Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2005 10:42 pm

Sorry Rainchild. First, I don't have a lot of time for this. I'm supposed to be writing eMobius, remember. So you aren't going to see a lot of new features in zMUD for quite a while. After all, I *just* did the 7.13 version with the spellchecking and new database formats.

The new ecommerce company and copy protection can handle *both* "phone home" and non-phone-home. The full version of zMUD will always have the phone-home activation, whether it's with eLicense or something else. The zMUDLite version would not...it would have a more traditional copy protection. The only reason to convert the full version of zMUD to the new system is to make it easier to upgrade from the Lite version to the Full version. Different versions can still have different severities of copy protection.

I'm not going to raise the price of the full version of zMUD again. It was obvious from the last price increase that $30 is about all people will spend for a MUD client.

If it doesn't end up being possible to create a zMUDLite quickly and easily that serves the needs of a particular group of people, then I just won't do it. We are talking about something that would take less than a week to do here.

Also, a "Pro" version is still an upgrade to zMUD, and I promised that upgrades would be free. This promise has caused a lot of problems, but I'm keeping it. I'm not going to break the trust that a lot of people have with Zugg Software.

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:33 pm

OK, I've gotten some encouragement from the folks at Digital River about migrating old zMUD reg codes and generating new codes. Still a lot of details to work out though.

But right now I think I'm going to put zMUDLite on hold for a bit. It's clear that there is potential interest in zMUDLite without eLicense if I do it correctly. What I'm going to do is work on zApp right now, and get it integrated with the Digital River solutions. This will allow me to learn more about the new ecommerce and copy protection system in a "safe" environment (not risking current zMUD sales). Once I have the system all figured out with zApp, then I'll come back and tackle the zMUDLite idea.

So, thanks for your feedback on this. Stay tuned in a month or so to see what happens.

Magician Joined: 25 Oct 2000 Posts: 461 Location: USA

Zugg, I fully understand that the full zmud will be around. ;)

I personally would love to see the _full_ zmud without eLicense. Sadly, I made the jump to WinXP 64-bit without realizing that eLicense is just totally hosed under it. And ViaTech or whoever have yet to respond on a time estimate for win64 support. Doooh!

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 12:19 am

Digital River is a very good company.
When my company was doing sales for SoftTreeTech there were also sales coming from Digital River.
They are a high sale reseller.
But they cater more towards businesses. Kinda surprised they would take zMud as a software they sell.

Newbie Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

Personally i'd like to see a version of zMUD without the elicense merely so it would be easier to install on linux.. I'd like it to work with wine, not winex...

That's just my comment..

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 3:00 am

Digital River has purchased a bunch of ecommerce companies. So I'd actually be doing business directly with RegNow, which is now a subsidiary of Digital River. But I'd get access to the Digital River affliate program, which is worth a lot. For copy protection they purchased Armadillo from Silicon Realms and have renamed it SoftwarePassport. It's a well-established copy protection system.

So yes, they are accepting any shareware authors via these subsidiaries now. They bought almost everyone, from RegNow, RegSoft, Reg.Net, ShareIt (which we used several years ago), DigiBuy, SwReg, and some others.

The good news about Win64 is that the SoftwarePassport system already supports it. I'm sure ViaTech will eventually address this...they will be forced to. But right now they are focused on consumer desktop stuff, and Win64 really isn't used on that platform. It's currently being used in the server area, and in the high-end computer-savvy sysadmin kind of desktop (yeah, I know some of you fit into this category and would like zMUD to work...it will eventually).

But I believe that yes, in order for zMUDLite to work, I'll need to also move zMUD Full to the new copy protection so that it can be a simple upgrade for the Lite version. But I'm not going to do this until I have a lot more experience with the SoftwarePassport system. Armadillo *can* be cracked (just like eLicense or anything else), and I need to evaulate the security of this and make sure that I wouldn't just be giving away the full version of zMUD for free to the hackers. Sure, they'd *love* that. But if it lowered the zMUD sales, then zMUD would be dead, and nobody wants that right now. I'm just not willing to take that risk quite yet.

Also, as I said, remember that we are not talking about removing copy protection. Getting rid of eLicense might be easier for linux, but who knows what SoftwarePassport would do on linux...maybe it wouldn't work either.

Newbie Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

Good point with that about the LInux thing.. I'm going to get Cedega in the next few days and try that.. If it works I might post about it.. I havn't seen anyone post about 7.13b working or not working on Cedega...

Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2005 4:27 am

Newbie Joined: 10 Jun 2005 Posts: 4

I was thinking about what all you could take out, and it would be a decent program..
Mapper, Database, the extra 'capture' windows. Buttons, and probably Plugins or something like that.

Make it so they can do their triggering, but if they really want to make it look 'fancy', or use the 'fancy' features.

---Off Topic: BEGIN---
I've stopped using the mapper completely with zmud on Imperian.. Whyte, one of the characters, came out with a proxy program that you can connect to and it gives you map in-line with the game.. That would be so cool if it was built into zMUD.. But that is me wishing :-P
---Off Topic: END---

That is just my comment..

Apprentice Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 114 Location: USA

Shizoiv... as far as elicense and linux goes... I have *personally* gotten zmud 7.05 (that was the version i tinkerred with on linux) to run under: Cedega, Cross Over Office Pro, Wine, and Winex. The most important part to get working is the IE and your mdac/jet. Once you have those installed, getting zmud to work is easy. Honestly, the *easiest* solution to zmud under linux is Cross Over Office. Its by far the fastest way of going, using the others you have to play with your configs a bit.

As for the Software Passport being crackable, yes, thats true, just like elicense. Honestly though, I do not think that its because elicense is so "secure" that we arent seeing zmud hacked all that commonly anymore, I think it is more along the lines of there being decent alternatives. They may not have the features, but as I mentioned before, with the number of mud clients so large and abundant, its going to be a struggling fight to keep zmud on top, especially with $30 being the price.

Novice Joined: 11 Mar 2005 Posts: 40

I would definately buy a lite version, I want to buy zMUD right now, but I can't seem to keep all my money in one place long enough for me to send it out, and I never use the mapper and stuff anyways.

Beginner Joined: 22 Sep 2004 Posts: 28

First, I own a full verison so well I personally won't buy it.
zMUD is great just because I been using it since verison 3, and I haven't even attempt to use all the powerful function until about a month ago. Even now I don't use most of the function, I simply use trigger and zMUD script, none of the COM, plug-in, or even mappers (there is problem with mapper cause I can't get the mapper to support NW SW SE NE, and since I am running a fully automatic robot, where it would follow a route i designate, determine if there is other players in the particular space, and issues kill order, rinse, and once I gain enough potential point which are for learning, I would return to master, spend the point, return to where I was and continue).
I personally like eLicense, I find it convinent I can install up to 3 copy of zMUD anywhere (I however do have a problems, which I am still trying to get in touch with Zugg about, I really need to get some license canceled, cause I installed my remaining two licence when I went back to Taiwan for vacation and forgotten to cancel them ... and well now I have access to another computer and kinda would like zmud on that).

And about the pro verison, Zugg I would dish out more money if you are willing to add in SSH supports or multi-byte supports, but I do understand that is a big changes you have to make. But do realize, every Chinese mud there is, is distributing cracked verison of zmud 4.62, and every one of those user would willingly pay $30 dollars just to use a new improved zmud, with multi-byte supports. The reason they will not even give zMud beyond 4.62 a try is simple... Chinese supports is even worse in zMud beyond 4.62 (I don't personally agree with them, I am using 7.13b and it works great, and all I play is chinese mud... they just don't know the work around, which I admit is a bit pain the butt to do).

Novice Joined: 26 Dec 2002 Posts: 33 Location: USA

Even with a copy of full ZMud, I might buy a Lite version that had no Mapper/DB if it worked on a USB drive or something, that'd be pretty useful for roadtrips/friend's house/etc, though I don't know how feasible that is. It'd also need to be compatible with existing .MUD files to keep all my settings..

On the other hand, I know a couple people that probably would never use the mapper/DB features and would gladly pay $20 for a Lite version just because they'd consider it a good deal compared to paying for the full version with features they wouldn't use.

Enchanter Joined: 20 Nov 2002 Posts: 627 Location: USA

You can do it!!!! full fledged vote - yes to Zlite

Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2005 2:14 am

It's unlikely that zMUD will ever work on a USB drive for "public" computers. There would be nothing to stop someone from posting the reg code being used on the USB drive to the Internet for everyone to use. So zMUD is always going to need to get "installed" in a way that can keep track of the 30-day trial. And this kind of protection never works well on public computers or for travelling. Sorry, but I just can't "give away" zMUD like that...I'd be out of business in a day due to all of the people that would cheat and just use zMUD for free.