The future of the CFI Interface

[Starshadow]

I wish to publicly and officially thank Nancy for the generous offer of her MUSH and server.

That aside, we need to discuss our future, because as nice as the offer is, I doubt the current playership will all be willing (or able) to do what it takes to MUSH.

I have a feeling that ANY option we use may potentially lose us players, but do not want to give up the game because of that.

Right now, Tarra, Nancy and I can get into the new chat room, and Mark is in the process of trying to download different servers. I don't know where anyone else stands, and we cannot make any kind of decision until people chime in with an opinion.

The old parachat room has two problems. One, that the server it is on is not one I am currently ppaying for and will shortly vanish. The other is that Parachat will eventually stop supporting the old code anyway, and any attempt to continue using it is merely a band aid where a tourniquet is needed.

Basically, this means that any player who wishes to continue to play at Caer Falken will have to download something soon. It is a hassle, and an inconvenience and yes, it takles up some space on your computer. But given that most forms of entertainment have some cost in this world, and this game does not, a little inconvenience and work should (hopefully) be worth the effort for a quality campaign (which hopefully you see this as being).

Whether the group chooses to take up Nancy's offer or go the route of finding browsers compatible with the new Parachat, I will leave up to the playership.

Until this issue is resolved, games will be suspended. If there is no consensus by mid June, we will proceed with the new Parachat, and we will have to suffer what losses we are forced to suffer, as much as it paind me to see a good story end, and good players (and friends) leave the game.

Tag...you're it.

[Lyssandra]

Yes, it will be sad if things go badly because of the changes.

There are some other options out there besides the two I proposed on the yahoo group.

Client chats: Yahoo groups has a built in chat room available. ICQ also has the capability to multi link people into one big chat session. The downside is speed for these: both of these are slow.

IRC: True IRC is very similar to the Parachat, with more commands. I suspect Parachat's a dumbed down IRC server actually. Someone could create an IRC channel for CFI. Downside to IRC is cost. I do not know if there are any free IRC chat clients or servers out there.

Openrpg: Openrpg is a graphical interface chat system designed for role playing games specifically. (Hence the name) I don't know a lot about it. I do have a version of their chat program, and it was free when I downloaded it.

What a graphical chat is, for those who may not know, is a chat system that allows for background pictures for rooms, and icons (avatars) that represent your character on the screen. You speak through "bubbles" (cartoon/comic like), but the text can also be logged in a log window and sometimes saved. The Palace, which I mentioned before, is an early graphical chat.

[Dramavictim]

In my case, the computer I use is more on loan than truly mine to do with as I will... therefore I have to check with my friend before I download new things onto it etc etc.

However, I believe Mozilla will be allowed, and that my friend even can get me a copy of it so I have high hopes.

[Starshadow]

The "people pleasing" part oif me says, let's take the easiest route and hope that everyone can get a browser to work and leave it at that. IF we can do that, it will be the easiest solution for everyone involved.

The creative AND technician parts of me are equally intrigued by the POTENTIAL possibilities and possible reduction of limitations to the MUSH option.

The Autocrat side of me does not want to rely on anyone but myself for housing the server aspects of the game, as someone with such control could ruin the game if they ever leave (not that I believe this to be possible in Nancy's case, but I am speaking of potential precedent and security)

If our resident musher would please post (or email me seperately) the place to download everything I need, and is willing to set something up for us, I would be willing to experiment (out of game time) with this new interface option to judge whether or not it might one day be a more viable option than current solutions.

If I like it (and those who play test with me....hint...volunteers are welcome... do also), maybe we can convince the others that it is a better option (if indeed it is), and in this way, we will have more than one opinion on how easy it is to prepare. Most of us are not nearly as savy about these things as our friendly neighborhood tech support halfling. If we can do it with ease, that may say something.

I would be also willing to hear more from anyone else on this or similar subjects.

[otherlleft]

MUSH is bound to be better than the world's slowest strobelight chatroom we looked at last year!

[Starshadow]

Can't argue with you there!

[Lyssandra]

What chatroom is this?

[Lyssandra]

Mozilla Firefox is available as a download at www.mozilla.org.
Be aware though that the reason it's so small is because the base package lacks many of the features of Internet Explorer, though adds features of its own that IE doesn't. The "extras" are available through extensions and plug-ins.

To run Firefox with the new Parachat, or even the old, you will also need to download and install Java runtime package. Internet Explorer has java built in through the Microsoft Virtual Java Machine.

Java standalone can be found at: java.com

Other URLs for some of the other programs discussed:

www.palacetools.com
www.openrpg.com

[otherlleft]

Checking for browser compatibility would be the easiest route. I'm intrigued by the MUSH concept, which is likely far superior. However, since it would likely require more of a learning curve and could endanger the likelihood of one of our members continuing, I think we should pursue the browser strategy first.

If MUSH is the way to go, we're probably going to need a lot of free tech support from you, Lyssandra!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 28, 2005 12:33 PM: Message edited by: Einkilirinkor ]</font>

[Lyssandra]

*laughs*

Actually from the user standpoint, MUSH is quite easy to use. It's /all/ text, just like everyone's used to.

The major differences between MUSH and Parachat are:

1. No buffer limit. You can type/describe as fully as you want, so no lost lines like sometimes happens in Parachat. I've seen single poses take up half a screen. There are commands to differentiate movement poses and speech as well.

example of what you'd see:

Allie successfully picks the lock, then slightly eases the door open to peek inside.
Allie says, "All clear. Let's go in."

2. Rooms have a description. If the DM creates rooms in advance of the game, all people need do is look at the room description. Look is a command.

3. Characters have a description. Same as rooms, players can describe their characters appearance, clothing and gear. The look command can be used on rooms, people or things.

4. Movement. Rather than having to relay which directions we go, if multiple rooms are built, we could just go that direction. This is optional, however.

5. Objects. We could collect actual objects to carry in our inventory to represent major finds as regarding treasure, or magic items such as weapons and armor. Again, optional.