Hello,
I am sure that I am not alone in this, but I think that grouping in all the IRE games is extremely poor.
When you follow someone you mor or less have no real idea where you are going. When you lose balance or eq due to whatever reason and your leader is moving you stay behind and you have to follow again. I am sorry, but this is just poor.
Since my Achaean days I have never understood why there is such a poor group/team support. IRE muds seem to be made completely for single players.

As Lusternia is the first IRE mud to have a completely new design of the world I would like to suggest some improvements about grouping or teaming.
First of all it would be great if you would have the option to really see where you are going when you follow someone, similar to 'brief' and 'verbose'.
Then it would be great if you could create a group that would not immediatedly split up as soon as someone who follows has to regain balance or eq. Let them remain in the group. Of course the team leader has to return so the group member would follow again but that member wouldn't have to type 'follow bob' again.
Additionally I can imagine some general improvements.
For example there could be an improved group-command. When you type 'group' or 'team' you would see those who are part of the group and you would get a rough estimate about their health, for example:

group

Bob (leader) He is in good shape.
Peter He is in good shape.
Paul He is slightly hurt.
Mary She is in bad shape.

It would allow healers a chance to cure team members effectively and with the option to get room descriptions including mobs and pcs it would make teaming more interesting.

Three cheers for good ideas

Prefer the first part to the second part. I keep thinking assess needs to lose its balance req like contemplate did, and when it does, a discernment thing that looks at everyone in a location like that would rock.

*coughcovenscough*

Yeah, its a good idea.

I'd really love if they simply took the coven system right now, and made it into the group system, then made covens a more permanent group, sort of like a minor clan. I think it help groups, and allow more coven RP.

I agree with the general idea of your post, groups could really use some looking into. However, many of your examples are easily fixed with some basic scripting and a group leader who pays attention (like Malicia, she rocks! )



To solve this you only need one simple trigger.

For verbose output


For brief output


There you go, problem 1 is solved.



The leader should be paying more attention. I've been in a few groups with Ethelon, Munsia, and Malicia. Very rarely did they lose someone, when they did we promptly got them back. If your leader is paying attention and knows what they're doing this shouldn't be a huge problem. On the same token, the players in the group need to LIMIT the things they do that take balance/equilibrium. If you're group leader is running down a road, it's not a good time to start deffing up. If you're going to go to sleep for a minute, don't just plop over and snooze, let everyone know.

Another point, why is the group moving to search for the player? In lusternia we have teleport, an amazing and useful skill. The lost player should message the leader that he's lost and to expect a teleport. The group stops to defend the room. The player teleports in and follows. The group continues to move.

I agree there could be a better interface for all of this, but if everyone knows the limitations and adjusts it's not a big issue.



Type WHO HERE, problem solved. You can even add WHO HERE to your follow trigger, then it's always there. Yes, people you can't see won't show up. Get thirdeye or an enchantment that does the same thing. I think it would be perfect if they implemented Shiri's idea and got rid of the balance req on assess. Then a 5-10 line script would take care of what you're looking for.

I agree with the general concept of what you're saying, grouping/teaming needs some work. But look at the tools and commands available to you, you can easily get much of this functionality with a few lines of code. And don't group with idiots

I made that trigger. I deleted it 5 minutes later because the spam was horrendous, which is why it doesn't show you where you've moved to, it just gives you the name.

i like the idea, whenever we fight in groups its always hard to let someone lead when i odnt know what im doing as there are few people i trust to lead me into combat, if there was a way of seeing the groups health and where im going etc i would find it much easier and funner

All it takes is a good leader and a lot of experience, groups work fine.

You can succor individuals, but perhaps a skill in Healing that would allow you assess the status of members of your group?

yeah but amaru there are very few good leaders i would trust to take me into combat...you are one of them though

Not even the best leaders can handle annoying novices who just leave dont have teleport and so you teleport to them to walk all the way again in again then wanna quest in delport and demand you take them there.... so annoying

Ignore them?

if you ignore them and they die or something normally everyone blames you making it all a whole lot worse

So learn summon, it's not much higher in planar.

Takes an ungodly amount of time though. Plus they might resist it.