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Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

What you are looking for are called record variables in zMud and Cmud. These variables consist of 'keys' each of which can be given a unique value. You define record variables with the syntax <recordvar>.<key> = <value> syntax or with the command #ADDKEY <recordvar> <key> <value> To retrieve the value associated with a record variable key, you use the syntax @<recordvar>.<key> or %db(@<recordvar>, <key>) Using a record variable will make it much easier for you to keep all of this data organized efficiently, since it would let you replace the twenty-eight variables in your current script with just one record variable that contains twenty-eight key/value pairs.

In your case, you could define the suggested 'comstats' variable like so:
comstats.kills = 0
comstats.bashhit = 0
comstat.bashmiss = 0

OR

#ADDKEY comstats kills 0
#ADDKEY comstats bashhit 0
#ADDKEY comstats bashmiss 0

OR

#ADDKEY comstats {kills=0|bashhit=0|bashmiss=0}

That's three different methods of defining the same single record variable, called 'comstats' so that it contains three key/value pairs. More key/value pairs can be added as needed.

Then to retrieve these values you might use code something like this:
#SAY You have made @comstats.kills kills.
#SAY You have missed %db(@comstats, bashmiss) bashes.

The %d %w patterns Shalimar is suggesting you use in your trigger patterns are called wild cards in zMud and Cmud. You can find a list of what they do in the help files under wild cards, or look on this page for the online help for pattern matching.

Hope that helps

Novice Joined: 25 Apr 2011 Posts: 32

Badass, man. That'll help me a ton! :)

What do you make of Shinde's thoughts on using * as a basic catch-all wildcard in my triggers?

Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

Anchoring the patterns means using the ^ character and the $ character in your trigger patterns where the line would begin and end. This is a very good idea and something you should try to do whenever possible. It will prevent your triggers from being 'tricked' by invalid lines and also allows the triggers to be checked more efficiently (with less lag/latency).

So, for example, you might change the trigger:
#TRIGGER {You attempt to stab*in the back with *, but miss.} {#ADD backstabmiss 1}
to instead be:
#TRIGGER {^You attempt to stab*in the back with *, but miss.$} {#ADDKEY comstats backstabmiss %eval(@comstats.backstabmiss + 1)}
I've almso incorporated the code to increment a comstats.backstabmiss key/value pair so you can get an idea of how you'd want to do that.

Using a wildcard other than * is also a good idea whenever possible. * matches absolutely anything, which can create issues. Generally, you want to use as precise a wildcard as possible, but it's difficult to recommend better patterns without knowing what the possibilities are for each of the echoes you want to recognize. If you look through the list of wild cards you'll see all of the patterns zMud can recognize. Combine those as needed, and try to favor the more precise wild cards over the more permissive ones.

Novice Joined: 25 Apr 2011 Posts: 32

But in the case of where a player's name or an npc's name would be, it would be best to use * because the names can be multiple words and thousands of possibilities, right?

Apprentice Joined: 22 Mar 2009 Posts: 149

That's probably true, yes.

Novice Joined: 25 Apr 2011 Posts: 32

I'm just curious if something like this:

Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 12:58 am

use #ADDKEY not #VAR and it should, yes