@kestrel said in Attachment to old-school MU* clients:
So I'd like to note that there actually are a few web-only MU* systems out there. One example is Written Realms.
I opened it up and it looked like Zork or single player. I looked at worlds and saw only the Zork one, Cave. It looks like a MUD. I found the documentation and indeed it is a MUD. There is nothing wrong with this but my focus as a hobbyist isn't the meaty of a game environment. It looks like its pretty nifty for a MUD runner. I would imagine the various types of MUDs have their own versions. I know a lot of the pay-to-play MUDs have had web interface for a long time so its not a surprise to see them in the web-only interface level of development/production/whatever.
As a player, I prefer story driven play, I've never been on any MU* where staff have run plot/events for me as I've primarily been a daytime player. Not a complaint just saying I'm different than most. I've only stayed in the hobby as a written based medium, I prefer MU to write collaborative story with because it is multi-user live environment dedicated that type of play.
Because I've had to drive my own fun, I tend to (at this stage in life) run games I'd want to play so others like me can come in and easily run things.
The web-only ones look slick. As a player that drives my own fun, I wonder how easy I could roll luck or skill or random dice in general to generate my own story. I know its a MUD, so I know can't have random MOBs that net me random XP.
The other MU*s that are not MUDs make it easier for me to log on and do something without needing to find clothing/armor or weapons in the game. Arx has bridged the gap. I still have no interest in making clothes and armor and stuff to operate in a player driven economy system. I'm in the realm of, if an app is approved saying I'm billionaire Ted, I should be able to use billionaire Ted's Jet to fly half way around the world and no one would bat an eye or question it cause there is no code to support it.
That's as a player, as a story runner or game runner, what I would be good for me is something like the Doctrine page on Written Realms. A menu on the right, if I click on the top it brings up client like interface where I can page players just like on a client. I like Ares chat systems, I can RP in the client and read forums and jobs in the web portal. But even just paging, its easier for me to be in a client and page player1 staff2 and player4=message. Then page player3 player6 and player7=plot info. Its easier in a client to have multiple ongoing conversation with me in an instant by typing over clicking between chat windows. I type faster.
For me a non-MUD MU* as a game runner is something I can quickly add a feature to in support of game system and play. If we need a new dice roller to handle playing cards in game cause people do it a lot, I can do this quickly in a client in an older code base.
If Ares and other new systems approach the level of adaptability similar to Written Realms, where building a game is just as easy, I would certainly change full force. I'm current running an Ares game with someone else, chosen because I wanted FS3 in a simple environment and I knew I wasn't going to want custom code. But if it was similar to written realms, where I could build things and systems to do stuff I wanted as a game runner, that would be slick. Its wishful thinking.
It would have player section at the top for all my paging and posing needs. It would have a builder section where I could build a system from scratch, dice rollers, customizable sheets; am I using attributes and skills, or levels and abilities, how are dice rolled (dice pool where each die has a target number like FS3 and WoD, or dice pool total vs a target number like D6). I could make a system in Ares, it would take me years at this point, I used Faraday's guide to add goals and I still needed a ton of assistance.
I have an Ares game up, I would like a game that utilizes Chaosium Basic Role Playing Game and an estate system based loosely off KAP's book of Manor and Estate; in which the estates inform familial benefits and bonuses and ranks in a system where players can rise to become the king of the realm of focus. I can do this much faster in Penn. I'm in the middle of combat trying to make it look pretty, it takes me a long time being dyslexic it was started last fall but took summer time off and a better map of logic flow to get what I have so far. I am trying a small code project in Ares involving players being able to play Faro while the RP, but had to try to fix goals for an update and all the connected parts baffle me at present.
If the web-only system allowed me to make a sheet and customize resolution systems as needed, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. None do and none ever will I don't think. My dyslexic brain thinks rng's would be easier and spelling out the logic of what is rolled and when through an interface like Written Realms would be easier. If the was some visual basic code on a platform that didn't require me to still use a code program (or shell or telnet), a virtual machine (or real machine for that matter), and a third web-platform or client, I'd be on it. A window were I can flip to the visual basic code to build a roller, flip to the building of the game window to take the roller and put it into combat, and then flip to my in game window for posing and such or checking forums and DMs. I'd be on it, we all would.
TL;DR, there is a lot of 'you should', you (or someone) should make a clean customizable stuff so everything can be done in one window/tab on web only (play, build, system code, run the box), but you should is aggressive .. I should use my I feel, I need. I feel I want a bunch of stuff, I need to do it myself. You should, I feel, I need. Conflict resolution basics. I can't code what I want, I can only use the tools out there, I feel sad I can't do it, I need to get over my sadness and do what I can do for my own fun. Which is using a client even if I do a lot through web-portal systems that some awesome people have made and put a lot of time and effort into for free because its still a hobby at the end of the day.
ETA: PennMUSH does have web socket/web interface. I am a visual learner, I can only copy what I see and customize as I understand it, I can only do the web-client on the browser thing because the basics for that are out there. So folks can play most of my recent Penn projects through a web browser client. I am not smart enough to make some web socket thingy to emulate reading the forums by being signed into a web interface program, alas, so its limited for me. I think Rhost does have something similar too for web socket/web browser stuff.
