VIP Mud Combat Scripting

Karmik

Alright guys. So, as a blind player, over the years I've come to rely on VIP Mud as my go-to client. It's the one that I know a base level of scripting for, and I've grown used to all of its little quirks and issues.

The problem is, I can't find any sort of endgame content for combat. And from what I've heard, to keep up on this game I'll need some level of automation, if only to free up my attention for the important stuff.

Now. I might be able to script all of this on my own. I can certainly try. But I'm going to have to do a lot of fiddling. I'll probably have to mine lines from project source, and ask a lot of questions, as was pointed out to me when I brought this up in conversation. But I'm still really new.

Could I get some suggestions and tips from endgame players on what they personally think I should be working toward? I've had it mentioned that an automated parrying system will be helpful. I've also been told that I'll need triggers for special cures and things of that nature. Anything you think that is necessary to stack on top of the fir staid system will help.

Once I have this list I'll know what sorts of questions I need to be asking. For example, what do most endgame players feel the best parry systems work off of? A random cycle? A few key locations based on the class I'm fighting? A counter that keeps track of limb hits and moves to the most struck location? Should I abandon auto parrying and handle it myself?

Any and all feedback is appreciated. I imagine that I'll learn some of this as I continue to play. But it rarely hurts to get a head start.

Serrice

So the first thing you need is you'll want to turn on affliction view on (CONFIG AFFLICTION_VIEW FULL) and use that (or GMCP, if you know how to use it and your client handles it) so you can start tracking you affs client side. Affliction view will show You are afflicted with X and You have cured X lines when you get/cure affs.

Once you can accurately cure affs you can start doing stuff based on that.

Karmik

And the very first suggestion stumps me.

At the moment I've figured out how to take an affliction as it comes in and set it as a variable, And I've figured out how to create a single variable that holds a list of items. But I'm still flipping through documentation to figure out how to add and remove variables to a list on the fly. Once that's done I can move forward.

I've also stumbled upon a way to create a big list of individual variables that are numbered (Affliction1, Affliction2, Affliction3). That might work if I can add and remove things into those, and have my trigger take an affliction and put it into the first empty slot. But I don't quite know how to do that either.

It seems that I have a long way to go. But one challenge at a time. It'll get done.

Razmael

Unrelated to your actual topic, but if there's any improvements I can make to the game on our end to improve what the Screenreader config does, or any other things to make life easier for visually impaired players, don't be afraid to drop me a line. I'm always open to to improving things for our VIP community, but sometimes it can be a bit hard for me to know what to change in that regard.

Aishia

I got a few just from interacting with people who use a screenreader: Chart based help files make ZERO sense thru a screenreader. STATPACKS and things like HELP ARMOR.

Vaskar

I have a blind friend and I've had to 'read' him the statpacks chart occasionally because it doesn't translate well to screenreaders.

From what he's said, the problem with the STATPACKS chart is that it looks like this:

Typical      14  13  13  12  [+]       [+]
Normal       12  13  13  14  [+]  [+]
Muscular     15  13  12  11            [+]       [+]
Wise         11  13  12  15       [+]       [+]
Agile        11  16  13  13       [+]                 [+]  [-]
Powerful     15  12  13  12                 [+]  [-]  [+]
Intelligent  11  13  13  15                 [-]  [+]       [+]
Hardy        11  14  15  11            [+]                      [+]
Stalwart     12  11  15  12                 [+]  [+]            [+]  [-]
Resilient    11  12  15  12                 [-]       [+]  [+]       [+]
Adaptive     14  11  13  14       [+]  [+]
Athletic     14  15  13  11            [+]            [-]            [+]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The screenreader doesn't say anything for whitespace so it's impossible to know what column the [+] is under.

I've never had to read him Imperian's because it looks like this:

Name       StrDexConInt Exp Bal Equ Sip Cut Blu Fir Col Poi Mag Asp Ele
Normal      13 12 13 12  +1   -   -   -   -   -   -  +1   -   -   -   -
Astute      12 12 12 12  +2   -   -   -   -   -   -   -  +1   -   -   -
Clever      11 13 11 15   -  +1   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Intelligent  9 13 13 16   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -  -1   -   -   -
Capable     13 13 12 11   -   -  +1   -   -   -  +1  -1  -1   -   -   -
Sturdy      13 10 15 11   -   -   -   -  +1  +1   -   -   -   -   -  -1
Dexterous   12 16 12 10   -  +1   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Athletic    13 10 14 10   -  +1   -  -1  +1  +1  +1  -1  +1   -   -   -
Strong      15 10 16  8   -   -  -1   -   -   -  +1   -   -   -   -   -
Powerful    16  9 16  8   -  -1  -1   -  +1  +1  +1  +1   -  -1   -   -
Wise        10 13 12 14   -   -  +1  -1   -   -   -  -1   -  +1   -   -

Since the 'empty' spaces in this chart are filled in by dashes, he can tell which column the +1/-1s are under.

Whether or not there's a better way to do it, I dunno. Maybe a STATPACKS SCREENREADER or something that has it displayed like "Athletic 14 strength 15 dex 13 con 11 int endurance bonus fire penalty magic bonus" or something similar, with a note at the top of STATPACKS that there's a screenreader-friendly version? I don't use a screenreader myself, so I'm just guessing here.

I want to keep the chart, because it's so nice for sighted players, but I can't imagine that counting the dashes and memorizing the column order is anything but irritating.

Also, Imperian does the HELP ARMOUR file like this:

- None: Mage**
- Leather: Monk, Predator
- Ringmail: Diabolist, Bard, Hunter
- Scalemail: Summoner, Wytch, Renegade, Berserker, Assassin
- Chainmail: Druid, Ranger, Amazon, Outrider, Defiler
- Splintmail: Priest
- Fieldplate: Templars, Deathknights, Runeguards
- Fullplate(*): Templars, Deathknights, Runeguards

I think it's easier to read and it's screenreader friendly. There's no real need for a chart there.

Razmael

Good ideas there. I'll look into it.

Karmik

So. I've managed to figure out all the little bits and bobs that go into a client side affliction tracker. But now I need advice on how to use it.

I'd like to tie in endgame healing, and certain monk abilities to fire automatically when they're needed. But I need to know when that is. So if any of you have these things set up, mind telling me what should trigger the heals to activate?

For things with cooldown I can basically make a variable that tracks yes available for use, and no, on cooldown. Then I just need to flag it to search out specific things in my affliction list to fire on.