World building · Black Box

The World Building menu is where you set up the in-world objects Black Box runs: doors, lights, switches, power, alarms, consoles and crafting tables. The Storytellers menu holds the live controls for a scene, such as lighting, alarms, environments and sound.

Who can do what

Permission (as on Roles)	What it opens
`env_edit` (Env - Edit)	All of World Building: settings, wiring, zones, types, interactions and running macros
`env_light_control` (Env - Light Control)	Lighting control, staff buttons on lights and switches, sending environments
`env_alarm_trigger` (Env - Alarm Trigger)	Firing and stopping alarms, staff buttons on alarms
`lighting_edit` (Lighting - Edit)	Editing environment presets
`hud_sounds` (Storyteller - Sound board)	The sound board
`radio_storyteller` (Hud - Storyteller Radio)	`@radio as`

On a new sim, Game Masters have env_edit, and Storytellers and Moderators can work lights and alarms.

Objects

A prim with the right script registers itself and appears under World Building › Objects. In-world setup covers the scripts. Filter it by Category, Zone or Last check-in, and open an object for its Status, Settings, Device settings, Notifications and Interactions tabs. Generators also have a Generator tab.

Kind	How it behaves in-world
Doors, hatches, blast doors	A tap opens or closes. Hold for 2 seconds for its interactions, such as Break/Force Door or Weld Door.
Lights	Lit whenever powered. An emergency light is lit only while power is low or out.
Switches	A tap flips it. A Switch, Key flips only for its access list.
Power panels, generators	The top of a power chain. Generators can burn fuel.
Alarms	Lights and sound, fired from the Alarms board.
Duty consoles	Show alert text sent by a notification until it’s cleared.
Alarm silence panels	Meant to list a zone’s sounding alarms to silence. They don’t answer touches yet.
Crafting tables	Show a crafting station’s queue.

On Settings, set the object’s Mode, Zone, Access list and Power source. A mode is a named set of values from its type: a door takes settings such as whether it checks access from its mode. Device settings change one object’s values, such as a light’s colour. Status has Quick actions such as Force Lock or Remove Weld, and Resync object to push everything to it again.

To change many objects at once, use World Building › Bulk edit: tick objects or select all that match your filters, press Bulk edit…, pick what to change and Preview it before you apply. Forget deletes everything kept about an object.

Access lists

Make lists under World Building › Setup, on the Access lists tab.

Press Add list and name it.
Press Add rule. Pick Rule for (Account, Character, Class, Carries item, Group or Role), who, and Allow or Deny.
Set the list on each door or key switch’s Settings tab.

A matching Deny always wins, and a list with no rules lets nobody in. Staff who can override switches can always flip them.

Note: Door access checks are still being fixed. For now, don’t rely on an access-checked door alone to keep people out: it doesn’t check everyone, and once it’s checking access it doesn’t stop at Locked or Welded. Account and Character rules don’t work reliably on doors, so build door lists from groups, classes and items.

Interactions and their rolls

Interactions are what players do by holding an object, such as welding a door. Build them on the Interactions tab under Setup:

Energy cost: spent on every attempt, pass or fail.
On success, set: the status it changes, such as Locked off.
Successes needed and Progress resets after (s): several successful rolls to finish, with partial progress kept until the timer runs out.
Cooldown (s): per character. It follows every attempt unless Cooldown only after a failed attempt is on.
Damage on success: damages the object. A negative number repairs it.
On a fail, lock it down for (s) locks and shuts the object for everyone, then puts it back. On a fail, set off the alarms in its zone marks those alarms as sounding.
Item given on success, Items needed and Only shows when add a drop, required items and states the object must be in.

The chance comes from a Success formula, made on the same tab with numbers and + - * /, and capped at 99%. On the Types tab, open a type and use Add interaction to give it an interaction with a formula. New objects of that type get it, and existing objects keep their own list on their Interactions tab. Every attempt is logged under Logs › World & staff › Env interactions.

Power and the power grid

Wire a device by setting its Power source to a switch, power panel or generator. An unwired device counts as full power. Power is Off, Low or Full, and a switch passes it on only while it’s on, so a generator can feed a breaker, a switch and its lights. A change reaches everything after it. A type’s On low power, set and With no power, set decide what its objects do when power drops. Lights dim or flicker on low power, per lowPowerScale and lowPowerFlicker.

A generator’s Generator tab sets Requires Fuel, Fuel Current, Fuel Max, the burn rate, Low Power Threshold and its output. It burns fuel every minute or so, drops to low output at the threshold, and goes off when empty. Refuel it by raising Fuel Current. A fuelled generator undoes staff power changes on its next tick. Vendors and crafting stations can need power too, through Powered by (env object key).

World Building › Power grid draws all of this as a live map. Click a device to work it, drag from a source’s green dot to a device to wire it, and click a wire to unwire it. Right-click a source for Add a new device on it…, which gives you a key to put in the new prim’s description.

Zones and macros

A zone is a named group of objects, set by each object’s Zone. Add one on World Building › Zones under Add a zone. The board lists a zone’s objects by category with buttons for all of them, such as Force Lock (all), plus Resync zone and a Run button for each macro that reaches it.

A macro is a set of zone-wide steps you run with one click, such as a lockdown. On World Building › Macros, press New macro, then Create and add steps. Each step points at a zone:

Doors: lock / open
Switches: on / off
Set a device setting, such as every light’s colour to red

Steps run top to bottom and show how many objects they reach. Make a second macro to undo the first. Macros run only when someone presses Run.

Alarms

Storytellers › Alarms fires alarm objects through the Alarm Server relay. Admins set up its zones and presets.

On Zones, add each zone with its In-world object name, exactly as its alarm objects are named.
On Presets, set each kind of alarm’s light (colour, radius, Flashing) and sound.
On Control, pick zones or All zones and a Preset, then press Fire on…. Stop ends it, and Stop everything silences the whole sim after 15 seconds.

Note: The board reaches alarms running the LSL alarm script. Alarms running the newer Luau script don’t answer it yet. An alarm’s Force Trigger and Force Silence change the state notifications and consoles see, but don’t make the object itself sound.

Lighting and environments

Storytellers › Lighting control shows a zone’s lights, switches and power sources as circuits. Flip switches, Cut power or Restore a light, or use All switches on and All switches off. A light follows its feed, so to keep one dark, switch off its source.

Add Second Life environments under World Building › Lighting presets with Add a preset and the Environment asset UUID. Then on Storytellers › Weather & environment, pick an Environment and send it to One person or Everyone online. None - back to the region’s own undoes it. Under Sim default, pick a sim and press Set ’s default: everyone there wearing the HUD gets it, and anyone who arrives, until you press Back to normal.

Lawful zones

If you switch on Lawful Zones (lawful_zones) in a game system, set them up on World Building › Lawful zones. Draw each zone with a Region and two corners, or leave the corners empty for the whole region. Pick the Groups alerted and keep the Offense list of spells. Casting one in a zone files a report, alerts those groups’ online members and marks the caster Wanted for 2 hours. @admin removedebuffs clears it.

Area TPs in fights

If you switch on Scene Transitions (scene_transitions), fighters use area teleporters on their turn with @party areatp <colour>. Blue, Collision, Red and Tram cost the AP in areatp_blue_ap, areatp_red_ap and areatp_tram_ap. Yellow and Green ones are refused.

Sound board and radio

On Storytellers › Sound board, enter a Sound UUID, choose Who hears it (Everyone online, One sim, Everyone with a radio or Chosen people) and How: only in their HUD, around them for everyone nearby, or looping until Stop sounds. Only people wearing the HUD get it.

@radio <message> reaches everyone online with an item named Radio equipped. Storytellers can type @radio as <name> to speak as a story character without one, and @radio as off to stop.