Something I've been working on for a bit now is a client, specific to DL, that is run through your web browser.

There are multiple reasons for implementing something such as this. For example, if someone is new to muds and wants to connect to DL and try it out, they may not have something like Portal, zMUD or Tintin. If they click the "Play Now" link, it will open the Microsoft telnet client (if they are using Windows) and it's pretty annoying to have to do CTRL+] and type "set localecho" so you can see what you're typing. Hell, if you use Windows Vista, you have to specifically install the telnet client that comes with the operating system, making it even more of a hassle. Another reason is if you log in from a PC that is not yours, such as at school, work or a library, you may not have access rights to install a mud client. A web-based client will alleviate the need to install software and still let you play DL. Also, you may not want to install something because you infrequently use that particular PC, especially if it's at school or a library.

The reason for this thread is simple: I WANT YOUR IDEAS!

This is a pretty complex project (under the hood, anyway) but has virtually UNLIMITED potential. There will be status bars to show how much HP you have left (along with a number as well), full color support, perhaps equipment and inventory lists in a different frame/window... Basically, think of the current DL Client and make it 1,000 times better and run in a web browser instead of a fullscreen DirectX application.

For builders, there could also be a separate interface that will list various things you are working on, such as a list of rooms, mobs and items in your zone(s). If you're working on a task or macro, it can show all of the intricacies of those in separate views so it will be a LOT easier to work on them. For administration, various commands could be available at the click of a button to better allow, well, administration. For GMs, how about a live, realtime list of all the players who are approved to and/or are currently roleplaying?

The possibilities are limitless, which is why I want YOUR ideas to go into this. There's only so much that I can think of, so come on and add some fuel to the fire!

Funny you should mention this...

I was trying to develop an updated, (and DL specific) Mud client, using Visual Studio 2005 .Net

I got it to the point I can send and receive data (poorly). My ultimate hope was to incorporate all common aspects of the game, (Prompt Info) (Equipment List) (Armor Ratings) (Current Spells affecting you) into some form of Character status window, set near the CLI.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten past filtering the colors in my client, which makes everything look like gobbly-gook.

So yeah, if there's a web-based client, I'm somewhat interested (Maybe assisting with development), and those are some of the ideas I had drummed up as features for my client. Feel free to bounce them around!

Dref.

Oh, and will this client be using some form of Java? Or a different web friendly language?

The only existence of Java in the whole thing would be in the form of JavaScript. I'm not a big fan of Java, but I can tolerate it in small, scripted chunks

The client is being written in Ruby, specifically Ruby on Rails (RoR).

Nezmar and I are big fans of Ruby, especially how simplistic it is while still very powerful. Instead of writing some kind of bloated Java applet that will run in a box in the window, we opted to start development with it using RoR. The dynamically-updating page is achieved with AJAX, and the underlying logic is processed in Ruby. There is only very essential communication between the client and the game server. We have our own proprietary protocol developed to allow the client to talk to DL directly, gathering more information than the player could get at one time. Imagine if you use the "att", "look", "eq" and "inv" commands all at the same time - that's the data that would get fed directly to the client without cluttering up the text output with tons of lines.

In other words, my previous ideas could probably be implemented! Score.

I've never messed with RoR or AJAX, but it sounds like this web app is going to be a helluva lot more powerful than a mere telnet!

I myself have vista and use the DL client that you can download from the main page.. i like the bars that show the health , movement, stats hunger,thurst and fullness along with mana power and song bars and AC.. also like the experience bar and such well ok i like everything from it.. sure it dosnt have maps or anything fancy like that but i like the simpleness of it

the only thing i would like to see otherwise is a scroll feature so can go back and look and also copy and paste ability..

I swear every time I use that DL client, it refuses to work. I've tried it on 98, 2000, and XP.

Strange thing though, I think it worked on ME. Strange indeed.

A web based client, however, would open up the game to pretty much everyone who can surf the net, which in theory would lead to more players, playing a free (and uber-fun) game, whenever they found themselves online (which I seem to be finding myself constantly!).

Dref

you have to go into the compatibility Mode by Right clicking on the client exe and then the compatibility Mode and swithcing the compatability to windows 98 95 or Me i usually switch it to 95

let me correct that LOL you right click on the EXE then go down to Properties then compatibility then check the box next to use program in compatibility mode, and then switch it to 95 and click accept .. should work perfect

I am with you there.. Java = Memory hog and generaly YUK
Havent done much with Ruby so have no idea there but have discoverd that im pritty much a mental Retard when it comes to coding knowlage compared to you and Nezmar but i love the idea of the web basing .. this will mean alot of new players.. those that when you mention telneting they look at you like you said a dirty word or some kinda alien language.. cant wait to see what you got , ive looked passing at some others that went this way, wasnt really impressed but mainly because if i want to do this kinda format online gaming i only come here.. Nezmar brought me here in Alpha days and even tho somewhat inactive at times its the only place i would go.. I know one thing for sure with your development of the web basing.. Us Builders better get our butts busy cause with this game + web basing this is really going to kick ***..

I'm no coding genius, but if you show me the concepts, I'm fair at picking up the details, and learning how to do it.

I've had minor experience with java, extremely little HTML, I've mostly spent my time with VB.NET.

I putter around with it.

This topic is near and dear to my heart so let me share some thoughts:

I have spent significant time prototyping things with Ruby and while some things are slow (which will become less and less of a problem because of moore's law -- though with multicore stuff soon we'll have to really deal with proper threading), all in all, it is a FANTASTIC language. I just can't say enough good things about it. I've used it for all sorts of different things (including things like writing a cross-platform native feel gui-based batch telnet/ssh client, changing one color to another in 50 gif files in one shot, updating the MP3 tag information on my MP3 library, network monitor plugins, and scripting for network device provisioning). Ruby is one bad *** language as far as I'm concerned. At this point, I believe if I ever start writing a game from scratch, I'd use Ruby underneath. For more information:

Ruby's Home
http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

A Neat Little Interactive Ruby Web Tutorial
http://tryruby.hobix.com/

Now that said, Ruby will (unfortunately, from my viewpoint) only be a part of this project. Traditionally, MUD clients are either a stand alone client or a java client. Previously, you haven't been able to make a web based client using anything but java applets and applications. Web 2.0 and AJAX turns this whole paradigm on its head. AJAX allows you to use javascript (very very different from java) to communicate back and forth between a web browser client (which interprets the javascript) and a web server (which tells the client what to render). This means you can make changes to portions of a web page, and that those changes can be essentially pushed by the server. This in turn means you could write a client for a MUD directly inside of a web browser -- the game becomes part of the web site. Now, to make all this magic happen is a lot of work! There is a lot to keep track of and manipulate... this is where Ruby on Rails (RoR) comes in. RoR is a web application framework -- it creates a lot of the javascript/AJAX stuff for you (allowing us to do statistic updates and things similar to the existing DirectX-based DL-Client which eliminates the need for prompts), and it allows you to easily add a database on the backend (in our case this would be useful to keep track of individual user client settings, for example). Here's where you can find out more about RoR:

http://www.rubyonrails.org/

I'm highly interested in making this a simple easy to use interface. To this end, I really would like to keep to many of the concepts utilized by 37Signals:

http://www.37signals.com/

Specifically, I really enjoyed some of theories in this book:

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php

It is possible that we will charge for people to use this client and make some effort to pay the programmers who create it for their efforts, though this has not been ultimately decided.

As far as I know, this is still in the conceptual phase I haven't written any actual code on this client. I have, however, done enough research to believe that it is, in fact, possible to make as described.

Keep the thoughts flowing.

Best regards to all,

--Nezmar

well from what ive seen from some sites instead of charging for overall service they instead use banners for bonuses such as experience that gives the website votes on voting sites that increase traffic and advertisers.. they offer what they call favors to others and also charge if anyone wants to put a banner up there to increase the votes on a site and or traffic to there sites..

a few small things i think would be nice to have on the web based client... current possition IE Sitting, standing, sleeping, fighting etc..

Current Money In bank and out

was considering possibly what zone you were currently in but not sure if that would work or not.

defenatly the current ac/stop numbers

when grouped a active showing who your grouped with and such.

possibly a programable button for things like drink and eat so would take less to enter

maybe even a row of buttons with common commands making it easier for newbies

directional buttons IE east west north south


will try to think of more later..

If you want to make basic navigation easier (or harder, depending on how it's coded ) You could set keybindings for a ten key pad. you would have all cardinal directions, plus up and down. Named exits would still need to be entered, but as far as getting from point a-b, the majority of directions could be traveled.

Know who's in your group, and their current basic stats, would easily come in handy. There are so many sidebar features that could be built in, you'd have need for a second monitor!