home » builders » builder's lessons » mobile skills and spells trainers

Mobile skills and spells trainers

On Forgotten Kingdoms we don't use ACT_TRAIN and ACT_PRACTICE. We are of the belief that no one person knows all skills. So our trainers are set up to know a few skills in a specialised area. For instance a weapons trainer might teach some weapon skills but not wizard spells. As a rule of thumb a mobile will know no more than 3 skills (we dropped this down from the original 6 now that the game has grown to the point where trainers are numerous). If someone is not of the right guild/class for a particular skill when they type train in the game that skill will not be listed. Please make sure you give your mobile appropriate things to train. For instance it does not make sense the a dwarven warrior would train magic missile or charisma.

No area should be a one stop training point for any class. So lets say you were building a thieves guild, you cant go and put all of the thieves skills in your area. The game has been designed that characters should seek trainers from all over, not just in one spot. Builders doing their first area often have each mob training several skills and its pretty much a one stop shop, and the area gets sent back to builder, or the designer told, thats too many skills etc.

There are some skills/spells/feats that are limited or have trainers that are hard to get to. I am not going to list them individually but here is the general stuff.

Trades are not put on a trainer like other skills. Trades are only learnt by a quest. See the lessons on trade skills and writing trade quests for more information.
Transport spell trainers must be a quest to learn from or find. Or put on a book or scroll that can be written into the spellbook that was a quest reward.
Brew and scribe are now quests to learn. Do not put these skills on your mobs.

And if you are not sure, email the builders admins and ask. If you know a skill or feat to be hard to find, ASK first.

The skills known to a mob are added to the end of their mobile information before any mobile programs. Lets give our dwarf a few skills that he can train.

#QQ00
smelly dwarf short~
{30}a short smelly dwarf~
{30}A short smelly dwarf is drinking an ale here.~
{30}He is very short for a dwarf with dark hair and a dark beard.  He has a
stubby nose and beady eyes.  His hands are large and calloused from
many hours of work at the forge.  He is of a very sturdy build with arms
and legs like small tree trunks. He is wearing mithril chainmail armour.
~
U 25 CLASS_WARRIOR RACE_DWARF SEX_MALE POS_STANDING DEITY_NONE
ACT_SENTINEL|ACT_CITIZEN
AFF_BERSERK
ARMOR_TYPE_PLATE_MAIL MATERIAL_MITHRIL
d10+2 500
13 13 13 13 13 13 13
0 0 0 0 0
LANG_COMMON|LANG_DWARVEN
LANG_COMMON|LANG_DWARVEN
RIS_MAGIC RIS_NONE RIS_NONE
%10 1 dig~
%10 2 short axes~
>fight_prog 15~
say By Moradin's Hammer I will defeat you!
~
|

%10 1 dig~
%10 2 short axes~

Our dwarf can train dig and short axes. Every skill listing goes at the end of the general mobile information before the mobile program. It is preceded by a %. The 10 in this case means he can train the skill up to a skill level of 10. Max skill level is 25. Trainers with the ability to train to 25 should be very very rare if at all. Most trainers would train below 12.

The next figure (1 for dig and 2 for short axes) determines the price. The actual price of a skill is dependant on the level of the skill with 50 copper being the cheapest price. The 2 in short axes denotes that he charges twice the price. So if short axes is a level 1 skill which is 50 copper or 1 silver, the trainer doubles it to charge 100 copper or 1 gold. This ability to charge more is very handy if you want the trainer to be able to train the skill to a high level. For instance if a trainer can bring a skill up to a skill level of 12 then he might charge 3 times the normal price. It means that players might want to seek out cheaper trainers. Also if a skill is high level in the game we dont want the skill to be that cheap to train so upping the price works in that situation too.

Spells use the same syntax as the skills. Our dwarf is not a mage or a cleric and therefore he does not cast spells, and he should not train them either.