[MUD-Dev] User interface design [was: Where are we now?]

[Kwon Ekstrom]

From: "Greg Munt" <greg.munt at btinternet.com>

> So, let us say that a telnet interface is a Bad Thing. This is not
> to say that a text-oriented interface is a bad thing - just that a
> telnet-based one is. Consider how many potential users don't even
> know what telnet *is*, that think of the internet as a sprawl of web

I've been working on a client that works with IE, it takes XML input
and displays it in a web format.  I've allowed it to target frames, or
elements within a document, there's still a fair amount of bugs I need
to work out.  Oh, and the server sends a header which references a web
page for it's initial display.

> I consider the ideal interface to be one that can be accessed
> through any graphical web browser. This is mainly because potential
> players already have the client on their computer. This avoids
> losing people by demanding a lengthy download. One annoying thing
> about MMORPGs (I

I had originally intended to write that client for Mozilla Gecko, but
considering that browsers built from gecko average around 10mb I
switched to using the IE com component... the file size atm is 40k,
I'm intending to embed XSL capability, with caching style sheets (to
hopefully conserve some bandwidth being used by adding markup).  I
figure it'd probably be between 1-1.5 MB, I'd like to add telnet
capability to it as well.

> been discussed here. It's always focused on the server, not the
> client. This may be somewhat due to telnet interfaces being

There was a thread a few months back specifically dedicated to the
client.

> Alternatives for a graphical interface:
>
>   1. Java telnet
>
>     This is nothing more than a telnet window embedded in a
>     browser. YUCK.
>
>   2. First-person 3D
>
>     Doomesque. High levels of immersion. Anticipated to require
>     twitchiness.  Possible for a free mud to provide? I doubt this.
>
>   3. Third-person 3D
>
>     For example: Tomb Raider. For comments, see 2 - wrt immersion,
>     twitchiness and possibilities of provision by a free mud.
>
>   4. Tiled 2D
>
>     For example: Gauntlet. More likely to be strategy-based. (UI type
>     encourages game/playing style?)
>
>   5. Non-tiled 2D
>
>     For example: Labyrinth.
>
> Any others?

6. Web embeded

> I've been thinking about my interface recently. It's very
> frustrating. I have to choose between an interface I don't want, or
> an interface I don't have the skills to produce. Someone should set
> up freegfxartists.org. Or something.

I intend to release information about my client when I get things
worked out, I'm writing it for my text based MU*, and I figured that
it would be a good advancement to text.

I've got a wish list of things I want to write into it, but I'm not
too familiar with the IE component, so some research is necessary.

I want to be able to call scripts from an attribute and send forms
back to the server in XML format.

That would allow the interface to be fully interactive without making
it too much more difficult than the text interface.  Of course you
would probably want to get familiar with web standards (for which
there's plenty of information for)

I do intend to write a version for Gecko which unfortunately require
cross-browser capability, but because I'm releasing information for
the standard eventually someone will write their own implementation.
The major drawback of the IE based system is lack of *nix support, a
gecko based version would fix that.

-- Kwon Ekstrom

_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev