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Authoring

Authoring in Eldiron Creator adds narrative and descriptive metadata to the world. It is used by the terminal client already, and the same data can also drive room descriptions, sector enter text, and other presentation in normal 2D and 3D games.

Authoring Dock​

The tool strip contains an Authoring toggle.

When it is enabled, contexts that would normally show the Tiles dock show the Authoring dock instead.

This makes Authoring a persistent mode:

  • geometry and selection tools still work normally
  • tile-backed contexts switch from Tiles to Authoring
  • other docks like Data, Code, Visual Code, or Console are unaffected

What You Can Edit​

The Authoring dock edits player-facing TOML metadata for:

  • selected sectors
  • selected linedefs
  • selected character templates
  • selected item templates

Important:

  • sectors and linedefs are authored from the current region selection
  • characters and items are authored on their templates, not on placed instances
  • gameplay/mechanical TOML still belongs in the normal Data dock

So the split is:

  • Authoring: descriptive and presentation text
  • Data: stats, flags, input, rules-related values, and other mechanics

Minimal Format​

The current starter template is:

title = ""
description = """
"""

This is shown automatically for empty selections so the expected format is always visible.

Use:

  • title for the player-facing name of the place, connection, entity, or item
  • description for the longer descriptive text

title is optional for look. If only description is present, that still works.

Examples:

title = "Your ship"
description = """
The familiar deck of your faithful ship creaks softly beneath your feet. It has carried you through many adventures, and still feels more like home than any harbor.
"""
title = "Crossroads"
description = """
A small crossroads of worn earth and scattered stones, marking the meeting point between harbor, home, and garden.
"""

How It Is Used​

Right now the authoring metadata is already used by:

  • text-style terminal room titles and descriptions
  • text-style exit and room presentation
  • authored sector description messages in regular gameplay
  • look for characters and items in 2D, 3D, and text play when no explicit on_look message is present

Character And Item Authoring​

Character and item templates can define descriptive fallbacks used by look.

Characters support mode-based overrides:

title = "Guard"
description = """
A weary guard watches the road.
"""

[mode.active]
description = """
A weary guard watches the road.
"""

[mode.dead]
description = """
The guard lies motionless on the ground.
"""

Items support state-based overrides:

title = "Torch"
description = """
A simple wall torch.
"""

[state.off]
description = """
An unlit torch is fixed to the wall.
"""
on_use = "You light the torch."

[state.on]
description = """
A lit torch flickers warmly against the stone wall.
"""
on_use = "You extinguish the torch."

Resolution order is:

  1. matching mode.<value> for characters
  2. matching state.<value> for items
  3. fallback to the top-level description

So mode.* and state.* are optional overrides, not required fields.

For items, state.* can also carry simple use text like on_use. That authored on_use message is used as a fallback in text, 2D, and 3D play when no explicit item on_use behavior overrides it.

For sectors, you can also add:

show_in_2d = false
show_in_3d = false

to suppress automatic sector description messages per view mode.

Global Authoring Settings​

Global authoring and text-presentation behavior lives under Game / Authoring.

That configuration controls things like:

  • startup welcome text
  • startup room/description behavior
  • exit presentation style
  • terminal colors
  • auto-attack behavior for text-style clients
  • sector description message policy

See Authoring Configuration for the full reference.