God Wars II design blog

GUI snippet version 6

2011-11-19T16:34:00.000-08:00

Version 6 is now available from MudBytes, and contains the following minor changes:

Removed a stray semicolon.

The "if ( !pProtocol->bMSDP );" statement had a semicolon at the end, which should be removed. This bug has very little impact, as MSDP already overrides ATCP, but it does mean that if the user's client supports both MSDP and ATCP, they will be sent the SERVER_ID variable twice.

Made it easier to add MCCP support.

Quite a few muds already support MCCP, and had trouble getting it working with the snippet - particularly if they were using copyover as well. So I've improved the documentation and made it easier to integrate.

Made several minor updates to the installation instructions.

The INSTALL_MERC.TXT had actually been written for GodWars rather than Merc, and relied on a couple of GodWars-specific changes. It's been updated to work with both, and now also defines MSDP_CLASS. The INSTALL_TBA.TXT instructions now define MSDP_CLASS as well.

Added an INSTALL_ROM.TXT.

Although the ROM instructions are very similar to Merc, there are a few minor differences, and someone had trouble adding it to their ROM derivative. So I added another set of installation instructions.

GUI snippet version 5

2011-10-13T02:17:00.000-07:00

Version 4 was just a tiny update to fix a memory allocation problem, but this version has more changes.

While helping Splork get the snippet working in SlothMUD, we came across an interesting problem - it seems that the MXP specification doesn't actually define whether the server should initiate negotiation with IAC WILL MXP or IAC DO MXP. While some clients therefore support both, others support only one or the other. I've therefore updated the snippet to support both (it attempts one if the other fails).

There was also a complaint from another user about the MSSP table being cumbersome to update for non-static fields such as players and uptime. I've therefore changed the table to use function pointers, which should make it much easier to update in future.

Scandum also asked me to change LIST to use an array, as per the latest specification, which I've done.

Other than that there were a couple of bugfixes, but nothing serious. Here's the list of changes:

Added symbolic constants for MSDP_TABLE_OPEN/CLOSE and MSDP_ARRAY_OPEN/CLOSE.
MSDPSetArray() was using table values rather than the array values. Fixed.
Added MSDPSendList(), used for the MSDP LIST command (updated to an array in the spec).
Doubled MAX_VARIABLE_LENGTH for the list variables.
Some of the LISTs had no separators between values when sent using ATCP. Fixed.
The MSSP table now uses function pointers, making it easier to update dynamic fields.
Added support for both variants of MXP negotiation.

As usual it can downloaded from the GW2 website: http://www.godwars2.org/download/protocol.tgz

Or from the MudBytes code repository: http://www.mudbytes.net/file-2811

GUI snippet version 3

2011-08-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

There was a small update to the snippet on 13th June, to fix a cyclic TTYPE issue, add some extra MSSP variables, and add support for broken packets. But this update (version 3) is somewhat bigger, primarily due to some changes that were made to the MSDP specification since the snippet was released:

Added an AllocString() wrapper function, as strdup() isn't standard C.
Added support for the new MSDP tables and arrays.
Added support for the new UNREPORT and RESET MSDP commands.
Added a new REPORTED_VARIABLES list, as described in the latest MSDP spec.
Renamed VARIABLES to SENDABLE_VARIABLES as described in the latest MDSP spec.
Cleaned up the code, adding consts and fixing -ansi and -pedantic warnings.
Added support for the new Mudlet GUI autoinstaller.
Added an MCCP flag to make integration with the snippet easier.
Updated CopyoverGet() and CopyoverSet() to include TTYPE, MCCP and CHARSET.
Added an MSDPFlush() function for variables that need to be sent immediately.
ProtocolOutput() now lets you send tabs.
The snippet now recognises that DecafMUD supports 256 colours.
Updated the TBA instructions with a fix for strfrmt().
Updated the Merc, SMAUG and TBA instructions to use MSDP tables.

You can download it from here: http://www.godwars2.org/download/protocol.tgz

If you're already using the snippet, the README.TXT has some information about updating.

The generic plugin has also been updated: http://www.godwars2.org/download/Generic_Plugin.zip

The plugin doesn't handle fully nested data, but it does handle basic tables and arrays, as used in the installation instructions.

4 Dimensions themed GUI

2011-08-18T04:46:00.000-07:00

I've recently been helping 4 Dimensions get my protocol snippet working, and I decided to put together a simple Mudlet GUI to show it in action (and also because I wanted to test out the Mudlet autoinstaller on another mud). As you can see, the layout is based on the God Wars II GUI, although I've replaced the graphics, recoloured the energy bars (to match 4D's prompt colours), and dropped the second map and bottom-left icons:

(click image to enlarge)

4 Dimensions already has a 'map' command that draws an ASCII map, so it was fairly straightforward to add the same data to an MSDP variable whenever the player changes room, and then I just threw together some basic graphical tiles for the client using Paint.

I decided to put together a MUSHclient version as well, and added some textured background and border graphics to make it feel a little less plain:

(click image to enlarge)

There's no information about your enemy, the spell icons are currently all the same, the avatar is fixed, and (as I recently discovered) there's an important 'stamina' value which will need a bar of its own. But these were never intended to be final versions, just a way to demonstrate the protocol snippet, and an example of what you can throw together in an afternoon.

GamingHUD interview

2011-08-14T15:45:00.001-07:00

I was recently interviewed by Dean of GamingHUD, where I took the opportunity to share my views on the state of MUDs, and where I see them going in the future. You can read the interview here:

http://gaminghud.com/articles/meet-the-devs-kavir-of-god-wars-ii

GamingHUD covers mainstream video games as well as MUDs, so I'm hoping it may draw some attention from outside of the MUD community.

Customising icons

2011-07-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not very artistic, but fortunately there are plenty of people out there who are, and some of them are happy to offer their work for free. Grulk recently pointed out a free album of icons that someone had created for use in games, and I think they would be superb for mud GUIs.

You can view and download them from here: http://imgur.com/a/KBQkz

They're initially black and white, but the idea is you can customise them to your theme (the top six images on the above link serve as examples of what you might do with them).

If you don't have Photoshop, there are other ways to customise images. One tool that I occasionally use is the MyTheme Online Photo Editor. It can be a bit annoying at times, but it's free and it gets the job done.

For example, supposing I want to create an icon for a magical hammer. First I copy a base icon (from the album mentioned above), then I invert the colours and save it:

Next I open the Photo Editor, click "Browse...", enter the file name, then click "Upload now!". Then I click "Effects" and select "Lightning Effect", and it generates a new icon. You can do other effects as well, including blending it with your own backgrounds:

There are now at least 17 muds supporting MSDP, 15 of them using my snippet, so I'm hoping we'll soon see more mud developers taking an interest in designing their own GUIs. Perhaps we could even create a shared repository of free base images - they're simple enough to flip, rotate and resize, and with custom backgrounds as well you can easily use the same base graphics for multiple GUIs without them looking like clones of each other.

While I'm posting anyway, here are a couple more screenshots - as you can see, I'm now using unicode (via UTF-8) for gender symbols and linedraw characters:

(click image to enlarge)

Atlantis and BlowTorch also support UTF-8, although the CHARSET negotiation doesn't seem to have been added to BlowTorch yet. I'm still trying to decide how best to use unicode - I've even toyed with the idea of creating a custom mud font (other muds have created their own fonts before, but I don't think anyone has created a unicode mud font before).

In other news, the latest version of Mudlet now has an autoinstaller which automatically downloads and installs my GUI when the player first connects (through ATCP, so everyone using my snippet can now use the autoinstaller for their own muds as well). This is obviously much more convenient than doing everything manually - even with clear installation instructions, I frequently have to spend time helping players get the MUSHclient plugin working, and sometimes they just give up.

GUI snippet released

2011-04-01T03:40:00.000-07:00

After some more testing and refinement, I've decided my snippet is ready to be released into the wild. I really need to get back to working on God Wars II anyway.

Tijer's mud, the Realm of War, is already using the snippet - so I decided to create a quick and simple demo GUI for it, by adapting the plugin I'd created for Realms of Despair:

(click image to enlarge)

I also spent a few minutes creating another version to release with the snippet:

(click image to enlarge)

You can download the snippet from here: http://www.godwars2.org/download/protocol.tgz

And the plugin from here: http://www.godwars2.org/download/Generic_Plugin.zip

Realms of Despair themed GUI

2011-03-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

After another three weeks of working on my snippet, it's finally complete - and it includes a lot more than just MSDP. Tijer and Squiggle have been testing it on Realm of War (a GodWars mud), and have already helped me resolve a few issues, but it should really undergo further testing before being publically released.

I decided to create a demo GUI for Realms of Despair to show off the features, as I'm hoping they'll join the MSDP bandwagon. It would be a huge boon for the protocol to get the backing of such a major mud, and might encourage more client developers to add support.

(click image to enlarge)

4Dimensions have also expressed an interest, as have a handful of other muds, so perhaps we'll see more GUIs in the near future!

Mudlet GUI: 28-Feb-2011

2011-02-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

After several more hours playing with the links, and no progress to show for it, I decided to cut my losses and give up. They work well enough for creatures and equipment, so I'll just disable the other links and wait until Mudlet adds proper MXP support. I've too many other things that need doing, and progress on the mud is starting to lag behind, so I really can't justify any more time tinkering just add links to the help files.

On the GUI front, I've enlarged the font on the blur, adrenaline and movement icons, to bring them more in line with the MUSHclient plugin. I've also got the movement icon correctly changing the colour of the text label based on the the movement type (walk, jog, run, etc).

I also discovered a minor bug, with the map using the yellow dot instead of the blue dot for other players - that's been fixed.

Finally, you can now target things by clicking on their miniavatar.

(click image to enlarge)

I've also been working on my MSDP snippet - I've got it communicating with the client, now I'm working on the variable table. It should only send variables when they change, so each player needs a table that can hold multiple variable types. This was much easier in C++, but most muds are written in C, and I want something that can be widely used.

Mudlet GUI: 25-Feb-2011

2011-02-25T16:23:00.000-08:00

Following suggestions from Vadi and Heiko, I was able to get the moon icon to correctly rise and set behind the map. After doing that I decided to shift most of the label creation into the onConnect() function, to tidy it up a bit.

The links still aren't quite working if there are two on the same line - but at least now the first is correctly displayed:

(click image to enlarge)

Mudlet GUI: 23-Feb-2011

2011-02-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

The map borders are now separate images that are drawn onto the background, as is the sunrise image (the trail that the sun/moon follows).

I've added the sun/moon icon above the maps, along with the current time. There's still a slight problem with the sun/moon being drawn over the map when it rises and sets, I need to find some way to draw it behind instead (so that it appears to rise up from under the map, and set back down below the map).

(click image to enlarge)

Mudlet GUI: 20-Feb-2011

2011-02-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

I've now added the proper colours for the health, mana and primal energy bars:

(click image to enlarge)

I also moved the initial GUI setup into an onConnect() function, and done some more work on avatars.

Mudlet GUI: 19-Feb-2011

2011-02-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

After a lot of messing around I managed to create a new SEND format that includes RGB colours - although it doesn't yet work properly for XTerm 256 colours, it does at least work with regular ANSI:

(click image to enlarge)

Note that the foreground colours are used for rare, uncommon, common, epic and mundane, while the background colours are used for artifact, relic, mythical, legendary and magical. The default background colours are all "none", as I don't personally like having text with background colours, but from a functional perspective it could be very useful for players who (for example) are only interested in collecting rare artifacts, etc.

You can see a little white label at the bottom of the text window containing the text "look collar". That's actually the mouseover message - my mouse pointer doesn't show up in the screenshot, but that's what you get when you hover over a link.

Mudlet GUI: 18-Feb-2011

2011-02-18T04:27:00.000-08:00

Mudlet doesn't support MXP, but it does allow you to turn text into clickable links. With a lot from help from Vadi, last night I managed to simulate MXP links. I actually send the data in a slightly different format for Mudlet, to make it easier to parse, but the results are much the same:

(click image to enlarge)

The underlined text is all clickable, and you can hover over it with the mouse to see what happens when you click.

I'm still having a couple of problems though - the first is the colouring (which is stripped), and the second is the link extending beyond the highlighted text. If these can be resolved, Mudlet will be able to take full advantage of my mud's MXP features.

On another note, I managed to get the function keys working.

Mudlet GUI: 17-Feb-2011

2011-02-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

I've been busy working on the mud recently, but as the Mudlet GUI is so close to completion I thought I'd put some more effort into it. I've now got the hotkey buttons along the top working - at least as clickable buttons. I'm still trying to work out how to use keybindings for the function keys.

(click image to enlarge)

Mudlet GUI: 07-Feb-2011

2011-02-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to both Vadi and Oneymus, I was able to resolve the issue with the miniavatar gauges.

I've now added the four icons below the target avatar (in the bottom left), which were previously just part of the background image, and have adjusted the labels on the spell icons. Rather than repeating the same code over and over for drawing black outlines around the text labels on the icons and bars, I created a generic outline_text() function.

I also took the opportunity to clear the avatars, icons and energy bars from the static background image, now that they're all drawn properly. I had forgotten the frames for the avatars, so I added those while I was at it. Thus when you start up Mudlet you get this:

(click image to enlarge)

And when you're connected you get this:

(click image to enlarge)

I still need to add the hotkeys at the top and the sun/moon icon (and time) above the maps, as well as the mouseover and clickable stuff, but it's nearly there.

Mudlet GUI: 06-Feb-2011

2011-02-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

As Mudlet doesn't support MSP, I've added sound triggers to the MSDP package for my psuedo-ATCP. It generally works, although as far as I can tell Mudlet doesn't support playing multiple sounds simultaneously. This means that combat sounds tend to cut off the (longer) weather and terrain sounds.

I've also added the target avatar and associated health bar in the bottom left, although the icons below it still need their text labels.

Finally, I've added energy bars below the miniavatars on the right (below the two maps), and here I've run into a problem - it seems that while hideWindow() hides labels, when used on a gauge it instead displays it as if it were empty:

(click image to enlarge)

Hopefully I'll be able to find a workaround for this - perhaps by shrinking them, or moving them behind something else.

Mudlet GUI: 2-Feb-2011

2011-02-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

I've not worked on the GUI for a while, but decided to do a bit more on it tonight. I resized the regular avatars so that they're all 64x64, and now display the PC's avatar in the top left corner. I then added the spell icons underneath, although they don't have the pie-shaped timer like they do in the MUSHclient version:

(click image to enlarge)

I also went through the script and made sure all the files were loaded from relative paths.

The primal energy bar at the bottom is something I started working on previously (after posting the last report) but didn't finish - it doesn't yet differentiate between safe and regular primal.

Mudlet GUI: 24-Jan-2011

2011-01-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

Redid the health, mana and actions energy bars (below the text window) to use the same style as the MUSHclient plugin, using a stylesheet to create the gradients - very different to the way I did it before. The text labels had to be drawn on top manually, as they were too small for the built-in gauge labels, and the black outlines (to make the text clearer to read) also had to be done manually. I had to specify each colour for the gradients, so after doing green I just shuffled the RGB values around to speed it up - at some point I'll go over it properly and get the slightly brighter red for health and the blue-purple for mana.

(click image to enlarge)

The primal bar (the long one at the very bottom) is going to be a bit more tricky, as it's a two-step energy bar - it uses gold and silver to distinguish between safe and regular primal.

Mudlet GUI: 23-Jan-2011

2011-01-24T11:33:00.000-08:00

I discovered the problem with transparency - I was so busy checking all the properties that I didn't actually check whether the image itself actually had a transparent background. In MUSHclient it's handled automatically with a flag, and it's been that way so long I didn't really think about it.

Anyway, I grabbed a tool called TransparentPNG and converted the images, and it worked like a charm.

I also created another set of smaller avatars. It'll mean a larger download, but not excessively so, and there's no other alternative if I want to offer a similar interface to the MUSHclient plugin.

For the circle on the top map, and the dots on the bottom map, I created a new "shapes" folder and just added some pngs with transparent backgrounds.

So now the map looks like this:

(click image to enlarge)

Or if you're in a dungeon, like this:

(click image to enlarge)

You can't click on the map or miniavatars yet, but at least they update in real-time as you move around. There's still quite a lot to add, but it's coming together.

I've also managed to get sound working, so I'll integrate that into the script as well to take advantage of the soundpack.

Mudlet GUI: 21-Jan-2011

2011-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

In MUSHclient I draw a textured background image, then set the size of the text window and draw a black background behind it. I couldn't get this approach to work for Mudlet, as it would always cover the text, so instead I tried something else...something really fast and dirty.

I took a screenshot of the MUSHclient plugin and chopped it up into four sections - top, bottom, left and right. I then got Mudlet to draw the four images, and set the borders for the text so that the text window is in the middle of the display - like this:

(click image to enlarge)

It now looks quite a bit like my MUSHclient plugin, but it's just a static image. I rather like having the scrollbar on the right side of the text window, too - it happened automatically, while doing the same thing in MUSHclient would require quite a bit of work.

Anyway, I decided to try just drawing the maps over the top of the interface, as I figured it would at least save me the hassle of trying to align up all those borders again. Here we go:

(click image to enlarge)

There are some problems though:

1. The buildings on the zoomed (lower) map are supposed to have a transparent background. That's how my MUSHclient plugin does it, but I've not yet worked out how to do that in Mudlet, so for now it's displaying a white background behind each building. I've been assured it can be done though, so it's just a matter of fiddling around a bit.

2. The avatars are supposed to be resized as needed - they're 28x28 when displayed under the zoomed map, but 64x64 when displayed on the left as your target. Some of the avatar images have also been saved as different sizes. In MUSHclient this doesn't matter, as it resizes it on the fly, but this isn't yet possible in Mudlet. If you look at the avatars under the zoomed map, you'll see that they're actually just showing the top-left corner of the avatar. It looks like I'll have to provide a second set of avatars.

3. Mudlet doesn't yet allow you to draw shapes, so there's no circle on the top map and no creature dots on the zoomed map. I suspect this'll have to be done with labels.

Mudlet GUI: 20-Jan-2011

2011-01-21T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I decided to have another play with Mudlet, and it was a lot easier than I remembered. I was mostly doing it because I wanted to try out the latest version of Mudlet, and figured it would be a good time to check if ATCP was still working - lucky I did, as it seems I missed a couple of things when I rewrote my negotiation code. So I fixed my ATCP implementation and created an energy bar script to test it, using Vadi's fancy gauge stylesheet to make the bars look prettier.

(click image to enlarge)

I'm not sure I want to spend the time creating a full GUI like my MUSHclient one, but I may see if I can polish this a little - enough to hopefully get some GW2 players interested in creating their own. At the very least I'd like to add an avatar and maps.

Disclaimer: My ATCP implementation only supports a single package - a custom MSDP package, which transmits the MSDP data using the ATCP format and telnet option. I only added this for clients that support ATCP and not MSDP (primarily Mudlet, although the PHudBase client has the same issue).

MUSHclient GUI: 11-Nov-2010

2010-11-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

I've been aware for a while that the maps can look a bit tile-ish, because of the simple fact that they repeat the same tile over and over - but it looks particularly bad on the full map (as you can see on the previous screenshot). Part of that was because I'd just halved the height and width of the normal tiles using Paint, so I got the mud to properly generate smaller tiles - however it still didn't look that great.

So I tried creating two of each tile set and alternating between them - it was better, but still not that good. Randomising them was a bit better still, but looked wierd when you moved around, as the whole landscape seemed to shake.

In the end I settled on five of each tile set, with the plugin selecting one psuedo-randomly each time it draws a tile, and I think the maps look quite a lot better.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 10-Nov-2010

2010-11-10T17:33:00.000-08:00

I decided to have a go at creating a full map of the current world, which for now can be opened and closed by clicking on your avatar (just so that I could test it). It'll probably be opened by some sort of magnifying glass button on the border of the top minimap, but I've not yet decided how best to do it.

For the time being, the map only works for the Realm plane (the newbie world), and the index values are hardcoded into the plugin. For the Nexus (which is 9 times as large) I'm going to need much smaller tiles, and I'd rather not reveal it all up front - so I may have it reveal the map as you move around, and save the data between sessions.

(click image to enlarge)

SlothMUD-themed GUI

2010-11-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

After chatting with Splork, I decided to have a go at creating a SlothMUD-themed GUI, to see how easily the plugin could be adapted. It took around 2-3 hours in total (although I was watching TV and chatting online at the same time) - most of it was done in about half an hour, with the rest of the time spent tweaking the layout, troubleshooting a couple of problems carried over from my plugin, playing around with colours, and removing a load of unused code.

The graphics are from the SlothMUD website, giving the GUI a similar theme, with the layout designed to be similar to their flash client. For comparison purposes, the SlothMUD website is available here: http://www.slothmud.org/

(click image to enlarge)

In practice I think a smaller title would work better, but this was just a quick experiment, and I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Many muds already have a graphical title, a background texture and borders on their website, and my intent was just to see how easily such images could be used to create a themed GUI.

The map would need to be done differently (because of the room-based thing), but I have some ideas for that, which I may implement if there's interest (it'd be great for a generic plugin, as most muds are room-based).

MUSHclient GUI: 30-Oct-2010

2010-11-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Finally got the hotkeys working. There's a 'hotkey' command in the mud that allows you to specify a label and action for each hotkey, and you can either press the buttons or use the function keys on your keyboard. Because they're configured within the mud, you can specify different actions for each character - so your mage can have spells, your wolf can have pounce and claw attacks, etc.

I also reduced the size of the energy bars on the mini-avatars, allowing up to 3 rows of avatars to be displayed. They don't quite align up (they're off by a couple of pixels) but you don't really notice unless you zoom in. One thing I really need to add is a way to recognise your own pets, particularly for the up-coming Lich class, which will depend heavily on undead servants.

Finally, the maps now refresh properly for all locations. Previously they didn't show anything when inside the dojo, practice grounds, or various other buildings.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 19-Oct-2010

2010-11-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

Following feedback from Bobo the bee on MudBytes, I've added a blur timer (an eye icon - I'm not happy with it but it'll serve until I can find something better). I've also tried moving the boot icon to the left, as this gives me more space under the map for drawing mini-avatars:

(click image to enlarge)

I'm wondering about putting the large enemy avatar on the right, beside the mini-avatars (so that targeting someone would effectively just increase the size of their avatar). I think I'd find it harder to monitor their health that way though.

MUSHclient GUI: 16-Oct-2010

2010-11-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a go at adding the mini avatars below the zoomed map, as I mentioned earlier. I'm a bit short on space, but I can fit seven of them side-by-side (although if there are seven, the last one sticks out two pixels further than the map). I was nearly able to fit in two rows, but not with the energy bars, and using the pie-shaped timer doesn't seem to fit. Other options would be to remove the boot icon, or put the additional avatars beside it - but I can't think of a better place for the boot, and I'm thinking of adding more icons beside it anyway.

So it looks like I'll be limited to seven mini avatars. But as it shows the seven closest things, that's probably okay - I don't generally have a lot of things in one place, and you could always click on the map to move closer (and thus change which avatars are displayed). The only real exception would be in the starting village, where there are already seven buildings, and where players tend to pass through or sometimes even hang around.

You can click on the mini avatars to target the appropriate thing, but there's no other way to tell which is which. One option might be to use a range of different colours for each dot on the map, and use the same colours for the energy bars - that would allow the user to distinguish between mobs at a glance. But I wouldn't like it from a consistency perspective.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 13-Oct-2010

2010-11-01T12:59:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a play with buttons. I'd originally thought about putting them at the top, but long ago dismissed it as a wierd place to have buttons - however last night I got thinking about tying them to the function keys, and also making them available as hotkeys. Not only does this fill the space at the top of the interface, it's also quite a logical place if they're bound to function keys.

This is my initial draft, just to get the ball rolling:

(click image to enlarge)

The idea is that players will be able to define what F1 to F12 do within the mud, and this information will be passed to the plugin, which will then configure the function keys. So you might define F1 as 'rage' and F2 as 'magic', and the mud would then send these values to the plugin, which would display 'Rage' and 'Magic' on the respective buttons (or perhaps add a little icon, I've not yet decided). You could then either click the button with your mouse, or press the function key on your keyboard.

It might also be cool if you could right-click the button to bring up a little window for configuring what the button does. This data would then be sent to the mud, which would confirm that it was valid, and then tell the plugin what to set - this might seem a bit of a roundabout approach, but I think it would be the easiest to implement. However I'm not sure if you'd be able to have an input field in the miniwindow...but what might work is to have it bring up a large menu of possible commands, rather like Guild Wars, and let the user click (or even drag-and-drop) which options they want on their buttons.

The hotkeys can be set with the Accelerator function (which, I discovered, can also be bound to a range of other keys - this could perhaps allow you to emulate character mode enough to create a graphical Roguelike interface). I also discovered that Accelerator allows you to send negotiation sequences, although sadly these still get echoed to your screen (as junk characters), and I don't know how to avoid this without switching off input echo completely from within the MUSHclient settings.

Another minor issue is that hitting F1 attempts to bring up the Windows help, even if you've bound F1 to something else. You can get around this by toggling an option in the preferences, but I don't know if it can be done from within the plugin.

From a cosmetic perspective, it seems a bit strange to have the "F1"/etc text label displayed in the bottom left corner of the button. I feel that it should be in the top left. But that looks a bit strange when compared to the spell icons. On the other hand, if I decide to include an icon on each button as well, perhaps the text could be made bigger and placed in the centre left.

There's also the issue of button width. Like the energy bars, the buttons are aligned with the text window - which means their width can vary. This was easy enough to do for the energy bars, but it's going to be more fiddly for the buttons, particularly if they contain text and images.

I've also not yet given up hope on having some tabs (for things like a full-world map, an equipment and inventory list, etc), but if I still want these at the top I'll have to make the buttons smaller. They could instead be placed at the right side of the window though.

MUSHclient GUI: 02-Oct-2010

2010-11-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

Donky on MudBytes suggested that he didn't like energy bars that were both candy coloured and gradients, so I created a screenshot without gradients on the bottom energy bars:

(click image to enlarge)

And another with paler bars:

(click image to enlarge)

Here they are again, just the bars this time:

(click image to enlarge)

I'm also toying with a red that fits better with the slateblue - firebrick is quite nice, but perhaps a bit dark? I also used forestgreen instead of green, as it's a fraction less harsh.

(click image to enlarge)

Here are a selection of slightly different shades of bar I tried:

In the end I settled for the last one. So, back to the plugin again...

I'm now using the new energy bar colours, and they're pretty nice. While playing with them I noticed that the bars were off by 1 pixel - that is, they had 2 "bright" pixels in the middle despite being an odd number of pixels high, so they got a bit darker at the top than than at the bottom. I tried changing them to have 1 bright pixel in the centre, but they didn't look as good, so in the end I changed them to 3 bright pixels (which required manually drawing an extra line in the middle). A lot of work for something most people probably wouldn't notice, but once I'd seen it I felt compelled to fix it. Did the same for the enemy avatar's energy bar, even though it's thinner - once again it looked a bit iffy with just 1 bright pixel in the centre.

Based on a suggestion from Alayla, I've also added a (1 pixel wide) black line at the left and right end of each bar.

Alayla has provided some new movement icons - a pouncing boot, a retreating boot, a wing (for hovering, flying and swooping) and a fin (for swimming). In combination with the coloured text, this provides full coverage for all the different movement speeds.

I've left the pie-shaped timers for now, as I think they're a fairly good way to see at a glance which spells are soon to expire - but I still plan to do more work on them. Their brightness now only changes when the duration drops below 60 seconds.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 30-Sep-2010

2010-11-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

I decided to try with the bottom right option for the icons, based on feedback, and see what it was like in play. The text really is pretty small, but it's usable - I've still not made my mind up about it.

Last year Nick Gammon showed how to create cooldown buttons in MUSHclient, and I've kept meaning to try it out - so today I did, adding expanding pie-shaped shading around the spell icons to show their last 60 seconds of duration (it could easily be extended to show the true percentage, but I didn't want to change the format of the MSDP variable just to test something out). I'm not entirely happy with the results, but perhaps it would look better if I adjusted the lighting.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 29-Sep-2010

2010-11-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

Alayla has provided a smaller set of spell affect icons (28x28 rather than the previous 32x32) and some 34x34 backgrounds for them. Although this does mean that the affect icons are closer to each other than all the other icons, I still think it looks good - it acually makes them look more like a coherent block.

I'm considering reducing the size of the duration text, so it doesn't block too much of the spell images, but I'm worried about making it too small to read...it's a difficult balance between cosmetics and functionality.

(click image to enlarge)

I've also been playing around with the size and position of the duration text on the spell icons:

Still undecided. I quite like the bottom-right one (the four icons with the size 6 font in the bottom-left corner of each icon) from a stylistic perspective, as it doesn't hide much of the icon, but it really is small.

MUSHclient GUI: 26-Sep-2010

2010-11-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

Standardised the size of the font for the boot and crossed swords icons, as suggested by Kline. There are now four different boot icons to indicate different movement speeds.

Alayla (one of my admin, and the person responsible for most of the graphics) pointed out that the avatars were a bit blurry - turns out I had them enlarged to 70x70, even though most of them are 64x64 images. Shrinking the avatars to their "proper" size would have messed up their alignment with the icons though, so Alayla created a background for the avatars. They're now a bit smaller, but I think I prefer them with the background, it makes them look sunken into the display.

Still not entirely happy with the spell icons. They could really do with a border as well, but I'm not sure how to do that without needing to realign everything else. Perhaps add the border directly to the icons, to make them more like the crossed swords, heart and boot?

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 25-Sep-2010

2010-11-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

I've decided I definitely prefer it without the text in the bottom right. I've added a little boot icon beside the actions bar to indicate your movement speed (you can't see the boot so well in this image because the movement speed is written over the top, but when you're standing still there's no text, so people shouldn't have trouble recognising what it is). The text shows your movement in feet per second, and is colour-coded to indicate the movement type (retreat, walk, jog, run or pounce).

The energy bar under your opponent on the left is now a salmon colour rather than red if the opponent is too weak to give a reward for killing it. There's also mouseover information telling you what age they are - so that covers at least some of the text. I'm trying to decide whether the other information is really vital, and if so, where it should go - perhaps more icons beside the boot? I also considered resizing the energy bars so that the boot could go below the text window (but then I'd have to do the same with the heart icon...and perhaps the crossed swords? Then I'd need to rearrange the enemy avatar...)

One of my admin has provided a large number of new avatars. She also mentioned that the spell affect icons looked out of place - so after some consideration I've decided to remove the borders around them. I wasn't sure about it at first, but after using it for a bit I think it looks better, now that the borders have been removed from everywhere else.

I've also cleaned up the sun/moon icon in the top right, which would vanish for several minutes at a time. It now always shows at least one pixel on one side or the other, and completes its cycle from left to right at midnight.

I'm still trying to decide what to do at the top. I'd originally thought of having bottons or tabs, but I wonder if that might look too cluttered. Most custom clients seem to have the title of the mud in a big fancy font at the top, and I always felt that was a waste of useful screen space, but I do wonder if it might look better for screenshots (which of course would help with advertising).

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 24-Sep-2010

2010-11-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm still not happy with the text in the bottom right corner, partly because I think it looks out of place with the rest of the GUI, and partly because it provides information about your target - which is displayed on the left side. I've been wondering if perhaps I could display the same information using little icons, displayed above or below the target icon.

The extra space I've freed up on the right means I can now draw borders around the two maps. I think this looks quite a bit nicer, although the right side now feels rather bare.

One problem is that the maps have a fixed size. Perhaps they could be resized, but I'm not sure how good they would look if I did that. But if they have a fixed size, I can't properly align them with the text window - otherwise I could just do that and perhaps add some extra icons underneath.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 29-Aug-2010

2010-11-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

I've just been having a play with an online photo to cartoon convertor, and in my opinion the results are actually pretty good:

This could prove to be the solution to my avatar problem - because while I suck at drawing and painting, I'm not bad at photography, and most of my family are pretty keen photographers as well. It also seems to be much easier to find public domain photographs than hand-drawn artwork.

But back to the plugin...

Finally got the sunrise working (using the actual time - previously it was just using a dummy counter for drawing purposes). The original plan was that there would be a sun going from left to right during the day, and a moon at night - but this proved very fiddly, because days vary in length throughout the year. So in the end I decided just to have a full cycle (from left to right) represent a 24 hour period, from midnight to midnight, with the moon turning into a sun during the day and back to a moon at night. I also added the current time as a text label.

I've been creating more avatars from photos as well. Some work better than others, but I definitely think the cartoons fit the GUI better than photos. If other people decide to create their own GUIs, this would be a great way to built up a shared repository of images.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 28-Aug-2010

2010-11-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

I decided to see what it would look like if I put a pretty border around the text window. I quite liked it, but it looked strange with the gold lines, so I removed them all. It makes the interface look darker, and I wasn't sure about it at first, but it's growing on me.

Without the gold borders, the energy bars looked wierd - just black rectangles. So I've tried putting darker coloured bars behind them rather than just leaving them blank.

I've also been adding more avatars. It's hard to find free hand-drawn images, but there are quite a few public domain photographs - I'm worried it may look inconsistent to mix the two, but I've decided to give it a go anyway, as I desparately need more images (the building avatar in this screenshot is a photograph). I also want to investigate using photoshop (or some other tool) to make the photographs appear like drawings.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 07-Aug-2010

2010-11-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

I've changed the plugin to use a Lua table instead of GetVariable and SetVariable, and made it more robust in regard to missing images. The mud now sends icon IDs, so that each spell is displayed using a different icon, and I've started working on a "time of day" icon - a moving sun in the top right corner. I'm planning to have a moon as well, to indicate the time of night.

Mobs can now have their own icons, although I don't yet have many images to choose from. I may have to call on players to help provide some...this is the sort of thing that would be great to share between muds - a common repository of monster images.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 17-Jul-2010

2010-11-01T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'm playing around with enemy information right now. I noticed it's much easier to keep an eye on your opponent's health if the information is displayed in the bottom left. The downside is that that separates it from other target information such as distance and direction (currently in the bottom right), and that's not so easily packed into such a small space.

I had considered using the right side to display a list of avatars for all creatures within your line of sight, each with its own little health bar, in which case your target's avatar could simply be enlarged. But your current target is far more important, so I don't think it's a problem separating it from the others.

Another option would be to put it under the player's avatar (top left), but that would interfere with the spell icons, unless there was always an avatar (i.e., a blank one if you're not fighting anyone).

One player also suggested putting the avatar above the text window, but I think that would look a bit odd, and there's not much space (unless the avatar were made smaller). The original plan was to use that space for tabs, but I think that'll be a long-term project...however I may put some general purpose buttons there instead.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 14-Jul-2010

2010-11-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Finally got the spell icons working. The infinity symbol was a bit tricky - I had to overlap two letter Os, taking into account their black outlines. The server is currently still sending the same icon for every spell, but the plugin will display whichever icon is specified.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 12-Jul-2010

2010-11-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with other things recently, but one of my players has been working on his own plugin, and he sent me his building icons for the zoomed (bottom) map - so I thought I'd see what they looked like. His maps are smaller than mine (10x10 pixel tiles instead of 20x20), so I had to enlarge them and tweak them a bit, but I think they look pretty good (compare with the screenshot in post #9)- it makes me wonder if it would be viable to have better creature icons as well? I'm undecided...but I think the map would really need to be bigger for that to work.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 07-Jul-2010

2010-11-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

I've decided I like the second primal bar, but I've changed it to a duel-colour bar to differentiate between regular primal and safe primal (the latter is earned from quests and such, and cannot be stolen from PK). The safe primal is spent first, and is the silver part of the bar. The primal bar now also includes markers indicating how much is needed to train a power or stat.

Also started experimenting with the spell affect icons, which appear below your avatar. These will eventually include timers and mouseover information.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 05-Jul-2010

2010-11-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with a new layout. The width of the left side has been extended from 50 pixels to 80, leaving the correct amount of space for two 32x32 icons - which includes new adrenaline and regen icons. I've also dropped the title bar down from the left side, as I plan to use the space for spell affect icons. The avatar has been enlarged and moved to the top left, below the new title. The space above the text window will probably be used for tabs, while the space above the map will have a moving sun icon indicating the time of day (pretty important in GW2, as different mobs spawn during the day and night).

Problem is the energy bars are no longer the same height as the icons, making the layout appear poorly aligned. I tried enlarging the energy bars, but I think that makes them look too big:

(click image to enlarge)

So instead I tried adding a primal (experience point) bar below the energy bars, and I think I prefer that:

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 26-Jun-2010

2010-11-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Tied the avatars to shapechanging, so that they automatically change to reflect your current form. Added a heart icon to indicate your regen rate (empty, half, full). The plugin now reports its version number to the mud, making it easier to track which version players are using.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 25-Jun-2010

2010-11-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

Added support for xterm 256 colours, improved the way tiles are revealed as you move around, and added buttons to the maps which can be clicked to move in the specified direction - hovering over the button will indicate what it does.

(click image to enlarge)

Then went on to add a little avatar in the bottom left corner, and changed the circle in the top map to indicate your exact position instead of just your tile, so that it moves gradually instead of jumping 20 pixels at a time.

(click image to enlarge)

Finally, I added an adrenaline timer below the avatar, and drew a black outline around the text on the energy bars to make it easier to read. At this point I decided to scrap the arrow buttons - instead, you can simply click on either the top or bottom map to move to the location you clicked.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 24-Jun-2010

2010-11-01T09:50:00.001-07:00

Took a break from the plugin to work on the mud, but now I'm back! Created a new set of dungeon tiles. As the dungeon map fits exactly into the top map window there's no point in having it scroll around - so instead, the circle moves around while the map remains in place.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 14-Jun-2010

2010-11-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

Added MXP links to creature names, so that you can target creatures by clicking on their name.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 25-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Modified the tiles to make them a bit less blocky at the edges. It's not ideal by a long stretch, but I think it looks a bit better this way.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 24-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

Redesigned the energy bars to be positioned exactly under the text window, and included labels indicating what they represent along with the current numeric values. Changed the target info font to something less fancy but easier to read.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 15-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Added information about your current target.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 13-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:41:00.001-07:00

Decided I preferred the energy bars at the bottom after all, so scrapped the other ones. Added a "look" scale map underneath the other map, showing mobs, objects, players and buildings.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 12-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:38:00.001-07:00

Enlarged the tiles from 10x10 pixels to 20x20, with some randomisation of the colours to create a more textured appearance. Drew a circle in the centre of the map to represent your current position.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 10-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Created a little map in the top right corner, assembled from 11x11 tiles. The tile set is generated by the mud from the current internal world data, using an admin command.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 07-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Considered putting a title bar image across the top, but in the end I decided it was better with a taller text window. Added the title bar down the left side instead, and resized the text window accordingly.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 06-May-2010

2010-11-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

After lots of reading, and some help from Nick Gammon on the MUSHclient forums, I manage to create my first simple graphical plugin - it reduces the size of the text window and adds a textured background.

(click image to enlarge)

MUSHclient GUI: 30-Apr-2010

2010-11-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

I feel like a newbie again! However after a couple of weeks experimentation I manage to modify Nick Gammon's experience bar plugin so that it uses MSDP instead of the prompt, and draws three energy bars instead of one, representing health, mana and actions.

(click image to enlarge)

Introduction

2010-11-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be using this blog to discuss MUD design issues related specifically to God Wars II, but which I feel may also be of interest to other developers. I use MudLab for more general discussions, but I don't want to turn that into a load of "my game does this" posts.

My main reason for creating this blog is to record my experiences creating a custom GUI for MUSHclient. I've already been posting the information on MudBytes, but I think a blog would be a more effective way of managing the comments from other users - the MudBytes thread is getting a bit cluttered and difficult to navigate.

A graphical interface is something I've wanted for God Wars II for quite a while, although I've always tended to dismiss it as something outside my area of expertise. On 30th June 2009 I even made some early inquiries into creating a simple GUI for MUSHclient, but I never really took it any further. It wasn't until a couple of posts on MudBytes that I finally got the ball rolling.

The first was on 15th March 2010, when donky asked if I could detect which clients my players used. Prior to that point I'd never really looked into telnet negotiation (shameful I know!), but once I'd started playing with it I suddenly realised just how easy and useful it is.

The second was on 6th April 2010, when Scandum recommended that I add support for MSDP. At the time it was only intended for one of my players who wanted it for his TinTin++ scripts, but once I'd added it, I realised that it did exactly what I'd wanted to do with MUSHclient - and by 17th April I'd managed to create a basic MSDP plugin for MUSHclient.

By the end of April 2010 I had implemented MSDP and had created my first GUI - only simple energy bars, admittedly, but six weeks earlier I didn't understand how telnet negotiation worked, I'd never programmed in Lua, and I'd never written a client plugin.

In other words: This ain't rocket science. It might appear intimidating at first, but MUSHclient does all the hard work for you - all you need to do is provide it with the images, pass it the data, and tell it what and where to draw. Some of my players have already designed their own plugins, and another mud developer mentioned that he was able to create a basic GUI for his own mud in only a few hours, using mine as a template.

On that note, I should also mention that while you're welcome to copy and adapt my plugin for your own muds, I would ask you not to redistribute the images. I have collected a selection of public domain avatars which you can download here, along with some links for obtaining or creating more, but most of the graphics used by my plugin were created specifically for God Wars II by Alayla, or have other licencing restrictions.