mudlet-makers team mailing list archive

[Stephen Lyons <slysven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What I mean is - someone decides they want to try to play a MUD, they do
their research and decide (quite rightly 8-) ) that Mudlet is the way to
go.  Soooo, they click on the Connect button and see a range of MUDs
just there waiting to play - or maybe they already know the MUD that
they want to join (like I did when I first started), they fill out the
needed profile name/host/port and they see the space for character name
and password and they decide there and then who they will be and what
password to use and fill the fields in and hit connect.  Of course the
first time you connect to a MUD with a new character you have do things
differently because you (always?) have to create that character and
enter/get a password to use in the future and Mudlet's behaviour to send
the login name and password automagically if those fields are filled out
ON THE FIRST CONNECTION is wrong.

In review I suppose a less complicated way to do this is to make sure
that it is clear that the (login/character) name and password should NOT
be filled in until AFTER the character is created on the MUD - i.e. on
the second and subsequent logins.  Of course this is academic for some
MUD server types as one goes through a menu or other process before you
actually log in with a character - IIRC SlotMUD is like that - so the
blindly sending of those two data items using a pair of one-shot timers
is only applicable for some usage cases.  This proposal is about making
this a bit clearer to the newbie - or for a bit easier for what I guess
is called a "statter" who is playing a MUD where character statistics
are randomly allocated and who is copying a profile instance to a new
character on the same MUD and wants to put in the login-in details but
NOT use them on the FIRST occasion.

Actually, if I recall about twenty years ago, back in the days of "dial-
up" with 14Kbps modems I recall there was a whole genre of software to
do with scripting the process of logging into remote (ISP) computer
systems that was, like a MUD "trigger" system to send the right
responses to the computer on the other end of the telephone line when it
got around to answering the call and sending back menus or
username/password authentication challenges.  I'm guessing that offered
a bit more flexibility than our current process does, it might be worth
a closer look if I ever have the time...!

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1490813

Title:
  Auto sending of Name/Password should be disable-able (so does NOT
  happen for new character)

Status in Mudlet:
  New

Bug description:
  When creating a new character on a MUD server one usually has to go
  through a one-off process where automatically sending the character
  name and a password shortly after a successful connection is NOT the
  best course of action.

  Perhaps it would be useful to have a checkbox near the name / password
  boxes on the "connection profiles" dialog with the name/purpose "Do
  NOT send these details automatically on connection THIS time" with a
  tooltip along the lines of: "If this is a new character that does not
  already exist on the Mud Server you choose you will likely have to go
  through a character creation stage, normally Mudlet would send the
  character name and password as soon as a connection is made but
  clicking this box will mean that it does not this time so that you can
  perform the steps necessary when you click connect.  The checkbox will
  be cleared so that the next time you connect your character can be
  ready for you to play as soon as possible - as long as you set the
  same name and password on the Server to be what you have stored here."

  I would suggest that this checkbox gets set if Mudlet has to create
  the directory to store the profile which I think will cover both the
  cases where a "templated" predefined Mud profile is chosen and where
  one is created with the new or copy buttons.

  I would rate this as a "Wishlist" item at this stage but I feel it
  would enhance the new user experience compared to the case where they
  enter a character name and password for a Mud they have never played
  before and wonder why they have problems and see their carefully
  entered password splashed straight up on to the console.  (That
  happening in other circumstances is a whole different issue...!)

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