Shattered Kingdoms

Legionnaire is in the front, Bob is in the middle, warhorse is in the back of party formation. Two additional legionnaires are in the room.

Behind: Allows anyone to target the backmost party member that is behind a particular target. Outcomes TBD for what happens if the thing behind someone is undetectable or if there is no one behind your target. Syntax examples: Shoot behind Bob = scout automatically shoots the horse that is behind Bob without having to identify what it is.

Front: Same as behind but with party members in front of your target, so would shoot the legionnaire.

Glance modification: Makes it so that when you glance at someone and there are multiple instances of a NPC in the room, you can see which number they are. Syntax examples: glance bob = Bob is flying here with a 2.legionnaire in front of him and a warhorse behind him.

Skill-specific message: When you attempt to backstab, circle stab, or hamstring someone and there is something behind them, the resulting message tells you which instance of a NPC is behind them. Syntax: backstab bob = a 2.legionnaire is standing behind your target.

[Edit] Damnit I think I fubar'd that. The poll doesn't seem to keep track of how many people voted for some reason (just how many votes were cast). Which means that if you get a result where each of the four have 10 votes, you don't know if it's because 10 people votes for all four, or 40 people voted, one for each option. Blah. Ok, added an option for "I voted."

I don't like the 14.wraith readouts myself because it feels too out of character and is also just hard to type real time. Allows for a solution to the backstab/circle stab problem but helps people who are good with triggers and such much more than it helps others.

I like both the front and back commands. Personally I think if the creature behind someone is undetectable, you should get the "someone is behind" message and not be able to target them. If the creature in front of someone is undetectable, you also should not be able to target it with the front command (though you should be able to type "kill target" and hit the invisible thing in front of them the way NPCs do - does this currently work?).

If there is nothing in front or behind someone, it should tell you as much and require you to aim at them directly.

My two cents.

I selected all four options, since any or all of them would be better than what we have currently have. At the core, this is simply an interface issue that affects some classes more than others. Our characters would be able to tell what is blocking an attack and that information should be available to us as players, too.

There may be six wraiths in a room, but ours characters would know their relative positions - whether they are standing in front of or behind the necromancer, etc. It is disingenuous to claim that "fighting" against the interface somehow requires skill, since this particular "feature" only hinders certain classes.

I voted Jhorleb for President of SKAMERICA!

The main thread for this has been polled already.

Yes, people that are proficient with their client are going to use the MUD output for the skill-specific message option and trigger it to #UNALIAS and #ALIAS their commands. If this "lesser" option goes live, I will only need one button/alias for circle and my client will simply adjust based on MUD output.

The front/behind option is obviously better for this very reason. It is going to take several triggers, conditional triggers and aliases to accomplish the same goal with just the skill-specific option. I'll be able to do that. Who else?

For the record, use the poll in this thread.

I think this change would do something very important that I think is worth focusing on: it helps players fight other players, not the interface. If I want to recite my scroll at, or attack the person in front of someone else, regardless of who that is, and I can see them -- then I just want to use [kill front X] instead of having to find out exactly who that person is.

This lets players utilize known information (say, they know who is at the fight) to quickly and accurately execute a strategy (get to X enemy as soon as possible). Because we do not have the benefit of graphics to quickly make such an estimation, or a GUI that would let us quickly click on someone on the opposing formation to easily do this, then this seems like the next best alternative.

^^This.

TLDR version: It gives us as players the same information that our characters already have - an accurate representation of the position and formation of enemy targets.

I agree. The only one of these I don't think is worth it is the glance modification, provided the other commands are added: For reasons already stated, it would be too OOC for me to see "A 1.Surrit is here. A 4.wraith and a 7.wraith are in front of him."