Spawner and Prototypes¶

The spawner is a system for defining and creating individual objects from a base template called a prototype. It is only designed for use with in-game Objects, not any other type of entity.

The normal way to create a custom object in Evennia is to make a Typeclass. If you haven’t read up on Typeclasses yet, think of them as normal Python classes that save to the database behind the scenes. Say you wanted to create a “Goblin” enemy. A common way to do this would be to first create a Mobile typeclass that holds everything common to mobiles in the game, like generic AI, combat code and various movement methods. A Goblin subclass is then made to inherit from Mobile. The Goblin class adds stuff unique to goblins, like group-based AI (because goblins are smarter in a group), the ability to panic, dig for gold etc.

But now it’s time to actually start to create some goblins and put them in the world. What if we wanted those goblins to not all look the same? Maybe we want grey-skinned and green-skinned goblins or some goblins that can cast spells or which wield different weapons? We could make subclasses of Goblin, like GreySkinnedGoblin and GoblinWieldingClub. But that seems a bit excessive (and a lot of Python code for every little thing). Using classes can also become impractical when wanting to combine them - what if we want a grey-skinned goblin shaman wielding a spear - setting up a web of classes inheriting each other with multiple inheritance can be tricky.

This is what the prototype is for. It is a Python dictionary that describes these per-instance changes to an object. The prototype also has the advantage of allowing an in-game builder to customize an object without access to the Python backend. Evennia also allows for saving and searching prototypes so other builders can find and use (and tweak) them later. Having a library of interesting prototypes is a good reasource for builders. The OLC system allows for creating, saving, loading and manipulating prototypes using a menu system.

The spawner takes a prototype and uses it to create (spawn) new, custom objects.

Using the OLC¶

Enter the olc command or @spawn/olc to enter the prototype wizard. This is a menu system for creating, loading, saving and manipulating prototypes. It’s intended to be used by in-game builders and will give a better understanding of prototypes in general. Use help on each node of the menu for more information. Below are further details about how prototypes work and how they are used.

The prototype¶

The prototype dictionary can either be created for you by the OLC (see above), be written manually in a Python module (and then referenced by the @spawn command/OLC), or created on-the-fly and manually loaded into the spawner function or @spawn command.

The dictionary defines all possible database-properties of an Object. It has a fixed set of allowed keys. When preparing to store the prototype in the database (or when using the OLC), some of these keys are mandatory. When just passing a one-time prototype-dict to the spawner the system is more lenient and will use defaults for keys not explicitly provided.

In dictionary form, a prototype can look something like this:

{
   "prototype_key": "house"
   "key": "Large house"
   "typeclass": "typeclasses.rooms.house.House"
 }

If you wanted to load it into the spawner in-game you could just put all on one line:

@spawn {"prototype_key="house", "key": "Large house", ...}

Note that the prototype dict as given on the command line must be a valid Python structure - so you need to put quotes around strings etc. For security reasons, a dict inserted from-in game cannot have any other advanced Python functionality, such as executable code, lambda etc. If builders are supposed to be able to use such features, you need to offer them through [$protfuncs](Spawner-and- Prototypes#protfuncs), embedded runnable functions that you have full control to check and vet before running.

Prototype keys¶

All keys starting with prototype_ are for book keeping.

prototype_key - the ‘name’ of the prototype. While this can sometimes be skipped (such as when defining a prototype in a module or feeding a prototype-dict manually to the spawner function), it’s good practice to try to include this. It is used for book-keeping and storing of the prototype so you can find it later.
prototype_parent - If given, this should be the prototype_key of another prototype stored in the system or available in a module. This makes this prototype inherit the keys from the parent and only override what is needed. Give a tuple (parent1, parent2, ...) for multiple left-right inheritance. If this is not given, a typeclass should usually be defined (below).
prototype_desc - this is optional and used when listing the prototype in in-game listings.
protototype_tags - this is optional and allows for tagging the prototype in order to find it easier later.
prototype_locks - two lock types are supported: edit and spawn. The first lock restricts the copying and editing of the prototype when loaded through the OLC. The second determines who may use the prototype to create new objects.

The remaining keys determine actual aspects of the objects to spawn from this prototype:

key - the main object identifier. Defaults to “Spawned Object X”, where X is a random integer.
typeclass - A full python-path (from your gamedir) to the typeclass you want to use. If not set, the prototype_parent should be defined, with typeclass defined somewhere in the parent chain. When creating a one-time prototype dict just for spawning, one could omit this - settings.BASE_OBJECT_TYPECLASS will be used instead.
location - this should be a #dbref.
home - a valid #dbref. Defaults to location or settings.DEFAULT_HOME if location does not exist.
destination - a valid #dbref. Only used by exits.
permissions - list of permission strings, like ["Accounts", "may_use_red_door"]
locks - a lock-string like "edit:all();control:perm(Builder)"
aliases - list of strings for use as aliases
tags - list Tags. These are given as tuples (tag, category, data).
attrs - list of Attributes. These are given as tuples (attrname, value, category, lockstring)
Any other keywords are interpreted as non-category Attributes and their values. This is convenient for simple Attributes - use attrs for full control of Attributes.

Deprecated as of Evennia 0.8:

ndb_<name> - sets the value of a non-persistent attribute ("ndb_" is stripped from the name). This is simply not useful in a prototype and is deprecated.
exec - This accepts a code snippet or a list of code snippets to run. This should not be used - use callables or $protfuncs instead (see below).

Prototype values¶

The prototype supports values of several different types.

It can be a hard-coded value:

    {"key": "An ugly goblin", ...}

It can also be a callable. This callable is called without arguments whenever the prototype is used to spawn a new object:

    {"key": _get_a_random_goblin_name, ...}

By use of Python lambda one can wrap the callable so as to make immediate settings in the prototype:

    {"key": lambda: random.choice(("Urfgar", "Rick the smelly", "Blargh the foul", ...)), ...}

Protfuncs¶

Finally, the value can be a prototype function (Protfunc). These look like simple function calls that you embed in strings and that has a $ in front, like

    {"key": "$choice(Urfgar, Rick the smelly, Blargh the foul)",
     "attrs": {"desc": "This is a large $red(and very red) demon. "
                       "He has $randint(2,5) skulls in a chain around his neck."}

At execution time, the place of the protfunc will be replaced with the result of that protfunc being called (this is always a string). A protfunc works in much the same way as an InlineFunc - they are actually parsed using the same parser - except protfuncs are run every time the prototype is used to spawn a new object (whereas an inlinefunc is called when a text is returned to the user).

Here is how a protfunc is defined (same as an inlinefunc).

# this is a silly example, you can just color the text red with |r directly!
def red(*args, **kwargs):
   """
   Usage: $red(<text>)
   Returns the same text you entered, but red.
   """
   if not args or len(args) > 1:
      raise ValueError("Must have one argument, the text to color red!")
   return "|r{}|n".format(args[0])

Note that we must make sure to validate input and raise ValueError if that fails. Also, it is not possible to use keywords in the call to the protfunc (so something like $echo(text, align=left) is invalid). The kwargs requred is for internal evennia use and not used at all for protfuncs (only by inlinefuncs).

To make this protfunc available to builders in-game, add it to a new module and add the path to that module to settings.PROT_FUNC_MODULES:

# in mygame/server/conf/settings.py

PROT_FUNC_MODULES += ["world.myprotfuncs"]

All global callables in your added module will be considered a new protfunc. To avoid this (e.g. to have helper functions that are not protfuncs on their own), name your function something starting with _.

The default protfuncs available out of the box are defined in evennia/prototypes/profuncs.py. To override the ones available, just add the same-named function in your own protfunc module.

| Protfunc | Description |

For developers with access to Python, using protfuncs in prototypes is generally not useful. Passing real Python functions is a lot more powerful and flexible. Their main use is to allow in-game builders to do limited coding/scripting for their prototypes without giving them direct access to raw Python.

Storing prototypes¶

A prototype can be defined and stored in two ways, either in the database or as a dict in a module.

Database prototypes¶

Stored as Scripts in the database. These are sometimes referred to as database- prototypes This is the only way for in-game builders to modify and add prototypes. They have the advantage of being easily modifiable and sharable between builders but you need to work with them using in-game tools.

Module-based prototypes¶

These prototypes are defined as dictionaries assigned to global variables in one of the modules defined in settings.PROTOTYPE_MODULES. They can only be modified from outside the game so they are are necessarily “read-only” from in-game and cannot be modified (but copies of them could be made into database-prototypes). These were the only prototypes available before Evennia 0.8. Module based prototypes can be useful in order for developers to provide read-only “starting” or “base” prototypes to build from or if they just prefer to work offline in an external code editor.

By default mygame/world/prototypes.py is set up for you to add your own prototypes. All global dicts in this module will be considered by Evennia to be a prototype. You could also tell Evennia to look for prototypes in more modules if you want:

# in mygame/server/conf/settings.py

PROTOTYPE_MODULES += ["world.myownprototypes", "combat.prototypes"]

Note the += operator in the above example. This will extend the already defined world.prototypes definition in the settings_default.py file in Evennia. If you would like to completely override the location of your PROTOTYPE_MODULES then set this to just = without the addition operator.

Here is an example of a prototype defined in a module:

    # in a module Evennia looks at for prototypes,
    # (like mygame/world/prototypes.py)

    ORC_SHAMAN = {"key":"Orc shaman",
                  "typeclass": "typeclasses.monsters.Orc",
                  "weapon": "wooden staff",
                  "health": 20}

Note that in the example above, "ORC_SHAMAN" will become the prototype_key of this prototype. It’s the only case when prototype_key can be skipped in a prototype. However, if prototype_key was given explicitly, that would take precedence. This is a legacy behavior and it’s recommended that you always add prototype_key to be consistent.

Using @spawn¶

The spawner can be used from inside the game through the Builder-only @spawn command. Assuming the “goblin” typeclass is available to the system (either as a database-prototype or read from module), you can spawn a new goblin with

@spawn goblin

You can also specify the prototype directly as a valid Python dictionary:

@spawn {"prototype_key": "shaman", \
        "key":"Orc shaman", \
        "prototype_parent": "goblin", \
        "weapon": "wooden staff", \
        "health": 20}

Note: The @spawn command is more lenient about the prototype dictionary than shown here. So you can for example skip the prototype_key if you are just testing a throw-away prototype. A random hash will be used to please the validation. You could also skip prototype_parent/typeclass - then the typeclass given by settings.BASE_OBJECT_TYPECLASS will be used.

Using evennia.prototypes.spawner()¶

In code you access the spawner mechanism directly via the call

    new_objects = evennia.prototypes.spawner.spawn(*prototypes)

All arguments are prototype dictionaries or the unique prototype_keys of prototypes known to the system (either database- or module-based). The function will return a matching list of created objects. Example:

    obj1, obj2, obj3 = evennia.prototypes.spawner.spawn({"key": "Obj1", "desc": "A test"},
                                                        {"key": "Obj2", "desc": "Another test"},
                                                         "GOBLIN_SHAMAN")

Hint: Same as when using @spawn, when spawning from a one-time prototype dict like this, you can skip otherwise required keys, like prototype_key or typeclass/prototype_parent. Defaults will be used.

Note that no location will be set automatically when using evennia.prototypes.spawner.spawn(), you have to specify location explicitly in the prototype dict.

If the prototypes you supply are using prototype_parent keywords, the spawner will read prototypes from modules in settings.PROTOTYPE_MODULES as well as those saved to the database to determine the body of available parents. The spawn command takes many optional keywords, you can find its definition in the api docs.