Note: The post below represents my own opinions only. This should go without saying for any post anyone makes, but I don't want this to be misconstrued by someone as my thinking that I speak for the bulk of the community. This post isn't a judgement on anyone, merely a suggestion for those who come to the board looking for help, on how to get more mileage out of their questions.
I notice that a lot of times when people post on the message board, they're looking for "the code to do" something, or "the command for" something. Just recently, we had one coder distraught over the idea that he wouldn't receive due credit for "the" horse code. Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not saying there's something wrong with swapping and sharing code. I wouldn't have character saving without Deadron. Heck, I wouldn't have anything without Dan and Tom, who generously gave me "the code for making a game," also known as BYOND. But the point I'd like to make is that there is no one "code" or "command" to do anything in DM.
Let's look for a minute at my "swearing code." Numerous people who've played LexyMUD have asked if they can have it. The answer to that question, right now, is no. Why? Because I'm a mean-spirited bitch? I don't like to think of myself as mean-spirited. The reason is that what my swear code does right now is calls the procedure for creating legendary magical weapons, reads the name from the weapon created, then deletes the weapon. Kind of a silly way of going about it, I admit... but the reason I put the swear command in was to give players a glimpse of the breadth of the variety of magical weapons the code can create. But I digress. I can't give you my swear code without giving you my magical weapon code. My magical weapon code only works if you're using my combat system and my attribute system. Those only work if you're using my entire game engine. I could describe, in capsule, what each of those things do, but any one component of my game is useless without the others, because I wrote it from the ground up.
Now, I have asked for help when I needed it, but I've avoided the wholesale copying and pasting of other people's codes. Why is this a good thing? Because if you use Coder X's combat system for your game, you're going to be limited to using Coder X's attribute and weapon system, which is going to limit other things you can do. If you look at Coder X's combat system, though, and figure out how and why it does what it does, and make your own based on that, then you have no such limitation. Plus, the more coding you do, the faster you'll learn DM, and the more you'll be able to do without help... which means your game will develop quicker, since you won't have to wait for people to respond to your questions.
When you want your game to do something, think about what you need the game to do, step-by-step, in the smallest form possible. A common question asked is how to make monsters attack players. Well, "attack" and "monster" are words that have no meaning in DM. When you say you want your code to make the monsters attack the players, what you're really saying is that you want 1) one mob to move towards another mob controlled by a player, followed by 2) a check to see if the mob is close enough to attack, followed by 3) some sort of interaction between those mobs' variables, the results of which will be displayed on the screen. Try to make your program do this, step-by-step. Step one: can you make the monster follow a player? Step two: can you make the computer check to see if the monster is within 1 square of the player? Step three: Can you make a procedure that does what you want the actual "attack" to consist of (hit roll, damage roll, etc.) There is no right or wrong way to do these things... as long as it works.
Finally, when you do ask for help, because let's face it, everyone here needs help, and everyone here has something of value they can use to help someone else, instead of saying, "What do I put to make it attack?" or "What's the command for attacking?" or something like that, try explaining what you want and asking "What are some ways to do this?" If someone responds with a chunk of code, don't just blindly copy and paste it into your game... look at it, line-by-line, and see if you can figure out what it actually does. That way, you won't only have learned "How to make a monster attack," but you'll also have learned something about the individual commands that make up DM and how to use them together.
ID:194351
 May 31 2001, 8:20 am
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On 5/31/01 12:53 pm Deadron wrote:
On 5/31/01 11:20 am LexyBitch wrote: He threatened me with that too once, Lexy. I'm starting to get suspicious... Z | |
Two women on the whole forum and he threatens to spank both? Ronny, if I didn't know better...
On 5/31/01 2:08 pm Zilal wrote: On 5/31/01 12:53 pm Deadron wrote: | |
On 5/31/01 2:13 pm LexyBitch wrote:
Two women on the whole forum and he threatens to spank both? Ronny, if I didn't know better... I'm not as bad as Guy, who has a game coming up which apparently allows for intimate relations with horses. | |
you have two much time on your hands,
lol talk to me lexy some time i got something to ask you <font color=red><x><</x><font color=orange><x>^</x><font color=yellow><x>></x><font color=darkred>F<font color=red>I<font color=orange>R<font color=yellow>E<font color=yellow>K<font color=orange>I<font color=red>N<font color=darkred>G<font color=yellow><x><</x><font color=orange><x>^</x><font color=red><x>></x> </font> | |
On 5/31/01 9:15 pm Deadron wrote:
On 5/31/01 2:13 pm LexyBitch wrote: And wasn't Guy the one who was bragging about being the one that wrote "the" undressing code? | |
I'm not as bad as Guy, who has a game coming up which apparently allows for intimate relations with horses. Spuzzum, help me out! I'm piled up in rumors! | |
Page me sometime. Or e-mail me. [email protected]
On 6/1/01 5:28 am FIREking wrote: you have two much time on your hands, | |
I agree with that. If people just copy the whole code, then there won't be much learning of how to make the game and they will post for almost every command. I had trouble once but later I learned by reading the tutorials, demos, and libraires(I know that is spelt wrong). Now I may not be able to do complex coding but I got most or all the basics and don't have to post as much on the newbie board(I think). Also I don't see why people ask for other's hard made complex codes unless its in the librarys, The reason is it makes their games unique so, for example, If someone made a code that allows players to do combat with different chosen punches and kicks, and others asked for and got the code, that combat system wouldn't be as unique because then allot of people are using it.
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I'm not as bad as Guy, who has a game coming up which apparently allows for intimate relations with horses. I wrote that horse code! Um, wait, that hurts my reputation. You're on your own! ;-) | |
Also I don't see why people ask for other's hard made complex codes unless its in the librarys, The reason is it makes their games unique so, for example, If someone made a code that allows players to do combat with different chosen punches and kicks, and others asked for and got the code, that combat system wouldn't be as unique because then allot of people are using it. Exactly! Eventually, however, if I get bored of a few of my games I might release them as open source. But that's probably only going to happen to the little 'Classic' games I've made. No one is going to see Haven's source but me! ;-) | |
But that's probably only going to happen to the little 'Classic' games I've made. No one is going to see Haven's source but me! ;-) I wouldn't call anything you've made 'Classic.' | |
Geez, the Spuzzum-baiting really kicks in on the weekend, doesn't it?
Actually Spuzz was referring to an old challenge (from Deadron, I think). The idea was to take an established, "Classic" game and make a BYOND implementation, so the Hub wouldn't be completely alien when newbies visited. Spuzzum actually did two or three. In fact, now that I think of it, it's mandatory for all new DM programmers... yeah, that's the ticket. So get cracking! | |
On 6/1/01 3:29 pm Gughunter wrote:
Geez, the Spuzzum-baiting really kicks in on the weekend, doesn't it? This is how DragonSnot got started, all those eons ago. | |
On 6/1/01 11:59 am Spuzzum wrote:
I'm not as bad as Guy, who has a game coming up which apparently allows for intimate relations with horses. i dont care about my rep... ill straight up say that all of the RPGs i am makeing have very REALISTIC sort about them.. including sex, pergnantcy, homosexuality, STDs, rape(witch will be VERY appearent in your karma and alignment.. a shoot on sight sort of thing..), and castration (usually what happens to players useing rape.) the last two will NOT be in the verbs list and will have to be typed in. in the old style "midevil" RPGs there are magic STDs, magic sexual items(things like frictionless sheets that activate 20 seconds after flesh touches them), interbreeding of races (hrrrmmm... how do we make a minitor.. oh yeah ask Guy..lol), sexual spells(including things like peek and bigby's hand of bitch slap[not made by bigby]. finding these spells are rare and all spells have to be learned from others..) the point being realism.. im putting EVERYTHING for a life sim i can think of.. this is not going to be the point in ANY game but i fear it might be overused due to the fact it is not often found in a game.. | |
I'm sure you consider yourself very mature and realistic for doing this, but the fact is, you're dead wrong. Unless you're going to have the same level of detail for everything, including respiration, ticklishness, sociology and world economics, weather patterns, chaos theory, scarce resources, neurochemistry, and a billion things that I can't even imagine, then having that level of detail on sex and anatomy is UNrealistic. As far as the maturity level... well, I'm not even going to bother explaining.
Normally, I wouldn't pass such a blatant judgement on someone else's idea in public, but I didn't appreciate you coming into my MUD and globally shouting "I THINK YOU SHOULD PUT P*SSING AND SH*TTING INTO AN RPG FOR REALISM." If REALISM is what you're doing it for, you would've said "urination and defecation," or "the elimination of waste." I've said on this board that I want to keep LexyMUD clean, and I've even gone so far as to leave my chosen nick behind when I go in there (except for where it appears in my e-mail address, which I need to use as contact information). Point of fact, most MUDs do take elimination into effect. If they didn't, once you got the "You are full" message, you would never be able to eat again. Obviously, your character eliminates. Do they show it? No, but few MUDs demonstrate your character respiring, either. Natural functions occur naturally. In all honesty, there's another reason I'm inclined to voice my opinion about you. For the record, you aren't smarter than me. You're not even in the running. On 6/1/01 6:50 pm jobe wrote: On 6/1/01 11:59 am Spuzzum wrote: | |
On 6/1/01 10:42 pm LexyBitch wrote:
I'm sure you consider yourself very mature and realistic for doing this, but the fact is, you're dead wrong. Unless you're going to have the same level of detail for everything, including respiration, ticklishness, sociology and world economics, weather patterns, chaos theory, scarce resources, neurochemistry, and a billion things that I can't even imagine, then having that level of detail on sex and anatomy is UNrealistic. As far as the maturity level... well, I'm not even going to bother explaining. i did not say that in that way.. i shouted becase announce did not appear in the verb list and what i said was "Why dont muds use (well i cant think of my exact words here but i dont really think that is what i said... but im not sure) for realism?" the shout verb made it all caps.. i dont know.. it just did not seem as bad as it dose now.. Point of fact, most MUDs do take elimination into effect. If they didn't, once you got the "You are full" message, you would never be able to eat again. Obviously, your character eliminates. Do they show it? No, but few MUDs demonstrate your character respiring, either. Natural functions occur naturally.in fact i did plan on haveing resperation witch would affect your speed and the amout of energy drained.. along with weather, day and night(10 mins= one hour), interactivity of every turf or item, alot of turfs and items, NPCs with a great AI each one having its own tags in order to create sort of sociology, a map or would that never resets makeing it hard to find new things untill they are made or grown by players or the AI, mental illness, and anything else i can think of.. everytthing affection everything else in a reasonable way.. In all honesty, there's another reason I'm inclined to voice my opinion about you. For the record, you aren't smarter than me. You're not even in the running.and i never ment to say i was smarter than ANYONE.. it has been a belif of mine that noone is ever smarter than anyone that someone knows or understands something the next dose not.. while i can see phisics easily i still cant spell or type or get my point across without being misunderstood... | |
I know what words you used. I wouldn't have been offended if you had said it some other way. Granted, you're going to have all those other things, but why do you keep telling people about the sexual and toilet-related parts of the "realism?" Why don't you go around talking about the weather patterns and interactiveness?
LexyMUD, for the record, is going to support ALL forms of sexual interaction, not just the ones I deem twisted enough to suit my tastes. It's called the emote command. On 6/1/01 11:08 pm jobe wrote: On 6/1/01 10:42 pm LexyBitch wrote: | |
On 6/1/01 11:14 pm LexyBitch wrote:
I know what words you used. I wouldn't have been offended if you had said it some other way. Granted, you're going to have all those other things, but why do you keep telling people about the sexual and toilet-related parts of the "realism?" Why don't you go around talking about the weather patterns and interactiveness? well as i look at stuff i usually think i should have said that differantly but er...... oh yeah... the thread had changed topics to sex in muds.. so i figured i would just (try to)post that a mud with sex in it did not have to be taboo.. and for the game emote would not work becase i wanted to include the after math of sex and stuff.. (like STDs)..... i dunno..im just not with it some (i mean most) days.. i have just been fooling around with the idea behind these life sims.. oh yeah i hardly ever try to offend anyone.. i just cant say what i mean becase i have tought myself not to think verbaly... that and i just never think about how others are going to interpret what i say.. i just say it in the easyest way posible.. | |
You are great, Lexy.
But...
Don't make me come and spank you.