Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:54 am

Will There Be One I Like To GEt It//.... Ive bought a couple different onse on there, but they dont live upto cmud expectaions.....

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:10 am

ohoohohohoho, with importable settings from windows cmud

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:12 pm

Given that Android and iOS devices are more "touch oriented" and MUDs are heavily "text input oriented", I don't really see a big demand for MUDs on mobile devices. CMUD is a very large and complex program with an extensive GUI that wouldn't really work on mobile devices. For example, I can't imagine actually doing any script editing on a mobile device. Also, CMUD is written using Delphi which is Windows-specific (no mobile version), so it would be a complete rewrite from scratch. When I wrote CMUD from scratch, it took about 3 years. Even if a mobile app only took one year, it wouldn't be worth the time.

In any case, No, I do not have any plans for a mobile version of CMUD. I just don't see a big enough market to make it worth the huge effort. Especially since mobile apps are also usually much cheaper. It would take a *lot* of $1.99 charges to make it worth it.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:17 pm

a client i downloaded has sold over 10000 copies at 2.99 a pop, if 30K aint enough demand i dunno what is thats about a half year salery

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:15 pm

Could you PM me a link for that app? (or feel free to post the link I guess). That's not too bad, although it's probably still half of what I would need to make it worth while.

I'm still curious on how people use a MUD client on a mobile device (I'm assuming you are talking about an iPhone app). I just can't imagine using the virtual popup keyboard to type MUD commands. So maybe I'm missing something.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:37 pm

IPhone Ipod Ipad
Android Android PAds Apps Now...
I just imagined a person with your mad skills could whip it out in no time......

unfortunetlyitunes and android market dont let you see number of downloads without being logged in but ill post some of the top sellers so you can see what its about...

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:41 pm

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:08 pm

I currently have a BlackBerry Torch (touchscreen + slide-out physical keyboard). I formerly had an jailbroken iPhone. I play Simutronics' Modus Operandi, which has a two-server login process that requires some password manipulation and recalculation/morgification to play.

On my iPhone, I was able to write Ruby and Python versions of a script to help with the login computations, and then used MobileMud or Mudmaster to play the games. These two mud clients are not nearly as sophisticated as CMUD, but they did allow me to stop in and say "Hi" on Morada.

I would love to have something similar for my BlackBerry. Unfortunately, RIM does not have an easy way to write a quick Telnet script for the initial login, nor a good MUD client for actual game play (although BBSSH is a fairly good telnet client).

I wouldn't expect my mobile MUD client to have all the features as CMUD. But it would ideally have enough features and be sophisticated enough to be able to "check in" and at least minimally function in the game. (What counts as "minimally functioning" would be different for every user, I would guess. Confused

)

Having said all that, I don't claim to think that what I want is what everyone wants. (I see too many people that believe that they, or they and "everyone they know", speak for the majority.) Also, I would be extremely hesitant to think that ~any~ programming project that I would like to have is simple for someone else to create, even with "mad skills" like Zugg's. Smile

Plus, as Zugg said, I recognize that developing in Delphi for Windows, in Java for Blackberry, in Java for Android and in Objective C for iPhone are all different.

And, I would guess that Zugg is quite busy enough programming CMUD for Windows.

Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:50 pm

Hey Zugg,

I know you just posted your outlook for the year, but one thing mentioned a while back was a CMUDLite. If, and I realize that's a very big IF, you could get some of the scripting engine and a stripped down interface over you may have something there. I can't imagine heavy PKing occuring on a mobile, but social and more laid back MUDs could be feasilbe. You could have a 3 tier pricing scheme for non-CMUD, CMUD and CMUDPro owners. While it may not work for every platform (it's seems more practical on a pad than a phone) it maybe worthwhile.

Just a thought nugget for ya!

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:15 am

CMUDLite is actually ready. I just couldn't find enough MUDs interested in in-game banners to support it, so I've never released it. But it doesn't really change any of the core issue regarding the mobile devices. CMUDLite is just CMUD without the mapper, db module, etc. But it still has the script editor (dependence on the external Scintilla library), packages (dependence on SQLite library) Lua scripts (dependence on external Lua library) and trigger processor (dependence on the external PCRE library) and is still written in Delphi. The dependence on those external libraries makes a Java version very questionable, although I know something called AirPlay SDK exists which does cross-platform mobile programming using plain C++ where the libraries might work (except for Scintilla which is too visual based to work on mobile).

But that's why I'm interested in real app numbers. My gut feeling was that the MUD community was already a very small niche that I'm barely surviving with and that the mobile fraction of that community would be too small to be worth it.

Certainly any mobile MUD client would be very different from CMUD in any case, so I also don't know exactly what improvements I'd bring that was worth buying. The idea of your CMUD scripts working across platforms would be very hard to accomplish. If I was writing a MUD client from scratch for mobile devices I'd probably just stick with Lua for the scripting.

Wanderer Joined: 28 Sep 2005 Posts: 55

Just for your info the Android Mud Client I use is AndroMud, I think it works better with a hardware keyboard than the onscreen one to be honest.

Palek.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 10:10 am

Button packages would be the way to go for tablet playing.
Its all about the buttons and the speedmenus and MXP as far as touch goes.
Those in turn would be calling aliases and making use of %selected.

But definitely would want them as packages. We already have the package library for distribution. Just need more people sharing their scripts.

I can see the layout of buttons being a big issue however.
We need a way to set the size/position different for screen orientation.
Perhaps a way to let designers see how the buttons would look at various phone/tablet resolutions?
Or allow buttons to be dragged (or disabled, or scaled in size) instead of performing their scripts if held down until a menu pops up?

Beginner Joined: 05 Dec 2001 Posts: 10

I actually play on my ipad when I'm out and about, I have a portable keyboard that works rather nicely. the only thing I do wish is that the client I use allowed me to expand the font. But it doesn't. It's a very simple client.

Newbie Joined: 12 May 2011 Posts: 1

I use a app on android called "Blowtorch" has a basic engine for triggers/aliases/timers and allows you to create buttons, the interesting thing about it, is if you press then flick your finger off the button without removing your finger from the screen, the button can have a different action. Works really well, I have things like N E S W U P laid out on screen and if i flick them, they do "open north" etc.

Not really tried using it on a phone, I use it on a android tablet. I'd definitely pay for a android port of zmud and I do use the on-screen keyboard to type, my tablet also docks into a keyboard so sometimes I use that as well.

Id like to see similar setup for Triggers/Aliases so I can port over all my usual zmud scripts. A basic mapping engine which is what all the other mud clients are missing on these mobile devices. Android is big and quality apps like zmud are exactly the kind of thing people will pay for.

With google starting the google tv platform running honeycomb your app could essentially be used on the mobile/tablet/chrome os and google tv platforms with very little coding once its done once (apparantly).

I used to use mudmaster when I had a iphone too, id play my favourite mud getting some exp in while I was waiting to give someone a lift after work, paid for that also. There's definitely money to be had there. :)

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/blowtorch-mud-client_njym.html

Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 2:25 am

I'm not sure why anyone would want to edit there scripts with such a small device, just edit them at home upload and play. given the huge trend for portable and more and more games, and if Corning has there way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38 everything is going to be touch orientated heh

I say we gently Nag....and nag....

Beginner Joined: 17 Jan 2010 Posts: 20

I would like to see CMud on the Android tablets. At least a stripped down version of CMud. The current clients out there (AndroMud and BlowTorch) do not even allow for variables thus really no scripting (they only have aliases and triggers). I think MUDding could actually gain in popularity if there was a really nice app for it, and maybe some shiny new MUDs released to play around on. I'm talking casual games, not super competitive like some can be, with plenty of roleplaying. For the CMud Android client though, one feature I'd want is integration with the touch interface. So for instance, I'd have a script that stores names of people seen on the "who" list. When I see the person in a room or wherever, I could tap their name to "whois" them - or bring up a customized list of actions like [smile, look, direct, tell].

Beginner Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 17

Well WINE for android is on the way, so running cmud or zmud on tablet is a future possibility. With scripts written on the PC, using external keyboard could make it an almost normal gaming experience.

Beginner Joined: 27 Aug 2010 Posts: 25

Zugg, I don't know if you're still interested in the mobile CMUD idea, but I use Blowtorch on my Droid tablet just fine. I know of some people on the MUD I code on that actually party from their regular smart phone as well. It's not easy with the apps that are out there, so you could corner the market if you can get scripting in a mobile app. I've only tried a couple, but Blowtorch's on-screen buttons are neat. Couple them with your scripting style and a mobile CMUD could really offset the handicap of using a phone. A tablet is just that much easier to use as it has a large keyboard. Also, I typo a lot on my table keyboard and Droid's autocorrect doesn't pick the right word as much. If you know of a way to autocorrect using the MUD command history, perhaps, that would be highly beneficial. It would probably have to ignore the text arguments to commands such as tell/chat/say where words are more variable, though.

Blowtorch is free and has 10,000+ downloads, and is the best out of the apps I've tried. There is plenty of room for improvement though. And I believe adding variables/scripting would make a non-free CMUD app attractive. Now, just to show some download numbers for varius apps to show MUD usage (these are advertised as MUDding apps):

Liquid MUD Client 500+ in 3 months ($1.50 version 5+ downloads in 2 weeks), Blowtorch 10,000+ in 2 years, LensDroid 1,000+ in 1 month, AndroMud 10,000+ in 3 years. And that's about all I could find, so the market is fairly open.

Newbie Joined: 20 Jul 2013 Posts: 7

I use blowtorch as well.Currently running it on a Android Razr smartphone I am actually trying out the BETA version of it which allows LUA scripting.
I personally am not a big fan of LUA.
Blowtorch has made it so i can still mud on the run. Since my current job doesnt allow for much at home play i mainly play at work or while im out and about.
True i can script or mud as easily as i can at home via CMUD. but its still worth it. It takes a quick minute to get used to.
I currently have basic alias, triggers and buttons set up to do all my normal xp routes, they are no where near as advanced and it slows down my rate quiet a bit. But a low rate compared to no rate is better then nothing, PvP is really hard to do via this though.
I would definitely pay for a CMUDlite or a Zmudlite to run better scripts on my phone or pad. Doing the actual scripts doesnt need to be done on the phone, i can write scripts on my computer for blowtorch and then just send them to my phone.
Play is compact and difficult at times but still fun, and hey whats better then talking to your mud friends when a date is going bad or your boss is pissing you off ;)

I would love to see a version of Zugg Software on Android systems. And im sure it would make decent money and alot of people would go for it. being that the world is going away from desktops and going more mobile.

if you want to know more just ask

Beginner Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 11

I'm using MUDMaster for iOS - which works flawlessly.

It also has capability to add triggers and buttons and a very ingeneous interface for mudding from a handheld without a keyboard.

Newbie Joined: 27 Sep 2013 Posts: 1

Bump Bump.

Zugg man, there is a retro gaming renaissance happening right now and there's never been a better time to cash in on all the MMORPG nerds that are out there with tablets and bluetooth keyboards.
That blowtorch app is pretty popular and has a good idea with programmable buttons (which are just placeable macros) but its missing awesome elements like auto mapping (which could be made super convenient on a touch screen) and scripts with variables :P. People earlier in this semi-ancient thread mentioned prices like $2.99 but I'd wager if you marketed it correctly you could easily charge $5.99. You just have to sell the idea that you've already got with the whole world of free non-subscription/microtransaction MMORPG's thing going for you.

That is just my two cents. I feel like there's a great window of opportunity right now to bring MUDs in on this retro gaming kick if you can make them more user friendly and accessible to the new generations growing up on these devices.

Also, I'm a big fan of your work. :D

Newbie Joined: 17 Nov 2013 Posts: 1

The biggest plus for Zmud is that it is the only client that properly recognizes the ASCII escape codes. Back when I was programming AotC MUD I made extensive use of these to throw graphics to the screen. MUSHclient could do the colors but not the reverse colors or escape codes. I also made a graphical mud spades and chess using the cursor control to draw where you needed to. The spades game input was made easier by using buttons on the side to trigger the commands to pick and play a card.

As for a phone I use a samsung ultra transform that has a slide out keyboard. so input would be easy. and touch buttons would also make input simple

i still don't understand why you picked old obscure proprietary languages to program zmud in instead of c. but now my friend is talking about remaking my mud converting c to .js script. sounds like a lot of work to me for not much return. lol!

Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 6:02 am

Adept Joined: 18 Jun 2019 Posts: 279

You can try android mushclient. It has been steadily developed and is being used.

Newbie Joined: 08 May 2021 Posts: 1

Hello,
I had the same problem. Thanks for the valuable advice!