Barren Realms MUD

can anyone think of a way to restrict the number of mobs that can wander into a room at once without restricting the number of players that can walk into the room? if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

what is the order of interaction when it comes to interacting with different types of objects/descriptions with the same keyword? for example, if the keyword is "north" and a character has an item in inventory with the keyword "north", a different item in inventory with an ED "north", there's an ED in the room with keyword "north", there's a mob in the room with keyword "north", an object (container?) in the room with keyword "north", a different object in the room with an ED "north", a door leading in some other direction (not north) with keyword "north" and a door to the north (with some other keyword, not "north"). obviously that's a bit much for one room, but different combinations of those things, and maybe a few others that i haven't thought of just yet, could be used to create various puzzles. i just don't know in what order the mud would consider them if someone types "look north", or "get north" or "open north", etc... also i don't know how many of those things could be interacted with using 2.north, and which if any couldn't be interacted with at all depending on the presence of others. if anyone knows, or at least knows part of the answer, i'd really appreciate it.

how do exit descriptions work with randomized exits? when you look in a direction do you see the room to which you're actually going to go?

2nd question first. yes. The exit description still corresponds with the room you're actually going to, instead of the pre-randomized exit.

Now then... as to keywords. Most of those will not work (for viewing 2."north") in any combination with each other. It will work with two objects or two mobs (or, possibly any combination of the above). I'm betting that anything else won't work, and I know for a fact that room extras will not work. Now then, as far as order: the most recent item in inventory (or worn) will be checked (and returned) first - whether ed, keyword, anything. If an item has both an ed and a keyword, the ed will be returned. Any item on the ground will be checked before items in inventory, in the same order: most recent one to show up on the ground. Multiple mobs in the room will work via the same principle (although I don't know how they work compared to objects, etc. - I believe they will get checked prior to objects in inventory, though). I'm also betting that room extras and exit descriptions would get checked sometime after objects, and go: room extras, then exit descriptions in order of exits (i.e. neswud). So, in your example, what would return is either: the mob, the ed on the object on the ground, or the other object on the ground (depending on which loaded more recently).

So maybe we need additional keywords for interaction like 'red door' if there we 4 doors
or the 2.door 3.door principle for objects like we have on mobs?
Disaster - add your name to the builders list.

i imagine any changes to how that works would be a HUGE mess. of course i'd be first one to bring out the pom-poms and start cheering if it happens since it's been a pet peeve of mine for a long time, but i don't really expect any changes there since it would 1)be a huge hassle to do 2)be of very little real benefit in terms of gameplay and 3)cound possibly mess up certain puzzles that people have invented to make use of the code as it currently works. i was just wanting a list of how it currently works, since most interactions i can't test myself without imm powers. thanks EB