Pause between spells! Options

[Sikret]

This tutorial contains a false comment inside one of its codes:

This is a technique used to account for the pause between spellcasting. It cuts off spellcasting actions when they cannot be performed,[...] So, you might have the following block:


IF
    !GlobalTimerNotExpired("castnattack","LOCALS")
    HaveSpellRES("spwi999",Myself)
THEN
    RESPONSE #100
        SetGlobalTimer("castnattack","LOCALS",6) // Timer always set to 6, as that is the duration of the pause
        SpellRES("spwi999",LastSeenBy(Myself))
END

Well, this is wrong!

As I have mentioned elsewhere the duration of the pause is NOT 6. I don't know how many modders might have been misled by the fasle comment inside the code which says "as that is the duration of the pause", but it's now perhaps the time to let people know that it is false.

The duration of the pause varies from spell to spell (it's not 6 for every spell). I know the exact duration of the pause for each and every spell, but the easiest way to implement the correct duration of the pause is to use "SpellNoDec" instead of "ForceSpell" as it is implemented in Improved Anvil.

[Sikret]

While Sim's comment in question may look just ambigious, and not explicitly false, it's obvious that its general interpretation will be: pause between the end of casting a spell and the start of casting the next one, which will result in malfunctioning for those who interpret it in this way.

Yes, the natural interpretation of the phrase "pause between spells" is the period of time during which the caster is not casting (i.e. the time between the end of the first spell and the beginning of the second one). Honestly, I don't see how it can be interpreted in a different way, but even if we agree that the phrase is ambiguous (rather than false), such a highly ambiguous and misleading phrase needs to be edited to avoid confusions. However, it's upto Sim to decide whether to correct and optimize his tutorial or not. His attitude shows that I did the right thing by not wasting my time in another site reporting anything directly to him.

Furthermore, my point about using "SpellNoDec" instead of "ForceSpell" makes that particualr part of his tutorial entirely redundant. The code will not need to include any timer.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jun 28 2006, 06:24 AM