Beginner to combat

Mehmed

Hello!
 I was recommended to post my question here ,well  several questions . I will try to be as straightforward as possible   For your convenience
info
  ClienT is MUDRammer for ios, pretty simple program that uses   The lua language
my class is Templar
 I am legally blind and use the ios screenreader 
zero programming experience
questions
1 where should I start? 
2 what should I do in terms of triggers or aliases? 
3 what useless text do i need to block in combat?
4  what should I do to make it   Easier  To use my screenreader?
5how can I into Templar?
 Any answers are  appreciated 

Rokas

Welcome to Imperian!

I'm not the best person to answer your questions, but I imagine the first thing to focus on is to reduce the firehose of text that comes your way by gagging the flavor text and outputting a few words that describe what happened. For instance, the shaman has an ability where they blow dust in someone's face to cause them to choke; you could replace the flavor with " Rokas shamanism choke Bob" which would give you the attacker's name, ability used, and target. You could drop the skillset name if you wanted.

@Septus is probably the best person to answer your questions, though, as he has experience with screenreaders and templar.

Ryse

You might want to check out VIPMUD or other more robust clients, and pvp from a laptop or computer if you can. Bashing and questing from mobile is fine, but pvp requires a bit of fine entry and timing, else you might get frustrated. 

With a more robust client, the triggers and aliases will be easier to create, and the experience is generally more responsive. If you plan to move back and forth between a few devices, Nexus should work on both IOS or Windows, and has a screen reader setting (though I don’t know how good it is). I could probably build you some simple stuff for Nexus so you could at least participate in group pvp, though I’d need to lean on someone with Templar experience as I’ve never played them. 

Ryse

I’m wrong. I looked around in Nexus for a screen reader mode and couldn’t find anything. 

Swale

Consider learning Python, even if you think you'd eventually like to go back to Lua. In your case, Python would also allow you to use MUSHclient, which is Septus' client of choice.  I finally decided to learn Python for exactly one reason - Python has actual resources for people who were not totally immersed in programming to start with, and it will likely be easier to understand a language like Lua if you know Python.  I have Learn Python the Hard Way, and Python Programming:  An Introduction to Computer Science.  LPTHW is a great book on its own, but I don't think the videos have accessibility.  The good news there is that I think the book is worthwhile on its own.  I like the other book mentioned because LPTHW is more of a crash course.  It's nice to have both.       

You want to get very comfortable with strings, lists, dictionaries, functions, and decision structures (like if statements and for loops).  You need to have at least some understanding of regex, which will come with time as people help you with triggers, and as you then fiddle with those triggers.  I realize that likely sounds like a list of random things (it would have to me).

Now, you definitely don't have to do all of that right now.  In fact, if friendly people you're playing with can help you cobble something together so you can get a taste of group PvP, I think that is a great way to start, and you'll start to actually understand how some things work by doing that.

Ryc

not to nitpick too heavily, but it's generally actually easier to use Lua with MUSH than python (though not significantly) and if you're going to code just for Imperian, might be better off using Lua given the fact that most of the playerbase already uses Lua by default. 

Mehmed

Ryse said:

You might want to check out VIPMUD or other more robust clients, and pvp from a laptop or computer if you can. Bashing and questing from mobile is fine, but pvp requires a bit of fine entry and timing, else you might get frustrated. 

With a more robust client, the triggers and aliases will be easier to create, and the experience is generally more responsive. If you plan to move back and forth between a few devices, Nexus should work on both IOS or Windows, and has a screen reader setting (though I don’t know how good it is). I could probably build you some simple stuff for Nexus so you could at least participate in group PVP, though I’d need to lean on someone with Templar experience as I’ve never played them. 

Thank you @ryse.i am downloading a better client and using a Bluetooth keyboard, it feels much better. I don't use a laptop or pc because the screenreaders are horrid. I tried to use nexus but I found it to be very frustrating to use, it's too visual for me and the controls are all over the place.

Mehmed

Swale said:

Consider learning Python, even if you think you'd eventually like to go back to Lua. In your case, Python would also allow you to use MUSHclient, which is Septus' client of choice.  I finally decided to learn Python for exactly one reason - Python has actual resources for people who were not totally immersed in programming to start with, and it will likely be easier to understand a language like Lua if you know Python.  I have Learn Python the Hard Way, and Python Programming:  An Introduction to Computer Science.  LPTHW is a great book on its own, but I don't think the videos have accessibility.  The good news there is that I think the book is worthwhile on its own.  I like the other book mentioned because LPTHW is more of a crash course.  It's nice to have both.       

You want to get very comfortable with strings, lists, dictionaries, functions, and decision structures (like if statements and for loops).  You need to have at least some understanding of regex, which will come with time as people help you with triggers, and as you then fiddle with those triggers.  I realize that likely sounds like a list of random things (it would have to me).

Now, you definitely don't have to do all of that right now.  In fact, if friendly people you're playing with can help you cobble something together so you can get a taste of group PvP, I think that is a great way to start, and you'll start to actually understand how some things work by doing that.

thanks @swale. I attempted to use python, but my device crashed. Apparently python is to complex of a script for ios, but lua works just fine. And yeah, those things sound very random now, but if statements i am very familiar with, learned it on a program called scratch. I tried to use the ingame aliases and queueing, but all ended in failure after failure.

Mehmed

Ryc said:

not to nitpick too heavily, but it's generally actually easier to use Lua with MUSH than python (though not significantly) and if you're going to code just for Imperian, might be better off using Lua given the fact that most of the playerbase already uses Lua by default. 

yeah, I’m planning to code only or mostly for imperian

Bronach

Hi Mehmed, I'm a crap programmer but can talk you through some basic in-game aliases and queueing to get you started until someone competent can take over. I've used Blowtorch (Android) and MudRammer (iOS) and both support you putting in some basic triggers and command strings (kick Bronach / punch Bronach / kick Bronach), even on your phone/tablet. Then you can follow someone and pew-pew in group fights as they call out targets, which is about as far as I've gotten.

Mehmed

Bronach said:

Hi Mehmed, I'm a crap programmer but can talk you through some basic in-game aliases and queueing to get you started until someone competent can take over. I've used Blowtorch (Android) and MudRammer (iOS) and both support you putting in some basic triggers and command strings (kick Bronach / punch Bronach / kick Bronach), even on your phone/tablet. Then you can follow someone and pew-pew in group fights as they call out targets, which is about as far as I've gotten.

 This is very helpful, i only recently learned about queueing and it saved my life. The variables were pretty annoying to start with, but the st command helped with that. I still have problems with rebounding and affliction tracking, anything you can suggest to do?     thanks, @bronach for the advice and telling about queueing

Septus

1. Go in with reasonable expectations. I don't know any blind players that have had an easy time starting out in pk, but there are several that are very competetive after getting past that period. Its an uphill battle initially, but you will "get it" eventually. Just expect to lose a lot to start with and don't get frustrated if other people seem to be picking it up quicker: that's normal. Fight everyone you can in the arena, and review fights afterwards if you can do that with your client.

2. Aliases will get you a long way. Templar's not the easiest class to make aliases for since you have all the toxin/attack combinations, but figuring out your game plan comes before this. Once you know what you're going to be aiming for you can make aliases to facilitate that. Make what you need, basically. As for triggers, using sound triggers for key events will help you a lot. Don't go over the top on these because they'll just blend together and it'll be a mess, but there are some things you really don't want to miss.

3. For myself I don't really block anything. The prompt will be your chief source of spam and working out a way around that while still having the information readily available will be the first major problem you'll likely need to solve. Obviously the typical solutions (gauges, redirecting to a mini window) aren't viable. What you will likely end up doing is blocking a lot initially and over time unblock things as you become more comfortable with the game. One big thing you'll maybe want to block initially are the "you are off bal/eq messages", as they can be a bit spammy depending on if you flail a lot (which most people do initially). The ifeqbal command is a good alternative to queueing if you prefer that, and removes this spam.

4. I can't really give much advice here since I don't mud on my phone. Crank up the speaking rate to as high as you can understand it, but you probably do that already. Voiceover specifics that might be mud relevant though I couldn't really say.

5. This depends on what you're interested in. Knight one v one requires a lot of precision compared to some other classes. Teams you can get by with a couple of aliases and contribute a lot as a new player. For starting out, I'd probably recommend exploring scimitars and battleaxes - longswords are objectively the best, but they're also the hardest for a beginner to use affectively.

Nexus is not currently a viable option for screenreaders (mostly due to the browser format just not being ideal - you want a terminal like a standard client). Don't get too hung up on a client/language/whatever choice though: it just has to work. Noone except you has to use it.

I'll try to check back here some if you have other questions.

Swale

Ryc said:

not to nitpick too heavily, but it's generally actually easier to use Lua with MUSH than python (though not significantly) and if you're going to code just for Imperian, might be better off using Lua given the fact that most of the playerbase already uses Lua by default. 

Yeah, I wish Lua had Python's array of learning resources, is what it boils down to.  And the long-term goal is absolutely to go back to Lua.