Help with emoting

[Qew]

 Well, emoting is probably one of the most important parts of any RP, for obvious reasons. I've tried reading the guides, and they helped... slightly. Most of the emotes guides do have the commands, and they explain what they do, but most don't actually have examples, and even the emote examples doesn't help much, so if  you may help me with the following questions:

What characters do we use behind sdesc to add things like 's?

Can someone give a small tutorial about command emoting? I've read up on it, know a bit, I mainly just need a few examples with the outcome so I can get the grasp of it.

Do Hemotes and Semotes deactivate stealth commands? Like hiding?

Finally, when exactly can you do Semotes? Are Semotes suppose to be used when your character wants to be sneaky? Or if the action just actually does no noise?

[LauraMars]

Ok, this is complicated.  I'll post a few guidelines here, but if you want a real-time tutorial, I'd strongly recommend you log in to the helper chat.  I'd be happy to go over it with you in more detail there.  If you haven't used helper chat already, it's a button on the main page of the website (www.armageddon.org) that says "Get Live Help!", right under the "New To Muds?" section.  The emote command is a steep learning curve, but it's one of the most richly nuanced aspects of the game, and is the bread and butter of your roleplay experience.

I know there's probably a great guide somewhere, but in my early morning stupidity I can't seem to find it, so let's do this.

What characters do we use behind sdesc to add things like 's?

You'd use the characters % and ^

% will display the sdesc with an 's at the end.
^ will display a possessive pronoun, either his, hers, or its
using the command "pemote" or "pem" will make your emote into a possessive emote

Here's an example:

>pemote shoulders slump with weariness, but she smiles at %man foolish antics, watching ^man cloak flutter in the breeze.

It would display:

The tall, dark-haired woman's shoulders slump with weariness, but she smiles at the tall, muscular man's foolish antics, watching his cloak flutter in the breeze.

Can someone give a small tutorial about command emoting? I've read up on it, know a bit, I mainly just need a few examples with the outcome so I can get the grasp of it.

So basically command emotes are, as you've probably read, a way to attach an emote to an action your character executes codedly.

Say you give a waterskin to your friend.  Normally, the simple, coded command of >give waterskin man would look like this to the rest of the room:

The tall, muscular woman gives a waterskin to the broad-shouldered, rugged man.

It'd look like this to you:

You give your waterskin to the broad-shouldered, rugged man.

It would look like this to the broad-shouldered, rugged man:

The tall, muscular woman gives you her waterskin.

With a command emote attached, the action becomes decorative, explanatory.  You'd execute it thusly:

>give waterskin man (condensation beading on the leather sack)

Which would show to the room as:

Condensation beading on the leather sack, the tall, muscular woman gives a waterskin to the broad-shouldered, rugged man.


To you as:

Condensation beading on the leather sack, you give your waterskin to the broad-shouldered, rugged man.

To the broad-shouldered, rugged man as:

Condensation beading on the leather sack, the tall, muscular woman gives you her waterskin.

You can do post emotes with the symbols [], which will allow you to place the "emote" after the actual command is executed.  I.e, the above command would display thusly:

The tall, muscular woman gives a waterskin to the broad-shouldered, rugged man, condensation beading on the leather sack.

And so on.  With the exception of directional commands (east west south north up down) and communication commands (say, talk, whisper, shout, sing, recite, tell), all commands capable of accepting command emotes can do post and pre emotes.  Directional commands and communication commands do accept command emotes (and please use them!) but they only occur in one place in the command.

Do Hemotes and Semotes deactivate stealth commands? Like hiding?

Nope.  Even emotes don't deactivate stealth, but people who can't see your hidden character will see the emote as "Someone laughs heartily."  This will probably alarm them a great deal.  Unless this is your intent, it's best to use semote and hemote.

Finally, when exactly can you do Semotes? Are Semotes suppose to be used when your character wants to be sneaky? Or if the action just actually does no noise?

You can use semote any time the action makes no noise.  You don't have to be sneaking or hidden, but this is how most people use it.  You should NOT use semote if the emote describes making noise.  So, for instance, this is an example of a bad semote:

*With an evil laugh, the tressy-tressed woman opens a rustling silk bag filled with gypsy wasps, the loud buzz filling the room.

Here's an example of a good semote that's used in a non-stealthy situation.  I don't often use semote in non-stealth situations, but I know it has a few applications (if someone is unconscious for example).

*The tall, muscular man looks contemplatively up at the sky.

Here's an example of a good semote that's used in a stealthy situation.

(while hidden)

*Holding her breath, her feet noisless upon the plush carpet, the figure in a dark-hooded cloak advances upon the silky-haired, effeminate noble, raising her knife.

[Riya OniSenshi]

If one would rather Mansa explain it: http://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,33878.0.html

[LauraMars]

oh yeah, mansa

go mansa

[manipura]

Extremely Helpful Link

I used to have this on a sticky note on my computer and it got unstickied and lost, now I just tend to keep it open in another window so I can refer to it.
It took me a long, long time to really get the hang of using the targeted emotes without having to always refer to this chart and every once in awhile I still draw a blank and have to refer to it to make sure I've got it right.

[Qew]

Thanks! These all helped a lot.

[IssacF]

I've been mixing my emotes with a lot of the symbols lately. I have the screen with them printed then I craft the whole emote while looking at the file. As you use them more you will get used to it and even anticipate which symbol to use.

[Marauder Moe]

Write down the emote symbols table on a sticky note.

Stick it to the bottom of your monitor.

I'm a veteran of over 10 years and I still need it.

[brytta.leofa]

Also, if it's All Too Much, you can go far using just ~ and %.

[Delirium]

I'm a veteran of 10+ years and I still get mixed up as well. On the flip side, The complexity of our emote code has allowed me to pull off some emotes that I was ridiculously proud of. So stick with it kiddos. Keep practicing, and know that if you end up messing it up we're all right there with you going 'yep, I've done that...'

[LauraMars]

My biggest challenge is using # (he, she) properly, it almost always will display incorrectly to the target or incorrectly to the room, depending on how you phrase the emote.

[Barsook]

My biggest challenge is using # (he, she) properly, it almost always will display incorrectly to the target or incorrectly to the room, depending on how you phrase the emote.

[Marauder Moe]

I believe # can only be used to reference another character's past-tense (but recent) action (verb).

>emote nods to ~amos and starts to examine the sword that #amos gave him.

>emote slaps ~malik hard, clearly offended by what #malik said.

>emote gawks at ~talia, then stares in the direction #talia came from.

[LauraMars]

Great tips, Moe. Thanks.

[IssacF]

Write down the emote symbols table on a sticky note.

Stick it to the bottom of your monitor.

I'm a veteran of over 10 years and I still need it.

Look at that. And I thought I was the only one looking at the printed screenie -before- I make the emote and reading the sentence several times to make sure it makes sense.

[Maso]

It actually starts to become second nature. I don't even realise I'm using the symbols anymore, they just happen. 

[mansa]

god damn it i got to finish that.

[Lizzie]

I believe # can only be used to reference another character's past-tense (but recent) action (verb).

>emote nods to ~amos and starts to examine the sword that #amos gave him.

>emote slaps ~malik hard, clearly offended by what #malik said.

>emote gawks at ~talia, then stares in the direction #talia came from.

It can be used for present tense, but the target will see incorrect grammar. Everyone else will see it correctly.

>emote nods to ~amos and starts to examine the sword after #amos gives it to him.

>The green-eyed man nods to you and starts to examine the sword after you gives it to him.

>The green-eyed man nods to the blue-haired man and starts to examine the sword after he gives it to him.

[Marauder Moe]

If the target sees incorrect grammer then I do not consider the case to be usable.

[manipura]

If the target sees incorrect grammer then I do not consider the case to be usable.

Same here.  If someone has to see incorrect grammar, I'll word it so it's incorrect on my end, not for the other person.

[FreeRangeVestric]

If the target sees incorrect grammer then I do not consider the case to be usable.

There are times, however, when I seem to have to make a choice between making it improper grammar for the third party (meaning people watching on who the emote isn't directed at) or for the target, no matter how I phrase it. I think this is what is being referred to above.

[Marauder Moe]

I don't believe that.  Either there are different ways of phrasing it, or your emote is innapropriate (power emoting).

[FreeRangeVestric]

Meh, I certainly know not to power emote, and take steps to avoid it. Perhaps there were other ways to phrase it and I didn't see them at the time, but I gave it quite a bit of thought before typing what I did out, so I don't think so.

[BadSkeelz]

I don't believe that.  Either there are different ways of phrasing it, or your emote is innapropriate (power emoting).

You must really rage when people don't use the !, #, or ^ at all and just refer to you as "him/her" etc.

I don't find it a big deal at all. If my character is part of a group interaction, I gladly sacrifice seeing proper phrasing on my screen for everyone else seeing an emote that makes sense to them. If I bothered me that much, I could always edit it in the log.

[Marauder Moe]

Just because I believe a behavior is wrong doesn't mean I "rage" about it.  I do think, however, that people would be better players for avoiding those behaviors.


Also, we're not talking about what the player performing the emote sees.  That perspective is, indeed, often hopeless in terms of grammatical correctness.

[catchall]

Be happy that English is grammatically simple enough to allow things like Arm's emote code to even exist.  This kind of code simply can't exist in a language like, say, Spanish -- or most languages, for that matter -- not without becoming many times more complicated.  It's surprising that we don't have more situations like this.  

What you are criticizing is not "behaviors," it's the inability of the code to account for all grammatical features of English.  It certainly doesn't stop there.  Pluralization code is imperfect and fails to account for some edge cases.  Should we avoid letting items with tricky plurals stack in groups of 2+?  A lot of the phrases players use in command emotes shouldn't be set off with commas when used as post-emotes.  Should we rule out all those emotes, impoverishing creative possibilities?

I'm also not sure that there's any meaningful correspondence with power-emoting.  I'm confident I can rephrase any # emote to be grammatically correct, whether it's a power-emote or not (there's a general-format replacement that will take care of this: "#player VERBs" => "#me sees !player VERB", assuming your PC saw the action you are referencing), but if a player is having a hard time coming up with one, I have absolutely no problem with "The tall, muscular man waves at you as you enters the room."  My powers of immersionz are just that strong.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I typically use parentheses to help in these cases, like:

The tall, muscular man waves at you as you enter(s) the room.

That's just me.

[Cutthroat]

What I do is think about what other players will see when I enter the emote, and type out the emote so that it appears grammatically correct for them.

Granted, I also type out pronouns referring to my PC (e.g., "emote rubs his stomach and pats his head" instead of "emote rubs ^me stomach and pats ^me head"). It tends to help when it comes to thinking about the correct format for everyone else.

[RogueGunslinger]

I just rephrase it until it makes sense on all ends. I've never really had trouble doing that. I only ever use ^, %, and !.

[BleakOne]

I'm lazy. I only use ~ and % most times, and just refer to myself as his or her. It looks odd on my end, but I know what I mean.

[LauraMars]

I'm with BleakOne, as I'm also guilty of never using ^me or %me or &me or any of those.  I just use her, herself, etc.  I know what I mean.

[AmandaGreathouse]

I never use (symbol)me anything. Since it forces your sdesc on you in third-person, I just use his/her where appropriate for the character, for the rest... honestly, it seems a bit alien to me that people who've been playing for a long time still need the emote code stuff up.


Ergo, here is my best cheat sheet. The lines with two symbols on them have 2 symbols because the first symbol will show the person's sdesc, the second in the row only shows gender pronouns (him/her, his/her, etc). The third is what the person targeted with the symbol in question sees, and the fourth shows what the room sees. I think it might be easier to take in when it's seen like that.

Sdesc                    Gender                        What the target of the emote sees                                     What the room sees
~             |              !                              - you                                                                                Sdesc| his/her
              @                                            - sdesc (to place your sdesc somewhere random in a sentence) | sdesc
%            |              ^                             - your                                                                               sdesc's | his/hers
              &                                             - yourself                                                                            himself/herself
=             |              +                             - yours                                                                              sdesc's | his/hers
               #                                            - you                                                                                      he/she

Edit to add the pound sign.

[Da Princess]

help emote

and

help emotes

answers all your questions