MUD'ing with handheld/mobile devices

[Laurel]

After my recent chat with Gorboth I came to the decision to write about the topic I was wondering about for a while already:
https://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewt ... =14&t=1922
https://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewt ... =27&t=2103

MUD'ing with your telephones/tablets.

I myself enjoy my Samsung S+ with Blowtorch for the purpose of either skull grinding or following a team for exp-grinding. It allows me to stay in touch, control my character and at the same time doesn't require a PC/laptop for Genesis'ing.
True - conversations or even mails/messages are a little bit of a pain in the butt, but well - can't have it all.
I guess using a tablet would solve that issue as well, but I ain't getting myself one just yet.
I did however notice a lot of tablets poping up among my friends.
When they are bored in meetings or have some free time (subway, relaxing in the bathtube, longer journeys, etc.) they either use them to play some less advanced games (Android market shit), read books or watch movies.

Question: why not spread MUD'ing among this target market?

To answer this, I suggest we answer a poll for ourselves first:
How many of us here actually use telephones & tablets to Gen around?

I am one. My setup is as I wrote above - Samsung S+ + Blowtorch. I made a few aliases in it (paths for the most part), most required triggers (combat + follow the rabbit ... err leader) and 15 touch-buttons for moving around + attacking + looting + shopping/banking + a utility button (under one button all the shit commands I don't want to type like "enter tent", "dig here", "climb ladder", "exa worn pack", etc.).
For me it works great when I don't need my full paths, triggers and aliases that I have on my PC. It's either in the car/subway/bus, late evening relaxing in bed with a book in one hand or in boring meetings at the office (for the most part).

If we wanted to address such people like me (or anyone who already feels like her/his mobile phone or tablet is attached to their hand at all times anyway) we already go in the right direction:
https://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewt ... =14&t=2098

Just need a developer who could place a dedicated MUD Client for Genesis on the Android market.

What are YOUR thoughts on this one?

[Zhar]

This might be interesting, even though I can't use my phone this way:



This is my phone, incapable of connecting to the Internet, taking photos and all that jazz.

[Laurel]

http://www.lightreading.com/cisco/cisco ... /240147908

[Zhar]

http://www.lightreading.com/cisco/cisco ... /240147908

The thing is, you don't really need 4G for that. The best way to do it is getting a shell account where you can install your own stuff, connecting via telnet/ssh to this account and launching the Genesis client from there. I remember it was totally doable with Nokia E70, which even had a full QWERTY keyboard.

To win the smartphone market we'd have to create some app for mudding, where you would get touch-screen support for things (touching exit would make you go there, selecting item/npc would open up a list of interaction options etc.).

Without all that what would you be using your phone for? Ocassionally logging to remote server to see if your scripts are still running? Botting is strictly prohibited.

[Zar]

I do mud from phone sometimes.
But not in Genesis.
Genesis requires a lot paths, a lot of attention and stable connection.

[gruff]

Just need a developer who could place a dedicated MUD Client for Genesis on the Android market.

What are YOUR thoughts on this one?

Thats a pretty big "just" :p

But I totally agree, I've played both from my iPhone and my iPad, (using iMud, which was decent - tried some other clients that were pretty bad) and I think its a great thing.

I think, if it had some basic gestures, like swipe up to go north, down to go south, etc, and the ability to interact with some of the text through clicking it (like press an equip button and then the client text "iron sword" to wield it), it would be pretty easy to play slightly casually, and a pretty good experience. I played for a three hour train ride without any of those fancy features, and it's the best game on my phone by far (if you have time for it that is.)

With some maps and stuff, it'd be pretty great. Though I think developing something like this would be extremely hard work, and you'd need to have a commitment beyond casual to make it happen.

[Laurel]

I made my own touch buttons for that. They go more or less like that:

Code: Select all

 NW            N              NE
  W         Attack            E
 SW            S              SE
utility       utility         loot
 bank      wear-armours     shopping

They take 1/4 of the screen, most to the right side and are transparent. This way I can do most of the interaction with the game with one thumb only. It will not allow me to interact with players tho, but that's what I use the rest of my fingers for (when required). Besides - skull-grinding the ogre-way is pretty much just that: kill, harvest, loot, move. Considering that I need 250+ skulls per hour to beat those makro'ed harvesters even my touch-buttons won't do

For example
"Attack" is pre-set to a variable I can change at will - depending on what I am killing at that moment.
"wear-armours" includes taking them out of my pack as well - in case of danger and stuff.

Just counted my triggers too: less than 30 in total. That's including auto re-rubbing my gem, auto-rewielding after a kroug-avenger happens to pop in, login triggers or the simple "armour up" trigger when climbing up to Akugla. Not much work to customize it all.
I can at any time set my "shopping" button to be not only empty pack and sell stuff, but also take a path from a killing ground to the shop. The "bank" button can then be set to go from shop to bank and return to killing grounds again. Got a total of 9 paths and 9 aliases for such things so far.

As you can see by now, I rather take easy to setup solutions instead of complicated macros/strings. That's what my phone lets me do without any problem.
I guess a tablet would make it even easier.

[Zhar]

it's the best game on my phone by far (if you have time for it that is.)

I know this is bad PR but local patriotism has to count for something too

http://www.neuroshimahex.com/

As far as playing on your phone/tablet goes it's hard to get anything better than that.

[Cherek]

I've tried a little with my old iPhone 3G a few years ago. Too small screen, too poor resolution for it to really be playable. And at the time there was no really good client I could find.

But with high resolution phones and pads it's probably a good market. A mud game usually doesnt need your full attention, not always anyway, so I can see people sitting with their pad in their lap while watching TV or stuff like that. And while traveling of course. The touch thing is interesting though, would it not be cool if you could touch words on the screen? So if you touch "forest" you'll examine the forest, and stuff like that. And of course voice recognition to "say" things. That would be cool!

Anyway, how advanced are the best clients for android/iPhone these days? Do they have triggers, aliases, paths and scripting capabilities? I think those things are probably needed to get people to really use it.

But yeah, I definitely think muds have a future on mobile devices, and if we, Genesis, provided a good way to play from those devices, that would be cool. Is it possible to set up some customized mobile client, like Gruff has done with the Mudlet thing, for mobile devices? Laurel?

[OgreToyBoy]

I've tried a little with my old iPhone 3G a few years ago. Too small screen, too poor resolution for it to really be playable. And at the time there was no really good client I could find.

But with high resolution phones and pads it's probably a good market. A mud game usually doesnt need your full attention, not always anyway, so I can see people sitting with their pad in their lap while watching TV or stuff like that. And while traveling of course. The touch thing is interesting though, would it not be cool if you could touch words on the screen? So if you touch "forest" you'll examine the forest, and stuff like that. And of course voice recognition to "say" things. That would be cool!

Anyway, how advanced are the best clients for android/iPhone these days? Do they have triggers, aliases, paths and scripting capabilities? I think those things are probably needed to get people to really use it.

Well that is partly true