message_colour

[Volteccer_Jack]

  Code:

message_colour += mute:for a list of commands and other information.

  Code:

message_colour += mute:Press ? for a list of commands and other information.

Why is it that the first line successfully mutes the message while the second does not? Is it just the use of a question mark?

[neil]

Yes, message_colour and most similar filters use regular expressions, where ? means "the previous letter is optional". You can backslash the ? to have it interpreted normally.

[Volteccer_Jack]

regular expressions

Ah, knowing what to Google helps immensely. However...

  Code:

message_colour += mute:Press \? for a list of commands and other information.

That still does not mute the message. So I looked through crate's rcfile (because I know he mutes a bunch of stuff), and copied these lines from it:

  Code:

msc := message_colour
msc += mute:Confirm with \. or Enter, or press \? or \* to list all spells\.

Whereupon I discovered that I can remove any or all of crate's backslashes and the message will be muted all the same. Changing it in any other way, such as deleting 'Enter' or 'with', causes the message not to be muted. Needless to say, I am now rather confused.

[BlackSheep]

The '?' in that line is colored white. Maybe that's messing it up?

[Volteccer_Jack]

okay, how about this:

  Code:

message_colour += red:but do no damage

I have no frigging clue why this won't work. Rapidly becoming frustrated with this nonsense.

[crate]

You need to use ^= instead of += in the example you just gave. That message is coloured by default, so it matches the default colouring first.

Another option is to eliminate all the default colouring entirely:

  Code:

message_colour =

(note that things coloured by being in a specific message channel will still be coloured if you do this; you can also eliminate that by setting all channels to plain)

[gofftc]

...no...clue...

Spoiler: show

...However, other options, such as
message_colour, do care about the order of items; these will be noted as
"Ordered list options" in their descriptions. In most cases, earlier items
take precedence over later ones, so += defers to existing matches (including
defaults) while ^= overrides them. So, for example, with the sequence of
options:
message_colour = cyan:hits
message_colour ^= red:crimson
message_colour += yellow:killer
the message "The crimson imp hits you!" will be displayed in red, while "The
killer bee hits you!" will be displayed in cyan.

copied this from: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/docs/options_guide.txt [/size

asumeing options guide on CAO is 0.12 and this awnser matches your version...