MOOBIE [ = MOO newbie ] Guide

terraMOO NEWBIE Guide
Building in MOOs

Builders create new suburbs and districts in terraMOO. The basis of suburbs are connected ROOMS. This section of the MOObie guide will take you through simple building tasks, and point you in the direction of more complete guides.

In order you build in the MOO, a Wizard has to grant you Builder status - email him with your request. Your character will be granted a Building Quota - this is a storage allowance you consume as you make new things. Some types of objects are expensive in that they take up lots of storage space - you will need to manage your inventory or plead with a Wizard for extra Quota.

Object Creation		If you are a builder, you will have an OBJECTS button on your options bar. Clicking it initiates the building process
Object Editor		When you click on your OBJECTS button, the Object editor window appears. From here you would choose to CREATE NEW OBJECT.
Generic classes		Objects in the MOO have been grouped into generic groups based on what they are used for. You should browse the generic classes to get a feeling for what sort of object is where.
Types of rooms		ROOMS are the basis of navigable space in the MOO. Rooms come in five flavours: GENERIC ROOM are basic rooms with exits, multimedia content but no furniture GENERIC CLASSROOM are furnishable rooms, equipped with blackboard, clock and other teacher creature comforts GENERIC MODERATED ROOM are discussion rooms which allow you to control who talks and who listens (like a lecture hall) GENERIC WEB PAGE are web pages pretending to be rooms - any web-friendly content can be put in these rooms so long as you understand HTML GENERIC ALL-IN-ONE ROOM are complex rooms like classrooms which incorporate senses (see, hear, smell, touch) For instructions on making a generic room, jump here.
Basic Objects		Basic objects are things you put in rooms for players to play with. Unless you take steps to prevent it, objects can be picked up and taken elsewhere. Objects come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: THINGS are ... well ... things - basic objects with descriptions and multimedia content. CONTAINERS are used to put things in (like baskets, wheelie bins, wells ...). the only things you cannot put in containers are ROOMS and other CONTAINERS. NOTES are basic information containers. PUBLIC NOTES are like notes but others can write on them also. NOTE BOARDS are like pin-boards and you post notes onto these.
More complex edicational objects		Powerful objects have been classified 'Educational' - some are complex to use and expensive to build, but they can serve useful purposes in well-designed MOO suburbs. RECORDERS are used to record the CHAT STREAM of a room. All room events are recorded by these objects. BOTS are conversational robots - you can customize their keywords, random expressions, question responses, grammar patterns and use them as in-MOO experts. SLIDE PROJECTORS are a textual presentation tool - define slides and show them in sequence - a little like powerpoint. WEB PROJECTORS are queued URLs that can be shown as a slideshow. RECITABLE NOTES are notes that broadcast themselves into the room - they can read you a story. LECTURES are chunks of content that are used in rooms to deliver to an audience - like a recitable note.
Fun objects		VIDEO CAMERAS are like generic recorders but can also record the appearance of rooms and players in them VCRs are used to play video tapes and are usually connected to TVs TVs are used to view videotapes VIDEOTAPES are used by cameras and vcrs to record onto and playback from RATS are not very good pets - they are programmed to give you plague ("I'm not dead yet!") DRINKS are ... drunk - guaranteed you can drink and MOO. FOOD is ... eaten - guaranteed calorie free. PETS are programmed to be faithful to their master. LOCKS are designed to be used to secure things. CLIMBABLES are there because "they are there" - according to Sir Edmund Hillarity, you can climb them. Some of these objects and their use are explained more completely in the next section. NEXT>>
Make a new room		To MAKE A NEW ROOM, the following steps can be taken: You must first decide what sort of room you would like to create - in this demonstration I have chosen a GENERIC CLASSROOM. Although I do not want to make a room that looks like a classroom at a school, I want players to be able to sit down on furniture - a classroom is furnishable. The Wizard will have made a room you can connect your rooms to before you begin, otherwise you will need to ask him to connect your rooms to the rest of the MOO for others to get in. Click on OBJECTS, then ROOMS then select GENERIC CLASSROOM.
New room created		After a little while, a blank CREATING NEW CLASSROOM window will appear - give the room a NAME (I have called my room Vestibule). Decide, via the droplist, which ROOM TO CONNECT this room to, then press the CREATE button. You will get a room creation confirmation box - press OK. There are commands that allow you to do all this, this guide will concentrate on the point and click methods wherever possible. Experienced builders tend to use a mixture of point and click and commands.
Edit room properties		Immediately on create, you can begin customizing your room. There is an EDIT OPTION droplist that allows you to select what properties of your room you wish to edit. From the EDITOR you can also GO TO ROOM (teleporting you straight there) or RECYCLE the room (if you made a mistake). You may also notice the room has been given an OBJECT NUMBER - my Vestibule was given the object number #2858
Inside your new room		In the newly created room there is an exit to the room you connected it to, a default description and three icons: HELP, EDIT and LOCK. Locking a room prevents others from using it - generally frowned upon. To learn more about this room, type the NORMAL COMMAND: @tutorial
Editing room properties		Clicking on the EDIT ICON in your room, you are presented with the ROOM EDITOR window. From here you can customize your room fully. Pictures and other graphical content can be added in the MULTI-MEDIA content, DESCRIPTIONS contain textual appearnaces of the room and OBJECT APPEARANCE determines colours, fonts and background images. All graphical content is added to a room by LINKING to it (via its URL) from somewhere on the WWW. Terrace hosts a large collection of MOO art at: http://www.terrace.qld.edu.au/moo/
		Your building is controlled by your QUOTA, and can be managed by your INVENTORY. To view your inventory, click the MY STUFF button. Your inventory graphically represents your quota and provides you with pages of hot links to your objects. From this screen you can edit and manage any object you own. Icons on this screen show you what you are allowed to do with each type of object.
		Some examples of icons are shown here: HELP \| EDIT \| LOCK \| RECYCLE HELP \| TAKE \| EDIT \| UNLOCK \| RECYCLE
		When you create a non-room object, it is added to your inventory. To see your inventory (what you are carrying), type the normal command inv . To make an object you have created become part of a room, you type drop <thing> If you just drop things in rooms, other players can pick them up - if that is how you want it then do nothing else. If you want to anchor an object to a room that you OWN or are SHARING, then, after dropping the thing type the normal command: *@lock <thing> with here* This command is different to locking it in your MYSTUFF list as you are anchoring the thing in the current room (as opposed to stopping anyone but you from using it). For more detail on using your created objects, jump to *OBJECTS* in this guide.
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terraMOO NEWBIE Guide Building in MOOs

terraMOO NEWBIE Guide
Building in MOOs