Authorpack

Version: 1.0
Author: Unknown (?)

Introduction

AuthorPack only allows owners to build palaces through the use of the keyboard rather than using the mouse. It does this through the use of commands that manipulate hotspots. Authorpack also displays the time based upon the server's timezone in the format: day mon. dd hh:mm:ss yyyy.

Usage

A hotspot a.k.a. spot is a word used to refer to a door in a broader sense. Technically, a hotspot is only referred to as a door when it has a set destination. For Example: A door is a passage to another room, but a hotspot can be a door, a landing pad, or just a spot that holds a script.

Command Key: The columns 1 through 4 indicate command parameters. The command and it's parameters must all be seperated by a space. The room, spot, dest, and prop parameters all refer to their ID numbers. The | symbol indicates a choice between the parameters.

Command 1 2 3 4 Description
`time Announce the server's local time.
`newspot Creates new spot in current room.
`deletespot spot Removes spot from current room.
`delprop prop Removes prop from current room.
`lock room spot Lock spot in room.
`unlock room spot Unlock spot in room.
`spotstate room spot state Sets spot in room to state
`dest room spot dest Changes destination for spot in room to dest.
`dest room spot off Clears destination for spot in room.
`forbidden room spot on|off Disallows users to be on spot in room.
`landingpad room spot on|off Makes users land on spot when they enter room.
`mandatory room spot on|off Forces users to be on spot while they are in room.
`moveprop prop x y Moves prop to x and y in current room.
`movespot room spot x y Moves spot to x and y in room.
`movepic room spot h v Moves picture on spot in room a specified number of pixels in the horizontal h and vertical v directions from the center of the hotspot.

Advantages

  1. Allows for precise automated authoring with the help of user scripts.
  2. Useful for setting up landing pads, forbidden and mandatory hotspots. These options are not available on The Palace's Microsoft Windows' client.

Disadvantages

  1. Slower than just using the mouse to drag and drop.
  2. Does not have the option to set scripts inside hotspots.
  3. Does not allow for resizing of hotspots.

Bugs

  1. Using either the forbidden, landingpad, or mandatory command without the 3rd parameter (on|off) will cause the server to crash.
  2. The rank parameter when declaring it in plugin.conf does not work correctly.