Dizzy Mud Area Coding Guide

#SHOPS Section

This page describes how to code shops within an area file.

The #SHOPS section of an area file specifies which mobs are shopkeepers, what they sell, and other information.

The #SHOPS section consists of the #SHOPS header, one or more shop definition lines and the #SHOPS ender line 0 (zero) as shown here:

#SHOPS
shop definition line
0

The function and structure of the shop definition lines will be explained below. It's very simple! But first, some things of note about shops:

Pet shops are not controlled by the #SHOPS section. Look at the description of PET_SHOP in the Room Flag Table for details.
With the exception of the pet shops mentioned above, shops in Dizzy MUD are not associated with particular rooms, but with particular mobs. The #SHOPS section declares a mob to be a shopkeeper, and from then on, wherever that mob is located there is a shop.

How to Set Up Shop

As in real life, opening a shop is not a trivial task and involves substantial preparation. Only the final part of setting up a shopkeeper for business is done in the #SHOPS section. Most of the detail work takes place in preceding sections, as follows:

#MOBILES

You can't start a shop without a shopkeeper. A shopkeeper starts out as an ordinary mobile that must be coded in the #MOBILES section. Here are some important points to note:

Because the shop's location (and the player's ability to LIST, BUY and SELL) could potentially move around with the shopkeeper, you are usually well advised to code the shopkeeper as ACT_SENTINEL to keep him from moving around. In some rare cases, you may decide to create a wandering merchant instead, but be aware of the problems that will arise if two shopkeeper happen to end up in the same room:
A player can LIST, BUY and SELL in a room where there is a shopkeeper. If there is more than one shopkeeper in the room, the player's commands will interact only with the last shopkeeper to enter the room, thus effectively shutting down shopkeepers previously located there. This is generally not what you want, so don't code a lot of shopkeepers, don't let them run around if you do, and never plan on more than one shopkeeper in a room. If you want to code an oriental basaar, you will need to spread it out over several stalls.
A shop stays in business only as long as its shopkeeper is alive. Many players would kill a shopkeeper for his money or merchandise. To curb such violence, you must make the shopkeeper impossible to attack. The mechanism for this is encoding the shopkeeper mob with immunity flags to SUMMON, CHARM, WEAPON and MAGIC. To prevent accidents with zealous Imms, add NOPURGE. To keep them from wandering against their will, add NOPUSH.

#OBJECTS

Like all other objects, objects which you want in the shop's stock must be coded. You code them the same as any other objects, except possibly with a little more attention to their price.

#ROOMS

You generally want the shopkeeper to have a room to ply his trade in.
If you want the shop to do business, you should give the room a name that has the word 'shop' in it or some similar obvious clue as to its function.
For those who do LOOK, yet don't know how to do business with a shop, such rooms usually have signs or something similar in their extra descriptions to alert potential buyers to the presence of the shop.
If you want to provide maximum security for your shop, you may want to add SAFE and/or LAW to the shop room's flags.

#RESETS

Two shop-relevant functions are accomplished in the #RESETS section:

Resetting the shopkeeper mob into his shop room
The #SHOPS section designates as shopkeeper not an individual mob but one individual mob vnumber. If you reset more than one mob with the same vnumber and make that mob a shopkeeper, they will all be. This is probably not what you want, so make shopkeeper mobs unique by resetting them only once. Build only one M line for the mob, and set the global and local limits to 1.

Resetting all of the shop's stock items into the shopkeeper's inventory
You must code one G (GIVE) line for each different item you want the shopkeeper to sell. Give him each item only once; if it is sold, it will be replenished in unlimited quantities.

Once our homework is done in all the preceding sections, we can finally put our shopkeepers into operation. This requires one line in the #SHOPS section as follows:

Shop Item Line
Mob
vnum Item
type
1 Item
type
2 Item
type
3 Item
type
4 Item
type
5 Sale
markup Buy
back
rate First
open
hour Last
open
hour * Comment: name of shopkeeper mob

**Shop Item Line**
Mob vnum	Item type 1	Item type 2	Item type 3	Item type 4	Item type 5	Sale markup	Buy back rate	First open hour	Last open hour	* Comment: name of shopkeeper mob

Here's what the fields mean:

Mob vnum

The vnum of the shopkeeper mob

Item type

The types of items the shop is authorized to buy (from players). These items may be different from the items the shop sells, but exercise some realistic good sense. A baker should not buy weapons, for example. For the encoding of the valid item types, see the Shop Item Type Table.

A shop can not buy more than 5 different types of items. This is the limit imposed by the fixed number of 5 slots for item types in this line.

A shop need not buy exactly 5 item types. Code as many item types as you are willing for the shop to accept, and 0 for the remainder out of the 5 total.

A shop need not buy any items. Code a 0 in all 5 item type fields and the shop will reject anything offered.

There is a new shop item type in Dizzy which is not shown in the Shop Item Type Table because it's not really an item type. Coding 999 in the first shop item type slot for a shop indicates that the shopkeeper will sell (and buy) quest items, i.e. items which are sold and bought only for Quest Points. The (program internal) name of this flag is ITEM_QUESTSHOP. The only objects eligible for this kind of trade are those having an object flag of ITEM_QUESTSELL. See the #OBJECTS Section and the Object Flag Table for details.
A so-called Quest Shopkeeper will buy and sell only for quest points, and will buy only quest items. If you code the 999 in the first field, this makes the shopkeeper a Quest Shopkeeper; the other 4 slots will be ignored but should be coded as 0 for clarity and future compatibility.
Quest Shopkepers do not HAGGLE, i.e. they sell only according to the object's value and buy for the object's value times its condition as a percentage, with both numbers modified as normal by the Sale Markup and Buyback Rate. Current DizzyMUD policy prescribes a Sale Markup of 100 and a Buyback Rate of 35.

Sale markup

The percentage of the object's nominal value (as coded into the value field of the object) at which the shop will sell the item. Code 130 if you want the shop to make a 30 percent profit. A general guideline is that the sale markup should not be less than 125 percent.

Note that the HAGGLE skill may allow some players to get better prices than those you establish here.

Do not code a percent sign! And never code a value less than 100!

Buyback rate

The percentage of the object's nominal value at which the shop will buy such an item if a player SELLs it to the shop. A general guideline is that the buyback value should not be more than 75 percent.

Note that the HAGGLE skill may allow some players to get better prices than those you establish here.

Do not code a percent sign! And never code a value greater than 100!

First Open hour

Last Open hour

The first and last hour of the Theran day at which the shop is open. The shop will open at the beginning of the first open hour and close after the end of the last open hour. Legal values for both fields are numbers from 0 (midnight) to 23 (the last hour before midnight). For a shop to be open all the time, code 0 and 23.

Do not forget the final 0 (zero) at the end of the #SHOPS section!

If you do not have a #SPECIALS or #MOBPROGS section in your area file, your area file is finished at this point. If so, do not forget the #$ at the end of your file to terminate your area file. The #$ must come on a line by itself and be followed by at least one or more empty lines. Leaving off this file termination or getting it wrong cause the MUD to crash at load time without even issuing an error message!

SHOPS example
(excerpted from the actual area file of midgaard)
#SHOPS 3000 2 3 4 10 0 105 15 0 23 * the wizard 3001 0 0 0 0 0 110 100 0 23 * the baker 3002 1 8 13 15 19 150 40 0 23 * the grocer 3004 9 0 0 0 0 100 50 0 23 * the armorer 0

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This page was last updated May 15, 2001.