Anti-spam running

[SMuz]

I like to spam run from raiders and thugs. It's realistic to run like crazy when someone threatens you. What I don't like is that n,e,e,n,e makes it impossible to follow someone, even though they would ICly want to run to the northeast.

So.. maybe something along a "chase" option would be useful, where you chase the previous thing that moved out of the room.

Code Select Expand


>tell (pointing ~sword at ~elf) Your money or your life!
Pointing your obsidian broadsword at the red-haired elf, you exclaim to him:
      "Your money or your life!"

The red-haired elf exclaims:
      "NO!"

The red-haired elf runs north.

>chase
You chase the red-haired elf.

You run north.
The red-haired elf walks east.
You run east.
The red-haired elf runs east.
You run east.
The red-haired elf runs south.
The red-haired elf is too fast for you to keep up.

>chase
You chase the red-haired elf.
You run south.

> look
(room description, no elf)

>chase
There is nobody here to chase.

>think Damn, he got away.



Or perhaps, easier to code is a "chase on" option, that functions like a mini-hunt. It displays everyone who has left the room very recently, but only works for a second or two seconds after someone leaves the room. I think the NPC mobs use this anyway

Code Select Expand


>tell (pointing ~sword at ~elf) Your money or your life!
Pointing your obsidian broadsword at the red-haired elf, you exclaim to him:
      "Your money or your life!"

The red-haired elf exclaims:
      "NO!"

The red-haired elf runs north.

>chase on
You activate chasing.

>run; n
You begin running.
You run north.

You see the red-haired elf walking to the east.
You see the tall, muscular man walking to the north.
You see the svelte woman walking to the north.

> e
You run east.

You see the jade-eyed soldier walking to the north.
The red-haired elf is standing here.

The red-haired elf runs east.

> e
You run east.

You see the red-haired elf running to the east.
> e
You run east.

You see the red-haired elf running to the south.
> s
You run south.

You see the horny half-giant walking south.
You see the pale child walking west.

>think Damn, he got away.
>chase off
You stop chasing.


[Eloran]

Use hunt.

Problem solved.

[SMuz]

Hunt kinda kills the tension. I like the chasing scenes in graphical games.

[Eloran]

k

[X-D]

Hunt is a good way to LOSE the one you are after. The delay is so long that any walking PC has moved 5-8 more rooms by the time you have the direction in the room you are in. Hunt is basicly only worth while if the target does not know you are after them. Something I've always thought was rather silly. Why does hunt have a delay anyway? I really think the person who put it in has no real life tracking skills or even did any research. If I'm tracking a deer I shot, I don't walk 20 feet, stop for 5 minutes looking around and move on, rinse repeat.

I walk along following the tracks as I go. The only time I might have to stop and start a search pattern is if the deer somehow found a 100 yard area of bare rock and made a turn in a random direction while on it.

[Eloran]

I've never had a problem hunting down someone in game when using skill_hunt. I guess I'm just lucky, X-D.

[X-D]

I've never had a problem either. But it does not do my raider/mugger any good to hunt somebody from the red desert to the sanc, specialy since he will have been there for a game day before I arrived. Of course you might be lucky in only hunting total newbs.

[Eloran]

Probably so. We know that you own all. 

[Thurgret]

Complete newbie here. Ignore me if this makes no sense.

I thought spam-running was frowned upon. It is on another MUD I play, anyways - it's polite to emote out stuff and spam-running is usually bad. But here, when I emoted out my character fleeing from something, they were later told that they should have gone more quickly. That left me wondering if the proper way to go is just to rely on the code rather than to rely on the other player reacting to your emotes rather than just going 'kill newb'.

So if relying on the code is the way to go, a chase command would make sense to me. Otherwise someone who'd just been standing right next to you in a room can be two or three rooms away before you get a chance to react.

[Cutthroat]

I thought spam-running was frowned upon. It is on another MUD I play, anyways - it's polite to emote out stuff and spam-running is usually bad. But here, when I emoted out my character fleeing from something, they were later told that they should have gone more quickly. That left me wondering if the proper way to go is just to rely on the code rather than to rely on the other player reacting to your emotes rather than just going 'kill newb'.

Most people would probably encourage you to run away quickly from most NPCs, because they will spam-follow you if you don't.

What you do with a PC attacker has been the subject of heated discussion on the forums here before. :-/ I think most would say that ideally, you should react in a similar manner to your attacker (if they emote, stick around; if they're trigger-happy, meh).

/derail

Some sort of type of follow without the ability for the followed to unhitch would work just fine IMO.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Yes. Me rikey.

That's always been a huge problem in this game with trying to PK people. Once they flee, you're subject to sooo much lag that they're 3 rooms away before your lag timer wears off. If you want to switch run on, they'll be 5 rooms away, if they're running their little asses off! (Which they likely are, and should, if they want to survive - which is something they should wanna do.) By this time, especially if you're in a winding area like the rinth, they'll be so far away by time your dumb character realizes that his last 3 swings have hit only air for a reason, that you're only option for finding them is hoping that you can figure out where they're resting the HP back at - or hunting, in which case they've already got their HP back by time you show up.

I like the idea of taking up chase, because in real life when someone takes off from you you're not more than 20 feet behind. I would like to a see a chase command that kicks on run, and breaks your ridicu-lag. However, I think it needs to be cleverly done, so it's not just a good way to auto-chase someone while "kill harry" sits in your prompt, just waiting for the proper moment to hit enter.

This is how I see it, personally:
-I would imagine it being done by distance. When you start the chase, you'd likely be 2 screens behind.
-I would imagine it to work off agility, race, and encumbrance. - NOT that it's a pure showdown of who's got higher abilities. Be an elf, or lose your prey sorta thing. These factors would work subtly but noticeably.

These factors would lay in slowly at every screen, and determine how far behind you fall. If you're a low encumbrance dwarf with good agility chasing an elf who's toting along your ex-best friend's dujat breastplate, you'd probably stay right up with him, or at most lose one screen for every five the two of you run.

Character's of similar race / encumbrance / and practically ANY agility (poor vs AI barred) Would keep right up with each other. (So you wouldn't gain or lose screens.)

If you're an unencumbered elf, chasing a dwarf in plate mail... well, lets just hope there's a backplate on that thing.

Basically, I want to see chase done as a way to keep on your query until one of you runs out of stamina, or ducks into a building or some place to rest. More so to keep you from losing your prey, rather than getting another chance to attack again every two screens.

----------------------------

And, for the record, I put as much emoted effort into PKs as I get in return. If someone walks in, looks down, and attacks - you'll never see an emote out of me when I'm dealing with that player hostily AGAIN. Whether it's spam flee, or it's three weeks later and I get the drop on him. It's a brutal world, but it's meant to be fun. There's no fun in getting attacked by a PC with the emotions of a slab of formica, and there's no fun in that same guy getting away and surviving you just because you would like to give him a fun death.

And if you're fleeing, it's best just to run your ass off. By time the "kill" command goes through, most people are so excited that less than 10% of them are gonna worry about "emote slows down and looks around, panting, before sprinting off and taking up chase again!" - no matter which side of the chase you're on.


XD, your post on track has given me an idea, which I will now post in a new thread as not to derail this one.

[Lizzie]

Also, hunt only works if you have the hunt skill. Not everyone who's trying to chase you, has the hunt skill. Makes sense, if someone can see your glorious sparkling glimmering perfect ebon onyx obsidian tresses that dangle gloriously in a sparkling perfect tumbling ripple of waves down to your nipped V-shaped perfect 6-pack-ab waist..

then they can chase you without having to check for footprints.

[brytta.leofa]

Chase command.

Which--we've argued over stuff before, so let's make it really, really simple: it's exactly like follow, but with unhitch disabled.

> chase dusty.figure You begin chasing the short figure in a dusty cloak. The short figure in a dusty cloak runs east. You follow the short figure in a dusty cloak, and run east. The short figure in a dusty cloak runs east. You lag behind the short figure in a dusty cloak.

The tall, muscular man begins chasing you. > unhitch muscular Heh, that's funny. > run You speed up to a fast run. > e You run east. The tall, muscular man runs in from the west. > e You run east. The tall, muscular man lags behind.

No unnecessary complication, and it puts the outcome on who has the most speed or stamina--which is what probably should determine it.

[Lizzie]

So, basically, similar (similar, not exactly like) to how certain wildlife do it currently.

[SMuz]

Lol, I wouldn't mind it being exactly like how wildlife does it. Just copy-paste the code

[brytta.leofa]

So, basically, similar (similar, not exactly like) to how certain wildlife do it currently.

Yeah, definitely.  Make people think about their choice of mounts.

[number13]

If unhitch was disabled from the Shadow command, we'd already have 'chase'.

[Ender]

If unhitch was disabled from the Shadow Follow command, we'd already have 'chase'.

Using shadow to chase someone Jason Bourne style seems kinda silly.

[brytta.leofa]

alias chase shadow   

But anyway, whether chase or shadow it be called, why should you be able to "unhitch" someone who's following you contrary to your will?

Does "flee self" break follow and/or shadow?  I don't think it should.  If someone is chasing you, you should outrun him, run to help, put him down yourself, or grin and take your medicine.

[Eloran]

Help skill_freerunning

[The Lonely Hunter]

Just wanted to chime in to say that I really like the idea of this. Perhaps with some adjustments so that it considers height (stride) and perhaps agility.

[Aruven]

Err... there is already a small delay in moving from room to room to prevent walk from being so twinkish. This has been around almost since the game began I think. From you're own example, you have a raider without a mount, trying to chase down an elf in the desert on foot... Okay...

Probably not. I know what you are saying though. It's up to the players to make it realistic. And if someone is going to -run- between rooms they lose endurance far quick for a reason, and better hope they are near a city, because someone who knows what they are doing on a mount will catch them if not. (unless its an elf)

I think instances where someone screams 'No!' then decks out on foot until they reach a safe zone is shitty RP. Stay around, for better or for worse, see what happens. A lot of time, the raider, or aggressor, will make the roleplay interesting if they don't suck and are just out twinking. That said, RAIDERS, don't be D-bags and gank people with no roleplay. That pisses me off more than people just running off.

Anyways, if you're caught out like that, in the desert, you messed up if you can't defend yourself in the first place, and should stick around to roleplay it out. I think the crim-code in the city pretty much takes care of people trying to run. Takes about ten seconds for most people running to get flattened into a pile of goo.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

I like the idea of chase being like shadow. NO ECHO on chase. In my opinion, when you sense someone's about to make a break for it, you prepare to take off after them. Usually, I kick on my run, just to be ready.  Then they're gone! A block away in the blink of an eye, when really you'd be off, with slow reactions, 20 feet behind them. By time someone has 1 room, then might as well have 3.  Therefore, chase should be a conscious, premeditated choice to take off after someone, should they attempt to run.

And also, chase, as well as shadow, should not be "unhitch"able. Unhitch follow makes sense because it's not against the persons will. However, unless you're a mindbender you can't MAKE someone quit actively pursuing you. Instead, flee self for a chance to break the pursuit. Not very dignified, as some of us like to do:

Code Select Expand


The newb assassin has arrived from the west, for the fifth time.

The pompous, lofty, refined man looks at the newb assassin, scoffingly.

With a wave of his hand, the pompous, lofty, refined man diminishes the newb assassin's will to give chase, leaving him there to look completely silly.


Code Select Expand


The newb assassin has arrived from the west, for the fifth time.

The pompous, lofty, refined man groans.

The pompous, lofty, refined man says, in dickhead accented sirihish:
   "Oh brother, here we go again!"

The pompous, lofty, refined man zig-zags and flails his arms about distractingly as he motors off through the crowd, bumping into people and spilling shit on his good silk.


Make that fucker work for it!