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<H1>Re: Just a bit of musing</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: &lt;<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A>&gt;</LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: Just a bit of musing</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: <A HREF="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Sun, 02 Mar 97 21:57:22 -0800</LI>
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<PRE>

On 28/02/97 at 04:51 PM, "Carter T Shock" &lt;ctso#umiacs,umd.edu&gt; said:

&gt;I think one of the common problems is viewing these as a dichotomy. Yer
&gt;either on a TTY typing and reading, or you've got full blown
&gt;texture-mapped baddies to blow up. Doesn't have to be that way.

Agreed.

&gt;First off, I'm a _heavy_ proponent of clients. 

Partially agreed.  My favourite "client" for MUDding is still raw telnet. 
I don't like triggers, accellerators, scripting etc, and rather feel that
other's use of them detracts from the game (not counting the fact that I
feel that a game which can be so automated is fundamentally flawed).  

Outside of that about the only real point I'd argue vehemently agaist are
platform specific clients, whatever the excuse.  

&gt;All of that junk that is
&gt;sent as text these days could be compressed into short binary messages
&gt;and allow for lots of customization in the process ("You OBLITERATE Ogg
&gt;with your deadly flatulance" becomes a 2 or 4 byte header followed by a
&gt;couple of bytes of state info.. how many points, who ya hit, etc). 

Hurm.  Raz I think talked extensively on Wout's list about externallising
the IO this way.  For a free programming MUD the problem quickly becomes
synchronising the client and server DB's -- especially when no strings or
string references are hard coded into the server anymore.  (Not to say it
can't be done, but it gets entertaining).

Consider the simple case of a newly user-programmed object which attaches
to a player to mutate the appearance (note: not the effect or result) all
incoming attack events in some manner (say relocating the apparently
damaged area, making the attack appear inefectual/very effectual, changing
the apparent attack weapon ("You are attacked with a wet noodle!") etc. 
JoeBloe user programmed this up a couple of hourse ago, and now your user
attaches and starts to play...

In-game IO filters and mutators get to be *real* fun when you seperate
them as you describe.  (NB I allow in-game objects to potentially trap,
redirect, filter, analyse, post- and pre-process all IO for other objects
such as players etc).

&gt;The
&gt;client becomes responsible for making text out of the binary spam. Now
&gt;imagine a client that is primarily a text region for all the fancy
&gt;descriptions, chat, hints, etc and has a small window where you show the
&gt;player's orientation with the world using simple stick drawings. 

Cf Rogue/Larn/Hack.

-- 

J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw#null,net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder#ibm,net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...


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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: Just a bit of musing</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00042" HREF="msg00042.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
Dmitri Kondratiev <a href="mailto:dima#paragraph,com">dima#paragraph,com</a>, Mon 03 Mar 1997, 09:36 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00045" HREF="msg00045.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
Carter T Shock <a href="mailto:ctso#umiacs,umd.edu">ctso#umiacs,umd.edu</a>, Mon 03 Mar 1997, 21:22 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00046" HREF="msg00046.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
Wout Mertens <a href="mailto:Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be">Wout.Mertens#rug,ac.be</a>, Mon 03 Mar 1997, 22:51 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00049" HREF="msg00049.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Tue 04 Mar 1997, 23:49 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00050" HREF="msg00050.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Wed 05 Mar 1997, 08:53 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00051" HREF="msg00051.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
Nathan Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Wed 05 Mar 1997, 14:31 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00052" HREF="msg00052.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Wed 05 Mar 1997, 14:33 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00054" HREF="msg00054.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Wed 05 Mar 1997, 16:15 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00071" HREF="msg00071.html">Re: Just a bit of musing</A></strong>, 
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Sat 08 Mar 1997, 11:49 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
</LI>
</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>

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