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Party Leading

Posted by Funkenstein on Sun 15 Mar 2009 01:02 PM — 17 posts, 77,016 views.

Funkenstein #0
Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to MUSHclient but am hoping to set up various
triggers/aliases that would be useful to leading a party.

The general premise of what I am trying to achieve is add players
who join my group into a table which will contain the number of hits
they do as well as storing a number they will tell me when rolling
for items/equipment of certain mobs. Upon removal of the group, their
entry in the table is also removed. I am hoping to use my rescue
trigger based off this table if it can be searched through and triggered
fast enough.

Players are recognised as being added/removed to/from the group by:
e.g. Trogdor joins your group.
e.g. Trogdor leaves your group.

The hits I wish to count are:
e.g. Trogdor MUTILATES a small fluffy bunny with his deadly cleave.

Rescue trigger matches "turns to fight *!"
Where the wildcard is the player in the group.

I have tried sifting through the FAQ and search the forums for the bits
and pieces I am looking for but can't exactly fit it all together.

If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be great.

Thanks in advance
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #1
Well this is an interesting question. Using Lua tables makes it quite simple, however there are some fiddly points to get right.

See http://mushclient.com/pasting for how to copy all these examples into the client.

Let's handle someone joining the group:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   custom_colour="3"
   enabled="y"
   match="* joins your group."
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>

group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists
group ["%1"] = 0  -- now in group

-- sort group into alphabetic order
sorted_group = {}
for name in pairs (group) do table.insert (sorted_group, name) end
table.insert (sorted_group, GetInfo (3))  -- add self
table.sort (sorted_group)

-- show group members
if next (group) then
  ColourNote ("green", "", "Group now consists of " ..
    table.concat (sorted_group, ", "))
end

</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


This matches on the joining message and adds them to the "group" table (creating it if necessary).

Note that this matches someone joining your group, not you joining someone else's group.

Most of the script is devoted to showing you the group membership - this is a sort-of check that the trigger worked.

Now if someone leaves the group, or you remove them, we need another trigger:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   custom_colour="14"
   enabled="y"
   match="^(?J)((?P&lt;name&gt;\w+) leaves your group\.|You remove (?P&lt;name&gt;\w+) from your group\.)$"
   regexp="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>

group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists
group ["%&lt;name&gt;"] = nil -- not in group

-- sort group into alphabetic order
sorted_group = {}
for name in pairs (group) do table.insert (sorted_group, name) end
table.insert (sorted_group, GetInfo (3))  -- add self
table.sort (sorted_group)

-- show group members
if next (group) then
  ColourNote ("green", "", "Group now consists of " ..
    table.concat (sorted_group, ", "))
else
  ColourNote ("orange", "", "Your group has been disbanded.")
end
 
</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


We mark them as not in the group by setting their entry to nil. Then we display who is left, if anyone.

Also, to handle disbanding the group:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="You disband your group."
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>group = {}</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


Now to count hits:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="* MUTILATES * with *."
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>
group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists

name = "%1"

-- if in group, count hits
if group [name] then
  group [name] = group [name] + 1
end -- if in group

</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


This matches anyone doing a "mutilates" but then checks if they are in the group. If so, it adds 1 to their hit count.

And for the rescue:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   enabled="y"
   match="* turns to fight *!"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>
group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists

name = "%2"

-- if in group, rescue him
if group [name] then
  Send ("rescue " .. name)
end -- if in group

</send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


You can change "rescue" in the Send to whatever you want.

Finally, to print the hit count, an alias that goes through the table and shows the count for each member:


<aliases>
  <alias
   match="show_counts"
   enabled="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>
group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists

require "pairsbykeys"

for k, v in pairsByKeys (group) do
  print (string.format ("%s did %i hit(s)", k, v))
end -- for
</send>
  </alias>
</aliases>


Amended on Sun 15 Mar 2009 08:14 PM by Nick Gammon
Funkenstein #2
Thanks Nick, works a treat. Am impressed with the speed of the rescue trigger :)

Only problem im having is sometimes the prompt syntax throws in a
> or something like MV:Tired> on the same line when I add a player into
the group resulting in:

Group now consists of , >Trogdor, MV:Tired>Ben, etc.

I've been fiddling around with wildcards trying to figure out how to ignore
the > or MV:Tired> but not having much luck.


Also, after testing the triggers and asking around players what they want,
a damage counter is more useful in determining how much damage the
player is putting out. I have added a few more triggers that capture
different hit types and added a different score count for them accordingly.

e.g. a MUTILATE adds 5 to the count
a severly wound adds 4 to the count
a deeply wound adds 3 to the count
etc.

I was wondering though, could the count for the different types of hits be
stored separately for each player in the group and then added together to
display their total damage count as well as being able to independantly being
able to display specific hit counts?

This would also give me a heads up on trying to add a bid value to assign to each
player in the group table when they tell me a number which I can call later on to determine who is the closest to a random number.

Thanks in advance.
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #3
For the prompt, a change to the trigger will do it. A regular expression lets you have an optional prefix, like this:


<triggers>
  <trigger
   custom_colour="3"
   enabled="y"
   match="^(?:.*&gt;)?(\w+) joins your group\.$"
   regexp="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>

group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists
group ["%1"] = 0  -- now in group

-- sort group into alphabetic order
sorted_group = {}
for name in pairs (group) do table.insert (sorted_group, name) end
table.insert (sorted_group, GetInfo (3))  -- add self
table.sort (sorted_group)

-- show group members
if next (group) then
  ColourNote ("green", "", "Group now consists of " ..
    table.concat (sorted_group, ", "))
end

 </send>
  </trigger>
</triggers>


The important part is "(?:.*>)?" which says a non-capture group consists of .* (any characters) followed by >. Then the final ? means the whole thing is optional.

Do you really want the different types of hits to be stored separately? I suppose if you were keen to do this you could make each hit type a sub-table. At present each player's hits are stored separately, and you could then work out the total in a loop, and then calculate the percentage damage each player does.
Funkenstein #4
Thanks!

I'm gonna have a go at storing them as sub-tables.
Will help me learn the code a bit better.
Funkenstein #5
After giving sub-tables a fair go, the old way is a lot easier for me to understand.

Is there a way to group tell to the party the total damage of each
individual person in the group (basically the output of the show_counts
alias) in a single line?.

Is it also possible to add myself into the group? and be able to show my damage?
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #6
To add yourself to the group, change things around a bit:


group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists
group ["%1"] = 0  -- now in group
group [GetInfo (3)] = group [GetInfo (3)] or 0   -- add self

-- sort group into alphabetic order
sorted_group = {}
for name in pairs (group) do table.insert (sorted_group, name) end
table.sort (sorted_group)


Now the group always consists of at least yourself (by adding yourself every time you add someone else). This isn't a problem as you are adding by key, so you won't end up there twice.

You are going to eventually hit a problem because since you are always in the group, your hit count will keep going up. I can see a solution or two, but I'll leave that as an exercise. ;)

As for telling everyone, it could look like this:


<aliases>
  <alias
   match="show_counts"
   enabled="y"
   send_to="12"
   sequence="100"
  >
  <send>group = group or {}  -- ensure table exists

require "pairsbykeys"

message = "gtell hit counts are: "

for k, v in pairsByKeys (group) do
  message  = message  .. string.format ("%s (%i) ", k, v)
end -- for

Send (message)</send>
  </alias>
</aliases>


Example output is:


Nick tells the group 'hit counts are: Funkenstein (44) Nick (100) '.

Funkenstein #7
I currently have a separate table with party members
that handles numbers that people tell me as their bid.

e.g. t = {
Trogdor = 12,
Ben = 79,
Guy = 82,
Dumble = 4
}

I am trying to sort or extract the player whose bid is
the closest to a random number between 1-100.

So far my idea is to sort through the table to find
who has the smallest absolute number when subtracting
the bid from the random number which leaves the person
at the start (assuming sorting from lowest difference
to highest difference) as the person closest to the
random number.

I was wondering if there is an easier way than this to
get this information (the person closest to the random
number) and how can i cope with people
in the party guessing the same number or having
the same difference and getting both their details?

Thanks in advance
Erendir Germany #8
With a small change to the structure of t, i would use somethink like this:


t = {
{'Trogdor' ,12},
{'Ben' ,79},
{'Guy' , 82},
{'Dumble' , 4}
}
math.randomseed((os.time()%10000)^2)
local r = math.random(100)
print(r)
local function compare(a,b)
	return math.abs(a[2]-r)<math.abs(b[2]-r)
end

table.sort(t, compare)
for i = 1, #t do
	print(t[1])
end
Funkenstein #9
After modifying it slightly, I seem to get back is a nil value.


<aliases>
<alias
match="test"
enabled="y"
send_to="12"
sequence="100"
>
<send> t = {
["Trogdor"] = 12,
["Ben"] = 79,
["Guy"] = 82,
["Dumble"] = 4,
}

require "pairsbykeys"
randomnumber = math.random (0, 100)
print (randomnumber)

function compare (a,b)
return math.abs(a[2]-randomnumber) < math.abs(b[2]-randomnumber)
end

for k, v in pairsByKeys (t) do
table.sort(t, compare)
end
end

print(t[1])


</send>
</alias>
</aliases>


The above table is the is the format that the real
group I have is stored as.

Couple of questions, I don't understand the [2] in the
compare function and print (t[1])... won't that print
the entry into table t with the key of "1" or will
it print the first key in the table?

Thanks in advance
Erendir Germany #10
  • Lua is case-sensitive, so if you do
    
require "pairsbykeys"

    so correct function name is "pairsbykeys", and "pairsByKeys" is nil.
    Or you can use this code:
    
pairsByKeys = require "pairsbykeys"

  • Quote:
    pairsbykeys.lua - iterator to traverse a table, sorted by key order
    in your example sorted by name of player, not the number.
  • Quote:
    table.sort (table [, comp])
    Sorts table elements in a given order, in-place, from table[1] to table[n], where n is the length of the table. [...]

    this function sorts only arrays, the part of lua-table with number as key. And there's no need in doing this operation more than once :)

    Oh, i got the problem: in my last post, note
    
print(t[1])
end

    it's italic. Damn. It should be read as
    
print(t[ i ][1])
end


    Question: is it important to have the t-table in the form t.Ben = 79 and so on? If no, you can really use my code with the fix above.
  • Quote:
    Couple of questions, I don't understand the [2] in the
    compare function and print (t[1])... won't that print
    the entry into table t with the key of "1" or will
    it print the first key in the table?

    the compare function receives two elements of table being sorted, and should return true or false. The elements of table t looks like this:
    
{'Trogdor' ,12}

    this is again a table, with first field string 'Trogdor' and 2nd - number 12. So to access the 2nd value i write a[2], b[2].
    And t[1] was a mistake (see above), but t[ i ][1] works like this:
    
get i-th field of table t, the table {'Trogdor' ,12}
get 1st field of table {'Trogdor' ,12}, the string 'Trogdor'
Amended on Sat 21 Mar 2009 01:50 AM by Erendir
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #11
Quote:

in my last post, note

print(t[1])
end

it's italic. Damn. It should be read as

print(t[ i ][1])
end


Whenever you post code, copy it to the clipboard and then select Edit menu -> Convert Clipboard Forum Codes (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+Q) in MUSHclient. That fixes up issues like that. Otherwise things like [i] come out wrongly, and double backslashes get converted to single backslashes, and other stuff that makes your code tend to not work.
Funkenstein #12
Thanks Erendir,

I have tested your code and it works fine. However
I am still wondering if it is possible to use format for
the table without having to make tables within tables(only
reason is because all my other tables are in that same
format).

The problem I am running into is accessing the value not
the key of that particular table with the compare function
and to sort the table via the values and rearrange
the keys as well?
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #13
Not sure what you mean by rearrange the keys.

Here is another way of finding the closest, keep the original table structure and find the closest value. Since more than one player may match it, then go through a second time and show who they are:



t = {
Trogdor = 12,
Ben = 79,
Guy = 82,
Dumble = 4
}

local r = math.random(100)
print(r)

local dist = 100

for k, v in pairs (t) do
  if math.abs (r - v) < dist then
    dist = math.abs (r - v)
  end -- if close
end -- for

print ("closest is", dist)  

print ("Matching player(s) is(are):")

-- now work out who that was

for k, v in pairs (t) do
  if math.abs (r - v) == dist then
    print (k)
  end -- if close
end -- for


Example output:


81
closest is 1
Matching player(s) is(are):
Guy

Onoitsu2 USA #14
Um ... the "closest" is 81, yet in the data it says 82, was this a typo, in the data, or an error in the code?

Just seemed odd to me :)

-Onoitsu2
Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator #15
The random number was 81. The closest was 1 out, namely the entry with 82 in it.
Onoitsu2 USA #16
Ahhh missed the print(r) line, and just assumed it was the number that was closest and not the number itself.

Well it is what I get trying to read code when my 3 year old is jumping all over me ...

-Onoitsu2