Of course I need to mention that this is a beta so that can explain all of the missing details, but maybe I just need to give it some more time to cook. You build up buildings, build up more buildings, make an army, attack your neighb.zzZZZzzzzZZZ. If I see one more of these quick-play grinders with poor quest dialog that barely makes use of the wonderful tools that a smartphone can provide, I shall quit my job forever. The fact is that these games are a dime, no, a penny a dozen. Lastly I wanted to talk to you about Lords and Knights, a new mobile MMORTS that promises the standard conquering, alliances and epic warfare. Go back to the drawing board, and perhaps hire someone who is more of a creative individual.
I am making no excuse for those who are not knowledgeable in the ways of MUDs, but I am simply asking MUD developers to be aware that most people do not have the patience to read 40 pages of manual just to understand how to play. Yes, these types of apps will probably be used by those who already understand MUD-specific phrases and commands, but it nods to a greater point: it's time to stop with the math-nerd phrases and terminology. I personally like MukLuk because it recognizes the fact that (mostly) keeping it simple is the way to go. Still, Blowtorch does offer a nice set of hotkeys that do come in handy.īoth of these apps are free, so try them both. It would not take that great of a stretch of imagination. It would only take a moment for the client to explain what these options mean or, for goodness sakes, rename them something more friendly to a newbie. There are more cliches in MUDs than there are in popular music. There are reasons you will see so many of the same monsters, names and lore within the world of MUDs. "Encoding " "Process dot commands " "Cull Extraneous Colors?" Sure, I can figure out what these do easily enough but it only goes to show me that, generally, the makers of MUDs are first coders and second creative individuals.
Also, when you check out the options for the client, the list reads like a series of commands that once again would require someone who knows those commands already might know. Once I got into the MUD, though, I knew it was no different than stumbling across yet another MUD that offered the same bland black background as though we had stumbled across a time-travel device to the age of grunge. Not all of us want to have a black background with bright green lettering this isn't '92.īlowtorch looked cool enough when I downloaded it. I would recommend MukLuk, mainly because of its flexibility with color choices. MUDs need to stop using inside-speak for such basic commands.
That's sort of like using Vangelis for your modern movie it's dated and feels dated for a reason. "Colors of Stuff?" One of the main issues with modern MUDs is that they still speak the language that was required back in the day when a knowledge of coding was almost required to use these games. You can allow for ANSI colors, whatever the heck ANSI means (I fully expect some programmer to tell me in the comments section.) Why not just change the term to something more common? How about just "text colors" or, I don't know. This shouldn't be a problem if you find yourself chatting and actually playing the game at a normal pace.
It does seem to have some timeout issues, though, pushing players off the server if they are not busy enough for long. I am not sure how many people would use this on their smartphone in order to play for long periods of time, but it's perfect for checking in with friends or guild mates while you wait somewhere or are chilling in bed.
You can host multiple worlds, change the colors to pretty much what you want (although it does take some tweaking with) and besides the on-screen keyboard that can often take up much of the screen, you can interact with the world and generally play the game easily.
I plan to eventually get a nice Android tablet, so I imagine it will only do better on that device. Mukluk is a nice, basic MUD client that runs great on my HTC Inspire phone. Let me show you two - one that does better than the other.
It can't be that hard to make an app that offers color options for text, a workable landscape mode, and other basic options. You should not expect much in a mobile MUD app, but it would be nice if they offered the basics. MUDs can go a long way with just a few basic pieces of art, nice maps, and introductory quests. My current favorite MUD, Gemstone IV, gets a lot of points from me just for being pretty, accessible, and fun to navigate. While MUDs are not often complicated in how they interact with the player, the interface or intense list of game-specific commands can often ruin a good time. First let me show you some pretty neat mobile MUD clients.