3. Creating weapons

Weapons in LIMA all inherit M_DAMAGE_SOURCE, meaning something that can be a source of damage. So even things that are not weapons in a traditional sense, may benefit from inherit this module.

3.1. A small paragraph about Identifiers

The Identifiers (or IDs) of objects help the players refer to them in the world.

get shovel
get hat
get sombrero
get white cat
get small cat

Different objects may be referred to by many names, the hat may actually be a sombrero, but the cat might also be both small and white. The combinations may be endless, imagine a small white friendly cat in your game? Which IDs should it have?

small white friendly cat
white friendly cat
white cat
cat
small friendly cat
small cat

This quickly explodes into a range of IDs as you can see, so LIMA has a system called adjectives on top of IDs. For the cat we could handle this as:

1set_id("cat");
2add_adj("small","white","cat");
3set_in_room_desc("A small white cat is sitting here.");

This would allow the player to refer to the cat by all these adjectives without us having to make a complete list of combinations of adjectives. This system works for most objects in LIMA, including weapons.

Note

Rooms have two IDs as well: environment and here which allows players to look at environment e.g., but also a wizard to update here to update the room to a newer version as previously discussed.

3.2. Melee weapons

Weapons follow the same mechanics of room, in that they use setup() to define name, attributes and so on for the weapon. Let us look at ^std/weapon/sword.c:

 1/* Do not remove the headers from this file! see /USAGE for more info. */
 2
 3inherit SWORD;
 4
 5void setup()
 6{
 7   set_adj("dull");
 8   set_weapon_class(5);
 9   set_weight(1.1);
10   set_value(15);
11   add_combat_message("miss", "$N $vtake a clumsy swipe at $t, but only $vsucceed in making a fool of $r.");
12}

This is a relatively simple weapon, that still contains a bit of custom functionality.

Line by line:

  • Line 3: We inherit SWORD (/std/sword.c) - go back to the basic LIMA guide Section 1.3. if you find this puzzling. This is a specialization of WEAPON. If you have many weapons of the same type, this might be a pattern you should follow.

  • Line 5: Our old friend the setup function.

  • Line 7: Adds the adjective “dull” to the sword. It’s not very bright.

  • Line 8: This sets how hard the weapon hits. With a weapon class of 5 the weapon will damage opponents between 0-5 points, plus damage from strength. Dual wielded weapons may do 1.5 times strength bonus.

  • Line 9: Set the weight of the item in kilos.

  • Line 10: Set the value to 15 (bananas - more on MONEY_D later)

  • Line 11: Sets a special combat message for when you miss with this weapon - more on messages here.

Exercise 1

Read SWORD, and try to make sense of the functions used in there. Use apropos and man to find out more about the functions. Did you find missing documentation?

Tip

Wait, you don’t want to set the weight in kilos? Then change #define METRIC to #undef METRIC in config.h.

Here is another example with a few more features, a great axe that includes skill restrictions and custom details for salvaging! More details below.

 1/* Do not remove the headers from this file! see /USAGE for more info. */
 2
 3inherit WEAPON;
 4
 5void setup()
 6{
 7   set_id("greataxe", "axe");
 8   set_weight(3.2);
 9   set_value(30);
10   set_weapon_class(12);
11   set_combat_messages("combat-sword");
12   set_damage_type("slashing");
13   set_skill_used("combat/melee/blade");
14   set_skill_restriction("combat/axe", 1);
15   set_skill_restriction_message("The greataxe feels foreign in $p hand. $N $vwield it like $n would wield a pickaxe.");
16   set_must_dual_wield(1);
17   set_salvageable((["wood":15, "metal":85, ]));
18}
Line by line:

  • Line 7: Set the IDs that the weapon will be known by. This line will ensure that the user can both use wield axe and wield greataxe.

  • Line 11: Sets the combat messages the weapon uses (more on messages later, for now look inside the directory called /data/messages/ this folder contains standard messages for a lot of things.)

  • Line 13: Here, we set the skill trained by using this weapon.

  • Line 14: This line introduces a skill restriction, saying we need at least to be rank 1 in combat/axe to get full benefit of the axe. The player can still use the weapon, but will get told that it’s not optimal, and will be attacking at reduced efficiency and will do reduced damage.

  • Line 15: The message for a player who does not fulfil the required ranks.

  • Line 16: Not only do we say this this weapon can be dual-wielded here, we say that it must be. Some weapons can be wielded in one or two hands, adding more damage should the player want to do so.

  • Line 17: This line tells the salvage verb what the weapon is made of (more on salvaging and materials later).

Exercise 2

Create your own weapon that uses some of these functions, for now try not to add new damage types unless you feel confident doing so. Override some custom messages and experiment with wielding.

Tip

Your newly created weapon should go in ^pinto/weapon/ with an appropriate filename. For the rest of this guide we will refer to ^pinto/weapon/flail.c but you do not have to create a flail.

Tip

If you want someone to try out your new weapon on, ^std/monster/flea and ^std/monster/troll would like to help you out. Use clone command to clone the monsters, and hp to check how your opponents are doing.

Note

The damage_d keeps track of special attacks for weapons as well, think murdering longsword of lightning bolts and you get the right picture.