MUDdy Yliakum

[Can-ned Food]

The Birch is back.  That doesn't mean anything, so don't fret — just strum.

I haven't seen this discussed in a brief search of the board here.  The idea occurs to me because although many of the players as I remember from my short excursions enjoyed the visual aspects PlaneShift, the character models and such served for me as little more than tabletop figures.  I am describing the animatory shortcomings of CrystalSpace, which thus transfers most of the role–playing activity to /me events occurring in the chat channels.  At that point, it bothered me that the presence of the visual environment detracted from the RP more than supported it.
So, I would guess that maybe there would be a minimap with markers beside the message history, in addition to all the other components of the interface like the equipment display and the spell menus, CC descriptions, et c.  Merely change the emphasis from the 3D view to the message history.  Doing something like this would make it easier to have a list of descriptions for your personage, such as “is sitting” or “is leaning on a boulder”.
You know, on the same level of things which other text–based RPGs do.
I like the Yliakum world, but it bothers me that the RPing and the environment don't mesh well enough to my liking.  This is the shortcomings of the game engine for the goals of the project, not the contributors or participants, and not likely to be improved any time soon.

[Volki]

They aren't sprites. They're 3D models. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have picked up this game if it weren't for the 3D aspect. But I don't think I'm understanding your post correctly. Do you want to do away with the 3D environment?

[Rigwyn]

What's unique about RP on PS is that the 3d environment adds a sense of time and space that you don't get with strait text or web forum play. If it wasn't for that and for the community that formed, nobody would be here. I would not have noticed the game as I was searching for free 3D mmorpgs that ran on Linux at the time.

If you want role play without the PS interface, consider Second Life , IRC or web forum based RP.

[LigH]

In this era of 3D games, hardly anyone will remember a text based MUD (multi user dungeon), that may require an age around 40...

[Rigwyn]

LigH, you're making me feel old....I was going to mention Zork, but refrained.   >.>

[Bonifarzia]

Back to the roots, eh?

a server interface that facilitates some unholy hybrid of the two.

This, exactly this, is the interesting part here. A light weight client that connects to the regular game server, and will run on weaker hardware, such as tablets. I don't think we'll ever get there, that does not seem to be worth the effort. Still, it is a cool idea.

[gonger]

In this era of 3D games, hardly anyone will remember a text based MUD (multi user dungeon), that may require an age around 40...

I used to play TAPPMud for many years, may it rest in peace now. Those were the days...
I am 51 now.

[OctavianGrey]

Quite frankly I had to look up what you were talking about, as I had never even heard of MUD type gaming before - and it doesn't sound all that appealing to me. What I was looking for when I found PS was a 3d game - using a more text based format just doesn't fill that want.

I can appreciate a version of ps that would allow for more character action control etc, but the loss of that visual aspect would lose some of the charm and a lot of the game I was looking for when I came here.

Another aspect to remember is what new players might want - how many people really play text based games anymore? Could we lose people if we went towards a textual version? Would there be new players out there who want to play a more text based version of ps, not just longtime (or short time) fans who are already here?

[pete992000]

In answer to the comment "how many really play text based games anymore"

I cut n pasted that just now.

<quote>
Players found: [333], Max this reboot: [333], Connections this reboot: [10141]
Players invis:

• , Max on ever: [853]

<unquote>

That is from one of the more popular text based games.

These days though some of the 3d games have several hundred online at any one time.

Regards Pete

[Rigwyn]

Text RP is much more of a niche thing while 3D MMORPGs more or less cater to the widest possible audience. Consider this though, when a product is designed to please as many people as possible, you typically end up with something less than optimal.  You can judge the popularity of a type of game given the number of connections as shown above, but don't let that lead you to believe that a particular type of game is thus obsolete or inferior.

[Can-ned Food]

Yes, sorry Volki.  I didn't mean “sprites” in the traditional flat sense; I would've used the word avatar but that to me calls up concepts of user emulation, and it seems that I simply don't like using the word ‘model’ except in the mathematical sense.

One of the reasons I don't log in to PS so much anymore is how crippled my avatar feels when I try simulating some of the more role-playing aspects.  Most of the time it looks to me like we are just a bunch of talking heads with some fidget animations.
I certainly would prefer more animations in the models to a text–based UI.  Fun and nostalgic as they may be, I often find myself suffering too much eyestrain as I keep up with pages of text and fingerstrain as I am adapting to changes in the environment with a UI which doesn't support macros as well as it should.