Well, you know how you can use the word "self" to substitute that for your own name?

Like... smile self would be "smile zepachu" really.

What about a keyword or symbol that would target the last person you were in combat with? Or perhaps the ability to set it to a target.

I don't use zMud. I use a terminal called ZOC. It has a scripting language (REXX) but I never touch it. I either type out the target's name (rare) or I quickly go and make a few macros. F5: "murder ____" F6: "trip ____" If my target changes, then I need to open up the macro thing (ALT-O, J, F )and set them to a different target.

Yes, I could get zMud and use aliases. Yes, I could invest the time and make a sort of alises subsystem script, but I'm not talking about me here.

What if someone could type "c li *" and that would cast lightning bolt on whatever they were in combat last with?

From a programming standpoint this is incredibly easy to implement.

The reason I suggest this is because I believe it was Pico who stated just a short time ago that one of the reasons he randomly puts "Someone has summoned you!" and so forth as a global echo is because he, and the staff, want to have people be less dependent on their client to do work that THEY should be doing... instead of their client being automated in certain regards.

So, a * could be aliased with whatever you were in combat with last... or perhaps a quick command like...

target zepachu
Okay, your target is now Zepachu.

And you can type "c li *" and it would really be "c li Zepachu"

Please give some feedback. I think this would help those that don't have advanced clients, and that might type slow... or in the heat of battle mistype, or something.

Thanks.

at the same time they threw out for discussion the idea of allowing the shortening of names (IE murder zep would kick your ass). It was decided by the playerbase and the imms that it just wasn't something enough people wanted or needed to make it worthwhile.

There are lots of free clients out there that do this for you. It doesn't really add anything useful to the game. The costs do not outweigh the benefits. In other words, probably not coming to a CF near you.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Well, that's fine with me. I don't need it. CF, in and of itself, is a very intimidating game to new players and even some people that have been around awhile. I merely suggested something that which I thought would make it more friendly and less overwhelming. I understand your position, though.

Costs? You would know them since you know the code, but from my standpoint, and a programmer's standpoint, this sort of thing seems relatively easy to code... Especially since there is code to alias the word "self" in seemingly all of the main parsers.

Off to the drawing board to think up something else.

Being able to parse "self" to refer to the character doing the command is extremely different from keeping a pointer to another character ready to use with your * idea. String and pointer cleanup is enough of a pain as it is. And if we don't cleanup... voila, instant memory leak. C is such a beautiful language. :-P

Yanoreth

There's a limit on character name length. Make it static.

Just a thought. Not trying to presume to know more about how the mud works than the staff.

But yes, C is beautiful. When done beautifully.

Why not just add targetting as a whole? Not necessarily a pointer that recalls who last attacked you but a variable like your strength or age or whatever that you can remove at logout which merely gets substituted in whenever you type out *?

EG :

target boldereth
Your target is now boldereth.

co blind *
Boldereth yells, "Bastard!"
Boldereth appears blinded.

Just a thought.

>I don't use zMud. I use a terminal called ZOC. It has a
>scripting language (REXX) but I never touch it. I either type
>out the target's name (rare) or I quickly go and make a few

Yay, somebody else uses Zoc. Definitely the best term program I've ever found, I originally got it for its script language.

Not sure why you don't touch the script language, but if you were willing to, you could write a script that emulates tab completion and aliasing.

Generally though, I agree that it would be nice to be able to abbreviate people's names or otherwise not be put at an advantage (however small) because my name is Bob and my opponent's name is Ugnqziczicz

I didn't think anyone else used ZoC. Yeah, definitely awesome. The reason I haven't played around with the script language is because I haven't really needed to. Maybe I'll dip my hand into it.

I think being able to 'abbreviate' would lead to a lot of problems.

Like, if my name was Bob and yours was Bobweoddababyitzaboy and someone wanted to kill me, and they typed 'murder bo' ... it would either assume one, or say "Type more for a better match!" Maybe that, even still, would be better... but it would lead to problems where people would get flustered if they learned to rely on using an abbreviation.

>I think being able to 'abbreviate' would lead to a lot of
>problems.

Well, that's basically what tab completion does and many people consider that a useful feature. Sure, it has drawbacks, but generally it works out pretty well. Then again, the reliance thing you mentioned is a large part of why I'm not too keen on clients.

>The reason I suggest this is because I believe it was Pico who
>stated just a short time ago that one of the reasons he
>randomly puts "Someone has summoned you!" and so forth as a
>global echo is because he, and the staff, want to have people
>be less dependent on their client to do work that THEY should
>be doing... instead of their client being automated in certain
>regards.

Well, it seems to me that instead of having the client do all the work for you, you want the Mud to do all the work for you... but then I could be wrong...

>Thanks.

Your welcome.

"Do not merely practice Art, but penetrate to the very heart of it. For only Art and Science elevate man to the Godhead." Ludwig Van Beethoven

>Well, it seems to me that instead of having the client do all
>the work for you, you want the Mud to do all the work for
>you... but then I could be wrong...

At least everyone would then be on semi-equal footing.

It also might cut down on the ecxeedingly-hard-to-type names people sometimes choose.

That's my point exactly. By putting features like this into the MUD itself, it would make which client you use less and less important and/or balance-swaying.

I understand what your saying, and over time I've found that having decent typing skills (everyday it becomes a little easier to type them in, especially if you use them over and over again) cuts down on the difficulty of what I like to call "bitch-names". Those names that look like a jumbled mass of letters with no real connection of sounds... it's not wrong to have a long name but when it makes no sense, you just look silly.

"Do not merely practice Art, but penetrate to the very heart of it. For only Art and Science elevate man to the Godhead." Ludwig Van Beethoven

Difficult names are as often a disadvantage as they are an advantage.

People that want to help you (rescue, heal, give, ...) will need to type in your name, and if you have a difficult name that becomes slower and more problematic.

I suspect that if your character has a difficult name there's a larger group of people who can't provide help in a timely fashion than there are who can't attack you quickly.

Not that this is a bad thing...

I just thought of it as a feature for those that type slow, type poorly, or don't have clients that can easily switch a whole set of aliases based on a new target.

For example, I know that in zMud you can set a "target" and then have a set of aliases use that variable. So, you can easily change a whole set to your new target. The MUD doesn't provide a way to do that, maybe it should.

As I mentioned, this isn't necessarily for me. If the feature was there, I most definitely would use it... but my current set up has worked for over a decade, and I type over 100wpm so I really don't need something like this. But, it's not all about me, or you, now is it? Ideas that help others, and aren't necessarily going to help me, I still feel are worth mentioning.

I use ZOC too! I like it for key-map macros and such but I have NO IDEA what the script language is all about. I just use my computer for playing games, e-mail, shopping, kids homework, chatting, and spreadsheets. I have no idea about languages or programming or anything. Heck it took me forever to figure out I could use ZOC to fix the colors on my screen so I could read them better.

I'm one who can't type worth crap and that REALLY hinders my ability to play. Mis-typing in an Rp situation is just embarrassing and no big deal, but when you want to attack someone, it makes a big difference. I really don't know how you can type something like murder Gwyythinniel and get the command to go through before she walks away. I mean she's there for all of a split second, if that, and she's gone again before you know it, being an elf and all. (maybe I should have a name like that?) NAH. I like names people can type to heal me. YEAH I need HELP! I do type faster and better than my two-finger pecking husband does though.