Spell Icons

Ok, while having a real mapper (like zmud..) would be real nice. I ahave considered looking at porting a program called Kmud from Linux to windows that has such a mapper and coding the rest of the stuff it is currently missing into it. However one feature I have seen on no client is some sort of spell icons.

In a lot of muds you cast a spell and is gives you a string telling you it worked, then when it ends you get another that says it ended. So heres the idea: Set some up that will be in a column at the right edge of MUSHClient, they will be dim when you log in, then you can click on them to cast the spell, when the success description comes up the icon brightens and then dims again when the end line is recieved. A feature could also be added to time the spell, so the first success/end could be timed and after that the icon could flash a few seconds before the spell is ready to end. Editing would be something like the following, as an example:

Icon Name : Mind Bless__
Command : Mind Bless
Bright Image : MindB.bmp___
X Dim Image : MindD.bmp___
Activation Trigger: *You mind is now bless*__________
End Trigger : *no longer have a blessed mind*__

X Flash when 2__ seconds remain.

The Dim Image selection has a check box, since having the client greyscale and darken the image may be easier for some people and avoids the problem of puting the same image in both slots for those who don't want to spend the time to create one for both. Most of the time spells cast on other players don't trigger an 'end' message, but then that's why regular triggers exist, i.e. 'tell Happy My mind is no longer blessed!' would be enough to trigger someone elses icon, if they have them. ;)

Also, bmp and png are probably better choices than gif for the images, no need to pay some moron for a format whose only advantage over png is the ability to add animation to the file.

P.S. As nice as being able to set a color trigger is, there are times when being able to change the color of the trigger text only, and not the entire line, would be real nice too.

I have added that as suggestion #404.



You can do that now. Make a regular expression.

eg.


Match on: Nick
Regular expression: checked
Change colour to: whatever


Then the word "Nick" will be coloured (only) in each line. If you want every occurrence coloured, also check "Repeat on same line".

I notice on thing and had a coupla others pointed out to me that need mentioning about the icon idea.

First - Someone is bound to scream if they already know the timing on the spell and want to skip having the client figure it out. So an optional field may be needed for that.

Second - There probably needs to be a way to set one up similar to world.addtrigger. Obvious, but just in case... ;)

Third - This one is a biggy. Some people may not want to have to remove their hands from the keyboard to click the icons (so says a player I talked to about it). So a command like:

world.recast "IconName"

, would be nice to have.

Should have thought of that last one myself instead of having to have it pointed out to me. ;)

I'm no scripting expert, but I suspect that one could write a script that does exactly everything you are talking about, minus the button.

Instead of making a specialized ssytem for spells, it would seem better to just make a customizable toolbar that can have buttons with pictures/text on them that can be changed from a script.

In this case, you set up a button to have a default picture and set it to run a subroutine when clicked. When it does so, that subroutine can alter the picture on the button to a greyed picture, or set up a timer to cause it to flash between the two, or change the text if no pictures are chosen. The possibilites are endless once the player has control over what their buttons are doing.

Then, when the spell fades, a trigger detects it and alters the state of the button again. Also, if someone wants the spell recast, it's just another line in the sub that the trigger calls to have the original sub called again that started the whole process.

This makes the toolbar (however you call it) usable for almost any purpose and any group of people. Another thing this does is (hopefully) make less work for Nick, and (again, hopefully :) makes this feature a likely addition.

By making the toolbar dockable/moveable (like many already existing toolbar controls are) the player can choose where it goes; whether it's at the top with the rest, at the side, or at the bottom.

-Eric's two cents

>I'm no scripting expert, but I suspect that one could write a script that does exactly everything you are talking about, minus the button.

Hmm. Yeah. That is almost exactly what I suggested. Thing is that adding such a toolbar is likely to take as much added code as setting up the icon idea. (Since they are nearly the same thing). While timers, triggers, scripts, etc. can all be combined to do this, and there may even be a way to use ActiveX controls in a script to do all of it without changing anthing at all, combining some of the specific features of timers and triggers to make a custom toolbar (with decent sized buttons, rather than the little tiny ones that are usually found on them.) would be more intuitive for those trying to use it than using several triggers, timers and so on to do the same thing.

The code to do nearly everything I suggested already exists, it is simply a matter of making a customized version of triggers that allow you to do something more specific than what they currently able to and add a way to tie them into a button on the toolbar.

Also, for some people like myself, a floating one would work better, since I have my client set up to cover roughly the right half of the screen, leaving the left side free for other things. A floating pallete of buttons could be dropped to one side and scaled to provide a number of different rows of buttons. Which a toolbar could not do without taking up a lot of room in the client window or being so small they are easy to overlook when they change/flash.

The point after all is to make it easy to do something. Right now you 'could' do it in theory, but it would require a coding expert to make all of it work. Most people playing muds who script do so not to enhance their gaming, but to cheat by having the script play for them. Others will resort to scripts if they have to, but then only out of desperation, like me.. However, the vast majority can't/won't do anything that requires more complex actions than setting up some basic aliases.For them my idea would help a lot, without creating a lot of unnecessary confusion for them.

Besides, if you look at the mushclient list of suggestions (list all suggestions for enhancement) my idea is already there #404. ;)