So here we go, at long last, I will make the jump into the MushClient world. This started out as a project for the guild bot characters so that they could access my databases but it’s grown. It has taken so long because I’ve been inordinately busy with life and school and also because I could not get the server configuration I wanted working (I still cannot but I will!!). Instead I’m forging ahead with my current setup but I’ll add all my functionality and transfer it at a later date.
For those who are not interested in installing and configuring MushClient very little of interest will appear in the next few blog posts. My initial post was far too long to keep in one piece and so I’ve split it up into several steps. You may find the discussion of triggers interesting when we get there or may wish to read for ideas on how to refresh your own client of choice’s setup. Either way, once I’ve accomplished this it’s well past time to go back and reflect on all the guild turmoil of the last few months.
For background’s sake, I have been a long time Zmud user and recent Cmud convert. I loved Zmud back in the day, it did all I wanted it to. The mapping system draws me back time and again. I just cannot keep it stable on my Windows 7/8 systems. I purchased Cmud since it was pretty stable … until I started pushing it. Now I can crash it by rearranging the windows. There is no doubt in my mind that it has a few memory leaks or fails to do some sort of garbage collection. The problem grows the longer you use it or the more windows you open and close. I’m not even touching how often my character setting files corrupt or the fact that I can’t open character A without disconnecting character B. I’m ready for a reinstall … but I know I’ll be back to this point in a couple months. The straw that breaks the camel’s back is that Zugg is no longer developing the software. If he were then I might hang in there in optimistic faith that the bugs and glitches would get sorted out but the fact is that it’s a business and he’s not making any money at it anymore. I say that without judgement, it’s got to either be something you love or something that pays … when it’s neither it becomes a burden. I wanted to add database support to my bots and discovered I would have to pay more for Cmud pro … to do something that is available in a free Lua library that is not provided by Zugg at all. Next I want to play with MDSP and a graphical interface similar to what KaVir or Sepharoth worked on some time ago.
I guess these things contribute to my breaking point. I read a rant about Zmud users not wanting to buy Cmud even though it was an overhaul … I am not in that category, I paid for both. I’ve used both. I’ll keep using them both for specialty tasks for the time being… but bring on MushClient by Nick Gammon.
My first experience installing Mush under Windows 7 wasn’t pretty. It turned me off Mush enough that it took an ordermate extolling it’s virtues to convince me to try again. The new 4.84 installer is MUCH better. Ignore most of the instructions on the Mushclient website, grab that installer, change your paths to point to somewhere you can find them, install that old winhelp if you like and bang, you’re up and running. I stopped at the global preferences, rearranged a few directories, tick off the reconnect on disconnect button and I’m up and running.
Next is to set up a world. This bit of terminology tripped me up since I think of world=mud. Here we’re using world=character. You can use world=mud but then you will lose the ability to enjoy the autoconnect features. The one character, one world setup works for me and how I do my triggers. The world file will have all the variables about the particular character and I will bring in my (for example) THIEF trigger set as a plug-in and let the triggers use the variables. This way I can share my triggers without my variables messing anyone else up and of course all my (example) thieves will have uniform triggers but don’t have to have uniform equipment or setups, etc. More on triggers later.
For now, how to organize things. I only play one mud, so I don’t need a separate folder for Realms of Despair characters but do I want to lump all my characters in one folder or split them up? My instinct is to split them up. In Cmud I could rename the icons to things like “Tharius – Ranger” and “Lareawan – Thief” … or in time I just used seperate icons for each class so lumping them in one window was fine, I could glance about and find what I wanted but here in MushClient I’m only presented with a Windows open file dialogue. I loathe it 🙂 Things like this go on my “it’s open source, if you hate it that much then write some code” list. Anyway, I dislike this because I cannot dynamically rearrange my listing to suit whatever piece of information I’m trying to extract. Usually I want them sorted by class then by name … I can accomplish that by filename but if they’re in folders I won’t be able to re-sort them quickly by last connect date … or whatever … So at the end of the day I won’t bother with folders, and I’ll use file names like Thief – Lareawan so that I can use the Windows file explorer to sort by name or date or whatever I want … I need to go back and check off “Save world on exit” so that it will properly save the time stamps but other than that, we’re off to the races, as long as that doesn’t show up in the window title bar, we’re good.
(Next time, configuring the world … default setup and getting ready for a mass character import)