Shattered Kingdoms

As per request, updated 08/07/08:

Please update help note to the following:



Note: To write you need something to write on and something to write with. There are various tools for this in the game and locations like the astral boards should also have them available for purchase.

Note Posting FAQ/tips

Q1: How do I post to multiple recipients?
A: You can target multiple characters. Ex. Note to Bain Eifas Benjamin

Q2: How do I post to an organization/religion?
A: Unfortunately, there is no specific keyword system in place to handle this sort of thing. If you are in a cabal writing to other members of your cabal, you will have access to your cabal's cipher. Then you can post a note to all and generally, your fellow member will be the only ones to understand it. If in a tribunal or religion, you must still resort to using a note to multiple recipients (see Q1).

Q3: What are the things I need to keep in mind when posting a note directly into the game (not using an external editor)?
A: Here are some tips:
*Use the enter key after every sentence or two.
*Remember to use $* only on a line by itself
*Follow the directions on how to avoid spam in your notes, toggling special characters/toggling parsing.
*If you have a question about spelling, look it up.
*Use .f to format your notes, but make sure to turn off in your client special characters/parsing. [If you are using .f and it shows up in your note as .f or nothing happens, you probably have a special character/parsing issue.]

Q4: How can I use an off game editor to format my notes because the in-game system is not user-friendly to me?
A:Use an off-game text editor/word processor.
*Some players recommend notepad because it is as bare bones as you can get.
*The advantage to Word/Works/WordPerfect is a spell checker. If you intend to spell check, do not add color codes to your note until after you have spell checked. (Otherwise, the spell-checker will trip up on any word prefixed by a color code.)
*Do not use formatting such as italics/bold/etc. Changing the colors in editors also will not translate to color in the mud. You need to use $x (see help color) for that.
*For best copying/pasting results, you want a hard carriage return after each 75 characters. There are a variety of ways to achieve this. Resize your text/window to know you are at the end of a line, and use the enter key. Or put a row of numbers to define the length across the top of your note. Be sure, in any event, you are using a font in which all letters are the same space/length (Terminal, new courier)

Q5: Formating directly in game, how do I get tabs and blank lines?
A: Clarification of the use of: $* and “tabbing” in notes
*If you are not using an editor/word processor, and do NOT use .f, you can create blank lines in your note simply by using a carriage return at the end of a paragraph, and a carriage return on a blank line. However, if you use .f at all in the note editor in game, that blank line will not be recognized, and that is why the special code $* was created. (read on for help on $*)
*Do not use $* on a line with other text. Upon formatting a note, the use of $* on a line with other text will make your note unreadable/unusable.  This well known ‘bug’ has been logged in SK already. For now just be aware it exists, and this is how to avoid it.
*Use $* only on a blank line by itself to separate things into paragraphs. This functions well.
*If you want the first line of each paragraph to appear indented, use the following format. After testing it would appear regardless of the number of spaces you attempt to indent, if you format (.f) the indentation will revert to one space. If you seek to use a greater number of spaces do not format (.f)

Q6: How do I avoid spam issues posting notes in the game?
A: Here are several suggestions:
*Go into a more private location to write your notes.
*Eat and drink before you write your note in game.
*Some find toggling quiet mode (quiet) and cabal/tribunal (cb without a message) helpful.
*Either: action is standing here and/or sleeping help alert people you’re not in position to communicate with them. Just remember if you set your action, to reset it when you’re done posting.
*Disable triggers in your client to avoid spamming yourself when writing notes. <- Don’t spam yourself when writing notes! It will go directly INTO the note. Please check the help files of your telnet client for directions on toggling triggers on and off.
-Zmud example of how to do this:
Click the gun in the lower right corner of the screen. When a little red X appears over the gun, triggers are toggled OFF. After posting a note, to turn triggers back on, click over this icon again.
*Remember to turn your channels (in game) and triggers (client) back on when you are done writing. Also remember if you toggled your parsing off, to turn it back on as well.

Q7: How do I copy/paste your note from an editor into Shattered Kingdoms?
A: Regardless of your client you will need to do one of the two following:
*Set your client settings so that the special characters . and ~ are not interpreted by your client to do something. As this is not a tutorial on your specific client, please check the help files within your client to do this.
-Zmud example of how to do this (follow along in your menu options)
-Preferences->Special Characters-> disable(uncheck) ~ and .
*Set your client settings to disable parsing/toggle parsing off. Again, if you are uncertain on how to do this, please check the help within your client. If you successfully manage to turn off the special characters (see 1 above) you won’t need to shut off your parsing.
-Zmud example of how to do this:
-Toggle the little computer icon in the lower right corner of your screen so a red X appears over it.
*Insure you have less than 80 characters per line (75 ideally). Enter a carriage return after each line. Some clients will move the next line forward a space. You can delete that space without undoing the carriage return. (Some editors allow you to view paragraphing to help you see this sort of thing more clearly.)
*All these things being done, you can copy/paste your note into SK. It is safe to copy/paste a good 20-30 lines at a time.
*If you haven’t put in carriage returns, a ‘run on line’ of ~4 lines without a carriage return has the possibility of disconnecting you from the game.
*If you have a really long note, paste it in 20-30 line chunks to avoid being disconnected from game.
*If you are disconnected from the game, you are also thrown from the note editor. The game does not allow you to enter the editor on a note which has already been written. You will need to start again.
*If you have followed everything correctly, you will also not need to use .f


I’m still confused, what do I do?
*PM Carita or pose a question in this thread. Include the following information: Your telnet client, the word processor you are using, and the question you have. Do not PM me a note to be posted.
*I do not have permission to accept anyone PMing a note requesting a format. I feel such is a transfer of IC information and will not do it.
*Also if you have a tip you feel should be added here, PM me and I will add it. Additionally when a new thread pops up I try to look at the information and make necessary changes here to keep the documentation centralized.


Carita, note posting Queen

Great post.

Just an addition for players who use zMUD and do not want to turn off "parsing" while writing a note or their description. You can toggle of the special character "." in your zMUD preferences so that you can use all the DOT-commands in the editors but still be able to parse.

-S

For dot commands in notes/descriptions/etc you don't need to turn off parsing, simply to put the dot command in double quotes. --> "

I set up aliases to do descriptions for polymorphs for zmud and here is what one looks like so that it actually clears the old description first.



Not that you use dot notations a lot in notes, but if you do, you do not need to turn off parsing, just surround them in quotes on a seperate line and zmud will intepret them appropriately. Also if you *do* turn off parsing, you can do a blank line by simply doing two carraige returns. If you have parsing on though, it will not send the second CR to create the blank line.

Hehe, I wish I'd seen this before spending half an hour wrestling with those blasted $*'s. But on the bright side, I think I found another way to get them to work right: just putting spaces before and after the $* (not necessarily on a blank line) seemed to work out fine.

I HIGHLY recommend notepad. Its basically as bare bones as you can get. If you really want the spell check, then Word or its equivalent would do fine. Don't take the time to bold or italicize anything - it won't show up in the MUD.



Actually, you really don't need to worry about this. At least in my experiences, you can write as long as you want. Then, copy/paste whatever you want into your client. Keep in mind, there is a buffer overflow, so entering too much text will make you loose some of it. Be sure to enter no more then two or three sentences. When you have finished your note (all the color and the $* is done) just type .f .This will auto-wrap whatever you put into there to look nice. I've done this several times recently, and it has been working fine. So if there is a bug with .f, there are ways to get around it.

sleeper

PS I've always put the $* on a new line.

Good note. But I've never needed to put my $*$* on a new line, just as space after the last text does fine. EVERYONE should use <$*> and <.f> instead of hard carriage returns and no formatting...it makes the notes much more readable!

I put it all in notepad color codes and all, then cut and paste it line for line.

No need for .f for $* at all, and all of my notes have always come out fine. *shrug*

*chuckle* You don't really need to worry, unless you are writing a rather lengthy post and are trying to get things copied and pasted in quickly,
as in 30 line or so chunks, without getting your character accidently
disconnected from the mud.

The reason I mentioned this at all is that some people have complained to me they get thrown from the mud, and I recall this being one of my main
initial issues with the code.

Carita

Plus, I found out that my client in various modes doesn't wrap text after 80 characters. So if you format it correctly, it will appear fine no matter what client.

sleeper

PS Carita: Very true. I haven't done that in so long I completely forgot about it.

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I just spent like 30 minutes trying to write a damn note, didn't know you needed $* on a new line or space and it was junking up the whole process and pissing me off.

Thank you
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Thank you