Emotes
A summary.
An emote is a way to express your actions. These are different from says, which is essentially speaking aloud. Simply, emotes indicate action. This action can include speech if desired, but can also be something as simple as uncomfortably shifting on one's feet, or falling to one's knees, beset with laughter.
There are two types: Generic and custom.
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Generic emotes are ones that exist in the game already. An example is NOD.
If you type the word NOD into your command line and hit enter, you will see:
You nod your head emphatically.
Others will see:
Sam nods his head emphatically.
There are many of these, and they are a quick way to respond to things that happen. EMOTIONLIST or EMLIST will list them; more detail is given below.
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The other type of emotes are custom emotes. These are ones that you write, and express more in-depth action. Use of these add a great deal to your character's persona, because you can express a far broader variety of emotion, characterization, and behavior than is otherwise possible.
This page, which is part of the Aetolian forums, contains an in-depth guide to gaining familiarity with the use of this useful tool.
The details of creating and using emotes are given below, but the most important thing to remember is, try and picture what you want to do in your mind, then describe it in your emote. Above all, don't be intimidated, especially if you're new! Everyone has to start somewhere and most players are willing to give tips and feedback.
The full file is below.
3.8 EMOTIONS
Emotions are a shorthand way of expressing various emotions with one or two words. Generally, these emotions will be seen by everyone in the same location as you. There are hundreds of emotes, and more being added whenever a player suggests a good one. An example of an emote would be SMILE, to smile (unsurprisingly) or SALUTE. Most emotes may be targeted at someone too. So you could, for instance POKE IOSYNE to poke Iosyne in the arm (though poking a Goddess is a really bad idea). Emotions run the gamut from the mundane to the sometimes silly, and some players delight in trying to discover new ones. So if, for instance, Gretel typed FLUTTER HANSEL, Gretel would see:
You flutter your eyelashes charmingly at Hansel.
Hansel would see:
Gretel flutters her eyelashes charmingly at you.
and everyone else in the room would see:
Gretel flutters her eyelashes charmingly at Hansel.
There are hundreds of pre-defined emotions available in Aetolia. The syntaxes involved for navigating and finding the emotions you are looking for are as follows:
EMOTIONLIST or EMLIST: Shows you a full list of the emotions available in alphabetical order.
EMOTIONLIST or EMLIST <emotion>: Narrows your search to emotions that match your text. if *'s are included around the word, it expands the search for all terms that include that particular word (Example: EMLIST KISS will show you only kiss, where EMLIST *KISS* wil show you kiss, bellykiss, lovekiss, etc).
EMSHOW: You may see a list of all messages associated with an emotion by using EMSHOW <emote>. This will show you the message you and others see when performing an emote.
You can also perform your own custom emote with the EMOTE command. For example, Khepri might:
EMOTE gives a brief, chilling smile.
Everyone else would see:
Khepri gives a brief, chilling smile.
Your character's name need not necessarily appear at the start of each custom emote. To add yet more depth to your emotes, you might:
EMOTE (Lips pursed in silence,) gives a brief, chilling smile.
Everyone else would see:
Lips pursed in silence, Khepri gives a brief, chilling smile.
For more indepth emotes, it is possible to substitute another player's name, and have the emote directed at them. For example, Hansel wants to smile at Gretel, so Hansel would type:
EMOTE smiles at $gretel, and bows.
Gretel would see:
Hansel smiles at you, and bows.
Everyone else would see:
Hansel smiles at Gretel, and bows.
Emotes allow you to target multiple people. For example, Hansel wants to smile at both Gretel and Acius, so Hansel would type:
EMOTE (Bowing,) smiles at $gretel and $acius.
Acius would see:
Bowing, Hansel smiles at Gretel and you.
Gretel would see:
Bowing, Hansel smiles at you and Acius.
Everyone else would see:
Bowing, Hansel smiles at Gretel and Acius.
Finally, emotes also allow you to interact with other characters in even greater depth, with the use of pronouns. For example, you could:
EMOTE smiles at $gretel and takes $gretel_hers hand, while greeting $acius warmly and regarding $acius_him with a courteous nod.
Acius would see:
Hansel smiles at Gretel and takes her hand, while greeting you warmly and regarding you with a courteous nod.
Gretel would see:
Hansel smiles at you and takes your hand, while greeting Acius warmly and regarding him with a courteous nod.
Everyone else would see:
Hansel smiles at Gretel and takes her hand, while greeting Acius warmly and regarding him with a courteous nod.
A handy table can be found below:
-Syntax:--------------Room sees:--Target sees:---
|$<name>_he |he |you |
|$<name>_she |she |you |
|$<name>_his_yours |his |yours |
|$<name>_hers_yours |hers |yours |
|$<name>_his |his |your |
|$<name>_him |him |you |
|$<name>_hers |her |your |
|$<name>_her |her |you |
|$<name>_His |His |Your |
|$<name>_Him |Him |You |
|$<name>_Hers |Her |Your |
|$<name>_Her |Her |You |
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Apostrophes following a name also work. For example:
EMOTE shakes $uliah's hand vigorously.
Uliah would see:
Hansel shakes your hand vigorously.
Everyone else would see:
Hansel shakes Uliah's hand vigorously.
This also applies to names ending with an 's', such as Galleus' and Acius'.
You may also use a carat "^" at any point in an emote as shorthand for your name.
As a small reminder, any use of emotes to intentionally illusion attacks or confuse player systems is discouraged and will be punished. Emotes in which you pretend to be somebody else and perform an action that reflects this is discouraged, as well as any variations on that theme. For example, using an emote to make everyone think that Galleus slapped you so that you could kill him would be a very bad idea indeed.