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Newbie Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 6

The "Advanced Triggers" document mentions how triggers using manual states can be used to implement state machines. However, it contains few details and no examples regarding this use.

For example, suppose I want to create a trigger that fires when the MUD sends text A, then takes one of two actions depending on whether text B or text C occurs next. A concrete example would be something like:

Let A be "You attempt to hide in the shadows."
Let B be "You fail"
Let C be "You succeed"
When A fires, then B, display "You feel like an idiot."
When A fires, then C, display "You fee like a ninja!"

Knowing how to do this would enable me to build larger, more useful state machines, but being new to zMUD scripting, I need simple examples.

So, how would I build such a trigger?

Wanderer Joined: 11 Mar 2002 Posts: 93

This should work. It is how I reparse my own triggers for multiple states.

Newbie Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 6

Hmm, guess my example wasn't the best. I was trying to come up with a simple example of a trigger using manual states as a state machine.

The procedure I'm going for is performing several actions on an object in sequence. Sometimes an action fails, and I have to perform it again. Other times the action fails so badly that I have to abort the entire procedure. I drew this out as a simple state machine with a short script for each state and a pattern for each transition. Now I'm attempting to convert it to an alias/trigger combo, but I don't understand the manual trigger mechanism enough to do so without at least one simple example.

[edit] Basically, I need execution to branch exclusively depending on which pattern is received after a state's scripted actions are performed.

Adept Joined: 14 Jun 2003 Posts: 222 Location: Chile

What I use is temporary triggers to fire if a command fails
Ie:
#TRIGGER {You attempt to hide in the shadows.} {#TEMP "Hide_fail" {You fail.} {#You feel like an idiot.}}
#COND {You succeed.} {#ECHO You feel like a ninja;#T- Hide_fail}

Newbie Joined: 29 May 2005 Posts: 6

Okay, here's an example. Let's say I want to pick a lock repeatedly until it opens.

hold lockpick. Possible response patterns are "You don't have a lockpick" and "You hold a lockpick." If the former, abort the trigger.
pick lock. Possible response patterns are "fail" and "succeed". If the former, go back to step 2.
stow lockpick.

This can be represented (among other ways) by a state machine with four states, one for each step plus a final state (state 4). State 1 transitions to state 4 on "You don't have a lockpick" and state 2 on "You hold a lockpick." State 2 transitions back to state 2 on "fail" and state 3 on "succeed". State 3 transitions to state 4 unconditionally. Modeling even this simple example as a multistate trigger is causing me no end of grief.

The reason I'm trying to use a multistate trigger is that the procedures I want to script are more complicated than the above one, and I don't want to have to resort to the old-style method of manually activating/deactivating separate triggers for each step. The "Advanced Triggers" document claims that I can do this with manual triggers, but I just don't see how. Could someone enlighten me as to how manual triggers can be used to model such a state machine?

GURU Joined: 23 Dec 2000 Posts: 4834 Location: USA

I would simply reduce the state trigger to two states and have a separate trigger for the succeed/fail part.

#oninput {hold lockpick} {#noop this is just an anchor point}
#cond {You ({hold|don't have}) a lockpick.} {#if (%1 = "hold") {pick lock}}

#trigger {({fail|succeed})} {#if (%1 = succeed) {stow lockpick}}

It's not a manual state machine, technically, but I bet it's a lot better than doing it that way.

GURU Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 873 Location: USA