then by default the path name is \FILES. /PATH /UPLOAD - /Upload will ask for a file name and a description. If remote will ask for x/y/z modem protocol (via your DSZ). If local will ask you for a path\file name. /DOWNLOAD - /Download will ask for x/y/z/batch. Remote only. Must have the /COST of the file. /WWIVFILE - Looks at a wwiv data directory for names of files to bring into Cyberspace. To use it, type /wwivfile \bbs\data\name.dir this is your entire path to the data directory including the name of the data file that //diredit uses (rename bbs in the above statement to the name you have your bbs in). If you are unsure what the file name //diredit uses, run WWIV and check. It is NOT the name of the subdirectory that the files are in. After you enter the path and filename that the data entries are in, you will be asked what directory this file name uses. What it wants is simply the path where the files for that directory listing are stored. (Example: you have a transfer section called Games. in //diredit you typed: name: Games filename: games1 Your path on your drive is C:\wwiv\files\games so you would type: /wwivfile \wwiv\data\games1.dir What is the directory that this file uses? c:\wwiv\files\games\ IMPORTANT!!!! DO NOT forget the ending slash after the final subdirectory name) =============================================================================== Release notes - Version 1.09 =============================================================================== 1] Responding to the overwhelming appeal of CYBERSPACE users who were rather worried at the groaning noises their hard drives were making when a lot of animations were active, CYBERSPACE will now use any available memory as CACHE memory. This is a temporary cache that CYBERSPACE sets up that is completely independant of any existing disc caching program you may be using. The more BASE memory you have the greater the chance that Cyberspace will be able to store your data files in memory and the less chance it will need to access the disk drive. Animations take priority cache memory. That is Cyberspace will allocate cache space in the following order. a] Animations are loaded into memory immediatly. If you do not have enough BASE memory to hold all of the animation records then Cyberspace will simply not run any animations it can not fit into memory. b] Any memory left over is allocated to storing Cyberspace objects as a user or an animation encounters an object the object is stored in memory. I've noticed a *SIGNIFICANT* speedup of Cyberspace as well as an equally significant reduction of disk workout. As soon as I get my TEMStreams down pat I'll see about using expanded memory for the cache as well. You will notice that when a user first enters Cyberspace or when the user returns to Cyberspace from a @PROGRAM then the disk drive will rattle quite nicely until the cache has been filled somewhat. After about 30 seconds the disk drive will calm down significantly. 2] If you are local and are using DOS version 5.0 or later then when you /DESCRIBE a file cyberspace will call WWIVEDIT as long as you have it in the Cyberspace subdirectory. If you are /DESCRIBing an object in Cyber space that already has a description CYBERSPACE will write out a copy of the description and you will automatically be allowed to edit the existing description. 3] If the user you are chatting with has ANSI then Cyberspace will redraw the screen after you have finished chatting. The user will see his/her screen redrawn in monochrome (single color) the local screen will be re-drawn in full color. 4] You can now declare an object to be a /BOMB. When a person encounters a bomb in Cyberspace it will explode. Sending them flying back to the void and they will loose all their shadow objects. Bombs are destroyed after one use. /BOMBs do not work in the void. /BOMB = Will key the bomb to an object. The Bomb will not go off if the user is carrying the key. /BOMB on a bomb will make the bomb a regular object again. 5] Local Wizards can now put @CYBERSPACE in the description. @CYBERSPACE will let you have more than one set of Cyberspace data files. An example of this is that you have one Cyberspace where everyone can create things. If you want another Cyberspace with no cash generation then you can create another directory.. Run the init program.. Define the default new user settings in that Cyberspace and use the @CYBERSPACE command to link them. The line following @CYBERSPACE must contain the path to the new Cyberspace data files. An example... /DESCRIBE SECOND CYBERSPACE @SAY1 You step out of the regular Cyberspace and head towards the ANSI ART GALLERY. There will be a slight delay while Cyberspace processes your request. @CYBERSPACE \CYBER\SECOND If the user quits in a second Cyberspace data set then they will return immediatly to the BBS **NOT** the first Cyberspace. Note that the path name does not end with a \. It is generally advisable to create an exit leading back to the first Cyberspace from a second Cyberspace although it is not necessary. Using this command you can have as many Cyberspace DATA sets as you wish. The only restriction with this command is that each Cyberspace data set must be in it's own directory. If you plan to use WWIVedit then each Cyberspace data directory *MUST* contain a copy of WWIVedit. AGAIN this command is limited to local wizards only. 6] The /KILL command has now been fixed and is available to normal users once again for use on their own objects and exits. Wizards can kill anybody's objects and exits. 7] @FILE will no longer crash Cyberspace if the file name does not exist. 8] You can now use @FILE in the description of CYBERSPACE shadow objects. 9] You can now set a /GO-DROP link on a ROOM or PLACE. If a person drops an object in a room you have set for /GO-DROP then the object will disappear to the place you specify. The /Go-DROP on the object takes presidence over a /GO-DROP on a room. So if you have a go-drop on a room and the object has a go-drop the object will go to the place specified by the OBJECT's go-drop not the room's. 10] You can now drop objects in rooms which have not been shared and that you did not create. TO prevent people fron "littering" your area you should /CLOSE your room. This will let you create rooms from which people can not dig from, but can drop things. Note that you can not drop an exit in a room unless the room has been shared. 11] The BIOGRAPHY feature of Cyberspace is now implemented. A WIZARD can make (or edit an existing BIO if using WWIVedit) a BIO by typing /MAKEBIO. Enter your questions. Enter ~ on a blank line to indicate that the user should fill in the question there. A sample questionaire would look like this.. /MAKEBIO What is your age? ~ What is your sex? ~ How often do you call BBSs? ~ A user can not browse bios until they fill one out. /BIO by itself will bring up a list of all available biographies. /BIO will view that biography. 12] You can now /SEARCH a room. The usage is /SEARCH . Search will search a room for an object that matches or comes close to your search specification. If the object is dark /SEARCH will still find it. If the object is dark and shared then /SEARCH will make it light. Say you have a dark shared master key. You drop a hint that the master key might be in the room. /SEARCH MASTER KEY would turn up the master key and make it light. If master key is not shared then the user will know of it's existance but it will still not be light. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.08 ============================================================================= 1] MAINT now detects the Cyberspace version and will automatically upgrade your data files if needed. You must now run MAINT /RECOVER to force a recover to take place in maint (should never be run). /RECOVER is done automatically when Cyberspace is upgraded by maint. 2] The Cyberspace pointer system has been cleaned up so vastly that if you *EVER* have to run /RECOVER please let me know immediatly! As a result of the clean up, Cyberspace runs a bit quicker too. 3] You can now declare an animated object to be a /TRIGGER. The usage is /TRIGGER = . This will ÍONLYÍ work on /animate(d) objects. When an /TRIGGER /ANIMATION enters a room with an on-line person the person will automatically execute the code contained in the animated object. There are three flag conditions. 0 = Animation is not triggered. 1 = Animation is triggered if the user is carrying the key. 2 = Animation is triggered automatically. 3 = Animation is triggered randomly. (10% Chance) Triggers are quite powerful. Remember you can program an object to have all the properties (except tolls) of an exit. This means you can assign an object a /key and a /random field. So you can have a wandering monster that when it encounters an adventurer will trigger your code and teleporting the user to another room based on the /key and /random flags you have set on the object. If your /DEBUG is on then you are immune to roving animation triggers even if you did not create the animation. 3] You no longer have to specify an entrance to a room when you create it. This is pretty much the same as not specifying an exit from the room when you create it. 4] @FILE can not be accessed remotely now no matter of /WIZARD status. 5] /AOFF will now disable animations for your current Cyberspace sessions. If animations are becomming annoying use this to turn them off. 6] Wizards can now animate *ANYTHING*. 7] When entering description your ^P codes are shown so you don't accidentally backspace over them. 8] You can now run external Programs in Cyberspace. In the description.. The line @PROGRAM indicates that Cyberspace should chain out to the file name following that line. Only WIZARDS can put @PROGRAM in a description and only then from a LOCAL keyboard and not a remote keyboard. The usage of @PROGRAM is much like the usage of @FILE in that you can put it under the various @SAYS to dictate that a program should run only if they have the key for instance. So.... /DESCRIBE TRADE WARS 1: This is the trade wars game. The current leaders are... 2: @FILE {This will display the current rankings} 3 : TWTRADER.TXT 4: @SAY1 {This is the /GO-OK link} 5: Please wait while trade wars is being loaded. 6: @PROGRAM 7 : TW2002.BAT Ok.. the ground rules for programs.. The programs must provide their own comm support. Cyberspace makes itself as small as possible but you might still run out of memory for very big programs. Cyberspace will write out a CHAIN.TXT file with the user's current time left in the game. it will put CHAIN.TXT in whatever directory you run Cyberspace out of. When the game terminates the user will be put back in Cyberspace. Cyberspace will not pass command lines (%1 or chain.txt or whatever) so you must do those yourselves in your batch files. It is *HIGHLY* recommended that you *NOT* run another instance of Cyberspace as this would only confuse the users. It is also *HIGHLY* recommended you not run another instance of your BBS. Cyberspace has a memory overhead of about 140k. =================================================================================================================== Release notes - Version 1.07 ============================================================================= 1] There is a new file in your Cyber directory called AOK.FLG. If you edit it and change the OK to anything else animations will be disabled. There are several reasons you might want to do this, first and foremost is to reduce the work load on your hard drive. Also when animations are on it reduces the amount of free cpu time the program can give to desqview. 2] F6 will now toggle animations on/off. This over-rides the AOK.FLG file for the current session *only*. 3] If you put a /PRICE on an exit the user of the exit will be asked to pay a toll of whatever you set the /price at. If the user declines the toll they will remain put otherwise they will be allowed to pass (less the cost of the toll of course). Note that paying a toll does not change ownership privilages of the exit. The toll is waived for the creator of the exit and wizards of course. 4] A new @SAY has been added. @SAY5 is a description the user will get when they first try to pass through a toll exit. @SAY6 will be displayed if they decline OR can't pay for the toll. A sample might look like this. /DESCRIBE Cross Bridge 1: This is a bridge into the kingdom of Waz. 2: @SAY1 3: After paying the entrance tax you continue on. 4: @SAY5 5: A big burly guard approaches and demands that you pay the entrance fee of 6 : ten credits! 7: @SAY6 8: The big burly guard throws you off the bridge for wasting his time. 5] /UNVIEW will now unlink an ansi picture from Cyberspace. Note however that to reclaim the space you *MUST* run the maint batch file. 6] MAINT has been *significantly* speeded up. 7] /GIVE = <# of credits> has been implemented. 8] A new /WIZARD command has been added in the descriptions.. @FILE. The usage is... @FILE :\ The file can be anything you want it to be. Note that you can still break your description up into programmed sections... So... /DESCRIBE FOO @FILE C:\CYBER\DESC1.DAT @SAY1 @FILE C:\CYBER\SAY1.DAT @SAY2 @FILE C:\CYBER\SAY2.DAT This will still work.. You must be /WIZARD in order for @FILE to be placed in a description. If you are not the line will just be deleted. As with all the @ commands you must use upper case. Your file can be ANSI or contain WWIV color codes. The advantage of using @FILE is that if you ever change the file the object is associated with then the object's description also changes. 9] If /DEBUG is now on when you look at an object you see the *TRUE* object description (all the @SAYs and @FILES). 10] Added /LIST = R. If you are a WIZARD then the = R will show all the rooms and places in Cyberspace. Otherwise it will show all of *YOUR* rooms and places. You can now specify a starting index number in list. /LIST = R. /LIST, /LIST = R, /LIST 50, /LIST 50 = R all work. 11] Fixed the now infamous "midnight bug". Users will now be kicked out of Cyberspace at midnight until 12:05. Not for the full midnight hour. Cyberspace kicks the user out both to ensure that your nightly event can run and to prevent the user's on-line time in Cyberspace from getting scewed. This will probably be fixed in future versions. 12] Cyberspace *FINALLY* detects carrier. If Carrier is lost then Cyberspace will recycle almost immediately (after it does some minor housekeeping) not for the 5 min timeout limit. 13] If a user goes off line in room #1 (the void) and is not wizard. They will automatically go dark and not be asked if they wish to remain visible. 14] If you make an object or exit dark and keyed then if a user is carrying the key to that object the exit will not be dark for that person. Credit for this idea goes to Wes Landaker Sysop of Tyrant BBS (519)-872-4767. 15] The number of lines available in the "editor" has been increased to 50. 16] @SAY7 has been added to the description commands. If a user picks up a key in the same room the lock(s) is located then @SAY7 will be displayed. 17] /RANDOM = Percent Chance has been added. Percent chance is the chance that the user will go to the /GO-OK link. Note that /KEYs still work. If you have an exit set /RANDOM and /KEYed and the user is not carrying the key they will *ALWAYS* go to the /GO-FAIL link. If they are carrying the key then the computer will generate a random number to determine if they go to the /GO-FAIL or the /GO-OK link. This should be useful for a few battle routines. 18] @SAY8 has been added to the description commands. If an object has a /RANDOM flag set on it. Then if /Go-FAIL is selected the @SAY8 description will be read instead of the usual fail message. Going to the above example. You could have a troll room and you need a sword to fight the troll. Without the sword the go-fail message would be something like (without the sword you are dogmeat). With the sword however the user could still "die" but the message would be different (your swordplay is excellent but the troll gets in a lucky hit and you die). 19] If you are wizard and look at a person you now can see how many credits they have. 20] In the description upper case is no longer important for the @ commands. 21] /EXITS is now a new command. It will only display the exits in a room. 22] MAINT now does an automatic /RECOVER. So if your Cyberspace ever becomes damaged enough so that you can not even get a command line... Run MAINT. 23] If an ANSI picture is attached to an object then the object will appear as a shade of purple... 24] Added /APPEAR . You must run this command before a user will be allowed to see a dark object for which s/he has a key for. If you do not specify /APPEAR @SAY7 will still be displayed however the "lock" will not appear. If you have /APPEAR set on an object and run /APPEAR again it will disable the /APPEAR flag. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.065 ============================================================================= 1] Cyberspace now features °INTELLIGENT° crash recovery. Errors which previously caused Cyberspace to crash are now detected and corrected automatically. This was a must with the implementation of Animations! 2] /SHADOW is now working! FINALLY! There is however a limit of *TEN* shadow objects a person can carry at any one time. 3] /DIM has now been implemented. /DIM will dim all the output if the bold colors start to strain your eyes. 4] if /RATE is 0 then users will no longer find credits. 5] The mail pointer system has been vastly cleaned up. ============================================================================= Release notes - Version 1.061 ============================================================================= 1] Fixed a bug where a person was animated even when they were on line. Now if a person animates him or herself the animation is only active when someone else is using the game. 2] Fixed a bug with @SAY3. 3] There was a bug where after midnignt all animations would suddenly have an incredible amount of time until the next run. That has definately been fixed! 4] Fixed a bug which prevented the sysop from dropping to DOS.