White Orb demo applet

General status

The server

This represents a running server, and allows you to open new clients connected to that server.  The server will be running on your computer (since I don't have one running on the net yet) so you won't meet any other players in the game unless you open several clients yourself.  Opening a new player client will put a new creature (with the given name) in the world and open a client that allows you to control that creature. The builder client is used to create, destroy, and modify objects and areas in the world.

The player client

Overview

The player client is divided into 5 subsections.  The left side contains information about your player and what objects he is holding.  The center contains a map of what your player sees right now.  The white input field to the top-right allows you to enter commands using test, for example "attack grump" or "say hello".  You can abbreviate most commands and object names, and pressing TAB will automatically complete the word, if there are any visible objects that have a name that matches (example: typing "attack gr" and then TAB will complete to "attack grump", assuming the Grump the Orc is visible).  The grey output field to the right describes what happens in the world, as you see/hear it.  Finally the panel at the bottom right of the window displays information about the selected item.

Manipulating objects

Clicking on any icon will select it - that means a menu for that item will appear in the menu bar and general info about that item will be displayed at the bottom right of the screen. All other icons representing the same item will also be highlighted. Double-clicking will open a new window containing the same general info.  Right-clicking will produce a pop-up menu (same as the one in the menu-bar) with available actions on the item.

Moving around and doing stuff

To move around select the action input field (the white field to the top right) and use the numpad keys.  If you don't have numpad keys you can type n, e, s, or w instead.  Type ? in the action input field to see a list of available actions (for example get, shout, smile).  The selected item also has a menu of actions in the menu-bar, which is also available as a pop-up menu if you right-click the item.  If an action fails a warning message will be displayed at the bottom of the window.

The builder client

Overview

The top-left panel allows you to select which type of item to build.  The top-right panel shows the properties of the currently selected item in the map (just like the bottom-right panel in the player client).  The bottom panel contains a map of the whole area that you are currently working on.  Select objects by clicking on them, open a separate property viewer by double-clicking, and open a pop-up menu with available actions by right-clicking (that goes for the icons at the top-right as well).

Note!  For now any areas you build are not saved - this is only a demo...

Building

The Areas menu allows you to choose which area to work on (an area is a rectangular set of squares of arbitrary size).  You can create and delete areas using the two buttons at the top.  To build a new item, select the item type at the top-left, right-click on the square that is to contain the item, and select "create sword here" (depending on what item type you selected).  To delete an object right-click it and select "delete".  There is currently no way of moving or modifying existing object from the builder client.

Known bugs

• On some platforms the pop-up menus on the map view are black with black text (so it looks like a black rectangle without text).  It's a trivial bug and will be fixed for the next demo version (by 15th of september I hope).  To work around it you can simply select the square (by left clicking) and then using the popup menu on the contents panel on the bottom right.  Or you can use the "normal" menu in the menu bar, after activating an item.
• When I run it using HotJava it seems to be breaking some applet security restriction, since HotJava asks me to verify two connection operations.  This shouldn't be happening since it's running locally, so tell me if you get the same problem (it may have to do with the internet setup on my particular computer).
• Program crashes if you put yourself into a bag that you are holding, or if you try to pick up someone who is holding you.  Will also be fixed by next demo version.

Last updated: