chapter 3 "Your Health and Abilities"

    In the previous chapter you learned the basics of getting 
around and taking care of yourself. It's important also to care
*for* yourself, and this chapter describes the various aspects of
your body's state and what abilities you may have.


    The command that tells you almost everything you need to
know is "stat". This diplays a whole lot of stuff, perhaps some of
it completely unfamiliar. Let's start at the top, using my output
as an example.

First line:
----------
%^CYAN%^Cratylus aka Cratylus the unaccomplished, level 10 male human Explorer%^RESET%^

    Here you see my short name, my name with title, my level, my
gender, my race, and my class. Let's go over each.

* short name: What a person would use to address you. "look at cratylus",
for example.

* name with title: This displays my title. Creators can have whatever title
they want. Players can only have the titles they earn. As a player, a
title is usually earned when you are promoted a level or complete a
quest, though it is not always so on every mud.

* level: This is a measure of your overall experience, expertise, and
all-around game status. Being promoted a level means your skills,
health, and vital statistics increase. This often means you can handle
tougher monsters, for example, or tackle more challenging quests, learn
new spells, and so on.

* gender: This has no effect on your status. It is a cosmetic feature
of your body that is only useful to you in the social context of your
fellow mud players.

* race: In Dead Souls, race has nothing to do with your local genetic
makeup on planet Earth. In the mud, "race" refers to what one typically
would call "species" in real-life. An example of a race other than human
might be "orc" or "feline". Not all races are available for players. Once
you have chosen a race to play, it is in theory possible to change it, but
there is a nonzero chance you'll hose up your player file and lose your
character forever. Besides, it's up to your local admins whether race
changing is permitted on your mud. Different races have different
abilities. Elves see better in darkness, for example. Orcs are stronger
than some other humanoids, but dumber, too (which does affect gameplay).

* class: This can be considered an occupational specialty. In the real
world you have plumbers, doctors, soldiers, etc. In the mud world, 
we can have explorers, fighters, mages, and the like. Each class brings
its own unique advantages and disadvantages to your gameplay. A fighter
can really kick more butt in melee combat than a mage, but a mage 
gets to cast powerful spells. Explorers are a middle of the road class
that gives you a bit of everything without specializing in anything.



Next line:
----------

%^CYAN%^Alive / Awake%^RESET%^

    It is indeed possible for your virtual body to cease life functions.
When this happens your spirit speeds off to the land of the dead,
where you drift until you decide to "regenerate" and regain your
physical form. Except for some special magical items, anything you
were carrying when you died is with that dead body, so it's a good
idea to rush your new body back to the scene of the fatality and get
your stuff back before someone else grabs it. Death is not only
inconvenient, it also incurs major penalties on your statistics, so it
should be avoided.
    It is also possible to sleep. If you are drunk and asleep, your 
injuries will heal more quickly. It's magic, don't worry about the
logic behind it.
    If you are attacked while sleeping, you will wake up. You can
force yourself awake, too, but it's a bit tedious.


Next line:
---------

%^CYAN%^Health: 350/350   Magic: 560/560   Stamina: 400/400   Carry: 1184/1300%^RESET%^

    In each case, the number on the left of the slash indicates the
current level, and the number on the right indicates what the maximum is.

health: When I am 100% healthy, I have a total of 350 hp. If my hp ever
reach 0 or less (!), I die. Poison and illness can cause hp's to
gradually decrease, and although with time my hp's will normally
return to 350 as I heal, poison and illness can slow down that healing
or even cause me to die. Injury in combat is the most common source
of hp loss, though spells, falls, and other adverse events can cause
you injury or death.

magic: I cast magic missile! Spell casting takes a toll on your magical
abilities, and mp measure how much magic you've got left in you at
any given point. Like hp, mp gradually grow back to your max if you
avoid spellcasting for a while.

stamina: Fighting is tough work, and swinging around swords while
getting bashed with hammers really takes a lot out of a guy. Therefore
keep an eye on this stat while you're fighting, because if it gets too
low you will collapse and be unable to do anything for a while.

carry: Objects have mass, and your body is of limited size and strength.
My carry capacity is 0 when I carry nothing, and 1300 when I can 
carry no more. Creators are allowed to exceed their bodies' carry
capacity, but players cannot. 


Next line:
---------

%^CYAN%^Food: 0    Drink: 0    Alcohol: 0    Caffeine: 0    Poison: 0 %^RESET%^

    These are pretty self-explanatory. Alcohol is good for healing,
bad for fighting. Food and drink also help speed healing. Poison
has the opposite effect. Caffeine can speed up your combat slightly,
but tends to prevent full rest. 
    You will not die from lack of food or lack of drink, but you
will do better with a body not starved for nutrients. 
    Your maximum load for any of these is not fixed, and varies
depending on many factors, such as level, endurance, etc. 


Next line:
---------

%^CYAN%^Training Points: 0    Quest Points: 0    Experience Points: 50 %^RESET%^

    Training points can be cashed in with special NPC's called
trainers, who can help you improve some skills. A trainer that
specializes in fighting might be able to raise your "blade attack"
skill, for example. you earn training points when you are
promoted a level.

    Quest points are awarded when you complete a quest. In
the default version of Dead Souls, you cannot advance past a
certain player level unless you earn some qp's. Read the sign
in the adventurers guild for more details on this.

    Experience points can be awarded for various reasons: completing
a quest, solving a puzzle, winning a contest. Most often you
will receive xp after killing an NPC. The amount of xp awarded
will depend on the level of the NPC. Like qp, xp are needed to
qualify for level advancement.



Limb section:
------------

    Remember how wearing armor requires the right body parts?
Well here they are, and this is their health. You can issue the
"body" command for a quicker self-check.
    Let's look at what the numbers mean with an example:

%^CYAN%^left leg        (2) 160/160%^RESET%^

   Obviously the first item identifies the limb in question.

   The (2) is a kind of "importance score", indicating how critical
a body part is. If this number is (1), like the head, it means that
losing that limb causes immediate death.

   The number on the right side of the slash indicates the hit point
damage you may receive on that limb before it is severed. The number
on the left is how many of those hits you have left.
   It doesn't mean my leg has 160 of my hitpoints. If that were true,
my hit points would add up to a heck of a lot more than 350.
    This means that if I've lost, say, 200hp fighting a troll, and
159hp of those hits were on my left leg, getting hit there again means I
lose my left leg.
    I would then collapse and have to crawl away to seek medical attention.
Wearing armor on your limbs is a great way to minimize the danger of
this happening.


Skills section:
--------------

    Let's review skills by examining one of mine:

%^CYAN%^blade attack  (1) 00% - 20/24%^RESET%^

    This measures how likely I am to hit an opponent when I
use a blade, and how good a hit it was. The number (1) means
that this is a skill critical to my class. If an explorer can't 
swing a sword, he oughta think about another line
of work. 
    The 00% means I have thus far earned no blade  attack
experience toward achieving the next level of this skill.
    The 20 is my current proficiency level.
    The 24 is the maximum level I can reach at my current
player level and with my current stats.

    What's all this mean? Well, if I practice a lot of blade
attacking, that 00% will gradually climb up to 99, and one more
point causes me to go from a level 20 slicer of things to a
level 21 slicer of things. This increases my likelihood of
hitting my target in the future.

    Meaning, in short, practice a skill, and you'll get
better at it.

    Of course, if my blade attack level reaches 24, I can advance
my blade attack skills no further until my player level rises.


Stats section:
-------------

    Remember these from Dungeons & Dragons? No? Well these vital
statistics measure your general giftedness in that feature of your
body. Let's look at one of mine:

%^CYAN%^coordination (2) 42/42%^RESET%^

    Coordination is one of those important stats for fighting and
such. The more coordinated you are, the more likely you are to hit your 
target. The (2) indicates that this stat is important to my class,
but not critical. This influences its effect on my skills.
    42/42 means that my coordination is not currently impaired. If
someone cast a "stumble" spell on me, for example, this might look more
like 30/42, and if I were drunk, it would look very shabby indeed.

New characters should avail themselves of the "customize" command.
When you create a character, you are assigned stats based on
random numbers modified by the race you choose. For example, humans
are physically weaker than other races, so you might have a 
strength of 15 as a human, whereas a dwarf might expect something
like 42. On the other hand, humans tend to be quite smart, and so
your human character might have a high intelligence stat, and
the dwarf a substantially lower one. To balance out stats that
are grossly unfair, new characters are given 15 points to spend
to add to their stats. As a human with 15 strength, you might
choose to throw all your customization points into strength, adding
up to a whopping 30. Or you might choose to distribute points
among your stats in a manner most suited to your playing style.
For syntax and details, type:

help customize


Last section:
------------

"Cratylus has amassed a net worth of 11 gold." means that when you
add up the money in my bank accounts and the money I'm carrying,
converted to gold, I have 11 gold to my name. It looks bad, but gold
is actually quite valuable in the default Dead Souls economy.

"Money on hand: 79 dollars, 34 silver" means that this is the amount of
money I'm carrying. Don't forget that the amount of money you are carrying
affects your overall carry capacity. Gold is an especially heavy
currency.


Final notes:
-----------

    "stat" is a great command to get thorough information about
yourself. It is, however, quite a screenful. Briefer reports can be
viewed with the following commands:

%^GREEN%^body%^RESET%^
%^GREEN%^skills%^RESET%^
%^GREEN%^stats%^RESET%^
%^GREEN%^score%^RESET%^
%^GREEN%^status%^RESET%^
