Attack Preference

[Folestar]

My Turn to try to get drug behind the Bus!!!

#1 I don't understand why the mud puts an attack preference on PK. Think about it, I am grouped with a bunch of people, of course I want to attack my own party first before the creature in the room. I think the preference should be to attack the enemy. Worse yet, if I am attacking a creature that starts with F, and I type kill f, the mud prioritizes my wanting to suicide over my enemy in the room.
#2 Is there a way to place a conformation tag on a pk.
For example:
>Kill Daklore
>Are you sure you wish to attack another character? Type PK to confirm:
> PK
or something simple like that.

There you go... **runs**

[Thalia]

There is one (1) (uno) and only one (1) (uno) set of "find person in room who matchs the entered parameter" logic.  That logic doesn't care if it's being used in combat or in socials or in friendly magic or unfriendly magic or in LOOK.  That logic is intent neutral.  It simply looks through the list of characters (PC and NPC) in a room to find a match.

Sooo.. how is it that it seems like more often than not, a PC is selected over an NPC?

The list is in "last in" order.  If the last character to enter a room is a PC, the PC is first on the list when it's checked.

If you are in a group trucking around an area, killing things... chances are your group will be the "last in" into a room, so your group --- or YOU -- end up being the first character(s) -- PC or NPC -- to be evaluated for a match to your command.   

If you are just hanging out in a room and letting mobs enter and leave, the mobs will end up being the "last in" into a room.

There is no intent, no malice, no grand design to force you into PK or suicide.

[Chalgyr]

well poo.... Thalia came out with the correct, logical answer.  I was going to simply say we wanted to see morties die!

[SeanBoggz]

confirmation for attacking players sucks when you are actually going after somebody and they know you are then they have time to run away

[azzan]

Would it be possible if you wanted to target a PC w/ any type of action (friendly or non-friendly spells, osay, socials, ectectect) you had to type out their full name - otherwise it would go through the list of NPC's in the room - if any? It would be a pain - but it would stop some of the accidental attacks that the lazy typer incures.

[SeanBoggz]

Oh I have a fix for that... Don't be a lazy typer type out the mob's full name and you won't have to worry about it

[Daklore]

Until you hit that random rare possibility of a player having the exact same sequence of letters as the full name of the mob .... Let's use Bellara as an example. The mob you -want- to kill is flagged as bell, and only bell. Last in is Bellara compared to the mob, so... Bell will equal bellara, meaning you'd have to type kill 2.bell, or whatever. So ha

[Thalia]

Honestly, if you/we all can come up with something that doesn't just change what the problem is, I'd be game to try a change to the logic.  The last time I managed to PK the same hunting companion twice in a week because my fingers and brain were out of sync, I did spend some time trying to come up with something, but without any luck.

How I was thinking about it was: How would it work with NPCs/PCs named....
* Val
* Valkeo
* Valkerie
* Valeria
* Valerian

... and commands like...
* Kill
* Cast (which could be an attack, beneficial or neutral spell)
* Kiss
* Sayto
* Look

And dealing with not just "well entered" commands, but also typos.

[Daklore]

Well, I think the problem -most- people have, is accidently killing their group mates. In the past if it wasn't a typo, it was an area attack hitting group mates and mass melee ensuing. So that's the -real- problem. Odds are -very- low of say, me and Belrath being in the same room in different groups, and one of us accidently attacking the other while trying to hit a mob. They exist, but... c'mon.

So the solution is simple! ... at least from my perspective. Alter the logic so it prevents you from attacking group mates. Use the sort of logic that's on pets. You're not allowed to attack other players pets, so the code already exists... in a sense. The only matter would be adapting that to check for them being a part of the same group as you, and yada yada yada. I'm not good at C... hell, I can barely understand what some of it says, let alone actually code a line of text.

But the nitty gritty of the problem is accidental attacks on groupmates. Eh, 'bout all I have to offer... and I know it's been brought up time and time again in the past.

[Folestar]

Umm, well...

How hard would it be to change it to a "first in" preference?

*** runs away ***

[Daklore]

Probably not that hard, but it still doesn't stop the root of the problem. You can still accidently overtype the kill/cast/backstab/drainbite/whatever command on the one mob that matches someone in your party, and end up attacking them. It'd be far more logical to prevent the party from being attacked accidently by members of it, rather than just changing the ordering of mobiles and PCs in rooms.

[Chalgyr]

I don't like the idea of completely protecting your group from your spell damage however.  If you're in a group with people, you shouldn't be able to use nova or chain lightning without possibly hitting them.  It curbs the rampant use of area attack spells in an illogical fashion.

[Daklore]

That would work if it didn't force us into automatically attacking said AoEr. The illogical use will diminish with the next code update though, I suspect. With them starting to use spells and what not... >P