Scripting for vibes

i had svof auto all my harmonics for me but then i realized usually i just wanted one or two harmonics for most rooms and situations, so i made aliases for each one and now i just use those aliases if i want all the harmonics in one room as well

one suggestion is that you shorten the name for the vibe so e dissipate becomes e dis or whatever is easy for you to remember

You've got a typo in the spelling of disorientation. Also, unless I'm mistaken, the lines should be more of:

  ["grounding"] = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

since doing:

  grounding = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

would be equivalent to setting:

  vibes[grounding] = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

If you don't have a variable called grounding set up already, that should be throwing an error because vibes[nil] can't be assigned a value.


Syntax/spelling aside, that seems to be a pretty efficient way to handle it, although since efficiency isn't really vital in an alias you're running at most a few times a second, you could change it to the following if you found that it improved readability for you:

if matches[2]=="heat" then<br>&nbsp; send(<span>"outr pyramid;spin pyramid;embed heat")<br>elseif matches[2]=="</span><span>alarm" then<br>&nbsp; send("</span><span>outr spiral;spin spiral;embed alarm")<br>etc...</span>

Not sure there is an objectively best way to do this particular task really.

{["thing"] = thing} is only really needed for stuff that has multiple words, like limb counters for example:

limbC = {["right leg"] = 6, ["right arm"] = 3, head = 0}

etc. All function the same way, but now you can, for example have a trigger that does:
 You swing giant weapon at victim's right leg.
 You swing giant weapon at victim's head.
Use a catch-all trigger of: ^You swing (.+) at \w+'s (.+).$
Then rather searching the table, you can just do limbC[matches[3]] = limbC[matches[3]] + 1

Vessil said:

Also, unless I'm mistaken, the lines should be more of:

  ["grounding"] = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

since doing:

  grounding = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

would be equivalent to setting:

  vibes[grounding] = "outr sphere;spin sphere;embed grounding",

If you don't have a variable called grounding set up already, that should be throwing an error because vibes[nil] can't be assigned a value.

You are mistaken. Doing {x = y} for a table initialiser isn't the same as doing tablename = {}; tablename[x] = y. The only time you need to use the {["x"] = y} syntax is when you're using a key that's not a valid identifier (e.g. it includes spaces, or is a Lua keyword such as for, if or while). Always using the {["x"] = y} syntax isn't necessarily a bad habit to get into if you're not aware of when it is and isn't required, and don't think you'll be able to remember, but the syntax they have is fine.

I'm really, really not a fan of when people define tables inside an alias/trigger/etc. Initialising a table every single time you run the alias just seems wasteful; create a script object that initialises the table and actually stores it in memory, and use that every time. I'm also a fan of namespaces since they reduce the chances of conflicts with other people's scripts and their variables.

I'd likely do something like this:

vibes = vibes or {}

vibes.crystals = vibes.crystals or {
	dissipate = {"pentagon"},
	adduction = {"disc", "polyhedron"},
}

vibes.shortnames = {
	diss = "dissipate",
	add = "adduction",
	gr = "grounding"
}

vibes.embed = function(vibe)
	local vibe = vibes.shortnames[vibe] or vibe
	
	local crystals = vibes.crystals[vibe]
	
	local commands = {}
	
	for _, crystal in ipairs(crystals) do
		table.insert(commands, "outr " .. crystal)
		table.insert(commands, "spin " .. crystal)
	end
	
	table.insert(commands, "embed " .. vibe)
	
	send(table.concat(commands, ";")) -- I'd actually call a function to queue it here
end

Uses a namespace, keeps the list of crystals around (this is useful information for other things you might want to do, such as determining which vibe(s) an opponent Magi is embedding), and also allows mapping shortnames to full vibe names easily. Your alias would just have vibes.embed(matches[2]) as the code.

I have separate aliases for each vibe. My script for it (credit to Amranu) just calls a table for each function. I'll post it up later for you. Also, just make an alias to switch between healing and restoration

@Kaylalee Oh, should probably explain the x = x or y syntax. If the variable x doesn't exist (i.e. is nil) then it will give it the value y, otherwise it will just be the existing value (x). That means that it will only initialise the table once, so any changes to the contents of the table in the script object after the first time that script executes won't be reflected until you restart Mudlet (or manually set x to nil, then save the script object again).