Spam Walking

[RogueGunslinger]

We all do it. I'm just asking, for the love of god, that when you see a PC in the room you're spam-walking by, please use the 'stop' command, drop and emote, and continue on your way. I've gone hours offpeak and seen multiple people, but had absolutely no interaction with them at all. It's pretty depressing when you >who and only see 5 people.

[AmandaGreathouse]

It's worse when there's 0.

Sadly, I've seen this more than a dozen times.

[Yam]

wwwwwwwwwwww

stop

l guy (walking down the crowded street)

wwwwwwwwwwwwww

[Cerelum]

nnneeenn

Stop
s
l (being nosey) figure
think Blah
nn
enter hut
quit

[MarshallDFX]

But if I type stop, I'll get lost!  I only know my way around because I have a million aliases set up to spamwalk across the known.

[jcljules]

Even if there isn't anyone visible in the room, stop every five rooms or so just to pause or better yet, drop an emote. You never know when there's someone shadowing you who wants to roleplay with you, but might get frustrated into just backstabbing.

[ibusoe]

Even if there isn't anyone visible in the room, stop every five rooms or so just to pause or better yet, drop an emote. You never know when there's someone shadowing you who wants to roleplay with you, but might get frustrated into just backstabbing.

Yeah, this is good advice.  Arguably, the most important time to do it is when you're in a hurry.

[Lizzie]

The closest thing I get to spam walking is to type e e e from the Gaj to the next intersection. Or n n n from the first room east of the sanctuary to the entrance to the marketplace.

Other than those types of -very short- distances of 3-4 directionals in a row, I type it all out "live."

[FuSoYa]

Shiiiiiiiiit....

In the past during the night in Allanak I've been able to walk clear across the city to the Merchant's quarter and the appropriate Merchant house or to the Byn compound, and so on and so on.

I mean exact directions.  No wall bumping on that bitch.

Knew that shit like the back of my hand.

I spam-walked it too. 

My bad-sies.

Brandon

[rishenko]

One way to help mitigate missing people is to do a

Code Select Expand

>l <direction walking in>

every three rooms to see if anybody's coming.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.

[mansa]

Open tarp;w;w;n;w;n;e;n;e;s;e;n;e;n;e;n;e;s;e;n;e;s;e;e;e;watch south;hide
Semote waits.

[Rhyden]

It's only bad when you're spam walking with people following you.

For some reason, followers are delayed certain commands until the spamwalking is over.

Like contact, psi, cease, kill, subdue, run, walk, even direction commands.

I've been guilty of spamwalking in the past and still do it to this day, but if someone's following me, not a chance.

I really feel sorry for people trying to shadow spamwalkers though.

[tortall]

Sometimes ginka thinks you're spam walking even if you're not.

When riding in the wild, I move a direction, spam l in all directions, and then pause a second before moving on. I have to pause upwards of FIVE seconds(oh, the horror  ) so it doesn't lag the other's commands out.

[5 day lifespan]

Looks like spam walking to me.  You are a hard person to riddle with arrows, lady.

[morrigan]

I've never once in my Arm career spamwalked...sometimes I feel like I'm walking too fast and slow down to a two second pause between each city room.

[Clearsighted]

I've never once in my Arm career spamwalked...sometimes I feel like I'm walking too fast and slow down to a two second pause between each city room.

If you could walk too fast, why would there be different coded speeds for running, walking, and the animals you're mounted on? And you will all be spamming a direction as fast as possible anyways, to avoid a coded critter trying to catch up and kill you. I think there's been a lot of pretentious posts in this thread.

By all means, don't spam past everyone you meet. But some of this stuff like arbitrarily counting to two between each room, or emoting every few rooms is a bit silly. If you want, then that's cool and you probably deserve more karma than I do. But if you're doing it because otherwise you're a spamwalker...then I'd rather be a spamwalker and toss out an emote more like every 20-30 rooms. There's only so many times a man can flick his reins, riding up the North Road for the gazillionth time.

[ianmartin]

If a man wants to spam walk, let him spam walk.  In arm people are supposed to be paranoid anyway, and spedwalking, ie moving quickly from one place to another s a way of shaking a shadow, or I would jus tallow the badass assassin to follow me into my room and backstab me.  Fun for the backstabber, mantis head for the moron who allowed it to happen.

[morrigan]

I've never once in my Arm career spamwalked...sometimes I feel like I'm walking too fast and slow down to a two second pause between each city room.

If you could walk too fast, why would there be different coded speeds for running, walking, and the animals you're mounted on? And you will all be spamming a direction as fast as possible anyways, to avoid a coded critter trying to catch up and kill you. I think there's been a lot of pretentious posts in this thread.

By all means, don't spam past everyone you meet. But some of this stuff like arbitrarily counting to two between each room, or emoting every few rooms is a bit silly. If you want, then that's cool and you probably deserve more karma than I do. But if you're doing it because otherwise you're a spamwalker...then I'd rather be a spamwalker and toss out an emote more like every 20-30 rooms. There's only so many times a man can flick his reins, riding up the North Road for the gazillionth time.

Little defensive there? It wasn't pretentious, just an observation. And I didn't mean I felt like I walking too fast for realism, just for people to catch up, or react to me if they wanted to.

[BlazinDayz]

There's only so many times a man can flick his reins, riding up the North Road for the gazillionth time.

[Lizzie]

I think there's some confusion on what constitutes spam walking. Maybe we all have different definitions for it.

For me, spam walking is when someone lines up directional commands, and "bots" his character from point A to point B without any interaction with the game world possible, without using the stop command. So like, maybe you line up:

n; n; n; n; n; e; e; e; e; e; emote takes a look around, and continues walking.; e; e; n; e; e; e; e; enter building


That's spam walking. Lining all that up, so that you, the player, might as well not be watching the screen at all. I used to do it on the odd occasion when all I wanted to do was get to a quit-safe room, and really was not in any OOC position to RP with anyone at the time. Very rarely but I'll admit I've done it. I avoid having to do that - in fact it's why I love playing a ranger so much. If I'm stuck out in the middle of nowhere and it's time for me to log out for bedtime, I can just type "quit" and boom - my character is logged out. No need to wish up, no worries my PC will get raided while I'm not there to see it, no need to spam-walk to the nearest quit-safe room, and no need to worry about being interrupted by RP while I'm trying to log out. That's the most frustrating thing in the world. Because I WANT to roleplay. But sometimes, I NEED to log out. That's the only time I spam walk and like I said it's rare.

[Gwoshi Cheese]

I think there's been a lot of pretentious posts in this thread.

Welcome to the Armageddon General Discussion Board. You must be new here.

[morrigan]

Indeed Lizzie. That's why I was confused about why having never lined up a string of movement commands because of my desire to be able to interact with my surroundings was being called pretentious. Obviously there times when it's handy, like your example, I've just never done it.

[musashi]

If that's the definition of spam walking, then I don't suppose I've ever done it either. I usually go one room at a time, though without much in the way of pauses or emotes unless I have reason to believe someone might be around for me to role-play with, or I'm just engaging in the masturbation that is solo-rp.

*Small Aside: Gah, solo-rp really is like masturbation isn't it? You're basically wasting your time when you could be getting something productive in the real world done, but it feels good and it's a nice distraction. Plus, there's always the thrill that someone else might be watching!

But honestly, I don't spam walk because I'm not familiar enough with the game world to trust myself to know how many north's, and west's its going to take to get from A to B. If folks want to spam walk, fine, more power to them ... because heh ... one of these days a room is going to get changed that they won't know about, and they'll end up in a pit or something. 

[BlazinDayz]

*Small Aside: Gah, solo-rp really is like masturbation isn't it? You're basically wasting your time when you could be getting something productive in the real world done, but it feels good and it's a nice distraction. Plus, there's always the thrill that someone else might be watching!

And just like masturbation, you can only withstand so much.

[musashi]

Yeah ... then it starts to hurt.

[Gagula]

But if I type stop, I'll get lost!  I only know my way around because I have a million aliases set up to spamwalk across the known.

Then what happens when you come across a critter and flee?

[Fredd]

The closest thing I get to spam walking is to type e e e from the Gaj to the next intersection. Or n n n from the first room east of the sanctuary to the entrance to the marketplace.

Other than those types of -very short- distances of 3-4 directionals in a row, I type it all out "live."

same i have a few short distances i spam walk. other then that, unless i HAVE to get somewhere quickly, i go live.

[RogueGunslinger]

This thread has become pretentious, it's losing it's original point. Let me get it back on track.


I DON'T FUCKING CARE IF YOU SPAMWALK.


Just stop and interact, okay?

[Delstro]

I usually spamwalk everywhere. If I am spamwalking and you want to backstab me, I'd have no problem if I received a letter from my imm telling me to slow down on the 23rd of November, or if you OOCly say, "Hey, don't spamwalk today."

I have no problem slowing down, but I'm not going to go slow all the time. If I do see someone, I usually stop in their room for about ten seconds.

[hyzhenhok]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

[Yam]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

You said it, Ultros.

[RogueGunslinger]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

Sigh.

Giving you a reason to interact? That's what I want to do! I can't do that if you don't stop spam-walking for a second! Short of ">change ldesc IS NOT AN NPC". I don't know what else to do. I'll give you a million fucking reasons to stop, you just have to stop to see them.

[RogueGunslinger]

It's pretty depressing when you >who and only see 5 people.

And by the way, it's these instance's that I'm referring to, not when there's tons of people online. If you seriously need some reason why to play with someone else, when you and that person is the only player you can find to play with, then you're not playing for the same reasons I am, which is almost exclusively to play with other people.

[Chettaman]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

Yeah. Like gunslinger's saying. You could miss the woman who needs help saving her baby who she accidentally locked into her apartment, that she somehow has the key to.
Or the gicker on the side of the road just about to cast a spell.

Code Select Expand

> n; n; n; n; n; n; n;
-three seconds prior to spam walking- The tall muscular man begins uttering an incantation.
> n;...
The tall muscular man is here.
You move north.
The tall muscular man shoots money from his fingertips!

Code Select Expand

> n; n; n; n; n; n; n;
The tall muscular man is standing here, looking lonely. )
> stop
> emote casually, @me makes ^me way through the street.
> n (casually)
> n; n; n; n; n; n; n;

That's what I do, anyhow. Because I'll sometimes have characters on the street trying to sell things, or... have a conversation where no guards are around. You don't have to have a conversation. We just want to know you care.   Please. Come roleplay with us.

[X-D]

See now, I always have a problem with these...um, complaints.

I'm a destination type guy IRL and I think about half of my PCs are as well.

Even on vacation I decide where I want to go and I go there. I do not stop in between, there is no sight seeing between Phoenix and San Diego, I've driven it more then 20 times now and the only things I know are between them is some gas stations.

Even if I'm walking to the local store, I ignore most things and people, I'm not interested, I do not care. You would have to make a real effort to get my attention and then, if you are not a hot chick you will not like gaining my attention.

What many of you call spam walking, I call travel with a purpose.

When my PC wants to walk for the sake of walking, rare, but it does happen, then he will mosey along giving plenty of time for interaction in route. Of course that almost never happens, if my PC is acting like that he is normaly trolling for marks.

[Spice Spice Baby]

Spam walking doesn't annoy me unless the spam walker is leading other PCs. The follow lag is just the worst.

[musashi]

X-D is Korgoth 

[FantasyWriter]

X-D is Korgoth 

But X-D didn't play Gage Gritshaw.

[Olgaris]

I can spam walk faster than you.

[Uruz]

I'm not a fan of spam walking, unofficial opinion.

Sometimes I've seen where spam walking gets you in trouble.

I can't tell you how many players I watched fall off a new edition of terrain because they were happily spam walking away without a care in the world.

Maybe you have a purpose when you're making progress towards a destination.  Maybe you are incredibly focused.  Maybe you're not paying close attention to people or some things.  All seems fine and realistic.

But while you are focused, would you walk off a distinct and noticeable cliff in front of you?  Would you drive your car into a new and deadly ravine that recently opened up, just because it happened to be along the path you always take?  Really?  Maybe sometimes.  But probably not.

But don't please don't pay any real mind to me.  You were probably spamwalking by too fast to read this anyway. 

[Synthesis]

I'm not a fan of spam walking, unofficial opinion.

Sometimes I've seen where spam walking gets you in trouble.

I can't tell you how many players I watched fall off a new edition of terrain because they were happily spam walking away without a care in the world.

Maybe you have a purpose when you're making progress towards a destination.  Maybe you are incredibly focused.  Maybe you're not paying close attention to people or some things.  All seems fine and realistic.

But while you are focused, would you walk off a distinct and noticeable cliff in front of you?  Would you drive your car into a new and deadly ravine that recently opened up, just because it happened to be along the path you always take?  Really?  Maybe sometimes.  But probably not.

But don't please don't pay any real mind to me.  You were probably spamwalking by too fast to read this anyway. 

Or maybe the builder who built the new terrain was careless and didn't put any kind of "danger ahead" warning in the friggin' room description.

[FuSoYa]

Or maybe the builder who built the new terrain was careless and didn't put any kind of "danger ahead" warning in the friggin' room description.

If you had time to read that then you wouldn't be spam-walking in the string of directions separated by a semi-colon that I believe most are referring to Syn.

Brandon

[Rhyden]

Not all holes are going to have huge, flashing "danger here" signs, though I believe most of them do. This is probably why I always send a single peon ahead of the main group when traveling with large numbers.

[Cerelum]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

It's a role playing game.  There isn't oodles of us running around and sometimes you can actually interact without even talking.  There is many times where I've done this.

N
Look figure (as he slows a bit)
<Seeing them have a gem on their neck>
emote grimaces and roughly shoulders ~figure out of the way, glaring at %figure gem the whole time.
n

[hyzhenhok]

I'm not going to randomly stop on the street to interact with someone just because they're a PC. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people using these city roads at once, most of whom are minding their own business. I don't think it's realistic to expect passersby to give you interaction on busy city streets. Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

It's a role playing game.  There isn't oodles of us running around and sometimes you can actually interact without even talking.  There is many times where I've done this.

N
Look figure (as he slows a bit)
<Seeing them have a gem on their neck>
emote grimaces and roughly shoulders ~figure out of the way, glaring at %figure gem the whole time.
n

:ignores ~you just like he's ignoring every other person on the street.

or

:doesn't see ~you at all. Sorry. (Please don't arrest me if you're a noble or templar)

Do I have to emote it? I thought it was obvious.

[solera]

Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

OOC reason? Well you may be the only PC I see all week!!!!
A real reason? Give me a chance to type something and I will.

[Bogre]

I queue up walks if I'm on deserted stretches of roads.

I'll try to stop and do something if I see someone, even if it's just emoting strolling on by. But if I don't and just quickwalk on past don't get too angry.

[hyzhenhok]

Give me a reason to interact with you, give my PC a reason to stop, and I'll stop.

OOC reason? Well you may be the only PC I see all week!!!!
A real reason? Give me a chance to type something and I will.

Very well. Next time I'm playing in a horribly off-peak period and I pass someone on the street, I will stop, wait for you to emote something, and then >:ignores ~you as #me hurries down the street.

But this issue is different than "spamwalking." I can ignore other PCs I see regardless of whether or not I have a bunch of directional commands queued up. Ignoring people can very easily be an IC action; it's not always borne out of OOC laziness or sloppiness. I dislike the idea of being expected to entertain other players, regardless of whether or not it makes sense to do so ICly.

[Malken]

Man, you guys will go on and on about anything..

[spicemustflow]

Even if there isn't anyone visible in the room, stop every five rooms or so just to pause or better yet, drop an emote. You never know when there's someone shadowing you who wants to roleplay with you, but might get frustrated into just backstabbing.

I hate posts like these. I don't give a fuck about invisible watchers, I'm not there to entertain someone with itchy trigger fingers. Sometimes I feel like smelling the flowers trough the caravan road. Sometimes I don't. And you don't have the right to backstab out of character just because you're bored. Now, if you're actively prowling for a mark, I don't mind being beeped without ceremony, but that's another thing.

[Cutthroat]

Man, you guys will go on and on about anything..

Welcome to Armageddon. ... 's GDB.

Even if there isn't anyone visible in the room, stop every five rooms or so just to pause or better yet, drop an emote. You never know when there's someone shadowing you who wants to roleplay with you, but might get frustrated into just backstabbing.

I hate posts like these. I don't give a fuck about invisible watchers, I'm not there to entertain someone with itchy trigger fingers. Sometimes I feel like smelling the flowers trough the caravan road. Sometimes I don't. And you don't have the right to backstab out of character just because you're bored. Now, if you're actively prowling for a mark, I don't mind being beeped without ceremony, but that's another thing.

How about not spamwalking all the way into a clan compound or the like, then? If you're not going to account for every possibility, at least pause before the compound gates / tents / etc. to allow the shadower to not get trapped.

[Lizzie]

How about remembering that sometimes, people are spam-walking back to their compound, because they've just spent the last 3 RL hours being in the wilderness or doing some clan-related RPT-type situation, and their players need to log out? If I need to log out, I am NOT going to pause anywhere. I'm gonna to avoid RP in whatever way I can, until I can get to a quit-safe room.

[Cutthroat]

How about remembering that sometimes, people are spam-walking back to their compound, because they've just spent the last 3 RL hours being in the wilderness or doing some clan-related RPT-type situation, and their players need to log out? If I need to log out, I am NOT going to pause anywhere. I'm gonna to avoid RP in whatever way I can, until I can get to a quit-safe room.

Ten seconds max to type "emote walks to the gates, nodding to ~gate.guard politely". If you're in too much of a rush to do that, you can RP with a trapped sneaky fellow in your next roleplay session.

[Cerelum]

How about remembering that sometimes, people are spam-walking back to their compound, because they've just spent the last 3 RL hours being in the wilderness or doing some clan-related RPT-type situation, and their players need to log out? If I need to log out, I am NOT going to pause anywhere. I'm gonna to avoid RP in whatever way I can, until I can get to a quit-safe room.

Ten seconds max to type "emote walks to the gates, nodding to ~gate.guard politely". If you're in too much of a rush to do that, you can RP with a trapped sneaky fellow in your next roleplay session.

Agreed, While I understand that you will need to just GO sometimes, we are not talking about the rare time when that's the case and most of what people have posted isn't about the one time Amos the merchant went wwwwwwwwwwn open gate n close gate n n e s quit.  We are talking about how EVERY time we see Amos the merchant he's doing that.

On sneaky characters before I've been forced to sit for HOURS or get lucky and have an imm have the guard open the gate for some VNPC and let me sneak out, just because I would stalk someone who is in a shop one moment, then BAM, they type in twelve movement directions before my shadow self goes in and I'm stuck in a Salarr compound with no ideda what the fuck I'm going to do.

[Lizzie]

Consider the context in which I replied. JCJules said he wouldn't think it bad sport to just start backstabbing anyone who refused to pause between 5 rooms.

Spicemustflow expressed disdain for posts like Jules'.

Malken said we should consider it a choice: either account for every possibility, OR pause outside the gates.

My response to this, is that sometimes, I don't have time to pause outside the gates. Sometimes, I really -do- need to just get in and log out. Like, if my cat is throwing up. A 10-second emote could mean that I not only have to clean up the puke, but now I have to wash the carpet. Or if the macaroni is boiling over on the stove, because I was preparing for supper and only logged in long enough to read the tavern board and get my character situated in the estate for when I had time to log in later.

Or maybe the fire department has sent another truck that mistook the apartment building behind me, for my house, which does happen on occasion.

Or maybe my mom's on the phone telling me my dad had to go to the hospital again.

Sometimes, I don't HAVE that extra ten seconds. And JCJules' opinion that it's okay to consider backstabbing a character simply because the player of that character just flat out doesn't have time to roleplay, or even do a 10-second emote, is what I object to.

[Cutthroat]

If you're in a hurry, can't you just use the closest quit-room (likely a tavern or stable) instead of one that's secreted away behind NPC-guarded doors or gates?

I'm not saying that it's impossible that you -really- need to go. I've had to dash away in a hurry plenty of times. I'm saying if you're taking the time to walk all the way to an estate or clan compound, instead of utilizing a closer quit area, then you should be able to spare a single emote or say or -something- that will give a shadower the nudge to "follow self".

I think jcljules' post is one of frustration - I don't think any player would really backstab a character on a whim, he just feels like doing it sometimes because it seems to be the only way to get someone to stop when you really, really need a PC to stop. Spam-walking makes you invulnerable to many coded actions that should be possible in movement, after all.

[Olgaris]

http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php?action=post;topic=37046.50;num_replies=55

[RogueGunslinger]

Wow, I'm impressed at how dumb that all was. My threads rock.

[Lizzie]

Not sure if people realize this because for some reason, most people don't follow the rule. But the general rule, is that if you are playing a "clanned position of rank" that is entitled to or supposed to have an NPC guard following you around all the time, you are -supposed- to return that NPC to its "special place" before you log out.

When I played a role like that, it was one of the worst time-wasters and frustrating things to do. I might need to log out in 10 minutes, and really WANT to finish a scene, but I'd have to just..up and leave, and walk across the entire city to the compound, just because I had to drop off that damned NPC. That was the #1 reason why my character rarely had the NPC with her. I had to roleplay excuses why I didn't have her with me. But there wasn't any IC reason, at all. The reason was purely OOC. It was just too inconvenient to have to bring it back to the compound before I logged out.

But when I did have it with me, no way in hell was I going to risk having to deal with more roleplay, or duck an assassination and NOT stop to actually roleplay being afraid..or dodge a templar who I really did want to talk to, or avoid a noble who had been looking for me for weeks, JUST because I had to bring an NPC back to the compound before logging out. So, I'd spam walk. Sorry if you lost out on some stellar RP but trust me, you wouldn't have gotten any. I would've been WAY too distracted by needing to log out, to participate at all and would've just OOCed "sorry gotta log" and gone on my way anyway.

[musashi]

Ok, I agree. The thread has become stupid.

[Olgaris]

Ok, I agree. The thread has become stupid.