So, over a period last year we recorded something like 100,000 failed commands (as in, "Huh?") from newbies in the Academy. We did some chopping and spam-sorting followed by frequency histogramming to figure out what commands are unsuccessfully tried most often by the most newbies.

The first thing we learned is that there are a lot of ways to misspell "where" or "practice". Those still exist. (Exception: British spellings like 'practise' or 'colour' will be mapped to either a reminder about American spellings or the equivalent command.)

But we did see patterns of commands which are slowly being corrected. For example, if you're an arial and type 'wingsweep' or 'flight', you now get a mini-tutorial on your inherents. If you type 'dodge', you get feedback about how it's an automatic skill and typing it does nothing, etc. 'stats' gets rerouted into 'score'. There's still a ton more to do, but in some cases we don't know what the heck people are trying. In a few cases we've asked ('quicklook'/'ql' to look at your current room without the desc), but mostly we're slogging through a big pile of possibilities.

For veterans:
I'm de-prioritizing these informational commands so they shouldn't pre-empt and popular command abbreviations. Let me know if something changes.

For everyone:
"3klient": The most common command entered by newbies! I know it's a client for another game. What are you trying to do by typing it? Is it automatically put in by the client? What feedback should you get?

"here"/"probe"/"honors"/"honours"/"crop"/"prof"/"autoaim": Combined, quite a few mentions. I'm assuming these are commands on another MUD or genre of MUDs. What are they supposed to do? What's the closest CF command, or else should I just give better error feedback?

Please don't guess above. It's probably more confusing to get misleading feedback or weird rerouting vs. "Huh?"

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Regarding 3klient.....
Its a protocal used by mud client Portal which is freeware/shareware windows client. For most part can be ignored...
but heres a document explaining it..
http://www.gameaxle.com/PortalMIP8-2.pdf
I use portal and notice after logging on getting the "Huh?" which is caused cause it sends the "3klient" security protocal... but if it is just ignored it won't affect the client at all..
Its kinda like how Zmud has some special protocals that can be implemented but are not important if they arnt...
The 3klient command is automatically (unseen) sent to the server.

The Prof command I am unsure of....
Just thinking though prof is short for profession so likely looking for a list of classes? or a List of proficiency's eg. Skill trained %'s?

The here command is similar to the where command on other muds. It usually displays information such as coords and the area/location's name and extended information about where you are.

Probe command is command used generally for lookin at more information of a item (EG. compare)

Can we get some other command to be a higher priority than motd? I hate trying to run north, hitting "m" and getting three screenfulls of text. Does anyone ever use motd intentionally?

I would suggest that any mini-tutorials be sufficiently mini that if you typo a regular command you aren't too horribly spammed by tutorial text. I know how you guys love toggleables, but maybe a default-on toggle for automatic typo help? That would allow you to not worry about whether typing the wrong thing while in combat is going to confuse the crap out of you.

Here are some of my frequent typos:
whios bob (whois)
whi elf (who elf)
gte sword (get sword)

Basically, there are a huge number of them, and I think most of the time it's obvious to the player that they've typo'd it. Your common typos might not be same as the next guy's, and it might be confusing if the MUD recognized some but not others. I also worry about sending someone to an unintended command.

What I'd really like to have there on a total "whiff" is something like:

whios
Huh? (Suggestions: whois, whisper)

But that's a little over my head at present.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Can we get some other command to be a higher priority than motd? I hate trying to run north, hitting "m" and getting three screenfulls of text. Does anyone ever use motd intentionally?

There's lots of stuff I could bump that will return a 'Huh?' for most or all mortals as a worst-case scenario. Other choices:

'maps' prompts newbies to read up on Outfit, gives everyone else a "Huh?"

'money' is a synonym for 'worth'. Useful, brief informational command.

'metric' would satisfy my desire to trick more Americans into getting comfy with a frickin' base-10 system of measurement.

'move' reminds you how to walk around. You know, for people that are trying to run north by whacking 'm'.

I'm marginally not cruel enough to alias it to 'murder'.

I kind of like 'move', but can be persuaded elsewhere.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

As a lazy American who uses non-metric measurements by default more than by choice. I vote for the metric standard.

As a lazy American who uses non-metric measurements by default more than by choice. I vote for the metric standard.

The current command is english, by the way, so you've always(=longer than I've played CF) been able to choose. The only reason I use the foot/pound measures in game and in descriptions is because the units are as outdated as the technology(swords etc.) that is used in the game and it doesn't matter that much if you don't mind not knowing the item weights with greater detail. Pounds are archaic, so they are fit for medieval context. Kilograms make the weights look so accurate, while you could more easily think a pound not quite being a constant with every merchant.

I went over this with Twist earlier to day, and the one-letter commands that don't do anything particularly useful are:

"a": "Huh?" for any mortal.
"j": Jab. A subset of one class can use this.
"m": You get spammed by the MOTD screen.
"x": "Huh?" for any mortal.

"j" and "x" don't really have great alternatives. "jtell" is out there for Nexus, but that's even a comparable niche to sword-spec warriors.

"a" can go to a lot of things. We were thinking about "attributes", which is a synonym for "score". If we also did "m"->"money"->"worth", you'd have one-letter access to two useful commands.

The rest seem fine:
Buy
Cast
Down
East
Fill
Get
Hit (Maybe Help? More newbie-friendly, and you have 'K')
Inventory
Kill
Look
North
Open
Practice (Maybe Put?)
Quaff
Rest
South
Tell
Up
Value
West
Yell
Zap

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

which kill doesn't do. I might argue that kill and murder and hit should be equivalent in all regards, but that's because I find the whole typing out of murder thing to be a bit cumbersome in the heat of battle. Also I alias it anyways. m = murder... Avoid motd mishaps and means I can murder someone without the typing it all out thing.

We didn't discuss "h" but I guess I'd prefer for it to stay "hit" if only so I don't end up trying to read the helpfile on the next enemy who's trying to gang me down

I like p = practice too.

a = attributes is good, m = money I already voted for

j = "jiveturkey" social:
Twist looks at you out of the corner of his eye and mutters "jive turkey."

x = "xfactor" social:
Twist struts and crosses his arms into the shape of an X, clearly signifying that while he's not really a true threat on offense or defense, his special-teams ability is scary.

The xfactor social may contain enough awesomeness to blind the noobcakes with the pure power of pwnage that can't be handled by the uninitiated.

That is clearly superior to everything.

Would it be conveniently possible to implement something like warriors doing crushingblow and orcs doing crushingassault with same abbreviations(up to the point where the letters differ)? Basically, the thing you know how to do getting the higher priority as a command.

Would it be conveniently possible to implement something like warriors doing crushingblow and orcs doing crushingassault with same abbreviations(up to the point where the letters differ)?

Not terribly convenient, no. The command parser doesn't "know" what skills (if any) are associated with the command attempted. That all gets handled later. If you type 'crush' as a warrior, you probably get routed to 'crushingassault' (alphabetical being the default assumption), and inside the Crushing Assault code, you get booted by a line early on that looks for the specific skill.

You can write specific exceptions, like a check in the Crushing Assault code which rerouts you into the Crushing Blow code, but that gets cumbersome. If it won't often impact a new player, I assume the player has probably started using a client with aliasing by that point.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

I'd rather 'Huh?' I think instead of score for the letter 'a'. The last thing I want is a single letter typo spamming me. MOTD is the worst, that's probably gotten me killed 3-4 times since I started playing by getting hit with the 'Hit Enter to continue' command denial.

>"a": "Huh?" for any mortal.

Why not affects?

>"j": Jab. A subset of one class can use this.

jive, the popular counterpart to shuck.

>"x": "Huh?" for any mortal.

How about examine? I've never liked having to type three characters for examine when I'm exploring.

I'm not exactly sure what "o" is, but I've been using it for 10 years with hiding classes to step out of the shadows without having to de-sneak (as with vis).

It will cripple me!

T

I think you can just 'vis hide' to step out of hiding without losing sneak. I think they put that in 3 or 4 years ago to alleviate that. So if 'o' gets changed you can just make an alias for it to reroute to 'vis hide'. Rar.

nt

.

> Other choices:

All of these sound fine to me.

I actually would like "murder" best, as I've never liked the "type out the whole word" mechanic. Why does it even exist, really? Presumably to help stop you from accidentally attacking someone on a typo, but it's easy enough to do that with scores of other combat-starting skills anyhow. I don't think I've ever had the full-command nature of Murder really work in my favor and there have been a number of times where it has screwed me.

But if you like murder as it is, "money" is a fine replacement.

>I don't
>think I've ever had the full-command nature of Murder really
>work in my favor and there have been a number of times where
>it has screwed me.

No...you wouldn't...because of how it is coded currently.

Zulghinlour fondly recalls people mistyping kneel zulghinlour and getting to explain themselves...

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Would be a big help when i don't have my aliases. Also, it sends a good message to newbies.

My favorite is "gte chicken sack": Dumbass tells the group "chicken sack". I probably do this three times a session. I don't know of an easy solution other than for me to stop being such a doofus, but I hate that one really bad.

so "g chicken sack" works. And if you type a t after it, and your group makes fun of you, tell them you were saying they had a "chicken sack" and needed to be more ballsy.

>Can we get some other command to be a higher priority than
>motd? I hate trying to run north, hitting "m" and getting
>three screenfulls of text. Does anyone ever use motd
>intentionally?
>
>I would suggest that any mini-tutorials be sufficiently mini
>that if you typo a regular command you aren't too horribly
>spammed by tutorial text. I know how you guys love
>toggleables, but maybe a default-on toggle for automatic typo
>help? That would allow you to not worry about whether typing
>the wrong thing while in combat is going to confuse the crap
>out of you.
>
>Here are some of my frequent typos:
>whios bob (whois)
>whi elf (who elf)
>gte sword (get sword)
>
>
>
>

Its instead of 'Brief' on a few other muds. It actually took me a VERY long time to figure out the brief command, largely because I was used to crop but also because it wasn't on the 'auto' list as a preference for my character.

Might also want to prioritise the 'auto' a little more as it does show your characters preferences so well. I've spent many a time trying to tell a lowbie how to use trustgroup, autoloot, trustall, nofollow PETS (damn it) and so on.

Yhorian.

Daniel's post got me thinking. I went to the Aetolia web site and these are the commands I found:

4.18 HONORS
By typing VIEW HONORS <player> you may see some publically available
information about that player.

Syntax:

VIEW HONOURS <player>
or
HONOURS <player>

------------

INFO HERE: See the unique item numbers of the things in your location.

------------

P, PROBE: Gain extended information about an item, including what, if anything, is held inside it.

>Daniel's post got me thinking. I went to the Aetolia web site
>and these are the commands I found:
>
>4.18 HONORS
>By typing VIEW HONORS <player> you may see some publically
>available
>information about that player.
>
>Syntax:
>
>VIEW HONOURS <player>
> or
>HONOURS <player>
>
>------------
>
>INFO HERE: See the unique item numbers of the things in your
>location.
>
>------------
>
>P, PROBE: Gain extended information about an item, including
>what, if anything, is held inside it.
>
>
Just don't play the Mud. There's no RP and they charge out the ass.

Honors/Honours are off of Iron Realm games like Aetolia and basically let you see the statistics on Character X.

It might not be anything that we reveal, but I'd like the command feedback to explain why we don't if that's the case. Otherwise I'd like to route it to a comparable command, or at least a suggestion to try the other command.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>It might not be anything that we reveal, but I'd like the
>command feedback to explain why we don't if that's the case.
>Otherwise I'd like to route it to a comparable command, or at
>least a suggestion to try the other command.
>
>valguarnera@carrionfields.com

Sorry I couldn't think of a comparible command for Carrion Fields. But this is what honors gives you in Aetolia.

Command:Honors Maurier

Output

Rockling Maurier.
He is 133 years old, having been born on the 15th of Lanosian, year 77 of the
Midnight Age.
He is ranked 107th in Aetolia.
He is a Forestwalker in the Fellowship of Explorers.
He is a mentor and able to take on proteges.
He has written a personal background.
He is considered to be approximately equal to your might.

It's basically just a condensed version of the score command that the public can view.

It's kind of like whois except gives out information like how practiced a person's skills are, how many areas they've explored, age, quests they've compled (was later changed to quest honors or some such), what they're ranked in the arena, what visible clans they belong to, if they're in a leadership position of their city or guild, who they're married/engaged to, how many times they've been divorced, and a few other things I can't remember. Keep in mind, I'm speaking from the experience of Lusternia and Imperian. You can also honours yourself and quest honours yourself (like the quest command here, except not as useful), and the information tends to be relative to you (such as, he's aproximately equal to your might means he's practiced as many skills as you have, though they're likely different skills, unless you honors yourself).

"On ne fait pas de musique contre quelqu'un"