There are many commands in COW related to the art of combat.

read the book of combat

QUICK GUIDE:

Detecting life at or near your location:
- detect life

Creating life:
- create a creature. cpr it

Finding out what auto-spawn creatures you can afford to spawn:
- spawn

Spawning life that is able to automatically respawn itself after being dead a while:
- spawn elf from passive1

Giving a spawned creatue treasure to drop whenever it is killed:
- spawn gnome from passive1. create a yellow coin worth 10. give it to the gnome

Fighting living creatures in melee:
- create a rabbit. cpr it. attack it

If it drops treasure (for example: a coin), erase the coin
or
Keep the treasure if it is useful to you. (Specially coded objects can be identified by detect code)

Obtaining the ability for magic:
- goto the potion of mana. use it (only gives max 1 mana)
or
- goto the combat student. attack it
He sometimes drops a bubbling potion. If he drops something else then come back later and try again after he respawns.
Note: there may be other mana treasure drops sprinkled around COW's creatures.

Healing living creatures with magic:
- cast heal at the rabbit
or
- cast heal (on yourself)

Harming living creatures with magic:
- cast fire at the rabbit (note: this spell is unavailable when you first start practicing magic. Cast a few heal spells until you can gain enough mana to cast fire.

Resurrecting dead creatures:
- cpr me (if you are dead)
or
- cpr the rabbit (if the rabbit is dead)

Guarding living creatures:
- create a creature. cpr it. guard it

Making one creature guard another:
- create a merchant. cpr it. create a soldier. cpr it. force the soldier to guard the merchant
(note: you as well as creatures can guard exits unless you are in a sanctuary)

Wielding a weapon:
- create a knife. wield it
or
- create a creature. cpr it. create a knife. force the creature to wield the knife

Unwielding a weapon.
- create a knife. wield it. push it

Putting your weapon in its sheath.
- create a silver dagger. create a green sheathe. wear the green sheathe. sheathe the silver dagger in the green sheathe

Repairing a weapon:
- goto a blacksmith called stan
- then talk to stan
or
- put your weapon on the forge, then watch as your character works on it.
(repairs are done, then improvements are made, your aim determines how well this works)

Improving a weapon with special attacks:
- goto a blacksmith called stan
- then put your weapon on the forge, and watch as your character works on it.
(Special attacks are added when your weapon reaches 20, 30, 40, and 50 points.)


Getting past the 10 mana cap:
- find zulphur

Enchanting a weapon
- practice magic until you can store 10 mana
- visit Zulphur to remove the barrier to advancement beyond 10
- practice some more until you can store at least 11 mana
- Visit the chamber of enchantment (start/training shed/east/north/north)
- wield your weapon
- use one of the talismans and choose the enchantment
- after gaining mana, return periodically to use it again with the same enchantment to recharge the enchantment

Wearing armour:
- create a shield. wear it (note: armour is not part of the battle system yet)

Advancing to the 2nd combat level:
- find a trainer named sparticles
- then goto it
- then talk to sparticles

Level 1 combat areas:
- The arena: training shed/east/east

Level 2 combat areas:
- Level two: start/training shed/east/east/down
- avoid a gap in the wall if you are alone

Level 3 combat areas:
- Level three: start/training shed/east/east/down/down
- avoid red doors if you are alone

Building your own combat area:
- read the book of construction
- find a place for the entrance of your area
- the build command allows you to make the entrance and the first room.
- build more rooms inside
- sprinkle creatures in it with the spawn command.
- Let Thorn know about it so he can post it in this book. read a command called post to find out how to do that.

Some additional tips
read some info about combat

command called attack

attack {foe}

This causes you and your foe to fight till death.

Notes:
- You may not attack anyone while in a location whose material is 'sanctuary'.
- You can only attack if you and the foe are both alive (health > 0).
- You can only attack foes that are made of ''living'' material.
- The battle ends if either leave the room or die
- If you have more than one weapon wielded, only one will be used in battle
- There is no effect from wielding or not except in the text shown during battle.

Weapon notes:
- The default weapon is your fist, with damage of 1.
- If you are wielding a weapon, the damage will match the weapon's health/10.
- Once in a while during a weapon's hit, it can do a special attack. These are objects that you place inside the weapon. During a special attack, one of these objects is chosen at random and set as follows:
slot1 = the person wielding the weapon
slot2 = the person hit by the weapon
slot3 = the weapon's id.
counter = 0
loc = the location of the battle

You may want to set your object loc back to the weapon when it is done with the special attack.

For a weapon example, find magical flaming sword (it's health is 2)
There is a fire spell, a heat blast spell, and a critical cut inside it.

(Later, I hope to incorporate armor properties)

command called cast

cast - To get a list of spells available
or
cast {spell}
or
cast {spell} at {target}

read the command called cast

read the info about magic

If a spell requires a target and none is specified, then it will be cast at you.

Note: If there is a battle going on in your (or your target's) location, then casting a spell will do nothing but prepare the spell for your next hit. To make it happen, you must join the battle.

Trigger words:
This command sends a 'cast' with $second = the spell and $target = the object at which the spell is cast.

Spells/enchantments currently send the following trigger words as appropriate:
heal, burn, freeze, shock, bleed

vampyric drain: sends 'harm' and 'heal' to the appropriate targets.

If you are coding a spell, please consult the above list before creating a new word. If you still need to make a more appropriate word then let Thorn know so he can update the above list.

command called cpr

cpr {object}

If the object's material is not 'living' then this sets the material to 'living'.

If a living object's health is gone, then this restores it to 1.

For healing above 1 health, consider cast heal and there is some treasure dropped by living creatures in cow that may help you to gain health.

Reactions:
This triggers the cpr reaction. Here's an example of something you can script into an object to react:

if target of cpr then thankyou;
##thankyou:
getgender $actor;
print ''[$actor] stands up, dusts $him self off, and smiles towards [$init_obj], 'Thanks mate!''';

Note: When examining, double quotes appear as '' so please adjust the above code accordingly in your script.

command called detect

detect life
detect code
detect boring

The detect life command scans your location and any adjacent one for signs of life. Each item shown has 'living' material and thus can be attacked.

The detect code command scans your location for items that are coded.

The detect boring command scans your location for items that you own that aren't written in and aren't coded, including the location itself. Future plans on this are to search code for missing reactions so you can make your objects even more interactive.

About life in COW:
To make a living creature and read the command called spawn;

If you are not alive, try cpr me.

If you create a creature and you want the creature to be alive, then cpr the creature. Note: creatures created by spawn are able to spontaneously return to life.

command called guard

guard {target}

This prevents future attacks to a living target or exit through a doorway target while you are alive.

- If the target is already in combat, you may guard them but it will only apply to further initiated attacks
- You and the target must be made of 'living' material and have some health, or the target must be an exit.
- The target must not be guarding anything
- The target must not already be guarded by anything else.
- The location must not be of material 'sanctuary'

If you want to kill a guarded object, you must kill the guard first.

Pushing a guard might allow you to then attack the target or get to the exit.

A guard at an exit does not prevent someone from entering from the other side.

When someone tries to pass through a guarded exit, the failure message includes a 'noneshallpass' reaction with target=doorway and second=guard.

Coders: click spawn then review the code for any of thje passive creature templates for a reaction example.

command called meditate

meditate

This command cannot be used unless you are sitting.

It causes you to regain mana over time.

command called respawn

This was designed to allow living objects to respawn after a while. Call it with a delay when your object detects it has just died.

It simply triggers a 'wakes' message.

For example: [code the material called passive]

command called spawn

spawn {newname} from {template}

This creates a foe based on the desired template object.

just type spawn to get a list of templates

example: spawn orc from aggro1