[MUD-Dev] Graphic design, client questions

[Thinus Barnard]

Hi,

I am designing a MUD from scratch. At first I thought about making the
MUD normal telnet compatible but now I am not so sure. I am considering
a Win32 client. Here are a few pros and cons:

Telnet pros:
Platform independant.
Tons of software available.

Telnet cons:
Limited to text.
Standard telnet sends every character typed to the server. This
increases server overhead, especially if you do a lot of backspaces.
No graphic capabilities.
No mud server specific functionality.

Win 32 client pros:
Any mud server specific functionality can be added to the client.
The client can force the user to only enter valid commands.
The commands sent between client and server will be much shorter.
The client can support graphics.

Win 32 client Cons:
Limited to Win 32 platform.
Client has to be developed and maintaned.
The user will have to download the client before using the mud.
If the client is updated the user will have to download the client
again.


The other possibility is to use a Java client. The client will not be
limited to a specific platform then. I will probably go for this option.

I have been thinking of developing an interface that looks like EOB (Eye
of the beholder), Bard's tale or the old Might and Magics. The client
will not have a command line option at all. Everything will be point and
click. The client will have a text mode available which will show text
only descriptions of rooms and equipment. This will still work with
point and click. This will also circumvent the whole free text and
language interpretation issue.

If anyone has done something like this or seen something like it I would
like to take a look at it.

Cheers
Thinus
mailto:thinus_barnard at bigfoot.com