oh i just saw the bb-8 fleshlight newspost so everything in the old news is actually bad by association.
targeting_mode = skill_type[skill_get_id(selected_skill[?player])];
targeting_mode = skill_type[skill_get_id(player.skills[|selected_skill[?player]])];
skill_get_id is a script that just returns the element of the ds_list containing the skill id