The Last Outpost is a text adventure game that you play by typing in commands. The game provides convenience features that make text entry easier. Some of the more important interface options are listed on this page.
The PROMPT command changes the information displayed in your command prompt. You can use it to select a pre-defined prompt format, such as 'standard' or 'percent', or you can create a custom prompt using these substitution strings:
$h,$m,$v - Current hit points, mana, or movement $H,$M,$V - Maximum hit points, mana, or movement $e/E - Current experience points, Exp since last score $l - Experience required until next level $g,$G - Current gold, Gold since last score $b - Gold in the bank $i,$s,$w - Current items carried, valuables, or weight $I,$S,$W - Maximum items carried, valuables, or weight $p - Current position $c,$C - Enable or disable ANSI colorization $z,$Z - Current zone name $o - Orienteering location $t - Time of day at server $f,$F - number of opponents, groups number of opponents $a,$A - All affects summary, Buff affects summary $+ - Telnet IAC GA $$ - The $ sign $\ - a newline
Adding a % sign between the $ and the letter code tells the prompt to print out the value as a relative percentage of its maximum. For example, $%h will print 100 if your hit points are at max, and 0 if you are dead. Values that can be expressed this way are also colorized, regardless of the % option.
Examples:
prompt standard prompt %$%h hp $p>
The pre-defined prompts are:
default - Simple prompt that shows hp mana and v.
percent - Same as default, but shows the values as percentages
standard - The same as default.
hits - Shows hitpoints, movement, and current position. Useful for warriors.
items - Info about current inventory. Useful when in shops.
munchkin - Shows a lot of data for the player who is into point optimization.
multiline - Shows extra information in a multiline prompt format.
hacknslash - Standard prompt plus exp to level and position.
traveler - Shows points as fractions, experience, and current zone.
whereami - Standard prompt plus position and zone.
expwatch - Same as whereami with addition of server time and exp since last score check.
The status command echoes its arguments back to you after performing the same variable substitutions as the PROMPT command. This is useful for getting a number like current hitpoints on request without having to wade throuh all of the usual score output, which can be cumbersome when the game is played in a screen reader.
Because of the complexity of its arguments, the status command is meant to be called from different aliases or hotkey definitions.
Example:
Set the prompt to show nothing: prompt $+
Set up an alias to show current hitpoints: alias ;hits status You have $h hitpoints.
Set up a hotkey to show percent hitpoints: hotkey H
status $%h%
Hit the H key: 77%
Run the alias: ";hits" - You have 99 hitpoints.
PRONOUNS can be used instead of names to refer to things that you can see.
me: your character
him, her: the first male or female in the room
it: the first creature or item in the room or inventory
this: the first item in inventory
that: the first item in the room
friend, member: the first group member in the room
foe, enemy: your opponent in a fight, or the first non group member in
the room
ORDINALS can be used to specify which specific thing you are referring to when the name has more than one match. To specify a particular thing out of a list, put a number and a '.' in front of the name. You can also put 'all.' in front of the name to refer to the entire list.
Examples:
'kill him' - kill the first man in the room.
'bash 10.orc' - bash the tenth orc in the room.
'get it' - pick up the first item in the room.
'put it 3.bag' - put the first carried item into the third bag.
'get all.coins' - pick up all of the coins
'look at that' - look at the first item in the room
The Last Outpost provides a powerful in game command line editor. It is available whenever you connect to the game from a client that provides a "character at a time" style interface, such as the LO web client running on a desktop PC.
The command line editor supports many common keyboard shortcuts that make it easier to edit the commands you send to the game. You can use the up and down arrows to cycle through your recent command history, for example. Here is a list of special keystrokes that the editor understands:
Ctrl-l = Clear the screen
Ctrl-r = Replace aliases with substitutions
Ctrl-a = Move cursor to start of line
Ctrl-b = Move cursor left
Ctrl-f = Move cursor right
Ctrl-e = Move cursor to end of line
Ctrl-k = Delete to end of line
Ctrl-u = Delete the whole line
Ctrl-n = Cycle history down
Ctrl-p = Cycle history up
Ctrl-c = Drop queued commands
TAB = Auto-complete word
If you are connecting through a client that provides its own input method editor, your client may offer different editing options.
The hotkey command allows you to set certain keys to trigger an immediate action. There are two types of hotkeys, 'Function' keys and 'Start of Line Only' keys.
The Function keys are the F-keys on your keyboard. Whenever a function hotkey is hit, regardless of where the cursor is on the line, the current input line is discarded, and the hotkey action is executed. The function keys that can be set are F1-F12, Home, End, PgUp, and PgDn.
The Start of Line Only keys are regular keys that trigger an action when they are the very first key to be entered on the input line. Start of Line Only keys do NOT trigger a hotkey action anywhere other then when entered at an empty prompt. The Start of Line Only keys that can be set are uppercase A-Z, 0-9, and the symbols +-.*/ .
To define a hotkey, type
hotkey [keyname] [command string]
To delete a hotkey, type
hotkey delete [keyname]
You can chain multiple actions together with the '|' character, and the commands will be executed in order when the hotkey is hit.
Note that in-game hotkeys may not be available if you are connecting to the game through a line-mode style mud client. You will need to consult your client documentation for how to set up in-client hotkeys.
Examples:
hotkey f2 history tell | history gossip hotkey home cast 'word of recall' | drink well hotkey K kill it hotkey 1 cast 'cure light' me
