3.20 Emotions

Emotions are a shorthand way of expressing various emotions with one or two words. Generally, these emotions will be seen by everyone in the same location as you. There are hundreds of emotes, and more being added whenever a player suggests a good one. An example of an emote would be SMILE, to smile (unsurprisingly) or SALUTE. Most emotes may be targeted at someone too. So you could, for instance POKE IOSYNE to poke Iosyne in the arm (though poking a Goddess is a really bad idea). Emotions run the gamut from the mundane to the sometimes silly, and some players delight in trying to discover new ones.

Pre-defined emotes (emotions)
-----------------------------
  --> flutter xavin

      You see:
      You flutter your eyelashes charmingly at Xavin.

      Xavin sees:
      Ashmer flutters his eyelashes charmingly at you.

      Everyone else sees:
      Ashmer flutters his eyelashes charmingly at Xavin.

There are hundreds of pre-defined emotions available in Aetolia. The syntaxes involved for navigating and finding the emotions you are looking for are as follows:

  - EMOTIONLIST/EMLIST: Shows you a full list of the emotions available in
    alphabetical order.

  - EMOTIONLIST or EMLIST <text>: Searches the EMOTIONLIST for all emotions
    matching your search string. You can use asterisks (*) as wildcards, to
    indicate you wish to search for emotions with your word in a specific
    part of the name.

    Ex: emlist *smile : faintsmile, fakesmile, sadsmile, shysmile, smile,
                        weaksmile

        emlist back*  : backaway, backflip, backhand, backrub

        emlist *zz*   : bzzt, dizzy, huzzah, nuzzle, puzzlebox, puzzled

  - EMSHOW: Use EMSHOW <emotion> to see all messages display by the given
    emotion.

  - EMSEARCH <term>: Searches and returns any emotions that contain the 
    specified term anywhere in its messages. This is case-insensitive and
    will find the word anywhere, e.g. 'the' will match on 'synthesist'.

  - EMOTECOUNT: See the list of emotes with their usage count.

Custom emotes
-------------
You can also perform your own custom emote with the EMOTE command. For example:

  --> emote gives a brief, chilling smile
      em gives a brief, chilling smile

      Everyone sees:
      Alistaire gives a brief, chilling smile.

Your character's name need not necessarily appear at the start of each custom emote. To add yet more depth to your emotes, you might:

  --> emote (Hands on the pommel of his sword,) appraises his surroundings.

      Everyone sees:
      Hands on the pommel of his sword, Alistaire appraises his surroundings.

Please note that it is against the rules to use custom emotes to gain an advantage in combat by emulating combat abilities.

Targeted emotes
----------------
Emotes may be directed at players, allowing you to fluid control over how your actions appear. This method of targeting allows you to bypass the confusion of who does what to whom - you should always target your emotes when possible!

All instances of targeting must begin with a dollar sign ($).

  --> emote elbows $Aarbrok, and asks, "You see that guy with the hat?"

      Aarbrok sees:
      Rashar elbows you, and asks, "You see that guy with the hat?"

      Everyone else sees:
      Rashar elbows Aarbrok, and asks, "You see that guy with the hat?"

You are even able to target multiple people, or use extended pronouns for greater customization. Consider this more contrived example, using the abbreviation for the EMOTE command, pretext, and two targets:

  --> em (Collecting $Xenia's bowl,) sets about to washing it, absentmindedly
      scrubbing it clean of food. She glances askance at $Akaryuterra, and
      can't help but smile at the sight of $Akaryuterra_him, sound asleep in a
      puddle of $Akaryuterra_his own oatmeal.

      Xenia sees:
      Collecting your bowl, Eleanor sets about to washing it, absentmindedly
      scrubbing it clean of food. She glances askance at Akaryuterra, and can't
      help but smile at the sight of him, sound asleep in a puddle of his own
      oatmeal.

      Akaryuterra sees:
      Collecting Xenia's bowl, Eleanor sets about to washing it, absentmindedly
      scrubbing it clean of food. She glances askance at you, and can't help
      but smile at the sight of you, sound asleep in a puddle of your own
      oatmeal.

      Everyone else sees:
      Collecting Xenia's bowl, Eleanor sets about to washing it, absentmindedly
      scrubbing it clean of food. She glances askance at Akaryuterra, and can't
      help but smile at the sight of him, sound asleep in a puddle of his own
      oatmeal.

  -- List of emote-friendly pronouns -----------------------------------------
  The following is a list of pronoun forms you may use to target fellow
  players in emotes. Syntax is how to type the pronoun; Room is what everyone
  but the target sees; Target is what your target sees.

                   SYNTAX                ROOM       TARGET
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_he            he         you
                   $<name>_she           she        you
                   $<name>_they          they       you
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_his_yours     his        yours
                   $<name>_hers_yours    hers       yours
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_his           his        your
                   $<name>_hers          her        your
                   $<name>_their         their      your
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_him           him        you
                   $<name>_her           her        you
                   $<name>_them          them       you
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>'s             Name's     your
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_he's          he's       you're
                   $<name>_she's         she's      you're
                   ------------------------------------------
                   $<name>_himself       himself    yourself
                   $<name>_herself       herself    yourself
                   $<name>_themself      themself   yourself
                   ------------------------------------------
Note: In all cases, these will default to the correct pronoun of the target.
      e.g. if I target someone with female pronouns with $<name>_him, it will
      show up as her instead.

Tips: When using a pronoun in a targeted emote, you must have already used the
      person's name. "em shoves $daskalos down and takes $daskalos_his wallet"
      will work, but "em takes $daskalos_his wallet" won't!

      The Gods of Aetolia are respected with capitalized pronouns. When using a
      God as the target of your emote, you may use $<name>_His, $<name>_Hers,
      etc.

      You can use a caret (^) as a substitute for your name in any emote.


Language inserts
----------------
You can insert a special code into your emote in order to make your speech show up in a different language, understandable only to those with that language. The syntax for this is: [action|language|text]

Here's a breakdown of what that means.
  Action: The type of action your speech is. E.g. yelling, speaking. You can 
    give this multiple words, but it's best to keep it simple.
  Language: The language you want to speak. You must know the language, of course.
  Text: The speech being said in the language.

For those who understand the language, the 'action' text will have ', in <language>,' appended to it. For those that don't understand, it'll have 'something in an unknown language' appended instead.

Example:
  Input:
  emote strikes a pose, [uttering|minotaur|Check out these biceps]

  Output to people who speak the language:
  Razmael strikes a pose, uttering, in Minotaur, "Check out these biceps."

  Output to people that don't speak the language:
  Razmael strikes a pose, uttering something in an unknown language.

Previewing custom emotes
------------------------
You can use the PREVIEW command follow by a custom emote to preview how it will appear to everybody else. Useful for catching any errors you might have made before you send it for real!


Emoting with items/mobiles
--------------------------
Another feature of the emote system is to reference items with the '@' symbol. By doing this, the item is highlighted in the emote for all players who see it with their ansi configuration for 'things.' A brief example might be EMOTE SWINGS @YO-YO, which would evaluate to:

  Hansel swings a stylish yo-yo.

If you're worried about finding a place for @item in the context of your emote, don't fret. We've included a reasonable detection of plurality and definite/indefinite articles. If we did EMOTE SWINGS HIS @YO-YO, the emote would still evaluate to:

  Hansel swings his stylish yo-yo.

As a small reminder, any use of emotes to intentionally illusion attacks or confuse player systems is discouraged and will be punished. Emotes in which you pretend to be somebody else and perform an action that reflects this is discouraged, as well as any variations on that theme. For example, using an emote to make everyone think that Galleus slapped you so that you could kill him would be a very bad idea indeed.

Emoting game actions
--------------------
You may also add emotes onto the DROP, GET/TAKE, PUT, GIVE, MOUNT, DISMOUNT, WEAR, REMOVE and DRINK commands.

To use this, simply use the command as you normally would, followed by a normal emote within the confines of two square brackets. Such as:
 Eg. DROP PANTS [drops $item, wearing a devilish smile.]

How shocking! Not only would everybody in the room see the emote as if it had been performed in the ordinary way, Severn's pants would also be in the room.

Now keep in mind that while all custom emote features, such as pre-pending and using carets and referring to present players, are all acceptable, you will need to include the items being referenced. For PUT, GIVE, WEAR and REMOVE, this means referencing the '$item.' You must also reference the container for PUT and GIVE (if one is used in the action). For MOUNT AND DISMOUNT, remember to include $mount.

If the emote you supply in the verb fails for whatever reason, you will perform the action as if no emote was supplied at all.

Special words
-----------------------------
General:
- $item: the item you are putting, dropping, giving or taking/getting, plus the quantity of the item (e.g. "five green inks").

- $mount: similar to $item, but required for MOUNT/DISMOUNT.

i.e: DROP 5 BANANA [accidentally drops $item onto the ground as she slips on a pool of water.]                                      

1P/2P/3P: You have emoted: Niuri accidentally drops five bananas onto the ground as she slips on a pool of water.                             

When putting an item INTO another item or taking from another item:

- $container: the container holding the item you are getting, or that you are putting the item into.

When giving an item:

- $target: the person or NPC you are giving the item to. If it is a player, you can use $target_his etc and it will automatically replace it as appropriate.

   i.e GIVE CROSSBOW TO NELRON [hands $target $item solemnly.]

1P: You have emoted: Slyphe hands Nelron a wooden crossbow solemnly.
2P: Slyphe hands you a wooden crossbow solemnly.
3P: Slyphe hands Nelron a wooden crossbow solemnly.


Thinking
--------
You can use the THINK command to preface your character's private thoughts. This is only visible to you as well as any player who has the ability to read your mind, as well as the Gods who can see everything.

You may use < or > as a shortcut for thinking.

  --> think You think, "I need a pie."
  --> < Whoa, what was that sound?
  --> > You wish those stinking Monks would stop invading your privacy.

This text will appear literally, as-is, on your screen, and is automatically capitalized/punctuated like says and emotes.