[KaVir]

I was referring to your suggestion that "the concept of using a mishmash of useful protocols needs to disappear, and something standard between all servers and clients needs created" - my point being that "Not all muds wish to support" the various features such a protocol would include.

Thus I think it makes sense to offer a selection of different protocols for different things, rather than design a new Universal Mud Protocol that covers everything.

Sure, but I doubt they all want their bars, minimaps or menus to look the same. People go out of their way to avoid stock gameplay - but in many ways it's even more important for the interface, as that's the first thing new players will see when connecting to the mud.

No, I'm saying you could create a generic plugin that would provide "a widget set (minimap, status bars, button bars, etc), and a way to skin them, and allow that to be controlled by the server (similar to a web browser)". You'd need to create different plugins for other clients, but that same plugin could service multiple muds - so if a player used MUSHclient and installed the plugin, their interface would automatically change depending on whether they were playing MUD X, MUD Y or MUD Z (assuming all three muds supported the plugin).

However, as I also mentioned, the plugin would become increasingly complex the more flexible you wanted it to be.

Actually you said "custom Flash/Java clients", which is why I assumed you were talking about browser-based clients. If the client needs to be downloaded then I don't think it has any real advantage over an existing client with a custom plugin.

You can already get that with a custom plugin - for much less work. Is there something in particular you want that an existing client can't do?

Well there's the and the , but most of them are tied to a specific mud (the version of FMud is particularly nice IMO).