[Hephos]

Hey,

We're currently in the process of putting together a "universal" "shareware" mud client that is directed towards mudowners and should "replace" the old java telnet apps that have been around for awhile on many muds.

The client will be a JWS (java web start) application that the mud puts on their website. They will be able to configure the "look" of the client and all graphics through configuration xml files that they put on the website.
Most standard features and probably a lot of "extra" things will be included in the client. The purpose is for
every mud to get a unique looking client for their game that can also be modified by "plugins" that they put on their website for users to download and use.

The plan is to provide this client in a free (stripped down) version for both mudowners and users. And also a premium version that will have a one time fee for mudowners (to get the license to run it) and a "micro" fee for
users to register their client. We're talking very low fees that any free mud should be able to bare with.

Is this something people would be interested in?

[KaVir]

In my experience, most mudders already have a favourite mud client which they'd rather stick with. I find it's typically the first-time players who use the simple website-based java clients, and they're not usually willing to pay a registration fee up front. So first and foremost, I'd be looking at how well your free stripped-down version compares against the competition.

Depending on how good your client is, and what sort of plugins the mud owner provides, it could be that some players will later choose to register. But we'd mainly be talking about people who had already chosen to hang around, and just wanted to improve their playing experience. This would still be beneficial to the mud of course, but the biggest stumbling block is the entry barrier for new players, and for that the registered version isn't going to be of much help.

You mentioned that the premium version would have a one-time fee for mud owners "to get the license to run it", but what exactly are they running? A client is normally run on the player's computer - does your client require additional software running on the server? If so, how does this additional software interact with the rest of the mud? Is it a separate application, or does it require patches to be applied to the mud itself? If the latter, how will you deal with the diverse range of different codebases out there? And what happens if people later want to release their mud?

If I'm going to be developing plugins which persuade my players to pay you a registration fee, shouldn't you be paying me, rather than the other way around? I'd be sending you customers, after all - and the harder I worked, the more customers I'd send you!

Or is this intended to be more of a commercial deal, whereby I'm expected to recoup my costs by charging players a small fee to use the client plugins I've written? Perhaps you'd also start seeing independent developers creating and selling plugins as well, if the client become successful.

To be honest, it's hard enough convincing mud owners to add support for well-established mud clients, even when it costs them nothing to do so. Your client would need to offer something truly exceptional to persuade me to invest both time and money into it.

[Hephos]

Well, they should have already paid the registration. You make your plugins to improve your games gaming experience. The harder you work, the better your game gets overall, and the more customers i get. Can it be better? :P But you got a point, maybe muds that bring in registrations should be promoted somehow? Perhaps their muds names can get into the client advertising "mudlisting"... Clicking the play button for a particular mud in there will open the client with that particular games configuration making the client "shift" into the correct graphics and layout. It will be pretty neat.

Yes that is true. Trying to get a mudder to use a client that is not their old favourite is like trying to get a 90yr old to pay their bill electronically over internet :P But yes, it is for new players. Fresh blood into mudding.
The competition for our free stripped-down version is telnet and the java telnet applet. The premium version will have more competition and might not be best in all aspects, but will allow very customizable features compared to other mud clients.

The mudsite fee is for using and setting up the client as a facefront for your game. But you may be right, it might be unecessary since a "premium" version would still bring in some user registration fees. As you can maybe understand i've not spent more time on the business model for this than i did writing that first post :P

I'm just checking if there is an interest for a full featured client that can be easily customized for your game, and driven by fairly easily written plugins when extra features are needed. Because i have one in the pipeline (based on our dragonmaw client for sharune) that might be coming out as a beta in a few weeks. Also, even with the free version it would seriously upgrade the face for "standard" muds that currently showcase telnet and an java telnet applet from 10 years ago. Might be a nice facelift for the mud community as well :P

[Hephos]

The free version would probably allow less customization, include advertisement and disallow plugins. But it would still be a huge upgrade compared to telnet or other click to play clients most muds have on ther websites right now. And the setup will be easy, just copy some files to your web server and change some configuration xml. If you want custom graphics you will have to upload that as well and change the xml files to use the new graphics.

[Aeran]

Would it support MXP, and compression?

[Hephos]

Not the free version, no problably not.

[newbie]

I'd just like to know why people would use your client over .

[Hephos]

Well, it looks nice if you want a "telnet" client.

The client i'm about to do is more a beautiful "face" for your mud and will include ways to customize it graphically much nicer. (Which is one of the key features IMO for attracting NEW players to your game, or to the mud community as a whole). A client looking like any other "telnet" client is not the way to go if you ask me.

[the_logos]

Cool, nice project.

Does that mean that users need to install JWS first? If so, I'd not call it a replacement for telnet or java clients that don't require an install by a user, as it adds an extra barrier-to-entry into the game.

--matt

[Hephos]

Almost every computer today have JWS installed as it comes with the Java JRE. It is harder today to get telnet running in vista than starting a program by clicking on a link using jws :P

Btw, here are some of the latest java updates:

Enhanced Java deployment
-------------------------------------
* The Java Deployment Toolkit takes the guess work out of determining what versions of the Java Platform end users have installed on their PCs. It supplies Java based web applet/application deployers with a simple JavaScript interface. This greatly increases the ease of detections of users' Java environment, as well as the ease of Java Platform deployment.

*The Java Kernel online installer lets first time Java users run applets and Java Web Start applications quicker without waiting for the whole Java Platform to be downloaded. The default Kernel installation is expected to satisfy the requirements of most Java applets and applications, and any additional libraries that may be required at runtime are downloaded to complete the Java Kernel installation. This installation mechanism let the end user get up and running significantly faster, while the complete Java Platform installation takes place in the background. See Java Kernel FAQ for more information.

* For current users of Java SE, the Java auto-updater has also been improved, using a patch-in-place mechanism that translates in a faster and more reliable update process (the patch in place mechanism will take effect for end users who upgrade from this update release or later to a new update release). As an added benefit, follow-on update releases will no longer be listed as separate items in the Windows "Add or Remove Programs" dialog.

* New Version Download and Pack200 Support
Ease of deployment: Server side requirements have been removed! We've added a new Java system property along with new support that will make it much easier for developers to deploy their Java applications or Applets through the network.


Improved performance and look & feel
-------------------------------------------------
* The Java Quick Starter feature will prefetch portions of the JRE into memory, substantially decreasing the average Java Platform cold start-up time (the time that it takes to launch a Java application for the first time after a fresh reboot of a PC).

* Next-Generation Java Plug-In

More info at:

[the_logos]

Cool. How can I tell if I've got it installed?

--matt

[Hephos]

I guess you can type 'javaws" in your command (run) prompt in the start menu.