Text formatting control codes ----------------------------- Author: seifert Updated: whistler@blinksoft.com The & (ampersand) character is used to escape all sequences. Codes: && The ampersand character. &l Text from this point forward will not be formatted. It will be interpreted literally with newlines, spaces, etc. Useful when making a sign or a map. &f Text from this point forward will be formatted. This option is the reverse of &l and is default on any section of text. Formatted text is formatted using the rules described below. &s[num] Force a singe space character (or if specified, may come in handy, instead of having to toggle formatting). &n Force a newline, very handy instead of toggling the &l formatting switch. &b Change background colour to . Remember to set it back to the original background (black). &c[+] Change the foreground colour to . If + preceedes the colour, then it will be highlighted. The is: n : Black r : Red g : Green y : Yellow b : Blue m : Magenta c : Cyan w : White Sample colour codes: &cb, &c+b, &cw, &bg, &bn Sets blue foreground, bright blue foreground, white fg, green background, and black background. All text used is formatted treated in the following way: o All leading blanks are stripped away. For room descriptions 3 leading spaces are added. This way we ensure a consistent formatting of the displayed room descriptions. o Spaces and blanks (newlines) are contracted to single spaces yielding a correctly 'wrapped' text for any sentence. o If a '.' is encountered followed by a blank, a total of two spaces are inserted after the '.'. &[color_name] This sets the forground and background to the players set colors for the color named in the brackets. The colors that come default with the VME can be changed but here is a list of them just so you can get an idea of possible ones. death default exit group hit_me hit_opponent hit_other immort_descr immort_title log miss_me miss_opponent miss_other nodam_me nodam_opponent nodam_other npc_descr npc_title obj_descr obj_title pc_descr pc_title prompt respond room_descr +broom_title say_other say_self shield_me shield_opponent shield_other shout_other shout_self social_other social_self spells tell_other tell_self time weather whisper who who_guild who_inv who_name who_title wiz xpgain When developing in color on a VME you must becareful to make sure your colors do not become invisible because the characters can customize their colors. For example if you colored your text black and the character had his/her background set to black the result would be the character would not see your text. The only way you can be sure that your colors will always be seen is to both change the forground and background or use one of the predefined colors like pc_title. The following are some examples of how colors should be used. %objects cup names {"bright red cup", "red cup","cup"} title "Bright &c+r&bwred&[obj_title] cup" .... end * In the previous object the word red was changed tot he color read with a * white background so that it would show up even if a player had his obj_title * color set to red. Then when the color was done it was set back to the default using * &[] to set it back to obj_title. %mobiles Fred names {"Fred the fake","fred","fake"} title "&[pc_title]Fred&[default]" descr "&[pc_title]Fred the fake pc is standing here&[default]" ... end * In previous partial mobile descr Fred has been colorized to look like a pc * Because it uses the characters set pc_title colors and at the end it sets * the colors back to default.