Shattered Kingdoms

The targeting code on SK is illogical - it is an interface issue that somehow has morphed into an acceptable "feature" of the game. The code should default targeting to directions and then names and finally adjectives outside of your party.

Otherwise, you end up with absurd friendly-fire situations. When I played a warlock many years ago, there was a character in my cabal whose name started with the letters "se" - needless to say, everytime I wanted to range cast a fireball to the southeast, it would default to his name and the fireball would blow up in our room.

That is part of the reason I included the alias in the zMUD package that expands all directional commands. As a player (especially a new one to the game), I really shouldn't need to use a third party program to interpret directional commands. Instead, the code should follow an order of operations: directions -> names -> adjectives outside of the character's party.

The same "feature" also occurred with my last character, a barrel-chested giant. Anytime someone with a "barghest" pet was around - I would benefit from enemies misfiring their spells. I specifically avoided buying a barghest for that reason.

As for flee, I have never played a game that allowed PK where you could select the direction you fled. It is already easy enough to escape most PK situations with recall potions, ethereal wands, etc. - I don't think we need to make it even easier by allowing flee to be targeted.

The game currently works differently and would require you to type it out. I'm glad you were so thoughtful as to compile a list of aliases that would minimize the friendly-fire, but it's still a mistake on the part of the player for not having the forethought to check or be aware of adjectives that align with the shorthand directions.


This is actually a rule that I'm not sure is documented, but I know people have been punished for purposefully making adjectives that aligned with a pet they planned to use with the purpose of misdirection. Golden-eyed male halfling scout that always travels with the golden-maned lion, for example. That's against a rule of the game. Well done on your part for avoiding punishment by just being courteous.


We are in agreement.

You have obviously bought into the games flawed targeting code as a "feature" - I disagree.

Go play pretty much any other PK MUD and take note of how their targeting works. If SK is going to allow shortcuts for directions to work, it should incorporate that into targeting, too. It is not just adjectives either - any character with a name starting with ne, se, sw, nw will cause the problem.



I am quite aware of this undocumented rule, which is why I did not buy a barghest for a pet with this character. SK could also benefit from documenting rules like this in a help file, since there is no way a new player would know other than to get his hand slapped after the rule has already been broken.

Let's say targeting is changed to look at direction first, then name, then adjective. Seraniym walks up, so I try to 'kill se'. The game would respond 'Why are you trying to kill the southeast direction?' Then, would you say 'It's the mistake of the player to only type the shorthand direction instead of "ser"'?

Just throwing that idea out there. If you made a thread about the topic of targeting priorities, I'd agree with you that direction should be considered first, then name, then adjective. But that isn't what this thread is even about. So yeah, another thread derailed.

The kill command does not have range, so there would be no reason for the code to check directions - that would not be difficult.

As a player of many ranged characters, I would prefer the game check directions before names and adjectives. However, it could just as easily check names, adjectives and then directions if there is a consensus that most players feel that is more intuitive.

My example was simply personal preference - I'm sure an actual implementation would be done based on community feedback.

I'm on it.

I see a lot of blocked Rodwen posts and exasperated sounding replies to them. This seems as good a time as any to remind new users of the friend/foe function. It's accessible in your user control panel. Highly recommended.

Somehow, I knew these would be the responses you would get.

Yep, makes me think of the old farts from my other MUD.. and I was a 10 year vet there, rofl... with very few gaps in activity until the last few years.

Making a new "flee" class of triggers and aliases for zMUD/cMUD to print the direction you fled to the screen. Currently, the game shows the direction you run/dart/gallop/ride before it shows the flee message, which can easily be lost in scroll spam - especially since the room's description you flee into is part of the scroll before the flee message is sent by the MUD.



The new class will print in bold cyan (#CO 11) the following: You fled NORTH! (or whatever direction is captured by the variable) after the Run away! Run away! Should make it a little easier to figure out where you fled.

Not the targeted flee command you wanted, but better than nothing. I will post it in the Clients forum when I finish it.