[MUD-Dev] Blending graphics with text

[u1391470]

I am currently developing on a mud which has implemented a top-down 2D
graphical view (somewhat similar to Ultima 4). The graphics are all .jpg
or .gifs, and come bundled in our custom client. The world file has been
modified to support this, moving the basic object from a room to a zone.
Again, the best way I can describe it is to say that it strongly resembles
Ultima 4, in that there is a wilderness map which you move around in to
get to the zones, which upon entering, has a new map.

Each position in the zone is associated with a room (for flags etc),
because of memory constraints. Given the number of "coordinates" (ie.
unique locations a person can move within the world), we found it to be
too memory intensive for each to have its own structure.

(We are planning of rewriting this in the future, but for now, that is how
it stands. If we completely did away with text, this probably wouldnt
even be a concern.)

Since we have associated rooms, we have kept room descriptions, titles,
etc. I am not sure if we need these at all (after all, don't most players
tog brief anyways?). Similarly, do we need text saying:

    A <mob name here> stands to the <direction>.

when that same mob has an associated icon already visible on the map
screen?

For now, we have kept all this text for those players who will be
connecting without the client (we haven't opened for beta yet), but seeing
as the client is free and supports most things other clients do
(aliasing/triggers/variables/sounds/etc.), is this even a valid concern?
Similarly, people who telnet in are able to see an asci map rather than
jpg/gifs.

Of course, by removing all/most text (the more graphics we are able to
create, the less text we would need), we are "moving away" from the whole
concept of a mud, regardless of our base. There are, of course, certain
things that could never (realistically) be removed, such as text from
says/tells, but most other text can be replaced by graphics.

So, what is a good balance? Would making the mud "graphical" rather than
text based destroy the basis of our being a MUD? Are limited graphics
best?

Your thoughts are appreciated,





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