Posted by Yupa on February 29, 2000 at 07:35:59:
In Reply to: Triggers, the "illegal" part of mudding. posted by Sinakil on February 28, 2000 at 19:46:28:
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Let's face reality here. Everyone uses triggers, whether it's to highlight some mud text or fire off an attack to an opponent. I want to focus specifically on triggers that aid in instantaneous reaction time to pkilling.
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Triggers for killing are broken down into two types, following and attacking. First a target variable must be specified, an alias that sets a variable to the target's name.
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After that, I use a follow alias to set certain actions such as ($target leaves south.) (s). Clearly, it's only useful for those without quiet movement or permanent sneak (wood elves, drow, elves, and rangers) isn't much more than 30% of the MUD. Anything else, can be followed when they flee from combat.
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Attacking actions are active or passive. I turn off actions when I don't want to attack a target in the same room, but still want to leave him targetted. When they're active, if they appear in the room, has arrived, has entered Thera, or is here, I use the specified attack alias, kt. Now, to add more complexity, I have two aliases of every spell/skill: one that does general case (such as trip) and one that does targetted case (trip $target). The aliases are no more than 3 characters, and can easily be set to the attack alias, kt, with a simple #al kt tt. (where tt is trip target.)
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When a target reaches a certain amount of health(writhing) and the attacking system is active, I activate a followup macro. When the target flees and it's direction is known (such as Bob has fled! Bob leaves north.) I have an alias to automatically go north once and attack once or several times (in case he runs back through the room) If no direction is known, then I automatically scan all and have short two character aliases for attacking in that direction (nn = north;kt).
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Currently working on a multiline, multidirection for the scan all command that modifies variables as text is read into the zmud client. The result? The client scans for the doomed person, executes the proper commands to track them down and begin combat instantly. In effect, I'm my own two person tracking and attacking permagroup. I thank Zugg for his software, and myself for my programming talents as a CS major.
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With computers as superfast as they are today, turning on and off aliases and triggers is a breeze. I can do it even before text is parsed. What happens when I auto-follow a fleeing person and use a kt twice? I can turn off the target system so that only one attack goes through instead of the usual two.
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To most of you, this may sound pretty fucking sick. I admit, it's pretty damn complex for something as simple as "pkilling." Think of it this way: It's a primitive AI for the complex situations one is presented with hunting, or fleeing from, someone. It also cuts down on a lot of typing, cutting out almost everything except connection lag. It DOESN'T make up for things like sudden overwhelming odds, cabal raiding around inner guardians, map knowledge, or knowing where instant-death rooms are.
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