[MUD-Dev] Re: Some thoughts on languages and users - was: Ma

[Adam Wiggins]

On Sat, 2 May 1998, Chris Gray wrote:
> [Jon A. Lambert:]
> :Hmmm, why not implement it as the accessible, but hidden, power-user 
> :interface for your next level?  
> 
> Could do. Historically, it came before the mouse interface. I was then
> (and still am) trying to support both text-only users (telnet, regular MUD
> clients) as well as custom client users. So, there is a full set of textual
> commands for building, that do the same as the mouse-directed stuff. The
> prompted-oriented programming can be viewed as an extension of that level,
> and that is how it originated.
> 
> Extending the capabilities of the mouse-driven stuff has been on the list
> of things to do for a while. It'll have to wait for the new custom client
> to be created in Java, however.

It seems that this would be a natural place to actually write the client's
interface itself in mud-language plus a few commands to pop up different
sorts of widgets, along the lines of tk/tcl perhaps.  I did something like
this on my last commercial project.  The game's map editor began as a
simple console where I could type commands and edit scripts (which were
similar to shell scripts - the regular list of commands for interacting
with the game map, plus a few conditionals/loops etc).  When everyone but
me started whining for a mouse interface I coded up some simple slider,
dialog, and button types that could have an attached script.  Thus it was
pretty easy to do favorites buttons, or bookmark holders, or whatever,
since each script could have its own local variables and such.

I can easily imagine hackers going in to modify the client's functionality
however they liked in order to get the interface just right for what they
do.  Of course, maybe this isn't a good thing if it makes 'botting' too
easy, something that having a custom client is sometimes useful to avoid.
(Although the bot programs for UO are getting pretty impressive despite
now native client-side scripting...)

> :<Gasp!>  Oh crap... fluids and gases.  This is excellent thread material. 
> :Anyone? Help! 
> 
> Didn't they come up a year or two ago? I recall Chris L. posting about
> fluids running around and collecting in a stream or something? Still, it
> is an interesting area to open up again.
> 
> Hmm. Poisonous fogs. Poured from a high point, or seeping up from the
> ground.

Arctic's cloud spells were a ton of fun, and that was only a room-by-room
propegation.  I could easily imagine all sorts of fun with death fogs
(quick! someone get a fan!)

Liquids are also fun for making natural bodies of water.  I painted the
terrain for my server on a bitmap where each color coresponded to a
terrain type, and then a second bitmap with elevations.  Then we can
invoke as much rain on the land as we like an have either trickling
ravines or raging rivers.  And as the water level of the land rises,
what was previously shore gets taken by the river.  Presto, instant ruined
underwater cities.

Adam



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MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.