Bard Offense - Willing to Pay

Leviticus

Good Morning,
     I can't code. I look at it, I tinker with it to learn as I go. But some things are just not within my current abilities. Hopefully that will change after my first programming class in the Fall Semester. But currently I need someone to code me a Bard Offense. I would like to use aliases in order to execute my offense but be able to incorporate the tables,variables and functions correctly so I can press xzy and it is a Tunesmithing, Envenoming, Jabbing, Singing. I am quite new to Bard but willing to help in any way. Willing to pay dem credits or dem teeth (if that is still allowed?? Real Money). PM me here or contact me in-game. 

Dochitha

MSG anyoneyouwannakill I will pay you $500, come to NoT, I will accentato jab you, don't sip.

Amranu

Think of coding an offense for bard as prep for your programming class in the fall.

It kinda is.

Atalkez

Leviticus said:

Good Morning,
     I can't code. I look at it, I tinker with it to learn as I go. But some things are just not within my current abilities. Hopefully that will change after my first programming class in the Fall Semester. But currently I need someone to code me a Bard Offense. I would like to use aliases in order to execute my offense but be able to incorporate the tables,variables and functions correctly so I can press xzy and it is a Tunesmithing, Envenoming, Jabbing, Singing. I am quite new to Bard but willing to help in any way. Willing to pay dem credits or dem teeth (if that is still allowed?? Real Money). PM me here or contact me in-game. 

Start now. Instead of it all being a foreign language, you'll be able to pick out some stuff.

All programming languages are going to follow the same kind of 'flow', and as you get proficient, you figure out how they translate from one language to another. I didn't know anything about Lua when I started Achaea, and I learned everything as I went. It helped me a ton during my first round of programming courses.

Valkyn

https://www.codecademy.com/

Was recommended to me by a programmer for self-teaching. Might be somewhere good to start before your course.

Aegoth

poor guy asked for a bard offence script, not books on coding. Geez... teach a man to fish.....

Aesi

I also suggest that link. 

Also just try things. Open the mudlet scripting manual (google it, at work cant grab link easily) and start playing with scripts. 

Start small, make little things, and gradually make them more complex.

Then break your script in a horrifying manner by changing something small. Scratch your head for an hour.

Find your typo.

Wipe away the tears of joy that it works again.

Continue making it more intricate.

stuck?

google "lua manual thing" -- like lua manual strings -- will show you al lthe fun things you can do with those.

Theres a few links to scripts in my signature. Download them if you wish, modify them, make them your own. if you are unsure what a component does google some of the syntax and read up on it.

Great learning opportunity!

Antonius

If you're a total newcomer to coding in Lua it might not make much sense, but I've posted some sections of code for my Bard stuff before here: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/comment/298195/#Comment_298195

It's definitely not something that you'd be able to copy/paste in and have work, but might have some useful parts in it.

Austere

If you really need examples and a place to expend energy, my opponent tracking is available for free on here as well. It doesn't have a true example bard offense, but you might be able to find something useful out of it (Klendathu wrote a simple song selection script which is included.)

Averi

I can't code either... so I asked @Kasa to do it for me one day. I can package the pieces of my script for you though if you'd like.  It might help a bit. 

On the other hand, if someone actually makes you a really nice bard offense, I'd be interested in it as well....  I like playing achaea but the fact that I have to code stuff to play this game makes this game take more time than I am willing to put into it.

Averi

Precision of language:  I can code.  I am just fairly bad at it and do not have enough time on my hands to tinker with lua to have it not work the way I want to most of the time and would greatly appreciate it/would be willing to compensate if someone else did it for me.  

However, I do have a decent bard offense made of parts and pieces that other people have helped me out with.  I am still willing to package what I have.  It is just not perfect.  That is all.

Exelethril

Mwahaha.

Edit - if you use some form of tracking, you'd want a single alias that has variables that chooses between jab/song affs so they don't overlap.

Leviticus

I appreciate all the comments. I am currently taking 4 classes until Aug 28th so my codeacademy will have to wait! Thanks for all the information. 

Anze

I don't think Code Academy will be all that useful for you, unfortunately. I would recommend you stay away from any online "coding tutorials" and try to take a step back from the "coding" entirely. It's incredibly daunting to look at a problem like coding a class offence because so much is involved. You have no idea where to start and so much to do to get something working like you want it to. If you're interested in learning how to develop software, though, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. 

Here are my recommendations:

1) Ask yourself: do you thoroughly understand the process you're trying to improve? The entire thing? If not (which is OK!), break it down into components that you do understand. Why? All of these components come together and can be used to achieve your end result: a deadly bard offense. If there is anything about any components that are necessary for your end result, ask about them. If you're not sure what is necessary, ask. The goal here is to identify the minimum viable required components to execute your offense. I highly, highly advise that you break up your idea of "offense" into specific kill paths. Start with the simplest ones first, even if they are not effective on skilled combatants.

A good outcome of this objective is to identify one or two of the least technically complex (strategy wise) kill paths to implement code support for. Document these kill paths in detail: what specifically needs to be done in what specific order to execute the strategy? Once it's documented, see if you can explain the strategy to someone who is not familiar with bards with only the details you've noted. If you can't, improve your documentation. This is a very simplified way of writing requirements.

2) Now that you have a shiny set of requirements you can begin designing the artifacts necessary to fulfill the requirements. To do that, you need a high level understanding of the tools available to you. If you're using Mudlet you don't have a great deal of choice in technologies: you'll be using lua. Before you write any code, take some time to read through some parts of the written documentation for lua.

http://www.lua.org/manual/5.3/ is the lua manual. I recommend Sections 1, 2, 3 and possibly 6. While reviewing the documentation (it's short, you have time), don't think about the constructs in the context of your requirements yet. At this point, you are a carpenter reading carefully about how your drill works. You want to be generally familiar with how each bit can be used and what the different power settings are used for. You won't know how the professionals do it, yet, but for this project it's not important. Just try to obtain a very general understanding of what is available to you when programming in lua.

I also recommend you review the Mudlet manual, stored at http://www.mudlet.org/asciidoc/manual.html. This will teach you a bit about lua works but more importantly what features Mudlet makes available to you.

Finally, Achaea exposes an immense amount of data to you through GMCP. Read the GMCP spec at http://www.achaea.com/local/Achaea_GMCP_Spec_20140311.pdf and keneanung's additions at https://github.com/keneanung/GMCPAdditions.

3) Now it's time to design and build things out. I don't have time to give class-specific details here, but here are some useful things to consider when writing code:

Don't repeat yourself. If you need to execute something multiple times, put it in a function.

Each function should ideally have a single responsibility and its name should make that responsibility clear. If your function is doing too much, write more functions and invoke them from the original long and unclear function.

Test functions as you write them. If you write 300 lines of code at once it will be much more difficult to test than 10 to 30. Continue only when your methods are working as you expect them to for the input you would reasonably provided.

I did take a brief look and found a few useful discussions on coding practice. One is an excellent comment by Klendathu on why you should use namespaces: http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/comment/295182/#Comment_295182. The other is the server-side curing theory discussion at http://forums.achaea.com/discussion/2174/serverside-curing-theory. This is full of useful practices to follow while developing scripts.

This will absolutely be difficult. It is so thoroughly rewarding when everything comes together, though. I have so much more to say about this but can be only so lengthy while at work.

If you have any questions or comments about what I've mentioned here please feel free to contact me. At some point here I'll have time to get back in-game and finish up my bard offense as well -- I'd be happy to answer any questions or collaborate with you if you're having trouble.

Ahmet

Anze said:

I don't think Code Academy will be all that useful for you, unfortunately. I would recommend you stay away from any online "coding tutorials" and try to take a step back from the "coding" entirely. It's incredibly daunting to look at a problem like coding a class offence because so much is involved. You have no idea where to start and so much to do to get something working like you want it to. If you're interested in learning how to develop software, though, this is an excellent opportunity to do so. 

This is actually some of the worst advice I think I've ever heard. Knowing the basics of coding can help you work through how to address your problems, give you a realistic basis by which to determine the relative difficulty of projects, and I'd go so far as to suggest that basic coding classes are beneficial for most everyone who takes them, especially if they're spending their free time on MUDs. Not to mention, that getting your toes wet with a basic coding class will help you understand what the various features of mudlet do without having to work from the ground up through the Mudlet manual, like you suggested. People who try to learn the absolute basics of coding (datatypes, loops, functions, etc) by diving into the documentation end up wasting way too much time trying to work out how these basic functions interact, and usually end up with flawed or incomplete knowledge that can be covered in half an hour in a basic codecademy (or whatever you decide to use) course. Now, I'm not saying diving in headfirst is a bad way to learn how to code something, especially when all you have is the documentation, but it's an extremely inefficient way to learn the basics when there are a ridiculous number of tutorials and coding classes out there to help you get started, at no charge.

Anze

Ahmet said:

This is actually some of the worst advice I think I've ever heard. Knowing the basics of coding can help you work through how to address your problems, give you a realistic basis by which to determine the relative difficulty of projects, and I'd go so far as to suggest that basic coding classes are beneficial for most everyone who takes them, especially if they're spending their free time on MUDs. 

Code Academy does not teach anyone how to program. They provide an online compiler to help you learn the syntax of a programming language of your choice. I concede that an online compiler can be helpful but I don't offhand know of one that works for lua. I'm sure one exists, though -- that would be a good recommendation while reviewing the documentation. The point of my post was to stress the importance of understanding the problem. That's what is so difficult about programming, and it's not something you can learn from Code Academy. At the end of the day, spending two hours on Code Academy will teach you a bit about some of the common syntax patterns that programming languages offer. Not how to write programs. It gives you just enough rope to hang yourself on and quit.

There certainly are people who have excelled after using Code Academy and even a number of competitive sites that do a much better job at teaching programming than Code Academy. Unfortunately, those competitors are largely far more involved and a much larger time investment that spending an hour reading a few chapters of a concisely written manual.

Whichever one decides to do, take the time to attack the problem first. 

Ahmet

@Anze I didn't say it would teach you to program. It may just be syntax for experienced coders, but it's also the fundamentals of code for those who don't have any coding experience, like I said before (datatypes, loops, functions, etc). If you'd go back and actually read what I said, I listed the benefits of codecademy (and the like) for people who are absolute beginners, and sure, you're not going to get any sort of programming job or have an intimate knowledge of programming from it, but baby steps man, come on.

And you can't attack a problem if you don't know anything about it, or how it functions. That's a real good way to screw yourself over.

ETA: Not to mention, few if any of codecademy's languages actually require a compiler.

Anze

@Ahmet I feel like you're arguing past me, here. Yes, you can learn programming syntax from Code Academy. I concede that...and an "online compiler" is for all intents and purposes serving the same purpose as an "online interpreter", which is probably the term I should have used. Code Academy can be frustrating because it for many people does not provide a sufficient exploration of those basics.

Attacking the problem has nothing to do with the technology. The problem isn't a tech problem, it's a "business" problem. Best to worry about what others are reading when you've done so yourself.

In any case, I don't think this aside has much merit to the conversation: sounds like @Leviticus isn't going to try Code Academy at the moment due to class obligations. In my opinion, my alternative to that would save time and frustration. It's clear you disagree and I can agree to disagree.

Ahmet

Anze said:

In any case, I don't think this aside has much merit to the conversation: sounds like @Leviticus isn't going to try Code Academy at the moment due to class obligations. In my opinion, my alternative to that would save time and frustration. It's clear you disagree and I can agree to disagree.

Fair enough!

Dochitha

You can code, for sure. In life, don't let go and chance of learning. Especially when  coding Achaea is tonne of fun, and lots of Achaean help you code and answer question like a lot mentioned. 

I don't know coding either but learned, now I run a software company. It's crazy no one is certain how future paves. I think, code. And have fun with it. 

Lucianus

dev's end: problem with giving away a system is the burden of doing maintenance for someone else.

user's end: And then when that person who maintained your system is gone... you're kind of screwed.


It's better to build your own from scratch. Even if it is just a simple build, nothing comes to close to comparison to having a system you know from start to end.

There are also a bunch of free systems that you can tinker with and take apart. Put together as your own. Wundersys is the most popular (https://github.com/tynil/WunderSys)


But  yeah... the biggest factor is definitely time spent learning. Difficult if you are a student going to school, someone with a job, or both.

Ahmet

P sure svo is still more popular than wsys.

Austere

Ahmet said:

P sure svo is still more popular than wsys.

For a non-coder, wsys is a lot easier to take apart, understand, and individualize. Despite svo's user friendliness on install,  I recommend wsys to everyone on this alone(not to mention wsys multiclass works)

Ahmet

Austere said:

Ahmet said:

P sure svo is still more popular than wsys.

For a non-coder, wsys is a lot easier to take apart, understand, and individualize. Despite svo's user friendliness on install,  I recommend wsys to everyone on this alone(not to mention wsys multiclass works)

I agree, but you said wsys was more popular! :bleep_bloop:

Austere

Ahmet said:

Austere said:

Ahmet said:

P sure svo is still more popular than wsys.

For a non-coder, wsys is a lot easier to take apart, understand, and individualize. Despite svo's user friendliness on install,  I recommend wsys to everyone on this alone(not to mention wsys multiclass works)

I agree, but you said wsys was more popular! :bleep_bloop:

Did not!  Svo is definitely more popular still. The only benefit svo has over wsys though is ndb (can code your own with half the script lag) and people tracking(oh, how I miss gotop). Wsys has a few things it could do better, but I would highly recommend it over svo. 

Ahmet

Someone said it u.u