[obit]

I'm glad you like it! There's several more, just like it, one for each other quadrant. The only drawback to it, is that JTrek is a true 3-D game. Your position in the universe is constantly updated in an X Y Z format. The 2-D maps only present the X-Y axis(which isn't all bad, since the objects are "flattened" throughout each quadrant- that is to say, the Z axis of in-game objects doesn't vary nearly as much as the X or Y axis.)

If someone were to spend a few hours(or a lot of hours) putting something together, with a "dragable" feature, to rotate the universe any which way, it might make it more interesting(though not neccesarily more advantageous) for players.

The awsome thing is, like any MUD, you mentally visualize where you're at after a while, ie, "I'm eeennwws from the Inn" in the same manner. Only, In JTrek, you know that if you head from Starbase 4 to Planet Vulcan, you'll pass within scanner range of SB3. You create a 3 dimensional image in your head of what the universe contains, and it is rationally supported by numbers and your actual XYZ coordinates in the game.

[Aeran]

Would a good freeware MUD client really help the community though? It's possible if someone made a competing free client it would bring Zuggsoft out of bussiness. That would be very bad for MUDs.

[obit]

I don't think freeware is ever bad for anyone's business. In the grand scheme of things, inovation spawns more inovation. While something might cut into a company's margins a bit(ala firefox), it inspires that company to develope something better, ultimately resulting in a better product for the consumer.

[KaVir]

It would only put Zuggsoft out of business if they didn't keep improving their product. Competing products are generally good for the customer, while long-term monopolies usually aren't (which is why the government usually steps in, although I can't see that happening here).

[tommi]

Im tring to currently get one off the ground that has the following features that mud owners can use on their own websites.

1. Skinable interface - individualize the client to the muds requirement.
2. Clickable regions with macros for common tasks - score, inventory movement etc.
3. Macro support
4. Alias support
5. Configuration file to set the mud url and port to connect to, client size x-y and anything else of use.
6. Connects to only 1 mud via cfg file

I think for most muds to go forward they will need to start to look outside the mudding world to find new players and a client like above will make the transition for not mudders a lot less painless.

[Aeran]

The problem is also that there are Java MUD client applets out there already that can be used, e.g MudMagic has made one avaible(). The MUD Connector also has a Java client on their website, it is unfortunate they don't link to it from their MUD searches(). The MUD Connector one suffers from flicker when redrawing and it needs improved colour support as well .

In the case of MUD Connector(TMC) it acts as a proxy so everyone who connects through it gets a TMC IP on the MUD. That could also be seen as an issue because the admins of a MUD might want to know who connects so they can properly moderate their game. It could be nice if the MUD community made a standard for these proxies so you could query the real IP through telnet negotiation(assuming no such standard for telnet proxies already exist). Of course it can also be seen as a security issue as passwords and other data go through the 3rd party proxy. It might also be a bandwidth issue for TMC to proxy the connections.

MudMagic has Java applet as well on their website but it is unlike TMC connected to the MUD listing entries. So instead of using Windows telnet to connect you can click and chose their Java client to connect to the MUD. Their Java client seem to work quite well but it doesn't properly support colours on the MUD I tested it on . Lag is also an issue . The MUD I tried is located in my country but with their proxying applet the connection is relayed through the US.

Anyway the TMC one would be nice if it was improved and actually used on the MUD listing now that Vista appearently has thrown away the Windows telnet client.

[obit]

Vista has it, but it is disabled by default.

Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off > Telnet Client

to activate it. After doing so, "Start > Run > telnet (address)" works fine. Only thing, is that all of the options aren't available from the shell(ie localecho). However, if you telnet directly from the cmd prompt, you can you can manually enter all of the "set xxx" commands.

[Newworlds]

Something I've always HATED about windows. From the beginning (windows 3.2 or so), every iteration has been to make windows more and more self contained and controlled. By the time windows xp came out it was "nearly" a Mac O/S which as we all know is for babies who don't know how to program (though Linux users could say the same about windows now).

I used Unix/Linux for several years, but the lack of good software and some semblance of conformity and speed of development (meaning unix is super fast with programs but super slow to develop them) led to dropping it. It's too bad too because Unix is a far better o/s than mac and windows.

[Aeran]

That isn't very user friendly . Most people new to MUD wouldn't know how to enable telnet so they wouldn't be able to connect but wonder why all those odd telnet links don't work.

[Lanthum]

Neither of those two listed are close to what tommi is suggesting. And I personally think if he (or anyone) was able to make an ope-source applet that was stable, and had all of the functionality listed - it would find heavy use by implementors. I know I would be interested in it!

[tommi]

There is wonderfull java client called TheBean, its GPL code and i was going to use it as a starting point, it has triggers, macros, aliases and much more, it can save configurations to the webserver for players.

What its missing is a skinable graphic interface.

Its pretty large as far as java apps go, at 1meg+, but you can embed it in a webpage, detach it and many other things.

On the toppic of the mudmagic java app, while it works, its very buggy, colour suport is not right on all muds, The java client on TMC sufferes from flicker as someone pointed out. While there are these resources thay are hardly practical and certanly not very professional looking.

[Milawe]

I'm wondering if this thread shouldn't be split off with its own title of Mud Clients. I know a lot of people are interested in that, but it's still under the heading of graphical maps.

I, personally, don't mind the shift in topics, but you might get more participating from people who are more interested in clients than a graphical map.