Click here for the RoAMUD v2.0 OLC Manuals.

OLC stands for OnLine Creation and allows you to expand the MUD online without having to reboot. The first thing I did four years ago was to promise myself that every major feature I ever added to the MUD, for the most part, would be OLCable. More work for the coder? You bet. Take longer to code in additions? Absolutely. However, the productivity of a MUD that has a good OLC far exceeds that of a MUD that relies on hard code additions to "build."

There are probably quite a few OLCs out there on the various MUDs that exist (Sam and Oasis are a couple of common ones). I promise you, hands down, bar none, RoAOLC blows them all away. Anybody who has used RoAOLC knows. There is just SO much you can create and customize with this tool and all via an easy-to-learn, menu-driven interface. An example RoAOLC menu from OLQC:

RoAOLC(v2.2) QuestEdit Main Menu
X.) Qslot: 2
1.) QName: The Fortress of The Fated
2.) QDesc: The guard at the gate to the Fortress of The Fated, high atop Fate's Peak, will only let in those who prove their worth in battle. Lately, though, he has been seeing less and less travellers venture to the fortress as his own skills have progressed. Therefore, he has decided to offer an alternate way to earn admittance. Living on the peak itself is a tribe of stone giants. The leader has with him a large sack containing his treasures. Retrieve the sack and give it to the guard, and he will reward you with the key to the fortress. Otherwise, you must fight him to gain access.
3.) QType: Object Recovery
4.) QFlags: ACTIVATED TIMELIMIT REWARD_OBJ NOTIFY_CHAR MIN_LEVEL
5.) QRCFlags: NOBITS
6.) QObj vnum: 11117
7.) # of QObjs: 1
8.) Days to complete: 2
9.) Quest Minlevel: 20
15.) Obj Reward vnum: 11455
16.) Char Notification:
The Gateguard looks at the sack, nods, and hands you the key.

Enter field number to change or 0 to end:

That's an average RoAOLC menu, each has this common look and feel to ease the learning curve and get your builders up to speed as quickly as possible.

Here's a list of what is OLCable within this MUDBase (not an exhaustive list):

• Mobiles (Monsters if you prefer, commonly called mobs)
  - Stats, descriptions, flags, classes, spells, etc.

• RoA Mobile Procedure Language (RoA MPL)
  - Available through mob edit, RoA MPL is commonly referred to as simply MobProcs and should not be confused with the publically available mobprog patches for Circle and Merc MUDs. The MPL allows for extremely customizable mobs which can do what only hard coded mobs could do before.

Some of the MPL commands:
mtarget mtargetroom mtargetzone mtargetset mreset mstart mend mgoto mif mpause mrandom mtelezone mhunt mtrigwait mtrigoff mtrigon mtrigwax mtrigadd mtrigdelete

• RoA Room Procedure Language (RoA RPL)
  - Available through room edit, RoA RPL is commonly referred to as simply RoomProcs and offers much of the same types of commands as do mobprocs. Typical uses for roomprocs are things such as levers or switches that can do everything from opening exits, to redirecting existing ones to teleporting a particular class/race/gender of character to a remote room and much more. Builders at AR are just beginning to explore the possibilities with roomprocs...
  
  
• Objects
  - types, descriptions, spells, materials, conditions, flags, etc.
  
  
• Rooms
  - descriptions, flags, portals, randoms, exits, exit types, traps, terrain, etc.
  
  
• Zones
  - weather, weather messages, loading patterns, lock-load-unlock comlist generation with complete recursion abilities (obj in obj in obj, etc.), flags, etc.
  
  
• Automated Quests (see above menu example)
  
  
• Hometowns
  - races allowed, vnums of gateways, menu visibility, etc.
  
  
• Spells (Warlock spells are completely OLCable)
  - combat spell support (fireball, etc.) as well as affectual support (armor, blind, etc.)
  
  
• Shops
  - shop rooms, shop open/close times, shopkeeper's homes, types to sell/buy, and obviously the items they sell
  
  
• Player-Owned Shops
  - everything that shops do plus more, taxes, markups, keeper cuts, racial bias, player OLCable (limited pledit)
  
  
• Weather (per zone)
  - precip percentages, atmospheric type, temperature ranges, messages, all PER SEASON, etc.
  
  
• Help/Wizhelp Files
  - create / edit helpfiles on the fly, edited files are immediately available... also, use the EXEDIT flag to spawn outside the MUD into SPICO to do all your major file edits...
  
  
• Major Text Files (policies, motds, news, etc)
  - edit the major text files in the same way you edit help files.. all changes are immediately available
  
  
• Transports (wagons, ships, etc.)
  - make ships, boats, anything, any size, any speed, pick a source and destination (up to 4 destinations per transport path) and watch it go, pick how fast it waits at destinations, and how fast it travels, etc.
  
  
• Player Houses (OLCable by PLAYERS!, limited room edit)
  - players can edit their OWN houses via a limited version of room edit, players can also add onto their houses at will (if they have the mula) and edit those as well...
  
  
• Socials
  - add a social on the fly for immediate use by everybody without rebooting

There is much more, too much to list here, let alone explain. As more documentation is produced it will be made available on this page or the Manuals page.