In certain fields and specifications, CoffeeMud will allow you to enter a mathematical formula in place of a simple number in order to calculate a number at run-time. This is useful for occasions where you want the number to have a random element, or where the value of the number is calculated based on certain variables only available at run-time.
The formulas can be anything from a simple number, to numbers combined with mathematical operators + - \ *, grouped with parenthesis ( ), and may also include certain special operators.
One special operator, ? , is for generating a random number (ex: 2?5 refers to a random number between 2 and 5). Another special operator, >, is for bounding the result of an operation (ex: 5 * 10 > 10 will evaluate to the greater of 10 or 5 * 10). The < operator does the opposite. The last special operators are =, which evaluates to 1 if values on either side are the same, and !, which evaluates to 1 if values on either side are different. |