Orders for sfop
Scott Drellishak
Orders for sfop, as of 2-15-92
I run the server on bezier.berkeley.edu, and I'm the author of sfop, the
robot which often runs there on robot nights. Since sfop is pretty single
minded most of the time, and not much of a team player, I modified it so
that players on its team can send it messages. Here is the currently
available list of commands:
- order patrol [planet]
Causes the robot to patrol the named planet (you only need enough
of the planet's name to uniquely identify it). It will orbit the
planet, attacking anyone who comes near, until it dies. Then it
reverts to hostility.
- order take
Returns sfop to normal hostility (planet-taking in its own good
time) mode. This will override any of the previous commands.
- order take [planet]
Overrides the standard planet-choosing algorithm. If you notice
that sfop is going to take a planet, and you're making a run at
the enemy's home planet, you can order sfop to make a simultaneous
attack (be aware that it may hesitate quite a bit before diving in).
Note that this command doesn't force sfop into planet-taking mode,
but simple affects its choice of planet when it decides it's ready
to take one. Use the "order take" command to put it in planet-
taking mode.
- order map [planet] *or*
order touch [planet]
sfop will try to touch the named planet until your team has info
on it, then it returns to hostility.
- order bomb [planet]
sfop will try to bomb the named planet until it is down to 4 or
less, then it returns to hostility.
- order escort [player] [planet]
sfop will preceed the named player (either a unique part of the
players name, or the player number), attacking enemies who come
nearby, so that the player can take the specified planet. Just
as the planet comes on the edge of the escorted player's screen,
sfop will run ahead and clear off the planet -- it's a good idea
to slow down a little so you don't get caught in the crossfire.
sfop returns to hostility when the planet is taken, or when the
player dies.
- order ogg [player]
sfop will do its best to hunt down the named player and kill
him. It'll keep trying until the person dies, even if it
dies, so this is a good way to tell sfop to harass a starbase.
When the player dies (whether or not sfop killed him), sfop
returns to hostility.
- order report *or*
order r
sfop will report its status. This includes shields, damage,
type of ship, and number of armies. Most importantly, though,
it tells you what sfop is doing. If you're going to send an
order to sfop, check his status first -- if it's doing anything
besides "TAKING", assume that someone else on your team has
already sent it an order. Hopefully, this will cut down on
tugs-of-war about what sfop should do next.
Only players on the same team can send messages to sfop (others will
be ignored). Because there were about 4 people ordering it around one
night, sfop now only takes orders from people with Commander rank (or
above). Also, sfop will tell you to try again later if it's currently
doing something it considers important (like carrying armies).
With all these functions, be patient. It may seem to you that sfop is
taking forever to ogg a player. Don't re-order it to do so. If you
got the confirmation message the first time, sfop is working on it. The
only other possibility is that somebody else overrode your order. If
sfop is doing something too slow for your taste, do it yourself.
Also, sfop now responds to the Industry Standard " " messsage.
Actually, it responds to any message which ends with five spaces, even
if is has other text, because I'm lazy. Sue me.
I greatly appreciate comments and suggestions about this command facility.
Scott Drellishak