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I have been playing/coding MUDs now for a good 10 years. I have also written a front end client to a BBS and database backend which is much like the system of a mud, you have a server and a client. Here are my thoughts and comments.
A graphical MUD is nothing more than a fancy client. The hardest part of a developing a good f/x MUD is to have a kickass client. You can take any existing mud codebase or write your own codebase and have it send the necessary commands to the client. So instead of sending the socket "You miss a bunnyhog", you send a code that the client interprets as 'load and display the missed swing weapon graphics'. So it's not really hard to code a f/x mud, it's just lengthy to code the client.
The most important part to me is security. You have to keep everything on the server and not allow the client to modiy any thing permanently. Treat it like a heads up display.
One good thing about a good client, is that it takes a big load off the server. No nasty color to parse, no having to do massive queries or load everything into memory, you get to use the player's memory and players processing power to do a lot of the mudane, and most used commands.
I wish there were more programmers out there interested in developing graphical clients for existing muds. It would be so painfully simple to convert a total text mud into one that has a Mode option of graphical, and all it would need to do is send codes in place of or even just before the existing text. If I wasn't so #### busy adding features to the mud I code on, I'd do it.
Tank
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