New Alert System Ideas

[felgand]

No, simply no. There should not be a friendly fire toggle to spells. If you are introducing a setting like that, you may as well make all area spells unable to hit players completely as playerkilling out of Graemor is illegal and while we're at it, let's remove death altogther so people don't have to go through the aggravation of it...I mean, that does nothing except give us nether effects. The bottom line is that Icesus should not become a flowerMUD where there is no risk involved...avoiding area spells tends to be a reasonably simple task (there's only maybe three areas where area spells are cast constantly, if that). And even then, if folks hit friends with area spells they tend to help them get back on their feet...that actually fosters more player interaction which is a good thing.

[arkady]

getiing killed by an area spell is a right of passage on this mud, I for one don't want to see a friendly fire switch because we'll we would be eliminating a part of the getting to know icesus process (the part about if it has 100x your exp being in the same room as it can be deadly). I also think that avoiding area spells is reasonably easy. I am bummed that the bar orcs in shanty are so tough to get to and so few people are willing to go there with me, but one day I will be a sorc too and hell I will nuke a few newbies by accident I am sure.

Don't institute a friendly fire switch, sorcs are an evil race keep them that way....

to clarify:

Sorc spells are all area effect they have to be dark elves so are a nominally evil race...okay what this means is that when I am happily nukeing 20K mobs by the roomfull in the shanty and a level 31 militia runs into your room he has like 2 ticks to get out with his life...I have a hard time catching my own crits and watching players or monsters leave and enter the room is tough without a capture trigger...In otherwords running around the game is dangerous from aggro mobs, sorcs surrounded by deadly magical energy...

keep it that way intentional playerkilling is punished by the wizzes and well I think that is deterent enough for semi-intentional pk...


btw your rp example is flawed you would then be typing 'cast xxx at yyy' the at yyy = PK even if you didn't have to type at yyy, if you lunched that spell in a room with no mobs except a player = pk, if there is a mob in the room and a player don't warn player cast area spell kill player if it were me = pk if you are casting a area spell at a mob player runs into the room after you start (the important part) player dies quickly after entering room does not equal pk

i don't see why this is such a big deal do sorc really kill a bunch of people it's only happend to me a couple of time usally when I am in a party...

[kraven]

first icesus is NOT RPG..sorc are only evil by describtion..or can I rp lunatic and throw spells at players at will whenever i like?...and then say "hey u should know better than stand in a same room with a lunetic spell caster"....well my reinc is psi and they are 100% insane..or they will be when evoke enough psi stuff....that on/off thing is very fine and it doesnt make this mud a flower mud nor pkill mud...it just prevents those OOPS kills (wich most people do semi intentional aka ignoring the others in area)


ps: havent died to sorc for a loong loong time

[artic]

I said there would be whineing.
I still say that is it unfair, that casters are allowed to kill, and everyone else is not. I understand, that most of those kills are done not intentsionally, but a lot are. And maybe if youra templar of a militia, you might have 2-3 ticks to run away, but if your a covenant/mage/ranger/shadwodancer you will only see 'That HURT a lot... and now you feel no more pain, cause your already dead.'

I have alert on, and i know my areas well. I have been killed by areaspells 4-5 times. 2 times of those it was semi-intentsional. All 5 times the sorc has later told me something stupid like: 'Can you read?' 'Join alert' 'I have alert on, you should have left the room'. 'I am a big bad sorc, every room i enter is my property, get off my property!'

I got banned for my first PK. I have yet to see a sorc get panned for their 10th 'accidental' PK's. I mean how many 'accidents' can i have, before it become clear that i just dont care...

[echcua]

The new alert system has been in affect for a few weeks now so I would like some follow up comments about it. A rating out of 5 would be nice and comments on how to improve it.

[arkady]

****1/4----4.25 stars

So I think the new alert system does cut down on spam and I think that the location messages are much more clear and I like how it tells me if the cast is close to me in the out world. I have to say that two or three large parties do spam the joint up and heck I am in some of those parites, sorry guys coven and psi are just too useful.

So now instead of seeing repeating messgaes of ground seal or something we will see ohh they have a coven and a psi and a sorc in their party die thing in the citidel.....

in all a improvement but maybe if could tie it to the parties so that the most powerful area effect spell being cast in the room is the only being displayed if all the casts come from the same party.....I have no clue how to do that

[yoz]

Good work echcua, the current alert system is pretty nice and works like it should work. However that friendlyfire thing is something that never should be implemented. It is meant to be so that running solo in area with monsters preferred by area casters is and should be dangerous. However i would like to see an option to mute all the other alert messages than the ones which actually concern you. Like muting all the useless messages but still if someone casts area nearby it would show up normally. However, the ones that you do not see should still be seen in last alert.

[felgand]

I'd rate the new system as a 4.5. It's a good job overall and is much cleaner than the old system. In addition, I really like how this new system warns players if area spells are cast nearby in the outworld as opposed to across the valley.

The one thing I would suggest tweaking is how the alerts are gagged. I think the system might work better as follows:

Code: Select all

 
   1.  Area spell is cast. Alert message is shown and a 
        delay timer starts (lets say 20 seconds).
    2. 
       a.) Second area spell from the same player is cast
            within the 20 seconds. Alert message is gagged
            and the timer is reset. (So it would count down
            another 20 seconds before another alert is given).
       b.) Second area spell from the same player is cast
            outside of the 20 seconds. Alert message is shown
            and timer is set.

I think by having a dynamic timer, it'll catch more of the repetitive area spells that mages and earth priests tend to cast in a short span of time in the same room. Other than that, good work.