Engineering Help for a Newb

Hyperionus

In the recent raids, I started learning everything I don't know about my profession.  So:

How do I use the gyrocoptor/sniper ability?  According to the ab file you can sniper anyone in the same area.  When I tried SHOOT <player>, it told me I needed to specify a direction.  If said player is not in a straight line from me, but in the same area, what is the syntax?

Trying to RANDOMSHOT three bullets from a gyrocoptor caused my shot to fall out.  Is this a hint that certain attacks aren't allowed while in the air?

Can I really store my already-filled hollowshot in the Rift and not deal with chemical decay?

Is CREMATE as insta-kill as it sounds?

Finally, this is my first MUD, so some advice on basic ways to make PvP more manageable would be greatly appreciated.

Deklan

Cremate (and other insta-kills) aren't really instant. They're more channeled-kill. Target needs to stay in the room for X amount of seconds, usually five, and you yourself cannot do anything else. Like, nothing. Doing a channeled kill leaves you pretty vulnerable. There's usually a great deal of 'You should probably vacate' kind of text when you do Cremate. In short, it's more PVP crowd control and less 'Meet the Pyro', or at least that was my experience with it at one point.

Filled hollowshots will decay and they'll become unstable shots, which aren't entirely useless they're just unpredictable. For a good laugh, overload a blunderbuss with unstable shot. (if you can pull that off since rebounding pretty much nullifies the attack so... yeah.)

Sniper was weird and i could never get it to work for me either (it used to have a hilariously OP bug with it though) and being in the air makes you uncomfortably vulnerable to certain attacks as well.

As for randomshot falling out of your gun while in the air, I think you might be right in that certain attacks are only meant to be done on the ground. Pretty much the only reason you'd fly up at all as an engineer is to try and snipe people. Or to perform bombing runs.

Dec

The direction for sniper is the exit that you would go to move closer to the person you are shooting.  If you do a path find to the room the person is in, it will be the first direction.

Deklan

Dec said:

The direction for sniper is the exit that you would go to move closer to the person you are shooting.  If you do a path find to the room the person is in, it will be the first direction.

To find that your targets must:
A) not be invisible in some way on the who (most are, but there's some clever ways around it)
b) you do PATH SEARCH <room name>
C) pray they don't move before you line up your shot.

Failing that you can just spam each direction and see what happens.

Eochaid

Find a one room exit and sit there sniping?

Hyperionus

Deklan said:

Dec said:

The direction for sniper is the exit that you would go to move closer to the person you are shooting.  If you do a path find to the room the person is in, it will be the first direction.

To find that your targets must:
A) not be invisible in some way on the who (most are, but there's some clever ways around it)
b) you do PATH SEARCH <room name>
C) pray they don't move before you line up your shot.

Failing that you can just spam each direction and see what happens.

    Thanks for all the answers, Deklan!  I'm still very much new to this all, so:

 B:  PATH SEARCH <room name>  ::  How do I get this?  Will inserting the room name I get from using my Spyglass/Circular Glass work?

C:  So far, I haven't succeeded in this.  Suppose my target is ne - ne - nw from me.  I try SHOOT <player> ne and it says I can't see anyone in that direction.  I know they weren't moving, because @Ciro was kindly standing still for me to practice on.

  Would somebody please invent a test dummy that registers as a player so all these things can be tested out when I am on alone?  The one in Caanae isn't cutting it.

Gjarrus

Hate to ask, but are you flying when you try to use the gyro snipe?

(Also, gyro fly is the worst crap in the world.)

Hyperionus

Gjarrus said:

Hate to ask, but are you flying when you try to use the gyro snipe?

(Also, gyro fly is the worst crap in the world.)

Yes, I am flying when trying to snipe.  I can see how that would be easy to overlook, though!  The worst part is that the AB SNIPER file gives absolutely no syntax; I feel like this was a fun idea, but someone never actually implemented properly ( I know that isn't true, and this most likely works for other people).

As far as gyro flying... I tend to agree.  The (slightly) increased path tracking speed when going through water is easily outweighed by the time to take off and the need to land every time I hit a doorway.  Cities aren't built underground, and there's no restricted airspace warning.  Let me fly over the gate!!

Gjarrus

Was the target outside?

The gate thing is an issue for all flying, but amidst all of the issues I have with Engineer, them having a special flying machine that is the worst method of flight I've ever seen takes the cake.

I was able to get snipe to work in my testing, but I'm not swapping back into that ickiness to check again

Hyperionus

Gjarrus said:

Was the target outside?
...
I was able to get snipe to work in my testing, but I'm not swapping back into that ickiness to check again

Hmmm... I thought the Shuk of Antioch was outside, but maybe not?  My biggest cause of confusion is the syntax. 

In your testing, do you remember if you were sitting around one or more corners from your target?  Did you use the SHOOT <player> <first direction> syntax?

Deklan

Hyperionus said:

Deklan said:

Dec said:

The direction for sniper is the exit that you would go to move closer to the person you are shooting.  If you do a path find to the room the person is in, it will be the first direction.

To find that your targets must:
A) not be invisible in some way on the who (most are, but there's some clever ways around it)
b) you do PATH SEARCH <room name>
C) pray they don't move before you line up your shot.

Failing that you can just spam each direction and see what happens.

    Thanks for all the answers, Deklan!  I'm still very much new to this all, so:

 B:  PATH SEARCH <room name>  ::  How do I get this?  Will inserting the room name I get from using my Spyglass/Circular Glass work?

C:  So far, I haven't succeeded in this.  Suppose my target is ne - ne - nw from me.  I try SHOOT <player> ne and it says I can't see anyone in that direction.  I know they weren't moving, because @Ciro was kindly standing still for me to practice on.

  Would somebody please invent a test dummy that registers as a player so all these things can be tested out when I am on alone?  The one in Caanae isn't cutting it.

For path search <room name>, you'd need some method of seeing where someone is. Easiest is eating a primrose and getting thirdeye from that, but the looking glass also can provide this but at the expense of a) materials and b) it triggers anti-scrying/farsee skills to alert the user. I think.

So when you do WHO with thirdeye/primrose on you'd wanna do 'path search Aryana's Spring' for example and it'll come back with the vnum of that location (if it can find one, player homes do not work with this) and any other locations that match that name. You then do 'path find <number> to find the initial direction.

Bit of fiddly business, but its how I'd find that information.

Hyperionus

I didn't know about PATH SEARCH before, thank you!

Hyperionus

Welp, this must have just been a massive dose of user error.  I'm not having any issues with sniping from the air now, thanks to @Adrestius and @Owyn standing still for me (not necessarily out of kindness).  Thank you all for the help!