11 Jul, 2011, AppendixG wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
In designing our MUD, we're really striving to push the envelope in terms of our in game texts. Our history is not a typical game history; there is no certainty or any accepted factual accounting. Instead, there are hundreds of source texts spread out across the land, written in different languages, featuring different formatting, some with illustrations, some without and some written only as illustrations. Some of these texts are hundreds of pages long, others are as short as four pages.

In coming to the realization that telnet will simply not be able to handle the type of ambiance that we're trying to convey, I've been entertaining some other solutions and I'd like to get input and opinions, if ya'll are willing to offer them.

What I'm thinking is that in-game books could be linked to the game's external website. In this way, if you come to possess a copy of "Youngman's Bible" the book, in game, is simply an object with a description of what it looks like. However, as long as you possess it, we will set a variable - say 'youngmans_bible' - to true.

When you visit the website and log in there, you will have access to a 'source texts' page that lists the texts available to you. So, in this case, you would have the ability to view the "Youngman's Bible" as a PDF file which preserves the illustrations, formatting and overall 'feel' of the text in a more accurate way.

My main question is… do you think this will detract from a player's immersion in the game? By forcing them to view the text outside of the world, do you think that it would pull them out of their role?

If so, anyone have similar problems or any ideas as to possible solutions?
11 Jul, 2011, KaVir wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
AppendixG said:
My main question is… do you think this will detract from a player's immersion in the game? By forcing them to view the text outside of the world, do you think that it would pull them out of their role?

I think it would be distracting, yes.

AppendixG said:
If so, anyone have similar problems or any ideas as to possible solutions?

Three possible solutions spring to mind:

1. Use a custom font for your languages, like the runic characters I used in my RoD demo.

2. Display graphics in the client, either inline with MXP, or via miniwindows using a custom plugin or script.

3. If you really want the information displayed in a browser window, allow the player to open it by clicking on a link within the mud, rather than making them manally go to the website.

All of this can be handled through telnet.
11 Jul, 2011, plamzi wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
If your ideas are outgrowing text as a medium, you should also consider developing a custom web-based client. Here is what's possible.

Embedded and background images are trivial to display in a browser, and generally have the effect of adding to the experience rather than detracting. If your server is made to recognize the web-based client, it can even send direct html "books", with no need for a MUD protocol in between. (Regular telnet players should still be able to read the books with HTML stripped, though.)

The challenge in a web-based client is to pack enough usability features in it to convert the players who are used to using their own advanced clients. But if your world is RPI and things like triggers are less necessary, maybe it won't be such a hard sell.
12 Jul, 2011, AppendixG wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
3. If you really want the information displayed in a browser window, allow the player to open it by clicking on a link within the mud, rather than making them manally go to the website.


I really like this idea, I can display the texts in game with 'placeholders' of a sort that contain links to the images. Sort of like:

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx figure 1 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Where 'figure 1' would be a direct link to the image that should appear there. I suppose I could even write a client-side script that displays the images, when clicked, in a small status window.

Good idea, thanks! I think I'll try that one and see how it works out.
12 Jul, 2011, AppendixG wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
plamzi said:
If your ideas are outgrowing text as a medium, you should also consider developing a custom web-based client. Here is what's possible.

Wow, that's a great looking client!

I think, in time, we will develop a web-based client, especially considering all of the features and content that we have planned. Right now, though, we're focusing more on getting the game up and running, which is quite a task in and of itself. :D
12 Jul, 2011, KaVir wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
AppendixG said:
Where 'figure 1' would be a direct link to the image that should appear there. I suppose I could even write a client-side script that displays the images, when clicked, in a small status window.

With MXP you wouldn't need a script, you could just embed a clickable hyperlink in the text window that opened a specific webpage, or even draw inline graphics directly within the text window if the client supports it.

However I personally prefer having separate miniwindows within the client itself for displaying graphics, and for that you'd be better off providing a client-side script. If you go this route you might want to take a look at Mudlet - it's free, multi-platform, and offers an autoinstaller via ATCP so that players using it to connect to your mud would automatically download and install the latest version of your script.
0.0/6