This article has the following gaps: Needs to be updated with Thread 13653 and Thread 13672, which are generally accepted but there might be more discussion

This is an attempt to standardize the eAthena coding. Any suggestions are welcome to be posted on the discussion page before editing.

Indentation

Code is indented using tabs. Code in the same block should have the same indentation. Labels have no indentation. Menu options are on their own lines and are indented further.

Code Blocks

• Code blocks should be separated from the others in a dinstinct way; the best way of doing it is to insert a blank line between code blocks.

• Individual blocks should be together (i.e. without blank lines within them).

• The opening brackets should be at the end of the parent line, not in a new line; the closing ones should be in a line of their own.

Example

An example is given by a quest to get a key for a chest:

// A treasure chest. You need three keys to open it. new_5-1.gat,93,37,0 script Treasure 111,{ mes "Would you try to open it?"; next; menu "Yup", L_Sure, "Nope", close; L_Sure: if (countitem(537) < 3) goto L_WrongKey; delitem 537, 3; getitem 536, 1; mes "You opened it and found a short sword!"; close; L_WrongKey: mes "It seems that this is not the right key..."; close; }

The above script starts with describing the NPC (the chest, NPC sprite 111) and its location. Then follows what happens on activation. A message is shown, then an option dialog is displayed. Then, when the player has less than 3 keys (item id 537), he is told not to have the right key. If he does, the player looses three keys and receives a short sword (item id 536). This quest in particular is questionable as the explanation given to the player doesn't match the implemented behavior (possibly to make the quest more challenging), but I've put it here because it is short and shows one basic way to use the scripting system.

For more examples of the current system, check out the current scripts in use by the server. Beware though, this could affect your enjoyment of the game as it does spoil some of the mystery. Here's a link to git so you can view them in your browser:

http://gitorious.org/tmw-eathena-data/mainline/trees/master/npc

Note that anything said by an NPC should be put in double quotes ("). You can do that like this: "\"Hello!\" she said."

Using as little variables as you need

So there are some quests, which require lots of variables. Think of monster oil quest, Oric and Warum quest etc.

This can often be done by bitmasking: One variable has 32 bits. So a variabe can store 2^32 different numbers: 4294967296

But sometimes you only need numbers from 0 to 15, but more of these variables. but numbers in range 0 to 15 can be stored in 4 bits ( 2^4 = 16 different numbers)

Here is an example how to use bitmasking: Media:Tester.txt

Defining Map Objects

Key
<TAB>	a tab
text	text that must be the same
text	text to be changed

These sections describe how to define map objects.

Warp Definitions

Warps are what move players between maps. They can also be used to move players around a single map, if needed. Warps are defined like this:

map1,startX,startY<TAB>warp<TAB>name<TAB>width,height,map2,endX,endY

Key:

map1

the starting map

startX

the x-coordinate of the starting warp tile

startY

the y-coordinate of the starting warp tile

name

the name of the warp, unused but must be defined

width

the width of the warp

height

the height of the warp

map2

the ending map

endX

the x-coordinate of the tile the player will end up on

endY

the y-coordinate of the tile the player will end up on

Width and height are described in detail here: Warp Details.

Monster Definitions

Monsters are defined like this:

map,x,y,width,height<TAB>monster<TAB>name<TAB>mobID,count,spawn1,spawn2,event

map

the map the monsters should appear on

x

the x-coordinate of the spawn tile

y

the y-coordinate of the spawn tile

width

the tile width of the spawn area

height

the tile height of the spawn area

name

the name of the mob, unused but must be defined

mobID

the mob identifier of the desired monster (in the monster db)

count

the number to spawn

spawn1

the minimum delay between successive spawns (per individual)

spawn2

the minimum delay between death and respawn (per individual)

event

the script event to fire upon death

A detailed description of position and area can be found here: Mob Details.

Script Functions

A function/command reference can be found here or here. Not all functions, commands, variable types, and trigger labels are available or work as described, so please ask if you aren't sure.

For a list of signatures, search for BUILTIN_ARGS on the rewrite branch, which has already remove a number of functions/commands that were problematic.

This list does not distinguish between commands (which return nothing) and functions (which return a value), or include the return type of functions.

The signatures might not be accurate because they are not checked except for the number; a * indicates any number of parameters may follow.