Creating Ships and Vehicles (version 1) by Veygoth (veygoth@stax.net)
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With the addition of the ship/vehicle values to DE should come some form
of explanation.  Here's my first attempt.  As always, if you're not clear
on how something works, or whether it will fit into the game theme, ask!

Ship code is not finalized and things are subject to change, so always
make sure you have the most recent version of this guide.  It can be found
at http://basternae.venom.org/builders.htm

The ship and vehicle values mean the following:

Vnum of Key:  		This is the vnum of the key required to be
			considered the "owner" of the boat.  This should
			correspond the the vnum of any keys needed to
			get into the ship (i.e. a locked door in the entry
                        room if any)  Leave zero if no key is required to
                        board and operate the ship.  If you want nobody to be
                        able to operate the ship, just create a key that doesn't
                        load and set the value to that key.
Vnum of Boarding Room:  This is the room that someone will end up in when they
                        board the ship or vehicle.  Essentially the starting
                        room and the room from which they can disembark.
Vnum of Control Room:   This is the vnum of the room where the control panel
                        displaying things like hull points, speed, direction,
                        and firepower is located, and also the only room from
                        which the room can be controlled.  If you don't want
                        anyone to be able to look at a control panel, leave this
                        set to zero.
Maximum Occupants:	The maximum number of people that can be on the ship at
                        the same time.
Max Speed:		The maximum speed of the ship in a range of 1 to 100.
                        If set at zero the ship cannot move.  Your average
                        frigate should move at about 40-50.  Canoe-caliber boats
                        should be 10-20 and fast galleons should be 60-80.
Hull Points:		Essentially the hitpoints of the ship.  A standard canoe
                        or raft has 100, a sloop has 500, a frigate 1000, a
                        galleon 1500.  Things with 10000 should be the size of
                        small planets.
Firepower:		The maximum number of hull points damage that can be
                        done in a round of ship combat (if everything hits for
                        full damage).  Set depending upon how heavily armed the
                        ship should be.  Some good values are 50 for sloops,
                        100 for frigates, and 150 for galleons.  Things with
                        500 should be able to take out small planets.
Movement Script Number: This corresponds to the movement script for the ship.
                        If you want automated ship movement (usually used when
                        the "vnum of key" value is set to a key that doesen't load),
                        you assign it here.  Just make it a nonzero number so we
                        know there is a script assigned.  If you were really
                        smooth you'd ask veygoth what the next available ship
                        script number was before filling this out.

Creating Movement Scripts:
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Basically you just create a text file in notepad that looks something like this:

nnn...eeeeeesssesese........swswswswswswswwwwwww...neeeeeennneee

The characters usable in the script:
n	Move ship north
w	Move ship west
e	Move ship east
s	Move ship south
u	Move ship up     (I would suggest not using unless you have a very good reason)
d	Move ship down   (I would suggest not using unless you have a very good reason)
.	Pause until next game hour

Save it as something like Movement_Script_1.txt (the kind of name that would tell us
what the heck it is) and include it when you send your zone.

The mud will read this file when it boots and move the ship according to the pattern.

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Questions to veygoth@stax.net