Up to Main Index Up to Journal for February, 2022 JOURNAL FOR SUNDAY 13TH FEBRUARY, 2022 ______________________________________________________________________________ SUBJECT: WolfMUD greatest HITs DATE: Sun 13 Feb 19:50:02 GMT 2022 Time for an update as I feel I've fallen down a black hole and disappeared again. There are so many things to think about and work on when implementing combat. Before I start rambling, here are the results of my latest efforts: [Secluded path by shed] You are on a small secluded gravel path screened off from the formal gardens by large bushes. To the south is a small shed with its door facing you. A rock has been positioned by the shed, from the looks of it by someone who thought it was artistic. The gravel path you are on leads northward. You see a small frog here. You see exits: north, south H:35/35>hit frog You hit the small frog (3). The small frog looks nearly dead. H:35/35>hit frog You kill the small frog (2). H:35/35>exam corpse You examine the corpse of a small frog. It is a small, lime green frog. It's slimy and croaks. What more can you say? H:35/35> The corpse of a small frog turns to dust. H:35/35> A frog hops into view. H:35/35> The small frog croaks a bit. H:35/35> The small frog leaps high into the air. H:35/35> The HIT command is nearly done, but only when hitting mobiles. While it is possible to hit players, there is an issue. That issue being I can’t safely have one player cause another to be extracted from the game yet. I have an idea to remedy the issue, but it’s still being worked on. It should also be noted that the HIT command is intended for testing combat, health regeneration and other associated mechanics. The ultimate goal is to be able to ‘KILL DIDDYMUS’ or ‘FIGHT DIDDYMUS’ and the fighting then plays out automatically with players — and mobiles — able to interject with skills, potions and other items during the fight. Currently I’m retesting the server after implementing a better solution for dealing with stale events. This is the problem I discussed in the previous two journal entries. I’ve also started committing changes to my local repository. I’ve not pushed anything to the public dev branch just yet as I’m being very cautious — once these changes are public I have to live with them. Having said that, I don’t think it will be much longer before the changes are out allowing everyone to have a play. Am I happy with the implementation and changes made? There are a few rough edges still. However, health events are lightweight and only registered when needed. Issues I’ve come across have improved other parts of the code. Overall I’d say yes, I’m happy with how the changes have turned out :) I’ll have to start thinking about all of the other things that combat implies soon. Wearing items that can boost maximum health or increase regeneration. Potions that can be drunk to restore health. Poisons that can reduce health. Effects occurring over time. There is also damage. Different types of damage: physical, fire, cold, etc. Items that can provide resistances, armour bonuses and maybe item sets — that provide more bonuses when more items in the set are used? All the ‘normal stuff’ players will be expecting. For now the focus is on player health, the HIT command and being able to kill critters[1]. That will provide the foundation upon which incremental changes can be made to add all of the other nice features, with faster release cycles. -- Diddymus [1] Note to self: Still need to update the documentation for the health attribute and add health to mobiles in the stock zones… Up to Main Index Up to Journal for February, 2022