Server-Side Curing and General Scripting Questions

Illnamiss

I uh... have a lot of questions. I figured it would be a good idea to throw them all into a single thread. Currently, I play a Jester and am fairly new to the game:

Is the server-side curing system a good standalone system? If not, what are its downsides?

Is defense application better than affliction removal or vice versa?

Does curing prioritize healing all afflictions before reapplying defenses, or is there a priority threshold? (Say, any affliction below priority 10 gets queued up before defenses higher than priority 5).

I've heard GMCP; it's something like... the server sending data to the client that you don't see on the interface? I don't think I fully understand this, though—why do people want GMCP afflictions, for example, instead of just seeing the prompt? (Is it in response to Illusions? That is, if one can heal afflictions via GMCP-triggers, then illusions won't trigger reflexes?)

How do you figure out what the GMCP data is to create the trigger?

I'm a Jester. I've read something like certain afflictions caused by Puppetries and some Tarots are hidden—that is, they don't become obvious until you do something, at which point you notice. Does the curing system notice these types of things without you having to do something, effectively un-hiding the affliction? 

If not, would using GMCP?

Thanks for anyone who can help me out with these, or even point me in the right direction.

Antonius

I've only played with server side curing a small amount (hoping to put some time in the next few days into actually working with it properly), so I'll answer what I can.

"Is the server-side curing system a good standalone system? If not, what are its downsides?"

It's a decent system, almost certainly sufficient for bashing, probably introductory PvP. There are some things it doesn't currently do:

Keep herbs out of your rift - as far as I know it will outrift if it needs to before eating, but there are some downsides to that. You can't outrift with certain afflictions, which can lead to you being put into a state where you're incapable of curing at all by what's called a riftlock.

Fill pipes when they're empty. Possibly light pipes too, I'm not sure (I have artefact pipes that don't need to be lit).

Use abilities like INSOMNIA rather than EAT COHOSH to gain the insomnia defense.

Others I can't think of right now.

You'll need scripts to handle at least filling pipes, the others you can possibly live without.

"Does curing prioritize healing all afflictions before reapplying defenses, or is there a priority threshold? (Say, any affliction below priority 10 gets queued up before defenses higher than priority 5)."

As far as I know, it will do them based purely on priority. If you have a defense in priority 1 that needs to be put up, and an affliction in priority 2 that needs to be cured, then it would try to put up the defense first. This generally isn't an issue in most cases, except when they use conflicting balances OR you have aeon.

"I've heard GMCP; it's something like... the server sending data to the client that you don't see on the interface? I don't think I fully understand this, though—why do people want GMCP afflictions, for example, instead of just seeing the prompt? (Is it in response to Illusions? That is, if one can heal afflictions via GMCP-triggers, then illusions won't trigger reflexes?)"

Illusions are the main reason, but it also makes keeping track of what you have much, much easier. Essentially you get an invisible message from the game that would say "You have paralysis". Recognising that single message is easier, and more reliable, than having tons and tons of triggers for all the various lines that also mean you have paralysis. And, since it's not text you actually see, it can't be illusioned.

Tracking which afflictions you have is important at the higher end of combat as you need to change priorities to deal with specific conditions and to counter your opponent's strategies.

"How do you figure out what the GMCP data is to create the trigger?"

There's a document somewhere (I don't have the link on the computer I'm currently using unfortunately) that has all of the GMCP message details. There are also tutorials available for working with GMCP for most clients, I believe.

Afflictions aren't currently covered by GMCP, unfortunately, and that may not be something we actually ever get. I'm hopeful that they'll see the benefit of it though, or provide more tools for the server-side curing that means it's not required.

"Does the curing system notice these types of things without you having to do something, effectively un-hiding the affliction?"

No, any affliction that is hidden will require that you DIAGNOSE or see a symptom message (in some cases) before the server-side curing recognises that you have it.

EDIT: @Nemutaur and a few others have posted a lot of really great information on using the server-side curing, including ways to work around its current limitations (if you're using the Mudlet client) here: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/2174/serverside-curing-theory

Nemutaur

Illnamiss said:

I uh... have a lot of questions. I figured it would be a good idea to throw them all into a single thread. Currently, I play a Jester and am fairly new to the game:

Is the server-side curing system a good standalone system? If not, what are its downsides?

All on its own? Not quite, it won't refill and light pipes automatically, but I posted a script or package to do that for you.

Is defense application better than affliction removal or vice versa?

Both about the same, but there will be a little more flexibility (being able to use INSOMNIA instead of EAT COHOSH for example) coming soon.

Does curing prioritize healing all afflictions before reapplying defenses, or is there a priority threshold? (Say, any affliction below priority 10 gets queued up before defenses higher than priority 5).

That's up to you to set, if you have a defence set to 1 (such as blindness) in the defence priority list it will def that up before eating kelp for asthma if you set asthma at 2 in the affliction priority list.

I've heard GMCP; it's something like... the server sending data to the client that you don't see on the interface? I don't think I fully understand this, though—why do people want GMCP afflictions, for example, instead of just seeing the prompt? (Is it in response to Illusions? That is, if one can heal afflictions via GMCP-triggers, then illusions won't trigger reflexes?)

GMCP is updated before every prompt, type in: lua gmcp

That will show you the gmcp Table and everything it contains, no afflictions are not shown in gmcp. So if you want to track afflictions on yourself you'll need triggers. The reason we want to know what afflictions we have is to react to specific situations by switching priorities on the fly, such as moving the 'confusion' affliction up if you are disrupted.

How do you figure out what the GMCP data is to create the trigger?

Check out http://wiki.mudlet.org/w/Manual:Technical_Manual#Event_System

I'm a Jester. I've read something like certain afflictions caused by Puppetries and some Tarots are hidden—that is, they don't become obvious until you do something, at which point you notice. Does the curing system notice these types of things without you having to do something, effectively un-hiding the affliction? 

Yes and no, if you do something that causes a symptom to show then the server side curing should recognise it and cure (if not, bug it). Otherwise you can use logic and CURING PREDICT <Affliction> to force the server side system to think it has an aff. A prominent example is suddenly getting max hp and max mana without sipping anything or eating moss, then you can CURING PREDICT RECKLESSNESS.

If not, would using GMCP?

Thanks for anyone who can help me out with these, or even point me in the right direction.

Illnamiss

Ah, excellent.

Thank you both very much—this helped a ton. I'm using the HTML5 client, so some of the commands don't work for me, but it seems so far to handle things nicely. I may switch to Mudlet soon.

Nemutaur

Illnamiss said:

Ah, excellent.

Thank you both very much—this helped a ton. I'm using the HTML5 client, so some of the commands don't work for me, but it seems so far to handle things nicely. I may switch to Mudlet soon.

Ah sorry I just assumed. I think @Carmain‌ is more proficient at answering HTML5 client questions.