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All players start the game with a basic set of commands - kill, get, drop, etc - that trigger the execution of activities that all players know how to perform, and which will never fail under normal circumstances..

Players are also to learn new abilities. In the past these were known as GuildCommands?, but they have since grown to be anything that a player might learn to further his abilities. Examples include commands/spells that a guild or NPC might teach (stab/forage/heal/icestorm) as well as abilities such as critical-hits or dual wielding. The difference being that a command is something you consciously execute whilst an ability is (presumably) almost always in effect.

This topic is concerned with those commands which are consciously triggered, but much applies to abilities as well.

The VerbSystem? should be able to tie into triggering these commands, but until it is available the current technique of using add_actions will suffice.

What is a command and what is an action
In this context a command is the name given to the verb which initiates the action. The human controller probably knows of the existence of the action before his character obtains the command, but until taught the command is not able to perform it in any way.

A action will, in almost all circumstances, use one or more skills and may take some time to perform.

In subsequent sections the words command and action can be used interchangeably. Even after the introduction of the VerbSystem? we will still have a verb which triggers use of the action. That verb is likely to be identical to the command keyword.

Aspects and Ranks
Commands/Actions have an effect, one that is controlled by a varying number of factors - aka aspects. When a player learns an action they get a basic understanding of the overall process required to perform the action. Over time the player can spend time/exp/whatever learning more about the action and increasing their knowledge of the different aspects which make up the action.

For example one aspect of an attack action might be how fast the action can be performed, whilst another might be how big a weapon can be used. The player might spend time learning more about the 'how fast' aspect.

Each aspect will have a number of ranks - we might decide to make this a constant number regardless of command/action? The learning of the action will advance all aspects to rank 1. Over time the player can choose to advance this. We probably want some checks & balances to stop all players maxing all aspects for all actions. Possibilities include

• The availability of someone to teach the player the desired rank
• A cap on the total number of ranks a player can train for each action, across all aspects of the action
• A cap on the total number of ranks a player can train across all actions, probably increasing slowly with level.

The higher the rank a player has for an aspect the more functionality the player should gain for the associated action.

For example having rank 1 in the "size of weapon" for the "stab" command might mean you can use a dagger to stab. Having rank 3 might allow you to stab with a sword.

The addition of aspects and ranks to a command make it much easier to balance the introduction of player-to-player teaching of commands.

Obtaining commands
Commands can be given to a player as long as the player met the base requirements for learning the command. The requirements will usually be minimum bonus levels for the utilised skills and possibly guild membership.

I foresee several actual means of giving a command to a player

1. The player is a guild member and a guild NPC teaches the command to the player upon the player training the necessary skills. In this case the command is very similar to a guild command, note though that the command may be taught by multiple guilds and may also be obtainable via alternative means.
2. Completing a quest and being taught the command - possibly not being taught the command if the required skill bonuses have not been reached.
3. Being taught the command by another player - this must involve some kind of cost to both players
4. Finding an NPC who will teach you the command simply because you have the requisite skills, although this should probably never be done - a mini quest should be incorporated.
5. Paying an NPC to teach you the command

Teaching commands to other players
[ todo ]

Using commands
[ todo ]

Issues for discussion

1. What about losing commands through lack of use?
2. What about having a maximum number of commands a player can learn?

Commands utilising this

1. Forage?
2. Study?
3. Trade?
4. Aislin
5. Quickheal?
6. Breo?
7. Sgrid?
8. Nertos?
9. Dion
10. Stab
11. Dissect?
12. Steal?
13. Backstab
14. Blackjack?
15. Flash
16. Hailstorm?
17. Lightning?
18. Rain?
19. LightningShield?
20. SummonCloud?
21. Icestorm?
22. Fry?
23. Cloudbag?
24. Slash
25. Disarm

• What type of abilities could a player learn, this jump kick idea, anyone could learn that? is it just combat abilities you can learn, what about an ability to nurse your wounds? Would the current ability 'report' be classified as a ability thus we'd have to learn it? I'm not quite clear on abilities so far. Also, you can't get the study command unless you are a Druid, still. -- MarcMitchell - 15 Jan 2003
  • Abilities would be everything that is currently a guild command (tho maybe not gpose), as well as other commands like 'fix' or 'juggle' which might be taught to you by NPCs. The study command not being available to non-druids is a known issue and I'm still part way through a quest to make it available (A quest that I think you suggested actually). -- FantoM - 15 Jan 2003
  • Some of these would be abilities and some would be commands. (jump kick might be a command/action whilst nursing wounds might be an ability which just increases your healing rate). As for which commands can be learnt by which guilds - that's not a topic for here. -- FantoM - 04 Apr 2007

• What if we switched to system where every command was learned....lets say someone wanted to be a thief....they put stat points into Dex, go to the thief guild were they learn a few basic Thief skills. They then have to go in search of more advanced skills. Inorder for this to work though, you'd have to make stats un advancable...so people wouldn't be able to master every learned skill. -- DonaldKincannon - 18 Jan 2003
  • I'd like to remove the advancing stats concept. It makes rearrange more important and will produce a wider variety of players. Also would make possible magic items which increased stats while worn. We'd need to change TheDeath tho. Aren't we already suggesting that every command (excepting basic commands like get/kill) is taught? The question for me is how you learn them - I like the idea of some being taught by guilds, some taught by specialist NPCs, some taught by players, etc. -- FantoM - 19 Jan 2003

• Commands (study and forage, also stab now I believe) are currently taught with a 'Poo teaches you the poo command.' which is unrealistic in time, as well as assuming that all players will learn a command at the same speed, regardless of their intelligence. For these to work they'd need to take time (such as stat advancement, perhaps serveral interactive sessions with said teacher) and if these were done at large intervals, would stand less chance of sticking (ie, leaving something you only vaguely know will be forgotten easier than something that's been mastered). -- ProdigY - 14 Jun 2004
  • The being taught the command is (and should remain to my thinking) instantaneous. The reason is that to be taught a command you must have already spent all the prerequisite time obtaining enough bonus in all the skills utilised by the command. Thus the "learning" of the command itself is just allowing you to use those skills in the game. -- FantoM - 20 Jun 2004