Training bows and code abuse

[Jaenoic]

I had a thought, because I have a character who chooses to train mostly on dummies rather than living beings. Is it considered code abuse to fire at dummies from a room away, if the dummies cannot move to attack you? Essentially making it so you can safely continue firing and training without any risk to you. I can see both sides, that it is and isn't abuse. It isn't because ICly you *can* fire at dummies from a safe distance away, and they won't come at you; they're dummies. But on the other hand it could be argued that it should not be so easy to train and increase weapon skills without any risk to you.

Is there an official stand point on this? If not, thoughts?

[Harroghty]

This is certainly not official and it is from a real world point of view but, as a U.S. Marine, we practice shooting at things far away on a routine basis as a matter of course. I am not sure what the game administration's opinion of this will be but, as a real life combatant: it's historical, practical and desirable to improve your weapon skills with as little risk to yourself as possible. I realize it is unrealistic in some cases to do this in game (flying over a monster's head indoors and attacking with spells) but, in my opinion, the point of dummies is to avoid risk.

[Japcil]

I believe the point that it becomes abuse is when you are using a way around code to prevent the mob from entering the room to battle you. Like sector restrictions prevent mobs from entering certain areas. If I shoot a bandit while swimming on the shoreline the bandit would realistically enter and fight me but he cannot because their is no shoreline sector and the mob is flagged to not swim in the sea, or leave the road. Now I thought that when a mob was 'hunting' or following its attacker it was changed to bypass sector restrictions but I cannot confirms that was ever implemented.

[Mele]

There's targets in game to train bows on, if you can get to them / have someone bring you to them. :D I don't see anything wrong with practicing bows on dummies, personally.

[Selveem]

Why do dummies fight back, anyhow?

Golems, I could understand..

[Oghma]

They might be magical.

[Selveem]

Dummies given mobility would then become Golems, though, no?

[Jaenoic]

I think the easy answer, Selveem, is that I don't believe it is possible to code a mob that doesn't fight back.

[Japcil]

We have a flag for it, its up to a builder to select to use it or not.

[Nedylene]

honestly I think as long as they are at an archery range it is not code abuse

[Jaenoic]

But in this case, they are not archery targets. They are just dummies set up in a general purpose training area.

[Raona]

I think it's a tough call. There *are* archery targets in-game that logically don't attack. But they could be set up by anyone, anywhere - just plop a hat on a hay bale. They just aren't in the area code for every area, so some PCs don't have access to proper "archery targets." I guess I'd split the difference - if you are attacking a dummy you could readily survive in hand-to-hand combat, go ahead and use it for archery practice. If the dummy could wipe the walls with you, and using a bow allows you to best a dummy that you otherwise could not, probably better to refrain, hoping there are other targets accessible to you somewhere.

By the by, "the-one-who-must-not-be-named-lest-you-be-re-coded-as-a-newt" really dislikes the term "code abuse" - maybe we can call it "bug exploitation?"

Mind - I'm certainly no more a rules arbiter than the asker of this question - this is just my take on it.

[Jaenoic]

Not to derail (my own) thread, but what's to dislike about the term code abuse?

[Selveem]

Any chance to get a response on this?

I waited a while and watched it curiously.

I also want to know how this affects those who use ranged spells.

I'm not certain why dummies attack anyhow aside from keeping people past level 10 from leveling off of them.