Descriptions and Flee

[Lyndin]

This suggestion is closely related to the bug I filed about attempting to move while polymorphed into a panther. When polymorphed into a panther, your description is too short. You get the error message:

You aren't allowed to enter the Forgotten Kingdoms yet.
You must have a description first. See help DESCRIPTION

This includes movement involved in FLEEing from combat, as I learned much to Lyndin's detriment. If it's possible, it would be a good general-case improvement to ignore the description requirement for movement while fleeing.

[Vaemar]

At least the limit should not apply to polymorphed characters.

Or better, the default panther description, as well as that of a few other races that have the same problem, could be legnthened so that there won't be the problem anymore.

In the meantime, anyway, it is simpler to just edit your description once polymorphed, even if just to make it those few characters longer so that you can move into other rooms. When you revert to your normal form, your old description will be restored.

[Thurgan]

I agree, but as already mentioned the work around is to just set an alias for polymorph so that when you polymorph it also automatically sets your description. Its one of those quirky things that a lot of people would like to see changes, but its probably too hard to actually implement it easily due to code etc.

[Lyndin]

An alias is not quite the cure you make it out to be, because the spell has casting time. When I tried that, Lyndin got some lorem ipsum in HIS description, and the panther description was unaltered.

The only solution for setting a description for a polymorph target on the fly is going to be a trigger, which I understood to be illegal? Are triggers acceptable in this game, for non-gameplay purposes like descriptions?

[Areia]

This particular alias shouldn't include 'cast polymorph blabla', otherwise, ya, you'll mess up your own desc since there's no way to add delay to the game's aliases. It should just be something like

Code: Select all

alias panthdesc desc & /c & <Enter your panther's desc here> & /j & /s

and the like for other forms. It's two commands to enter instead of one, but it works well for me, especially once I got used to doing it. Hope that helps!

[Benorf]

Thats actually not entirely true. You can always have your alias start with cast polymorph mermaid & cast heal & stop & desc...

If you add a second spell in there, it'll cause a delay. You can either put in a fake spell so nothing happens and it just functions as a delay, or you can add the stop command to immediately quit casting the spell, then continue on in the alias commands

[Thurgan]

There are other methods also other than triggers depending on what mud client your using. For example I have a button to set my description when polymorphed/shapechanged

[Grenwyn]

Thats actually not entirely true. You can always have your alias start with cast polymorph mermaid & cast heal & stop & desc...

If you add a second spell in there, it'll cause a delay. You can either put in a fake spell so nothing happens and it just functions as a delay, or you can add the stop command to immediately quit casting the spell, then continue on in the alias commands

As someone who is mildly obsessed with polymorph descriptions, this is amazing and I am surprised I haven't run across it before.

[Benorf]

Thats actually not entirely true. You can always have your alias start with cast polymorph mermaid & cast heal & stop & desc...

If you add a second spell in there, it'll cause a delay. You can either put in a fake spell so nothing happens and it just functions as a delay, or you can add the stop command to immediately quit casting the spell, then continue on in the alias commands

As someone who is mildly obsessed with polymorph descriptions, this is amazing and I am surprised I haven't run across it before.

Glad I could help! Its the most efficient way I've found to chain commands with spells.

For example, when I'm mining, I'll type cast 'revive' ;cast 'revive' ;stop ;mine ;mine ;mine... etc. That way I can maximize my efficiency.