Connect Screen and MOTD

Every connection is shown a few fixed messages: the connect screen when it arrives, the message of the day (MOTD) after a player logs in, a goodbye when they quit, and a few others. With the messages package installed, each one is an attribute on a thing called Messages, and staff change a message by setting that attribute.

You are	You want to	Read
Staff	know which message shows when	The messages
Staff	put news in front of everyone who logs in	Changing the MOTD
Staff	change what a new connection sees	Changing the connect screen
Staff	install it, or go back to plain text	Running the Messages object

In the game, help messages has the same table in short form, and help @motd covers the temporary messages.

The messages

Attribute	Shown
CONNECT	at the connect screen, before anyone logs in
MOTD	to every player after logging in
WIZMOTD	after the MOTD, to wizards and royalty
GUEST	after the MOTD, to a guest
NEWUSER	after register creates an account: how to make or claim a first character
REGISTER	instead of creating a character while player creation is off
DOWN	before the refusal while logins are off
QUIT	after the goodbye on QUIT and LOGOUT

This is what a player sees on login with the package’s own messages. The MOTD greets them and says how many are online; a wizard also gets the staff notice from WIZMOTD:

> connect Gus gus-pw-1
Welcome back, Gus!

─┤ Welcome to SharpMUSH ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Hello, Gus. 6 players are connected.
Type help for the commands, or WHO to see who is here.

[STAFF] Nothing new for staff. Leave a note here with @wizmotd <message>.

And the goodbye from QUIT:

> QUIT
GOODBYE.

Goodbye from SharpMUSH. Come back soon!

REGISTER, DOWN, NEWUSER and GUEST only show while the game is in a particular state: player creation off, logins off, a new account just made, or a guest connected. They are short notices in the same style.

Each attribute is softcode, run as the Messages object when its message is shown. %# is the player who will see it (the object itself at the connect screen, where nobody has logged in yet), and %0 is the connection’s descriptor. An attribute that comes out empty shows nothing, and a message the object has no attribute for shows the stored text from the portal instead.

Changing the MOTD

@listmotd says where the messages come from, and so which object to change. On this game it is #42:

> @listmotd
Current Message of the Day settings:
  Messages come from: Messages(#42) (messages_object)
Temporary Message of the Day (cleared on restart):
  Connect MOTD: (not set)
  Wizard MOTD:  (not set)
  Down MOTD:    (not set)
  Full MOTD:    (not set)

Tip

Before changing a message, examine #42/MOTD and keep a copy of what it says, so you can put it back exactly.

News for a while: @motd

For news that matters for a day or two, @motd <text> shows your line in place of the MOTD attribute until you clear it, without touching the object:

> @motd The server restarts at 22:00 for an upgrade. Back by 22:15.
Connect MOTD set.

The next player to log in sees it where the greeting would be:

> connect Hana hana-pw-1
Welcome back, Hana!
The server restarts at 22:00 for an upgrade. Back by 22:15.

@motd/clear brings the MOTD attribute back, and a restart clears it too:

> @motd/clear
Connect MOTD cleared.

@wizmotd <text> does the same for the staff notice.

A lasting change: the MOTD attribute

To change the greeting itself, set the attribute. This one keeps the package’s heading and greeting and adds a line of news:

> &MOTD #42=%r[u(FUN`SECTION,Welcome to [mudname()])]%rHello, [name(%#)]. The harbour festival opens on Friday at 8pm.%rType [cmdlink(help,help,Read the help)] for the commands.
Messages/MOTD - Set.

Every login from then on shows it:

> connect Hana hana-pw-1
Welcome back, Hana!

─┤ Welcome to SharpMUSH ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Hello, Hana. The harbour festival opens on Friday at 8pm.
Type help for the commands.

FUNSECTIONdraws the heading rule, andcmdlink()makeshelpa link a player can click in the portal or a client that supports links.think u(#42/MOTD)` shows you the result as it stands, without logging in again.

Changing the connect screen

The connect screen is what a new connection sees before it logs in. The package’s CONNECT puts the logo beside the ways in:

          ==         ==            Welcome to SharpMUSH!
         ====       ====
       =======     =======         ─┤ New here? ├─────────────────────────────
      =========   =========        register  <name> [email] <password>
     =========== ===========       make      <character> <password>
    =================== =====      ─┤ Just looking? ├─────────────────────────
  ======-  ===========   ======    connect   guest
 ======     =========     ======   ─┤ Have an account? ├──────────────────────
======   =   =======   =   ======  login     <name-or-email> <password>
======   ==   =====   ==   ======  play      <character>
 =====   ===   ===   ===   =====   claim     <character> <password>
 =====   ====   =   ====   =====   ─┤ Playing a character? ├──────────────────
  ====   =====     =====   ====    connect   <character> <password>
   ===    ====     ====    ===     ─┤ Any time ├──────────────────────────────
   ===     ===     ===-    ===     WHO       who is online
    ==     ===     ===     ==      QUIT      leave the game
     =      ==     ==      =
             =     =

The web portal and MXP or Pueblo clients get the logo as a picture instead (once mud_url is set), and a narrow screen gets the commands under the logo. A section is left out while the option behind it is off: no “New here?” while player_creation is off, no “Just looking?” while guests is.

The list of commands is its own attribute, FUNMENU, so a connect screen of your own can reuse it. Try the new screen with think` first, since a mistake here is seen by everyone who connects:

> think [u(#42/FUN`MENU)]%r%rThe harbour festival opens on Friday at 8pm.
Welcome to SharpMUSH!

─┤ New here? ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
register  <name> [email] <password>
make      <character> <password>
─┤ Just looking? ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
connect   guest
─┤ Have an account? ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
login     <name-or-email> <password>
play      <character>
claim     <character> <password>
─┤ Playing a character? ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
connect   <character> <password>
─┤ Any time ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
WHO       who is online
QUIT      leave the game

The harbour festival opens on Friday at 8pm.

Then set it:

> &CONNECT #42=[u(FUN`MENU)]%r%rThe harbour festival opens on Friday at 8pm.
Messages/CONNECT - Set.

The next connection to arrive gets the screen from the think above, without the logo.

The connect screen carries no command links, since nobody is logged in to click them. The layout functions it uses (flex(), figure(), rule(), fields()) are in Layout Functions; see Visual Layouts and Images for how they fit each reader’s screen.

Running the Messages object

A new game does not install the messages package; it shows the stored text of each message until an administrator chooses the Messages object, in the setup wizard or from the packages page. It depends on nothing else.

Installing it creates the Messages object and sets the messages_object option to it, which switches the game to reading its messages from the object. Removing the package puts the option back as it was, unless it has been changed since. The Messages page of the admin panel (/admin/messages) switches back to the stored text, and edits that text, without removing the package.