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Is there a way to say apply edits to rooms, areas, items etc and apply them without bringing the bbs down? I am applying things every night and i want to try to keep the downtime at a minimum if possible. Thanks for any info

Is there a way to say apply edits to rooms, areas, items etc and apply them without bringing the bbs down? I am applying things every night and i want to try to keep the downtime at a minimum if possible. Thanks for any info



read the general help in NMR under "3. About the Update File" and "4. Editing Environments"



4. Editing Environments:

There are three general scenarios you can use to go about with your editing. These are listed in

order of recommendation.



#1) Copy your w*.dat files to a seperate directory and set nightmare up to edit those. When you are done making edits, compile an update file and copy it to your bbs directory. you'll need to make sure your bbs has finished it's update process (see above) before you can overwrite that file. if you want your dat files to be updated you can either; a) wait for the next shutdown and startup for it to automatically run through, b) go to the sysop menu and "apply an update", or c) restart the BBS manually.



#2) ...

read the general help in NMR under "3. About the Update File" and "4. Editing Environments"



ok undersood, one more thing then.. say you do copy all your wcc files over at 12 am, and edit the copies untill 3 am. when you use apply an update wont it take players back to where they were at 12 am? Just a thought.

ok undersood, one more thing then.. say you do copy all your wcc files over at 12 am, and edit the copies untill 3 am. when you use apply an update wont it take players back to where they were at 12 am? Just a thought.



for one, the user dat isn't compiled into the update file so it wont do anything to that. but as for the room items and such, the update file only updates non-user ineractive parts of the database. things like monster kill time, items in room, etc are not updated.



again, if you would read the general help it explains this:







-> it doesn't update every single field of every record of every database however, just the things that don't have any user interaction. what i mean by this is things like the number of items in a shop, the number of monsters in a room, how many times a monster has dropped an item, etc are not overwritten during this process. when you install mud as an upgrade of a previously installed mud, it doesn't overwrite your .dat files. it only overwrites the mud program files, wccupda2.dat, and the *.vir files (the .vir files are the base dat files that have never been touched by playing users). if it overwrote your dat files, then all interaction your users had with the game would be lost (not the actually character data, just things like what I've already mentioned). this is why editing environment #1 (below) is the best scenario, read more on that.





:read:

heres a question:



it says copy w*.dat into a temp directory and edit that. but you can't copy the .dat files while the bbs is up.. that's ok, but in that same paragraph, it says " you'll need to make sure your bbs has finished it's update process (see above) before you can overwrite that file. " and " b) go to the sysop menu and "apply an update"".



both of those instructions are for when the bbs is up and you have an edited update file. but how do you copy the data files while the bbs is up? or is this assuming you'll copy the data files to the editing directory. then bring the bbs up, then edit, THEN follow those instructions?



if i have to get offline to copy *.dat from the wgserv directory (to get the most recently updated .dat files), i might as well do my editing while the bbs is offline, then bring it back up and let it reload the update.



unless maybe you do a LOT of editing maybe. that answer right?

heres a question:



it says copy w*.dat into a temp directory and edit that. but you can't copy the .dat files while the bbs is up.. that's ok, but in that same paragraph, it says " you'll need to make sure your bbs has finished it's update process (see above) before you can overwrite that file. " and " b) go to the sysop menu and "apply an update"".



both of those instructions are for when the bbs is up and you have an edited update file. but how do you copy the data files while the bbs is up? or is this assuming you'll copy the data files to the editing directory. then bring the bbs up, then edit, THEN follow those instructions?



if i have to get offline to copy *.dat from the wgserv directory (to get the most recently updated .dat files), i might as well do my editing while the bbs is offline, then bring it back up and let it reload the update.



unless maybe you do a LOT of editing maybe. that answer right?



one time you bring the board down and copy your dat files to a designated editing directory. after that, you never edit in the bbs directory again. you bring the board up and then set nightmare to edit the dats in your new editing dir. when you want to institute your next rounds of edits that you've made in your editing directory, you compile an update and copy it into the bbs directory. this can be done while the bbs is running, but not while the update file is being processed (which is done at startup and lasts approx. 30 min). you then either wait for the next bbs restart or go the sysop menu and "apply an update".



i would also recommend doing a "sys reset area" in a room after copying the update file in so that it runs an offline recovery at the restart as well. finally, the odd thing to keep in mind is that if you *insert* (add) any new textblocks or textblock parts you must copy the textblock file into the bbs directory manually. this would need to be done with the bbs down. if you are just changing existing textblocks you dont need to copy it in.



-syn

i see. but dont you need the latest .dat files to edit each time? say i copy my dat files to a folder, edit them. update wccupdate file. when the game is played, it changes the dats right? like what is in what shop, etc

No Mega..shop doesn't update in compiles either, you'll have to change over the shop file with the BBS down as well.



And you don't need the 'latest .dat files to edit each time'..when you take the BBS down to copy your dats over, they're the most current dats, all the time. Since you're editing them, they always have your most recent changes to them. And like Syntax said - it doesn't compile user-interactive things, such as boss kill times, items on the ground, etc. So basically the dats you have set aside will, at most times (if you're a frequent editor) be even more updated than the ones the BBS runs on, of course until you update.

i see. but dont you need the latest .dat files to edit each time? say i copy my dat files to a folder, edit them. update wccupdate file. when the game is played, it changes the dats right? like what is in what shop, etc



no, the update file only updates non-user interactable fields. it wont change things like items on the ground, items in a shop, monster last killed time, etc (things that change).



-syn



edit: i guess i shoulda read plat's reply first