Shattered Kingdoms

This is directed to Dulrik.

I played Shattered Kingdoms for awhile, but I recently stopped to start up my old mud again. I am going to add a personal client for the mud, mostly for newbies. It will contain help files without being online, the map, and also allow midis to be played depending on the areas.

If you want one, e-mail me. richardcoffron@yahoo.com
If not, it's fine.

Keep up the good work! And shooooots!

...so is this thread just a commercial?

Nope. I think he's offering D a copy of his newbie-friendly mud client, presumably tailored to SK's needs. But I'm guessing and I'm sure Kainest will answer for himself.

He doesn't seem to be advertising his own mud, except through mentioning it in passing, and hasn't put a link to it that I can see, so I'd grant the benefit of the doubt and suggest the intention behind his post was genuine.

Anyway, good luck Kainest.

-Tat

Yeah, you go it right. Thanks. I had NO intentions of listing my mud. Just an offer, because I admire the mud so much.

-Shoots-

Todo list of anyone wanting to write a MUD client...
a) GUI interface
b) Telnet protocol negotiation
c) ANSI support (incl. color & positioning)
d) Command-line interface & history
e) Aliases, triggers, map engine, database and any other 'nice to have' add-ons
f) Professional Installshield client for Windows (add, remove + update)
g) Portability to Mac and Linux platforms

Todo list of anyone wanting to write a custom client for SK...
1. Items a-g above
2. Modify the interface, perhaps - help display link, etc
3. Support for custom-prompts (char/equipment display panel, perhaps)
4. Voting portal, perhaps
5. Sound triggers (midi, wav, mp3, etc)
6. Sound-on-demand to download new files (for new areas)

No offence Kainest, but you've got a long way to go before you need to worry about 'branding' of SK onto your client. Or have you already got a working client, from scratch?

Already have a client from scratch. It's not mine, it's my friend. It has a lot of what you just mentioned.

The client is not for experienced users...they can use portal, zmud, etc. What most muds need(but think they don't), is a personal client for download use.

Someone who has never played a mud stumbles across this page. They are like kewl, a text based game that is online. I played dungeons and dragons...I liked roleplaying. This is free....I am sick of all the other bs out there.

No d/l page? Hmmmm ok....client. Hmmm I am a newbie who has only basic computer knowledge. Download zmud. Errrr...what is this. Ok...zmud is not Shattered Kingdoms. Ok...oh hmm....errr....screw this.

Unless of course Sk only wants players who have mud experience, which is NOT a bad idea. But they might wish to broaded themselves. The ONLY way a new mudder will last more than 5 min is with a friend who is helping.

A friendly mud client designed ONLY for Shattered Kingdoms doesn't need to allow other ports or servers to connect to. It would have the SK map on it. It would support ansi. Help files built in. Command buttons at the click of a mouse. This would make the "game" appear more official than just another -mud-.

Most of the successful muds out there have developed their own client in some way. I know you can use telnet from the page....but...hmmm come on.

-Kainest-

A discussion from here on would probably be better off done privately (and most likely once you've got an installshield sample working with, say, 3 help files built-in). Some of the additional considerations that are usually brought up at this point:

1. Does your friend mind you taking his source code and making something else?
2. Would you be donating the resulting product to the game? Any game admin would be wary of someone offering a client, establishing a broad usage and then running up against 'creative differences' between the client author and the game admin... I'm sure you can imagine some of the many possible problems.
3. Would you be donating the resulting source code to the game? Promises are good, but unless you brand something up as SK and enable some way for yourself and future coders to maintain it, there's a good chance it will die as soon as you lose interest.
4. Can you handle brutal criticism from people you've never met, who will dismiss reams of code you're very proud of at what may appear to be a whim, and furthermore demand reams of new code be written in areas you'd prefer not to go near?

Personally, I think a client that's fast, easy to use, reliable and 'zero-configuration required for SK' would indeed attract a few more 'pure' roleplayers who might be a bit computer-phobic (yet excellent table-top RPers). But it's a sad how few commercial products on the market meet up to my personal expections of 'fast, easy-to-use and zero-config'. But that's just me.

Anyway, I guess the ball is in your court to come up with something tangible to kick off discussions. I know it sounds cold, but without that your offer won't stand out from the many other offers from years gone by.

Here's hoping you succeed. *toast*

Apart from that, a nice alternative and fast solution I have seen is placing a download link in the main page for Gmud, saved locally on SK's own server. It's free. Also, Gmud requires no installation, you extract it and run it directly.

So, what could be done is having a self-extracting zip file containing Zmud with all its helpfiles and copyrights etc, but with the SK server already configured. When someone extracts and runs it, they hit the "connect" button and they already see SK as a pre-configured choice, but they are not restricted to ONLY SK. It's just that this is the only server already saved on Gmud.

Now, add to the self-extracting zip, a nice pdf document, or a simple txt with basic instructions and help for newbies, and new players to SK specifically and you have what you basically asked for. A client, downloadable from this page, with SK's settings preconfigured.

Other than that, the whole idea of an SK-specific client, is really cool and if the people involved manage to produce such a software, it will certainly be a good bonus for the webpage. Until then, however, you can just use Gmud as above.

E-mail me what you need, I will relay the message to my friend.

richardcoffron@yahoo.com

I will ask him about src code too.

You all realise that there's no money involved... at all... period... right?