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(Note1: picture showing the tab for Zones should go here)

(Note 2: this page has no content, just the formating)

(Brief explanation of the list tab, including how to add dialogs)

The Zone_Description is seen when a human player decides to click on the respective zone in the zone menu. You can e.g. already select the zone and see its description when you see the zone far away. Think of it similar to the description of an item. It is displayed whenever you click on it.

Remark: Use a Message if you intend to show it when the player enters the zone.

There are two different measures of the player's “closeness” to a zone: Distance and Proximity. Each is a distance such as 100 feet or 200 meters. Visualize these as rings of the specified widths surrounding the zone.

   1:Distance  2:Proximity  3:Zone

As the player approaches the zone, S/He will

• first cross the boundary formed by the Distance ring,
• then the one formed by the Proximity ring,
• then the boundary of the Zone itself.

As the player enters each band, an event associated with that band fires. By associating Statements with each event, your cartridge can react to the the fact that the human player approaches the zone. In addition, there is an event which fires when the user exits the zone. There are no exit events for the Proximity and Distance bands. However, the entry events for these bands fire again on the way out.

When the player leaves the zone, S/He will pass the rings in the reverse order. S/He will

• leave the Zone and
• enter the Proximity ring again,
• leave the Proximity ring and enter the Distance ring again.
• The player will finaly leave the Distance ring (no event is associated with this)

If you set the Distance range to -1 in the builder, the Distance entry event fires immediately upon cartridge startup (for initially active zones) or when first activate the zone (for inactive zones).

Important: The Distance setting also has an effect on Zone Visibility. See the sections Active and Visible, below.

The Active property determines whether or not the Wherigo player engine processes events related to the zone. If the zone is inactive, events are not processed and the zone is not visible (even if the Visible property is true). In other words: An inactive Zone does NOTHING.

You might think it is a smart idea to activate all Zones from the start to make sure that you have some action when you need it. Smart idea, but NO. For each active Zone the Wherigo player must check, whether the user is in, out or in proximity to the zone. This uses a lot of the limited GPS-CPU power. If you have to many active zones, the Wherigo player will waste too much time to perform the checks and your cartridge is more likely to crash. As a good compromise you should not have more than 5 Zones active at any given time. Activate new Zones and remember to de-activate unused (old) Zones.

The Visible property determines whether or not an active Zone is visible to the human player. This translates to:

• The Zone appears in the Wherigo Player´s locations list
• The human player can “see” it
• The human player can navigate to it

Important: A Visible and Active zone is only visible when the player is within the Distance range of the zone. If the Distance range is -1, the player is always within Distance and the Zone is always visible (provided it is active).