The balance costs are a bit odd to me, since they just further reward third party mappers and such, but I can understand why you have them and don't have a real problem with it.
There's honestly not a whole lot I can think of that won't end up being dumb things like "automatically append the vnum of the room onto farsee" and crap like that.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
The main reason I ask is for ways to make them easier for newbies. I suppose all that can really be done is improving the help files, telling newbies about it more, and adding more landmarks.
Add it to the tutorial, then. Have one of the teachers suggest "path find otherdude" and such.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
The one who teaches about surveying would be a good one to suggest that, or even just Mathyus.
Do you think it would be feasible to have the system offer multiple suggested paths? I haven't had too many problems with it, but it has occasionally taken me through areas that are a little unhealthy (or impassable) for my characters for one reason or another.
Cooldown rather than balance would be awesome. I personally don't use a third party mapper, and am constantly aware that this is a disadvantage (if a self imposed one) that I am operating under compared to those that do. Its not major, but it would be nice.
Maybe I'm just a PATHFINDING inept, but if there isn't a way to search the vnum of a room by it's name, then that would be plenty helpful. Outside of the balance cost, that's been my only dislike of the ingame mapper/pathfind system.
Option to add a no-path flag to rooms. Like Tayar's gates.
Caravan pathfinding: It's so tedious.
Fix the abilities that prevent pathfinding to a masked ally (I'm not entirely sure on which of these are an issue, but I definitely remember some demonic abilities messing with it).
Allow pathfinding while blackwinded (not sure this is still an issue).
Maybe I'm just a PATHFINDING inept, but if there isn't a way to search the vnum of a room by it's name, then that would be plenty helpful. Outside of the balance cost, that's been my only dislike of the ingame mapper/pathfind system.
Mudlet's Mapper has a room search built-in. Works for anything contained in the map (so not houses or guilds), just RF <room name query string>
RF is short for ROOMFIND which also works with the trigger.
I am aware about Mudlet's and the various other roomfind functions. I was suggesting one for the game's mapper as I haven't been able to find a way to do so with it.
It would be wonderful if there was a database made available that contained all the vnums and their room names. I suppose it would do very little to help newbies, but it would make writing scripts to associate room names with vnums much less of a pain.
I used to use the in game path finding system. It was pretty good about not taking me to areas I didn't want to be in, except for: If the path was 3 rooms shorter to go through 9 river locations, it would do that instead, thus taking a ton longer (and killing the newbie I had following me)
I'd like to be able to toggle DASH or sprint skills with it. I'd really like it to use wormholes as well, but that may be asking too much. A room find option, and the obligatory "append a clickable roomnum" to start a path find for newbies.
1. VNUM FIND <string> to return the vnum of rooms with the matching string in the title, e.g. "VNUM FIND CROSSROADS" could return "Kinsarmar Crossroads - v183866", "A crossroads in the desert - v12078487", etc. Could be balanced by having to have explored a certain percentage of that area.
2. PATH GO CARAVAN - uses LEAD CARAVAN instead of normal movement.
3. PATH GO SPRINT - uses sprint/dash functions instead of normal movement.
4. Ability to path through closed/locked doors, unlocking/opening them on enter and closing/locking afterwards, provided you have the key.
5. Vnum display in WHO list provided you have Thirdeye up. Could be balanced by having to have explored a certain percentage of that area; alternatively, add a skill in Perception that lets you do this.
Could introduce a Pathfinding miniskill that incorporates some higher functions of the system, i.e. boosting the amount of landmarks you can memorise or letting you path find to a room name instead of a vnum.
I'm comfortable with PATH FIND <person> being the only way to find a mutual ally without knowing the area, it gives an advantage to being prepared. I don't feel it's needed to nest it in the WHO list, despite how accustomed to that we IMTS people have become.
I'm comfortable with PATH FIND <person> being the only way to find a mutual ally without knowing the area, it gives an advantage to being prepared. I don't feel it's needed to nest it in the WHO list, despite how accustomed to that we IMTS people have become.
Like I said, more powerful functions like that could be integrated into Perception or even into a brand-new Pathfinding skill.
I'd really like some kind of visible countdown on rooms when I'm moving with the speedwalker. Just a thing on each move command that tells me how many rooms are left on the path.
This is because sometimes I'll be trying to get to an area that I'm relatively unfamiliar with, and I like to be able to path to I'm close, and then stop the speedwalk and advance manually.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Personally, I think, with the recent additions, the pathfinder is A Good Thing.
People don't need to be given the vNums in Farsight, Hunt/Pursue/Seek etc. Honestly, I thought giving people the ability to path to areas was a bit much. Takes the reward out of adventuring, to me.
Not having it path through enemy territory is great, as is the cool down. I can never think of a time I've ran into the cool down outside of accidentally sending the command more than once.
Someone powerful says, "Its broken. No more pulling the guillotine."
Eh, I don't have a problem with the in game mapper giving room names on who(with thirdeye), farsight, hunt, pursue, etc... because all third party maps do it anyway. I agree with @Lionas however, that vnums should only be displayed on rooms with unique names. Names with multiple rooms should just be displayed as (Multiple Rooms). Generic I know, but it's better than it being blank.
I don't have a problem with giving the vnum to rooms with unique names on farsee and such, because this is already a thing that every single third party mapper does.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
I don't have a problem with giving the vnum to rooms with unique names on farsee and such, because this is already a thing that every single third party mapper does.
This is my thought as well, and it would be a wonderful quality-of-life change. I don't think such a change has to take the reward out of adventuring, either. On the contrary, if room numbers were only displayed for rooms that you had previously explored, I think it would enhance exploration significantly by providing a tangible benefit to visiting as many rooms as you could find.
Comments
It's pretty much awesome already.
The balance costs are a bit odd to me, since they just further reward third party mappers and such, but I can understand why you have them and don't have a real problem with it.
There's honestly not a whole lot I can think of that won't end up being dumb things like "automatically append the vnum of the room onto farsee" and crap like that.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Add it to the tutorial, then. Have one of the teachers suggest "path find otherdude" and such.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Could probably add a 2s cooldown instead.
Caravan pathfinding: It's so tedious.
Fix the abilities that prevent pathfinding to a masked ally (I'm not entirely sure on which of these are an issue, but I definitely remember some demonic abilities messing with it).
Allow pathfinding while blackwinded (not sure this is still an issue).
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created
If the path was 3 rooms shorter to go through 9 river locations, it would do that instead, thus taking a ton longer (and killing the newbie I had following me)
I'd like to be able to toggle DASH or sprint skills with it.
I'd really like it to use wormholes as well, but that may be asking too much.
A room find option, and the obligatory "append a clickable roomnum" to start a path find for newbies.
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created
I'd really like some kind of visible countdown on rooms when I'm moving with the speedwalker. Just a thing on each move command that tells me how many rooms are left on the path.
This is because sometimes I'll be trying to get to an area that I'm relatively unfamiliar with, and I like to be able to path to I'm close, and then stop the speedwalk and advance manually.
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Also, the ability to use pathfinding/MAP/roomnum while blind (but without mindseye) should be looked at.
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
This is my thought as well, and it would be a wonderful quality-of-life change. I don't think such a change has to take the reward out of adventuring, either. On the contrary, if room numbers were only displayed for rooms that you had previously explored, I think it would enhance exploration significantly by providing a tangible benefit to visiting as many rooms as you could find.