Super Noob travel question?

[Vech24]

How in the flying f*** are you all able to travel so quickly? I've been level grinding and typically the group leaders move like the Flash on crystal meth. So quick in fact that I can't even "drink fountain" before we're back out fighting mobs.

I'm assuming this is one part zone memorization and one part technical interface skill with your mud client. It's the second I'm most interested in as I know the first is just rote memorization. Either way, can any of you offer some tips for traveling quickly? It's quite intimidating to think that this is the level of technical input skill I have to try and go up against if it were a PK situation (which I know is inevitable).

By the way, I'm using Mudlet which apparently has Mapping functions but requires scripts. Not sure how to do that either.

[Tantangel]

Never used Mudlet, but Jibber could help you if you use Tintin or however. Otherwise I'm curious as well because I memorize most moves for places, but I honestly think it's part their ping time is amazing compared to yours. Lately my ping has been almost as bad as it used to be when I was on dial-up almost a decade ago.

[Pali]

I'd say nearly all of travelling quickly is memorization combined with input speed, and I've yet to be sold on the idea that using a keypad for directional input to avoid hitting enter necessarily speeds you up, as I can enter directional commands faster than the game will keep up with them while still hitting d;enter;e;enter;etc.

In terms of moving around fast in a group, it's largely a matter of keeping up your situational awareness - walk in, dirt dryad, and spam a scan so that by the time the first dryad dies you already know which way to go for the next. It also speeds you up to have a circuit you tend to follow. When I'm clearing Everwild, I burn through the northern part then circle east, south, west, then back out the north, pausing at the stream to drink.

[Deykari]

I'm with Pali with regards to keypads, I used them for a bit, found I could move just as quick typing the direction out and hitting 'enter' but then both my hands are in the right place for general typing too instead of having one hand over the numpad. I can run away with the best of them, and you know I have to be good at running when I spend so much time doing it, fleeing from everyone .

I think it's more just memorising than anything. With the MUD limiting how quickly consecutive commands are carried out it's not difficult to input your commands quick enough to be moving at that limit. It's a case of knowing exactly where you need to go so that you can input your move commands at that speed, and avoiding slipping up and running into walls because that's where the experienced chasers catch you - in a tight run through the underdark when you've got 15 hp, not knowing your route and hitting a wall twice can spell death.

Mapping I suppose would help in terms of giving you a visual representation of the FL world to help learn your routes but I advise against any automated scripts for moving about, or even spamming your move commands in in advance. All it takes from your route from Val Miran to Rheydin is for that big bad Nexus Fire Zerk to jump out and interrupt you and instead of being able to flee, you've got another 12 commands stacked in that won't get carried out.

Dey

[L-A]

Pali and Deykari have good advice - a lot of it is memorisation and experience.

A simple example:

Standing in Central Square Val Miran I know that:

15 east (that's fifteen 'rooms' to the east) I hit the end of the 'straight line' east run.

That sounds easy - but I can also tell you (without logging in) if I then go:

s

4e

n

2e

u

e

2u

The east to Maelbrim (I don't know the exact number offhand since it changed a little while back - easy enough to count it out though.

Things you should learn:

1) How many east to get in the first 'room' in Maelbrim and;

2) How many east to get to the Forum (Maelbrim equivilant of Central Square).

Ranking area's are the same. If you're ranking in the Everwild go through alone and you'll find all the rangers are always on the exact same squares. It's just a matter of memorising and doing it so often you can put the directions in without thinking about it.

It sounds daunting but its not - start simple with things like:

1) How man moves out of Val Miran in each direction;

2) How many moves (and which direction) to central square in Maelbrim, then;

3) Which moves (and directions) to the closed gate of Miruhivor.

Once you can run it one way ie from Val to Miruhivor then do it in reverse.

Knowing how to quickly run those three cities, picking two area's on each end with hiding places and carrying recall's will save your life in 90% of your PK battles.

Once you get these, you can learn how to quickly run to other areas - such as ranking areas. This allows a quick escape when you're group is attacked

You can setup aliases if you want to run the areas on command. This comes with some very real dangers in PK situations so even if you used aliases for "fast travel" know the directions for a few area's just in case.

L-A

PS - learn how the MUD penalises you for spamming. This has a lag penalty (which couldget you killed in a PK situation). Hint: Use 'where' to break up direction spam and avoid 'spam penalties'

[Dead Voodoo Doll]

Memorizing and getting used to it is a lot of it. A lot of people on here have been doing it for at least 5+ years, but most of us have been doing it for more than 10.

One thing I do in terms of using my client (Zmud) is that I have a target system. I type in "target brownie," and that sets my "Prey" in my system. Then all of my macros are set to do things to my target or myself. My number pad is also set up to do certain things.

My right hand has access to all these commands on the number pad:

8 = north

5 = look

4 = west

6 = east

2 = south

9 = up

3 = down

1 = scan all

plus = where "prey"

7 = flee

divide = who pk

multiply = quaff gyvel

subtract = who

0 = take flight back; quaff flight

My left hand has access to all of my macros F1-F8 (which I change out depending on class and which are all set to work on whatever I've entered as the targeting system.)

So say you're in Everwild or Elium, you can move very quickly after your prey and with the "where prey" you can find out where that last brownie, dryad, etc is hiding, if they've moved out of their normal repopping spot. And before each one is dead you can hit scan all and be poised to move in that direction.

Another thing you are probably noticing is that vets won't enter a command to lag themselves when something is about to die. That way you're able to move on to the next one the absolute second the thing is dead, thus increasing the speed of ranking.

Yet another thing you can do to increase your speed is to use a multitude of aliases.

[mya]

How in the flying f*** are you all able to travel so quickly?

So quick in fact that I can't even "drink fountain" before we're back out fighting mobs.

You spelled the problem yourself.

There is no drink fountain, there is "dr f". That's it.

All the nice spelling is left for alias. And for targeting PC's.

You never place less than 3 letters as your pk target, and if it's a DK you spell the full name Tritnnk, or you will end up hitting his Triton.

In fact, copy paste the name.

K Kingus vs k Kigus.

also #alias k murder ....

#alias woh Who ...

Also Macro ALL you life/death skills.

When things get nasty you will not be able to fine type.

quaff rceall ??? forget it.... #alias qq quaff recall

get haert bac lol

acuspunktyre ...

c sporktal

All this things happen in PK, so just make easy #alias/#macros you can use in all your characters so that you gain some sort of muscle memory.

[Cephirus]

You spelled the problem yourself.

There is no drink fountain, there is "dr f". That's it

Actually, you can just type dri to drink whatever fountain/puddle is there in the room. No need to specify what to drink from.

[Elfrosto]

aliases are your friend.

[Vech24]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I really am looking for specifics so any literal alias trigger combos (like Mya, Pali, Dey, Voodoo, and LA offered) would still be tremendously appreciated. Learning proper/efficient input to me seems like a gaming fundamental that might be taken for granted and is in fact, even more important than knowing classes/equip/areas/etc.

It's like trying to play a console game on a controller with only one hand where the vets are using two and expecting to be competitive.

[Demiterracotta]

Aliases and targetting macros help. But I can tell you that being as fast as most of the vets with hunting groups is an experience thing.

For instance, I can do Everwild/Labyrinth runs as fast as anyone now. But I can't do workers or pentagram near as well. Because I haven't levelled enough characters through those areas.

Give it a few characters to get the hang of things/get your aliases macros personalized and you'll do just fine.

[Enethier]

I use Mudlet as well. I don't normally script with it, I never found the need, but I can do a few things. If you need help with Mudlet functions, you can PM me.

[L-A]

Thanks for all the great feedback guys. I really am looking for specifics so any literal alias trigger combos (like Mya, Pali, Dey, Voodoo, and LA offered) would still be tremendously appreciated. Learning proper/efficient input to me seems like a gaming fundamental that might be taken for granted and is in fact, even more important than knowing classes/equip/areas/etc.

It's like trying to play a console game on a controller with only one hand where the vets are using two and expecting to be competitive.

I specifically use a MUD client called JMC. It offers a lot of advanced functionality once you learn how to implement it. For advanced play I look for two things in a client:

1) Set aliases, triggers etc from the command line and;

2) Set variables.

Before we get into that, First - what's the fastest way to input a command - or more specifically, the least effort to give the MUD a command? A single keystoke. For example - never type 'east' always type 'e'

Following form this - to gain maximum speed advantage you should bind commands to single key strokes as this is the fastest way to input the commands.

Disclaimer: Always enter a the key you intend to bind a command to first - just because you don't think it does something doesn't mean you're right. An alias will override the key stroke - hence if you bind 'e' to 'drink fountain' you're going to have a very hard time traveling east

Say you're warrior is fighting L-A in a PK - you probably want to have your command's handy. So, before engaging you do the following:

alias t charge L-A

alias g bash L-A

alias v murder L-A

alias y dirt L-A

Right, now you're one keystroke away from being able to get me with four of your skills. If you can type fast the difference is very little - but that little can add up during a PK chase. The down side is that's a fair bit of typing, you might screw it up with a typo and L-A might see you coming and interrupt you. Still, once you're in combat you're pretty well setup for a good fight and fast chase.

Pro tip: Set up a 'basic set' of aliases for all characters - v for murder (above) is a good one. Everyone can do this and you'll get used to it over time. If you changed to an invoker you might set t, g and y to specific spells instead of warrior skills.

In order to streamline the process I make use of variables. These are expressions that can be assigned different values. For example:

$prey = L-A sets 'prey' to L-A. Hence I can type 'prey' and 'L-A' gets given to the MUD.

How is this useful? Like this:

alias t charge $prey

alias g bash $prey

alias v murder $prey

alias y dirt $prey

By altering the value of the variable 'prey' you can alter who the commands target. To make this every faster I use a single word to set the value of prey to eliminate the $ which takes longer to type:

alias prey %1 {$prey = %1}

If you've done programming you probably can work out what just happened. If not the %1 represents something you enter which is then called again later in the line. In this case if you enter

'prey L-A' the variable 'prey' is assigned the value of 'L-A' This is because in the middle of the PK I don't want to have to worry about typing the $ correctly when I'm more worried about not getting my @$$ kicked.

Hence if you're fighting L-A and Pali rudely interrupts, you can just enter 'prey Pali' and all your commands are automatically reset to your new target - Pali. That's a whole lot less typing and general jerking around while someone is trying to bash your head in.

L-A

[L-A]

Something else to consider is triggers - again, they are client specific so consult your help. I a nutshell a trigger is when your MUD client looks for a specific pattern and then enter's a command on your behalf.

Disclaimer: No, its not cheating. The downside is your client does what its told - it doesn't take into consideration your hit points or other factors. Be careful with triggers - if you are using triggers to bash (for example) you may find yourself attempting to bash an opponent when you have 10hp left. This will probably get you killed.

A simple idea is to watch for your sanctuary dropping so you know to flee and put it back up. So, from playing we know the MUD tells you:

'The white aura around your body fades' when sanctuary runs out. From this:

#trigger 'The white aura around your body fades' {tell self 'Sanctuary is down}

Note I've used 'trigger' here for clarity. If you're using JMC the actual command is #action as JMC refers to triggers as actions. Its the same thing just by a different name.

Now you'll send a tell to yourself saying 'Sanctuary is down' when it goes down. If you're playing in colour this will be easily seen (as tell's have different coloured text) and alert you.

Depending on your client you can do this more elegantly with highlights. Highlight simply look for a pattern and change the colour. They don't enter a command like a trigger. They are client specific and available in my client - consult whichever client help you are using for your specific syntax:

#highlight yellow {The white aura around your body fades.}

Will now display the message in bright yellow text on the screen. You can't miss that so no excuse for fighting without sanctuary now

Other uses include setting these to show when your opponent's sanctuary drops (so you know to attack), when fly drops, other spells drop etc.

Cheers,

L-A

[L-A]

Alias - Using FL alias system:

While MUD clients generally have their own alias system, FL has an inbuilt alias system that can be used to the same effect (help alias, help alias advanced). For example, the 'prey' alias set (above) can be achieved by entering the following commands when connected to the MUD:

alias prey alias t charge $;alias g bash $;alias v murder $;

Now type:

prey L-A

and the aliases should be set to target L-A. Try it and see

This could easily be used to be able to play effective from your phone, telnet or anywhere you don't have access to the normal client you use.

Cheers,

L-A

[crackwilly21]

That sounds easy - but I can also tell you (without logging in) if I then go:

s

4e

n

2e

u

e

2u

The east to Maelbrim (I don't know the exact number offhand since it changed a little while back - easy enough to count it out though.

It's 13 to Center.

[corpsestomp]

When leveling/PKing, I take whatever opening ability I want to use: charge, murder, acid blast, etc. and copy it to the clipboard. That way it's an easy ctrl+v instead of typing it every time. It is limiting in PK, however.

[f0xx]

MF is proud of you two.

[Croyvern]

memorization is key here.

I use the 10-key pad when possible.

But, if you understand the way a computer thinks you can try my trick.

btw these are aliases

n= north

nn=northnorth

nnn=northnorthnorthnorth

nnnn=northnorthnorthnorthnorthnorthnorthnorth

repeat for all cardinal directions

If you use mushclient there is also a speed walking feature but I have never used it.

[f0xx]

memorization is key here.

I use the 10-key pad when possible.

But, if you understand the way a computer thinks you can try my trick.

btw these are aliases

n= north

nn=northnorth

nnn=northnorthnorthnorth

nnnn=northnorthnorthnorthnorthnorthnorthnorth

repeat for all cardinal directions

If you use mushclient there is also a speed walking feature but I have never used it.

That would actually be slower than the normal way.

typing "nnnn + enter" would take much more time than "n + enter + enter + enter + enter", not to mention that it's five presses anyway.

Dunno what client you use, but it's not a very good one.

[Croyvern]

That would actually be slower than the normal way.

typing "nnnn + enter" would take much more time than "n + enter + enter + enter + enter", not to mention that it's five presses anyway.

Dunno what client you use, but it's not a very good one.

like I said I use the key pad when possible, my laptop has no key pad. so I use binary, which allows me to break the travel with a look, where, or who command so I do not get the spam punishment lag.

[mya]

.4n

[jibber]

I still use the keyboard

[Kyzarius]

Just play the game for ten years. Lol.

You have to realize some of us have been lvling in those same zones for over a decade.

Practice and anticipating by thinking an few moves ahead at all times produces speed.

[Spark215]

I still use the keyboard

I do this as well.