Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

If you have an android phone or tablet I highly recommend the Blowtorch mudclient. It works extremely well and has some really nice UI design elements.

Movement keys are placed in the top right corner of the screen by default which is very handy. It even has some built in macro/alias features to help set up your mobile device for easy mudding.

On Threshold, a common source of confusion is the fact that . and ; characters have special behavior in Blowtorch by default. Many MUDs use . on a blank line to end a mail or board post. Others use ; for emoting, speedwalking, or some other purpose.

I made this Youtube video for our Threshold players to help them see exactly how to turn those features off. It might be useful for some of you all as well:



I hope this video helps you get the most out of this mudclient. I have no idea who makes it, but whoever it is has done the mud community a huge favor!

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

The BlowTorch website is , and their forums are . The client includes a number of nice features, including compression (particularly useful for a mobile client), xterm 256 colours, and customisable button sets. The next version promises support for GMCP and scripting, but the developer (Dan Block) seems to have gone quiet, so I really hope he hasn't lost interest. Last I heard he was working on a customised version for Aardwolf, but that was over a year ago.

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

Thanks!

I didn't know about the compression. That helps explain why its so fast and smooth.

I definitely hope he doesn't abandon the project. It is a really great mobile client.

I use it almost every day and there are tons of players for whom it is now their primary client for playing.

It is incredibly useful for triggering events when I am out of the office and want to surprise people online. :)

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

I found BlowTorch fast and smooth even without compression, I think it's due to the way the client interface has been designed. The compression is mostly useful for reducing bandwidth usage, particularly for phone contracts with a data cap (I used to hit my cap on around the 20th of each month, until I upgraded to a better contract). Threshold doesn't appear to support compression though, unless it's activated after entering the game.

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

No, we don't. But you know, now that we have so many players using mobile devices to connect, it might be time to seriously look into that.

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

Hello,

Just thought I’d let you know that BlowTorch development has been ongoing! Version 2 is now available in beta. You can view the announcement in the links below. This version includes the much awaited Lua scripting engine support, button manager, text selection, trigger enhancements (gagging, replacements), mini windows (awesome on tablets), auto reconnect, and more.

v2 Version Announcement:


New Features Guide: (includes a video with early example plugins designed for Aardwolf)


Installation Instructions:

(Note you'll need to be able to rename the download to .apk, so you'll need a file browser that can rename and install apps like Astro or ES File Explorer File Manager)

There's a really nice chat plugin for Aardwolf which you could configure to your mud, too. Feedback would be much appreciated on the blowtorch forums -

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

Ah cool. I'm willing to risk third-party apps, because I've had SUCH a problem with version 1 (kb bugs, display bugs, etc..). Hope this isn't just a feature update, but has a fair amount of fixes as well!

Re: Blowtorch Mudclient for Android - Maximizing its awesomeness.
 

It includes a number of bug fixes and a reworked network code (some newer versions of android had poor legacy support for how of was done in the past). However, it also includes many new features which may have their own bugs. If you fund any, you'd be doing the developer a big favor by posting the bugs and steps to reproduce them on the BlowTorch forums.