Most objects have messages that are printed when a player succeeds or fails in manipulating the object in some way. Of course, the kinds of messages printed are specific to the kinds of manipulations and those, in turn, are specific to the kind of object. Regardless of the kind of object, though, there is a uniform means for listing the kinds of messages that can be set and then for setting them.
The '@messages' command prints out all of the messages you can set on any object you own. Type 'help @messages' for details.
To set a particular message on one of your objects use a command with this form:
@<message-name> <object> is "<message>"
where '<message-name>' is the name of the message being set, <object> is the name or number of the object on which you want to set that message, and <message> is the actual text.
For example, consider the 'leave' message on an exit; it is printed to a player when they successfully use the exit to leave a room. To set the 'leave' message on the exit 'north' from the current room, use the command
@leave north is "You wander in a northerly way out of the room."
[Note to programmers: This class of commands automatically applies to any property whose name ends in '_msg'. Thus, in the example above, the command is setting the 'leave_msg' property of the named exit. You can get such a command to work on new kinds of objects simply by giving the appropriate properties names that end in '_msg'. Additionally, in many cases the _msg property is accompanied by a _msg verb, which defaultly returns the named property, but which is available to be customized in more complex ways than allowed by simple string substitution. You should check for the particular property you're considering whether the verb form exists (typically with @list).]
The following help topics describe the uses of the various messages available on standard kinds of objects:
container-messages -- the messages on objects that can contain other objects exit-messages -- the messages on exit objects thing-messages -- the messages on objects that can be taken and dropped