Zones Keys & Restrictions

[John C]

Is anyone able to explain how zone restrictions work?

The zone table lists a "flag" column, which is usually null (which presumably means not limits) but is sometimes a 0, sometimes a 1, and sometimes text. As an example, when I removed "Trakanon Idol" from Sebilis and left it null, it didn't remove the restrictions so clearly something else is going on.

Text is unusual. I would have expected to find an item number for the item that is the key, but clearly that's not how it works. My next thinking was it was a bool and the text just was the same as 1 but more descriptive, but that doesn't appear to fit either.

On the keyring, the key number for the zone is the item number of the Idol so that connection is being made somewhere but not sure how that ties to the actual zone entrance. I looked for zone scripts or launcher/zonelauncher records but none of that seems to be there. I would really appreciate if someone could explain how this works.

And just to add one more wrinkle, I thought I could just add the key to various characters, but when I did I received the message "you are not yet experienced enough to pass through an interplanar portal". Grep can't find that in the server code, so it is apparently a client message that gets triggered when the zoning fails for a reason other than not having the key. Google searches suggested it might be related to character level or status, but minlevel and minstatus for Sebilis are both set to 0. Making someone a GM does get around this but again, clearly there is more going on than I understand. Appreciate anyone who can help me figure it all out.

Thanks!