Messages

1

News & Announcements / Re: The maps have been fixed!

« on: May 08, 2012, 09:54:37 am »

Sorry, I know I said I'd have a look, but I was snowed under with other things and kept putting it off.

2

Suggestions & Ideas / Re: Dynamic Descriptions

« on: April 06, 2012, 04:13:35 pm »

I'm on vacation with limited internet access at the moment, but I can take a look next week.  You'll need to let me know what the problems are though.

3

Suggestions & Ideas / Dynamic Descriptions

« on: April 05, 2012, 05:30:08 am »

I was recently discussing customised colours on MudBytes, and it brought to mind an old thread on MUDQuest concerning dynamic descriptions (the link gives an explanation, for those not familiar with the term).

My protocol snippet already processes all output for extended colour, MXP, Unicode, and so on - and the MSSP function uses a table with functions for text replacement, so that it can display dynamic information about the mud.  It would be extremely easy (a few minutes work) to combine the two, and you'd end up with a basic dynamic description system.

4 Dimensions has some talented coders, but in my eyes its main selling point has always been the high quality of its game world.  Dynamic descriptions would add another powerful tool to the builders' arsenal, and most of the code for it is already in place.

Would this be something worth adding?

4

News & Announcements / Re: New semi-graphical client app

« on: November 08, 2011, 05:21:08 pm »

According to KaVir the plug_in works for Mudlet as well

Not the same plugin - but there's a Mudlet one as well.  It's not quite as polished, but once you're happy with the maps and icons it can be updated as well.

5

News & Announcements / Re: New semi-graphical client app

« on: October 30, 2011, 09:13:00 am »

If you check out the link I posted previously you should easily be able to find enough icons to cover all the spells - then it's just a matter of deciding which ones to use, and what sort of colour scheme you want.

For example, I tried picking a few and colouring them blue for positive spells and red for negative spells (very quickly using Photoshop):



If you download the latest version of the plugin, you should see them like this:

(click the image to enlarge)

However the plugin can currently only handle 30 icons (on my screen at least).  If there are more than that it may be worth changing the layout - perhaps displaying them under the map, or making the avatar wider so that you can fit 3 or 4 icons per line.

That's really a personal preference thing though, now that the snippet is installed and working you can create any sort of layout you like (and that comment is directed at everyone, there's no reason why players couldn't design their own interfaces).

6

General Discussions / Re: Droid Telnet

« on: October 22, 2011, 01:35:14 pm »

I use BlowTorch, and find it really good.

7

News & Announcements / Re: New semi-graphical client app

« on: October 18, 2011, 09:47:24 am »

The original idea was that the mud would send an icon name for each spell.  However the plugin could be changed very easily to use the spell name instead (the only drawback being that if you want to use the same icon for multiple spells, you'd need to duplicate the icon).  This would probably be easier for you though, as you wouldn't need to update the 4D spell code.

Basically all you'd need to do is change draw_affects() (in the plugin) to use AffectName instead of AffectIcon, then add icons with the same name as the spell - bless.png, poison.png, etc.  I can do it for you if you like.

For the generic plugin I just grabbed a few public domain fractal images from a website and cut/shrunk them.  It took about 2 minutes, I just wanted something to show how you could use different icons - I didn't expect people to keep them.  I used a nicer icon for the 4D plugin, but once again it was fairly basic, and it was just one default icon to provide an example.

However if you're looking for ideas for icons, please have a read over this: http://godwars2.blogspot.com/2011/07/customising-icons.html

Please remember that the plugin was only intended as an example of what you can do, not a final product.

8

News & Announcements / Re: New semi-graphical client app

« on: September 26, 2011, 11:37:02 am »

This is the one you want (and only this one, don't try to install more than one):

http://www.godwars2.org/download/mushclient/4D_GUI.zip

Don't download the GW2 plugin, that's for another mud!  The general installation instructions still apply, but use the 4D_GUI.zip instead of the GW2_GUI.zip (ideally the info should be copied to the 4D website to avoid confusion).

It should look like this: http://www.godwars2.org/images/other/mushclient_4d.png

Or in the wilderness, like this: http://www.godwars2.org/images/other/mushclient_4d_3.png

The map works for me, although there's a resizing issue with the Mudlet version (which autoinstalls).

Also, the server where the above files are hosted is suffering some major HD problems at the moment, so you may not always be able to connect.

9

Suggestions & Ideas / Re: Android and iPhone APP

« on: May 03, 2011, 05:31:31 pm »

I use BlowTorch for my Android, it's pretty nice - and it's free.

10

General Discussions / Re: Is 4D dying? And if so, how can we save our beloved Mud?

« on: March 09, 2011, 06:55:01 am »

4. How can we attract more new players to the Mud?
In particular I'd like ideas about how to target and reach a new audience. (Even of most of the gaming interest has moved to graphics, there must still be thousands of people connected to internet, who like to read, and might enjoy the more complex atmosphere of a Text mud. But how do we make these people aware that Text muds in general - and 4D in particular - even exist, now that muds are no longer mainstream?)

You want to reach a new audience.  There are lots of people who might enjoy text-based muds, particularly one with as much depth as 4 Dimensions, but they won't even give it a chance because of the lack of graphics.

So...why not add graphics?

4D is a text-based game and that shouldn't change, it's important to play to your strengths.  But just as MMORPGs use a certain amount of text, so many MUDs also use graphics, and 4D is no exception.  Take the 'map' command for example.  That draws a map of your surroundings using ASCII graphics.  But wouldn't it look nicer if it instead displayed the same graphical maps that are available on the website, and updated them in real-time as you moved around?

Or how about the prompt?  A sequence of mysterious abbreviations and numbers that are displayed over and over, it's like a second language to a veteran but pretty unintuitive for a first-time mudder.  Why not move that same information into a set of clearly labelled energy bars?

Players who don't like graphics wouldn't need to use them, they could carry on playing exactly like they do now.  But for attracting new players, particularly those from outside the text mud community, it could make a strong selling point.

6. What do you think specifically turns newbies off our Mud?

One possible reason may be technical.  Your implementation of MCCP appears to be broken.  When I connect with Mudlet the session freezes during character creation, and when I connect with BlowTorch the client crashes every time.  I connected with TinTin++ in debug mode, and found that you initiate MCCP at the exact point where the other two clients die.

If a new player tries to connect and their client keeps freezing or crashing, they'll just move on to the next mud on their list.