Posts made by faraday

To get around the persistent connection problem @Tinuviel mentioned, you really need a dedicated mobile app. (Not just a web app.)

This is a huge, possibly-insurmountable, challenge for several reasons:

• Most MU servers don't support that kind of interaction; they're designed around telnet connections. The back-end would have to be changed. Unless someone came up with a centralized API, it would lead to different mobile apps for Ares, Evennia, Rhost, etc.
• Even if someone came up with a centralized API for the main game functions, MUSHes are heavily customized. Your mobile app would have to account for that somehow.

If we handwave those challenges away, an ideal mobile MU app would look to apps like Discord and Slack. MUs are, after all, little more than glorified chat engines.

This would lead you to things like clickable menus that hide away when you're not using them; persistent background connections with intelligent notifications; a streamlined chat interface; etc.

Unfortunately, all of that is unlikely to happen. I think MUSHing, like many other kinds of video games and apps, is going to stay in the realm of things best done on non-mobile devices for the forseeable future.

@Carma Not really interested in debating it. There are plenty of articles on best practices in command-line interface development if you care to read more about it. Also, yes, this is off-topic but the mods are always free to migrate the posts to a different thread if they care to.

@carma said in Interest in Cyberpunk MU*?:

Have it call up a board menu where I can choose like...

MUSH commands certainly have a learning curve, which can be daunting for new players. I think web interfaces with intuitive buttons/prompts are the future.

However, when talking about command-line interfaces, menu-driven systems like the one you're describing aren't really considered among the best practices.

A menu-driven system is cumbersome (requiring multiple prompts for every activity), inflexible (you can't switch to doing thing B until you're done with the prompts from thing A), and confusing (you have to remember what step you were on to give the next prompt).

In contrast, it might take you some time to get comfortable with the fact that the mail syntax is mail person=subject/message, but once you do, it's a much more efficient. And you can easily switch gears between reading a forum post and talking on a channel without having to remember which command menu you're in.

If we were starting from scratch, an "ideal" MU command-line interface would probably look more like common script CLIs with named parameters:

mail send --subject Test --to Harvey --body This is a thing

But we're not starting from scratch; we're dealing with a user base that's been typing +mail person=subject/message for thirty years. So that's an important consideration.

This could go under RL peeves but I figured it'd be more relateable here.

I have always hated multiple choice tests with a passion. It wasn't until recently, helping my kid with online school, that I finally realized why.

We both have very literal thinking - kid because OCD, me because (probably almost certainly) autism. So after ruling out two of the obviously-dumb answers, we both find ourselves going: "Well... it could be A because technically blah, or it could be B because technically blah..." And then we have to contort ourselves into this game of "let's try to guess what the teacher thought the BEST answer was when they wrote the test, even though their brain works completely differently than ours..." and it's freaking maddening.

Tests should not be designed to TRICK the students. It's mean on principle, but doubly so for students who have trouble with directions or inferring meaning.

@zombiegenesis said in Interest check: Early Rebellion SW game:

C-gen is done on the MUSH, a sheet can be accessed through the game or through the web portal, and they use a basic dice command for rolls.

A bunch of games have done something sort of similar now - PDF or off-site sheets just referenced from the game, coupled with a generic die roller. There's a plugin now that lets you do that with (hopefully) minimal seams.

If you're looking for 100% web portal integration with coded dice commands and web portal c-gen, I'm still not sure how it'd be more complicated than most other systems out there.

It's not that it's MORE complicated. But what you described - even just for an in-game command-based chargen and die roller - is a ton of work. I poked at it briefly because the game interested me, but it was just gonna be more effort than I have to give right now.

TTRPG systems generally do not adapt well to MU code. They're too fraught with special exceptions and things that are easy for a human to handle but a PITA to program. Like "You get 6 dice but you can take some number of them and break them apart into 'pips' for a +1 or +2.. but not +3 because then that becomes the next die level..." Or "Everyone gets 12 dice for skills...except FooAliens, who get 14 dice, but have to spend 2 of them on knowledge skills..." (I made that one up) They're designed for people led by a governing GM, not for automated systems. It can be done, sure, but it's a pain.

And if you want coded space and blaster objects and stuff, Ares isn't the right choice anyway.

Star Wars as a whole has a big fanbase, and people like it for all kinds of different reasons.

While certainly the Jedi and smugglers are a big draw for many, there are definitely those who are more drawn in by the rebels. And yes, the SW TTRPGs are very gear-oriented and the SW MUs are traditionally code-heavy, but there are plenty of SW discord RPs and Storium games and such with no code/gear/etc. whatsoever.

I think the trap many games fall into is trying to appeal to everybody in order to maximize audience. It's okay to have a smaller game, as long as you can get a passionate group of players and keep them entertained.

Yeah FS3 wouldn't work well for wookies and stuff. It's good for regular humans.

@Jeshin Lots of dice code has that baked in though. It might say "Jeshin rolls Athletics - Great Success" or "Jeshin rolls Melee and gets 2 successes" or something like that based on the system. You don't have to provide the raw dice results to provide meaningful output. But many players still want to see the dice.

@Derp Well the combat system is a different animal because it's still opaque. (a lot of the mechanics are complex so it's not really possible to "show the dice" in a meaningful way in the main display.) I was referring to plain rolls.

@Ganymede said in Dice code:

Constructively speaking, I prefer not knowing the die results and playing through.

Everyone's different of course. I can only speak to the generalities of feedback I've received in the dozen years of working on FS3.

1st edition took advantage of the fact that it's a computer system to have an opaque, non-dice-based roll mechanic, and OMG the resistance was staggering.

2nd edition used a (virtual) dice-based resolution system, but the actual die results weren't shown, only the summary (Good Success, etc.). The sheer volume of "that can't possibly be right" skepticism over bad rolls was still pretty crazy.

Later 2nd ed. patches and 3rd edition prints the dice right there next to the summary. You still get some folks doing a facepalm or whining or whatnot when they roll 15 dice and get no successes, but at least they're (usually) no longer crying foul at the system itself.

@Ganymede Because players throw fits and cry foul when their McAwesomePants character fails at something if they can't "see" the actual die results.

(They sometimes throw fits anyway, but slightly less often.)

I think most TTRPG systems just don't translate well to online environments, whether that's in video game RPGs or MUs. For instance, chargen mechanics usually have a lot of complexity that's easy(ish) for humans to deal with but hard to code, and typically more burdensome than most MUs need. Adventure mechanics are geared for arbitration by a central narrator and don't work well in decentralized settings.

The settings often don't adapt too well either. Whether it's a dungeon-crawling adventuring group, a Firefly crew, or a Shadowrun team, most TTRPGs are geared around 'troupe' play. You can do the whole "second life" thing living in that world in a MU, but IMHO that loses a lot of what made the setting cool in the first place.

Some settings I wish could adapt well to MUs would include Shadowrun, Top Secret/spies, and 7th Sea/pirates.

@silverfox said in The Work Thread:

All the kids I've tested have fallen a full grade level, if not more.

:offers virtual teddy bear basket:

It sucks so much for teachers and students right now.

But if it's any consolation, remember that almost every schoolkid in America is "behind" where they would have been without covid. Some more than others, of course, but our old measures are not meaningful yardsticks in this environment.

Maybe you could get around it with a VPN as well? Not sure. Beyond my meager networking fu here.

@Ghost said in Ares in Mexico:

Definitely sounds like whoever set up that router/network tightened up security a bit.

Yeah could be - though not setting up V4 isn't really a security thing, is it? Just seems bizarre. (Disabling telnet though - you're absolutely right about that being a vulnerability.)

@Ghost said in Ares in Mexico:

The IPv6 thing is weird. I'd suspect that first and if it still fails I would suspect a telnet block.

Telnet wouldn't block the websites though. Many firewalls will block the websockets connection on the web portal and prevent it from getting live updates, but you can still at least get there and read stuff.

@Brunocerous said in Ares in Mexico:

You appear to be able to browse the IPv6 Internet only. You have no access to IPv4. That's pretty bold!

Yeah, as others have said, that's very uncommon and undoubtedly the root of the issue. Many websites support v4 only. (hence the "pretty bold" comment above). Ares can support either v4 or v6, but not both due to a limitation in the underlying telnet library it's using. So Ares games run on v4 for maximal compatibility.

The way I see it, a game has several "dials". These aren't on/off, but a scale:

<--- automated --------------- narrated --->

Automated is coded things like mobs, crafted tangible items, coded sickness, etc. Narrated means driven by GMs/storytellers/players.

<--- immersive --------------- freeform --->

Immersive is code you interact with to simulate what your character is doing. Flying spaceships, navigating dungeons, etc. The code guides the RP. Freeform has few (if any) coded constraints. (I separated this from automated because you can have immersive manual code--e.g. a comms system or news bbs.)

<--- solo -------------------- troupe --->

Are you mostly playing the game by/for yourself, or is it more of a community feel.

MUDs tend to have the dials turned more left.

MUSHes tend to have the dials turned more right.

Code-heavy MUSHes (like Firan) and RPIs have a mix, but slant leftwards.

And you don't have to have one dial for the whole game either. Many games have had some things (combat/space) slant left while others (eating/economy) slant right. Or they have some solo minigames while most of the game is a troupe feel.

So I don't think there's a simple tipping point where something becomes "too MUD" for a player. I think it's a more complex sliding scale of taste. Is the specific combination of dials on a game fun for me?

@Tributary said in Favorite/Most Memorable Childhood Books:

I have read a lot of other McKinley books, but that one may forever be my favorite.

Yeah I liked Hero and the Crown too, and the Robin Hood one she did. Blue Sword was the first I found, though, and my favorite.

@Quinn's comment about Lloyd Alexander reminded me of another series I liked: The Illyrian Adventure and its sequels, also by Alexander.

Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. It was the first sci-fi/fantasy adventure book I ever read that had a girl as the main character.