5 ms·

I'm hoping maybe some experience MUD players can help me out with this: every time I try to get into a MUD, the text just moves past the screen too fast and I

I'm hoping maybe some experience MUD players can help me out with this: every time I try to get into a MUD, the text just moves past the screen too fast and I feel like I miss important parts, and then I can't see it again. Or if I run a command, before I can interpret the output it flies off the screen in favor of some non important text. I can't imagine combat in text mode, trying to figure out what command to type while also trying to race against the buffer. I've tried several different MUDs over the years because I like text based games, but they never stick.

rendall 6y ago
That's a matter of having a telnet client that has a screen buffer. I haven't tried this one, but try it? http://tintin.mudhalla.net/ http://tintin.mudhalla.net/
- fuball63 6y ago
  I haven't, I'm using Mudlet on Linux. It has a fairly long buffer, but it is just a lot of scrolling. Someone in another comment mentioned you can set up two buffers, so I'm trying to figure that out. I got through the training academy on CoffeeMUD last night, so far so good.
Jtsummers 6y ago
There are some mud clients (I can't remember the one I used on Windows, but it did this) which parses out a lot of information and lets you have a multipane/window view of the text. This can help. It's also possible to turn many of the notifications off. Also, you usually start in something like a common room/town and those tend to be very active with people moving in and out constantly or carrying on non-shouted conversations. Once you get out of those areas the speed of text tends to drop off. Finally, with room descriptions you can always "look" again. I became very good at reading 1-3 lines of text before it disappeared, pulling it up, and starting right where I left off. But honestly that didn't happen too often. In combat, depending on the MUD and the class of character you may not need to type frequently during combat. Usually you will attack automatically once it begins. Spells, healing commands, and other things are all you need to type and usually not every round (which is about 1-3 seconds usually). Every MUD I played on had some form of alias, and if not the client did, which let me take a 5 word command down to 1-5 letters. `draw crysknife` became `dc` for my Fremen character. I had similar aliases for putting it away and drawing other weapons or switching to other attack strategies.
- fuball63 6y ago
  Thanks, I'm using Mudlet on Linux and trying CoffeeMUD. I got rhough the training last night. I need to figure out how to set up the multi-pane view you mentioned. I still haven't found any monsters to kill yet, I'm going to try to do that over the weekend!
tristor 6y ago
If you can get it to run, the best way to play MUDs is using a MUD client. My favorite was always GMud because it could fit on a floppy disk with a world file, but ZMud was kind of the de-facto standard/best client, although paid. You can use a normal telnet client, but it needs to support ANSI colors and have a screen buffer to render most MUDs properly. Also, it depends on the MUD codebase they use, some of the older codebases are more friendly to very basic clients, newer codebases typically rely on using a telnet client like TinTin or a MUD client.
- fuball63 6y ago
  I've been using Mudlet, it seems to have a lot of features but I'm still trying to figure them out. Maybe I'll try something more polished.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
yawn 6y ago
Some muds support a "brief" mode, which will limit the room description to one line.
- fuball63 6y ago
  I also found out how to mute some chat channels, especially NPC ones, which helped.
crooked-v 6y ago
Try MUSHclient (Windows), Atlantis (Mac), or Mudlet (multi-platform) for dedicated MUD clients that separate input and output areas and give you scrollable output, as well as various features to turn matched text into live-updating status bar bars and other info displays.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  I believe MUSHClient is cross-platform nowadays, or at least I remember running it on Linux for the nostalgia. Definitely should run fine under Wine.
- fuball63 6y ago
  I've been using Mudlet, it still seems like I spend a lot of time scrolling to read what I just looked at. I got through training on CoffeeMUD last night, so that's progress. I'll try MUSHclient as a sibling comment also mentioned it, thanks!
legohead 6y ago
Funny you mention that. I started playing MUDs @ 2400 baud. You could literally watch each letter being written out. When 16.8k came out, my first thought was "how can anyone read this fast?" I thought MUDs were doomed... but, you get used to it. You will figure out what's actually important and what can be ignored. Someone else mentioned the 'brief' command, which shortens room descriptions, and that is a good start. After you log in, just take your time, there's no rush...
- fuball63 6y ago
  I tried CoffeeMUD again last night, and took your advice to just slow down. That helped. I also looked into muting channels, it took me a long time to realize that NPC's were talking to me, not real people, and could be politely ignored haha.
sea6ear 6y ago
I don't know if it will work for all MUDs but for the one that I play on, I usually run telnet in an shell buffer in Emacs, so that I can always scroll back up to see what I've missed. There are (or were?) MUD clients for Emacs, but I haven't used one for a long time - just having Emacs and the buffer available has been enough for everything I've wanted to do.
- cforrester 6y ago
  A friend of mine maintains a fork of RMOO, an Emacs MOO/MUD client. You might find it interesting: https://github.com/lisdude/rmoo https://github.com/lisdude/rmoo
- fuball63 6y ago
  I use Emacs at work, so I should give that a try (maybe even at work!). I've been using Mudlet at home, it has a buffer, but I just feel like I'm constantly scrolling to look for what I just 'looked' at. I started CoffeeMUD again last night and got through the training level, so I'm making progress based on other tips from this thread.

rendall 6y ago

That's a matter of having a telnet client that has a screen buffer. I haven't tried this one, but try it? http://tintin.mudhalla.net/ http://tintin.mudhalla.net/

fuball63 6y ago
I haven't, I'm using Mudlet on Linux. It has a fairly long buffer, but it is just a lot of scrolling. Someone in another comment mentioned you can set up two buffers, so I'm trying to figure that out. I got through the training academy on CoffeeMUD last night, so far so good.

Jtsummers 6y ago

There are some mud clients (I can't remember the one I used on Windows, but it did this) which parses out a lot of information and lets you have a multipane/window view of the text. This can help. It's also possible to turn many of the notifications off. Also, you usually start in something like a common room/town and those tend to be very active with people moving in and out constantly or carrying on non-shouted conversations. Once you get out of those areas the speed of text tends to drop off. Finally, with room descriptions you can always "look" again. I became very good at reading 1-3 lines of text before it disappeared, pulling it up, and starting right where I left off. But honestly that didn't happen too often. In combat, depending on the MUD and the class of character you may not need to type frequently during combat. Usually you will attack automatically once it begins. Spells, healing commands, and other things are all you need to type and usually not every round (which is about 1-3 seconds usually). Every MUD I played on had some form of alias, and if not the client did, which let me take a 5 word command down to 1-5 letters. `draw crysknife` became `dc` for my Fremen character. I had similar aliases for putting it away and drawing other weapons or switching to other attack strategies.

fuball63 6y ago
Thanks, I'm using Mudlet on Linux and trying CoffeeMUD. I got rhough the training last night. I need to figure out how to set up the multi-pane view you mentioned. I still haven't found any monsters to kill yet, I'm going to try to do that over the weekend!

tristor 6y ago

If you can get it to run, the best way to play MUDs is using a MUD client. My favorite was always GMud because it could fit on a floppy disk with a world file, but ZMud was kind of the de-facto standard/best client, although paid. You can use a normal telnet client, but it needs to support ANSI colors and have a screen buffer to render most MUDs properly. Also, it depends on the MUD codebase they use, some of the older codebases are more friendly to very basic clients, newer codebases typically rely on using a telnet client like TinTin or a MUD client.

fuball63 6y ago
I've been using Mudlet, it seems to have a lot of features but I'm still trying to figure them out. Maybe I'll try something more polished.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

yawn 6y ago

Some muds support a "brief" mode, which will limit the room description to one line.

fuball63 6y ago
I also found out how to mute some chat channels, especially NPC ones, which helped.

crooked-v 6y ago

Try MUSHclient (Windows), Atlantis (Mac), or Mudlet (multi-platform) for dedicated MUD clients that separate input and output areas and give you scrollable output, as well as various features to turn matched text into live-updating status bar bars and other info displays.

StavrosK 6y ago
I believe MUSHClient is cross-platform nowadays, or at least I remember running it on Linux for the nostalgia. Definitely should run fine under Wine.
fuball63 6y ago
I've been using Mudlet, it still seems like I spend a lot of time scrolling to read what I just looked at. I got through training on CoffeeMUD last night, so that's progress. I'll try MUSHclient as a sibling comment also mentioned it, thanks!

legohead 6y ago

Funny you mention that. I started playing MUDs @ 2400 baud. You could literally watch each letter being written out. When 16.8k came out, my first thought was "how can anyone read this fast?" I thought MUDs were doomed... but, you get used to it. You will figure out what's actually important and what can be ignored. Someone else mentioned the 'brief' command, which shortens room descriptions, and that is a good start. After you log in, just take your time, there's no rush...

fuball63 6y ago
I tried CoffeeMUD again last night, and took your advice to just slow down. That helped. I also looked into muting channels, it took me a long time to realize that NPC's were talking to me, not real people, and could be politely ignored haha.

sea6ear 6y ago

I don't know if it will work for all MUDs but for the one that I play on, I usually run telnet in an shell buffer in Emacs, so that I can always scroll back up to see what I've missed. There are (or were?) MUD clients for Emacs, but I haven't used one for a long time - just having Emacs and the buffer available has been enough for everything I've wanted to do.

cforrester 6y ago
A friend of mine maintains a fork of RMOO, an Emacs MOO/MUD client. You might find it interesting: https://github.com/lisdude/rmoo https://github.com/lisdude/rmoo
fuball63 6y ago
I use Emacs at work, so I should give that a try (maybe even at work!). I've been using Mudlet at home, it has a buffer, but I just feel like I'm constantly scrolling to look for what I just 'looked' at. I started CoffeeMUD again last night and got through the training level, so I'm making progress based on other tips from this thread.