Remote Configureable Distress' are and extention to the macroing system. The basic idea is that everyone likes certain standard types of messages, such as distress, pickup, carrying, etc, to appear in a certain way. Unfortunately this is usually not the way everyone else sends them. To make matters worse, everyone sends their messages in a different way and this hopelessly clutters the message window. Fortunately, there is help! You can configure the way certain standard messages and distress calls appear to you. This is an important point: you do not configure the way the messages are sent with RCD. Instead, you are configuring how they appear to _you_. Therefore, if you have the opportunity to use and RCD instead of a macro, you definately should.
Much like macros, all rcds are listed in the table at the top of the tab. Unlike macros however, the is a defined number of RCD's so you can not add or remove them. Clicking on an rcd in the table will load it into the editing pane at the bottom.
There are less options for RCD's since they are always sent to your team and are always about the nearest information to the mouse cursor (so no destination dropdown like macros).
Variables and expressions work exactly the same way as with macros. So see the help file on the macro tab for an explanation.
To save changes to an RCD you need to click on the 'Save' button which will save the changes to the table. To propagate your changes to the properties file you need to select the 'Save' option from the 'File' menu.
To restore the default value for an RCD select the RCD from the table and hit the 'Restore Default' button. To save the change to the properties file you need to select the 'Save' option from the 'File' menu.
Currently unique to glTrek is the ability to make your RCD's display on multiple lines. Simply create your message on multiple lines to make this work. When you send the RCD it will still only send once to everyone else so you won't be spamming everyone's message boards.
You should seriously consider whether you really want to make any of your rcd's multi-lined, especially if you're using 800x600 where the number of lines in your message window are limited. However, making them multi-lined may improve your ability to distinguish them from other messages. Use at your own discression.
Below is a table containing all of the RCD's defined on the servers along with a brief explanation of what they're for. If the explanation isn't good enough look at the default.
Distress | Description |
---|---|
help | This is your basic distress. When you need help, use this |
pickup | An enemy player has picked up armies. Usually people will say a player is ++ to denote this. |
carrying | How many armies that you or your teammate is carrying. |
taking | You or a teammate is trying to take a planet. You should include how many armies and the destination at minimum |
bomb | Designates that an enemy planet has popped new armies and needs to be bombed |
base_ogg | Tell your teammates to help ogg an enemy base. You need to include the friendly player nearest the mouse as the person to sycn with. |
space_control | Tell you team to help control at the planet nearest the mouse. |
save_planet | There is an emergency at the given planet and you should consider why. |
crippled | Designate that an enemy is crippled. |
no_gas | Designate that an enemy has no gas left. |
ogg | Tell your team that they need to ogg an enemy player. This is different from picking since the player does not usually have armies on board. |
escorting | Tell your team that you are escorting a teammate. |
ogging | Tell your team that you are ogging a specific enemy. |
bombing | Tell your team that you are planning on bombing a certain enemy planet. |
controlling | Tell you team that you are controlling at the given planet. |
asw | Tell your team that you are aswing an enemy player to keep them from bombing. |
asbomb | Tell your team that you are planning to bomb a planet with an Assault ship and they should not. |
free_beer | Tell your team that a certain player is an easy kill. |
pop | State that a planet has popped armies. This can be used for friendly or enemy planets. |
doing1 | This is used as a general status message to your team. When you want to tell your team about your stats, but not yell for help, use this RCD. |
doing2 | Implemented on the server for future expantion. |
help1 | Implemented on the server for future expantion. |
help2 | Implemented on the server for future expantion. |
other1 | Implemented on the server for future expantion. |
other2 | Implemented on the server for future expantion. |