Overriding the Mapper

While the automapper works great on many MUDs after auto-configuring it, there are some MUDs that are tough to map. The mapper contains many powerful commands that enable you to map complex MUDs. With these commands, you should be able to map any MUD with a little effort.

Fixing the MUD Prompt

The mapper is sensitive to the Prompt used on your MUD, since it flags this as the same as a blank line, separating room information. If the mapper cannot auto-detect your MUD Prompt, then the mapper will have trouble. By default, the mapper looks for a line that contains more numbers and special characters than regular letters. So, a prompt like:

[100 hp 100 mana]

works the best. If you cannot change the prompt on your MUD to be something like this, you can use the #TAG command to force the mapper to detect your prompt. In this case, go to the Other Config page in the Mapper Preferences and turn off the Auto Prompt detection. Then set up a trigger for your prompt. For example, if your prompt is a simple * character, use a command like:

#TRIGGER {^~*} {#TAG prompt}

to tell the mapper what the prompt looks like.

Using the TAG command

Using the TAG command, you can override the entire behavior of the mapper. You use this command to force the mapper to recognize a room name, exit information, description, vnum, flags, prompt, etc. This command is normally used within a trigger. The parameters of the #TAG command pass the captured data to the mapper. For example, if your MUD displays room names in brackets like:

[Room Name]

you would set up a trigger like this:

#TRIGGER {^~[(*)~]} {#TAG name {%1}}

This tags the line as a room name and captures the text between the brackets and sends it to the mapper.

You can combine multiple tags for a single line. For example, if your MUD displayed the room name, exit information, and room number in the same line like this:

Room Name [n,s,e] #20

Then you would set up a trigger like this:

#TRIGGER {(*) ~[(*)~] ~#(%d)} {#TAG name,exit,vnum {%1} {%2} {%3}}

to tag the line, capture all the information, and send it all to the mapper.

Note that whenever you set up Tag triggers, you should always Reconfigure the mapper so that it will properly recognize your new triggers. Also note that you do not need to detect everything with the #TAG command. Just detect what you need to and let the autoconfigure detect the rest. In many cases, just detecting the MUD Prompt is good enough.



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