Using split, lbound and ubound

Posted by David B on Mon 01 Sep 2003 03:11 AM — 10 posts, 30,524 views.

David B USA Mon 01 Sep 2003 03:11 AM #0

Its been a while since I've use the split command.
My trigger matches on this:
Text:
You knocked a powerful bebilith out cold!
Matchon:
You knock * out cold!

Currently I have it just attacking certain mobs. What I'd like to do is set it up so that it will attack all goblins. There are many different types of goblins. The one that you DON'T want to attack is the goblin healer... Now Knocking them out isn't considered an attack unless it fails, and I don't fail when it comes to knocking things out the same size as me(there are tiny, small, medium, large, huge, and giant sized mobs). Now, Once I knock them out, I don't want to backstab them because they're really strong for their level... Their maladictions last forever and land easily.

Now as I continue to explain this, I think of a different way to do this. I realize I could do it slightly differently. Instead of matching on the "sap" I could match it on the hunt trigger:
Text
A powerful bebilith is south from here.
match on:
A * is * from here.

What I'd like to do is split the first wild card, and if any of that array has healer in it then Ignore it, and hunt the next goblin... 2.goblin... 3.goblin.... 4.goblin...

Not sure how to do that exactly... Could I perhaps get a hand with this?

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Mon 01 Sep 2003 08:01 AM #1

Can you post a sample line with the goblins in it?

David B USA Mon 01 Sep 2003 06:04 PM #2

A sample line of several different goblins:

A goblin janitor is east from here.
An elite goblin guard is north from here.
A large goblin is north from here.
A goblin scout is up from here.
A goblin knight is east from here.
And the one I REALLY want to avoid:
A goblin healer is east from here.

I also want to be able to do the same thing if I hunt a goblin, and a goblin healer is here.

A goblin healer is here.

Ked Russia Mon 01 Sep 2003 10:50 PM #3

The following should do:


<triggers>
<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="[A|An] (goblin \w+) is (east|west|south|north|northwest|northeast|southwest|southeast|up|down|in|out) from here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>

<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="A (goblin healer) is here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>

And the script in vbs


sub HuntGoblin (name, output, wildcs)
 dim tempArray
 tempArray = split(wildcs(1), " ")
 select case tempArray(1)
  case "healer"
    exit sub
  case else
    world.send wildcs(2)     'go in goblin's direction
    world.send "attack goblin"
 end select
end sub

An alternative way of doing it doesn't involve using split() in script. You'd need to fix the triggers up:


<triggers>
<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="[A|An] goblin (\w+) is (east|west|south|north|northwest|northeast|southwest|southeast|up|down|in|out) from here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>

<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="A goblin (healer) is here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>
</triggers>

Now your sub would look like:


sub HuntGoblin (name, output, wildcs)
 select case wildcs(1)
  case "healer"
   exit sub
  case else
   world.send wildcs(2)       'go in goblin's direction
   world.send "attack goblin"
 end select
end sub

which is somewhat simpler. Of course, you could play around with the triggers some more, to perhaps make one trigger out of two, but if it works - why bother? :P

David B USA Tue 02 Sep 2003 12:37 AM #4

Ok, that fine would work great if they were static, but they move around. that means they're always the first mob in the room... That in mind, I need to beable to attack 2.goblin.

Ked Russia Tue 02 Sep 2003 06:48 AM #5

Hmm, after a second look at the sample lines I noticed that the above won't actually work, since the words in the first wildcard are not always in the order 'goblin <type>'. So here's the amended version (again without split()'ing):


<triggers>
<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="[A|An] (goblin \w+|\w+ goblin) is (east|west|south|north|northwest|northeast|southwest|southeast|up|down|in|out) from here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>

<trigger
 enabled="y"
 regexp="y"
 match="A (goblin \w+|\w+ goblin) is here\."
 script="HuntGoblin"
 sequence="100"
></trigger>
</triggers>

And the sub changes to use InStr(), as we don't have a way of predicting where the type of goblin will appear in the wildcard string:


sub HuntGoblin (name, output, wildcs)
dim goblinHealer
goblinHealer = instr(wildcs(1), "healer")

 if goblinHealer then
   exit sub
 else
   world.send wildcs(2)
   world.send "attack goblin"
 end if
end sub

Also, I don't exactly understand what you mean; what's a '2.goblin'? And what difference does it make in what order the mobs are in a room? I suspect we are talking about some specifics of hunting in your MUD, and as I am not aware of those you need to explain this part of a problem in a bit more detail.

Ked Russia Tue 02 Sep 2003 07:02 AM #6

Doh! Think first, do later... I just realized that the second trigger ('the goblin is here.' thing) will cause an array out of bounds exception as soon as it fires. So we'll amend the sub again:


sub HuntGoblin (name, output, wildcs)
dim goblinHealer
goblinHealer = instr(wildcs(1), "healer")

 if goblinHealer then
   exit sub
 else
  if ubound(wildcs) > 1 then
   world.send wildcs(2)
  end if
   world.send "attack goblin"
 end if
end sub

Also, I think I understood what you meant. The healer is always the first in the group of goblins, so 'attack goblin' would attack the healer goblin? Then to attack any goblin other than the healer you'd need to figure out how to attack a specific goblin in the room. I can't help you here as I am not familiar with how things work in your MUD, so again - give more specifics.

David B USA Tue 02 Sep 2003 06:22 PM #7

I'm terribly sorry to waste your time with this, I've come to the conclusion that it is just too difficult to accomplish... I appreciate your assistance.

Shadowfyr USA Tue 02 Sep 2003 07:05 PM #8

Compared to some things we have coded, this is not difficult at all, just hard to do without actually being there to work with the actual input. It would help to have specific examples of the rooms, not just a line here or there. It may for instance be possible to trigger on the title and color of the room, have that clear an array of available goblins, then start capturing them. If the first one captured was a healer, it would be skipped or marked in the array to prevent you from attacking it. Then you could make an alias like:

kg *

Which took a number. If you pick a number corresponding to the healer, it would simply be ignored. But to do this requires knowing more about how your rooms are displayed than we now know. It is definitely not impossible though.

David B USA Tue 02 Sep 2003 11:40 PM #9

What makes this too difficult to accomplish is several factors. 1. Healers are just totally evil. 2. All goblins autoassist other goblins(meaning even if I didn't attack a healer it'd still attack me). 2. The only way to do something like this would be to sap(knock out) the healer then attack. That might be easier to do... I'll post again in a little while with various rooms. I think this would be a helpful script for anyone who wants to script an area that has mobs you want to avoid...