Hi,
UAC is disabled. When I installed MushZ, it ran two installers, one which
wasn’t even relevant to me (JAWS scripts I believe), then it ran some kind of
updater program. Then when I launch it, I get such as the following:
Run-time error
Plugin: AlterAeon (called from world: alter aeon)
Function/Sub: OnPluginInstall called by Plugin AlterAeon
Reason: Executing plugin AlterAeon sub OnPluginInstall
[string "Plugin"]:3178: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
[string "Plugin"]:3178: in function 'recastdefault_single_spell'
[string "Plugin"]:3227: in function 'recastdefaults'
[string "Plugin"]:2997: in function 'sanity_check_recast_vars'
[string "Plugin"]:6585: in function <[string "Plugin"]:6530>
Error context in script:
3174 : return t2
3175 : end
3176 :
3177 : function recastdefault_single_spell(setname, spellname)
3178*: if recast[setname][spellname] == nil then
3179 : recast[setname][spellname]=false
3180 : end
3181 : end
3182 :
Cannot open error log file: .\logs\script_error_log.txt
WARNING - referencing uninitialized config variable 'randomambience'.
WARNING - referencing uninitialized config variable 'enterinterrupt'.
WARNING - referencing uninitialized config variable 'tts'.
I got no errors during installation to say that files couldn’t be written.
Cheers.
Damien.
From: john
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2017 7:08 PM
To: blind-gamers@groups.io
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] MUDs
Hi Damien,
Alright, let's take this from the top.
Your class (or class structure, in AA) is sort of like professions or skills in
real life. You can be a mage - an academic magic user with a lot of elemental
power (think fireballs, lightning bolts, etc), you can be a warrior (think big,
burly person with a giant axe or sword), a necromancer (think your own personal
army of undead) among others. Your proficiency in each of the six classes is
determined by your level, so a high level warrior will be really good at
bashing things to pieces, but maybe not so at throwing fireballs. Which class
you choose will be determined by what kind of character you fancy yourself as.
The person you spoke too was only partially correct. At its core, a mud is a
terminal connection to a server, but instead of sending OS commands you're
saying what you want your character to do in-game. There are some very, very
advanced telnet clients, though. They support aliases (similar to bash),
triggers (doing something such as playing a sound when a certain line of text
arrives) and even scripting. Mushclient in particular comes bundled with Lua,
so anything you can do in that language you can do with the client, plus
additional features. Thus, we have something like:
You type:
>c fir ant
(this expands out to "cast fireball ant" after server-side processing)
You see:
You conjure and throw a bright yellow fireball at A tiny black ant!
Because of Mushclient's features, there's a whole bunch of sounds for offensive
spells. Thus, you hear your character yell a challenge to the left, and then
the explosion of your fireball obliterating the ant.
The concern with the documents folder is UAC; if you have it disabled, then
you're good to go. The program needs to be able to write to its installation
directory.
My advice to you would be to re-download the program (mush-z.com), uninstall
your current copy completely, install the new one and just try playing. There
should be no errors out of the box.
Alter Aeon has a really, really good introductory setup, and the help system is
exceptional.
I hope this clarified some of the confusion.
Best,
John
From: Damien Sykes
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2017 11:37
To: blind-gamers@groups.io
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] MUDs
Hi John,
Nope, I’m not familiar with Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve heard of it but never
played it. So in essence, the classes (are those the character types?) deal
with stats rather than game play?
Yes, I did think that MUDs (or Muds?) were text-based, but someone told me that
they have become more advanced and can provide the realism that an audio game
could. You yourself mentioned sounds...How does this work if it is still purely
text based?
Telnet: I thought that was for commanding operating systems, a bit like SSH? So
let me get this straight...Alter Aeon is built on Telnet, connected to by
MushZ, built on MushClient? Sounds like it could be part of a never ending
chain to me.
I don’t run Windows 10, I’m on 7. However it did want to install to the
documents folder. I never ever use that folder, and it’s not exactly a
conventional place to install something. To me, that’d be like saying a user
application should be installed in windows/system32. The first place I look
when I want to use a program is Program Files (I know I know, call me nerdy,
but I don’t use shortcuts either. Bite me. Lol). Is there a reason why it works
better in the documents folder rather than program files? Is there something I
could perhaps change? Or is the documents folder pretty much hardcoded?
Also there is the reality factor. I’m guessing if it is still text based that
won’t happen. For instance I won’t be using arrow keys to walk, space bar to
shoot and hear enemies chasing me getting ready to fire, or in the space of a
heart pounding moment with an intense ambience wondering if the security code
you’re going to enter will let you pass or electrocute you...Besides the
command issue, that’s another reason why I could never really get into text
adventures. Again, it’s such a shame since it seems a lot of these types of
games are a lot more replayable than standard audio games. Especially since
they also seem to be able to be updated a lot more regularly than audio games
as well.
Cheers.
Damien.
From: john
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2017 11:59 AM
To: blind-gamers@groups.io
Subject: Re: [blind-gamers] MUDs
Hi Damien,
There's a lot to cover here, so I'll try to answer a few of your questions and
see where to go from there.
Muds are, yes, somewhat similar to text adventures. In this case though,
there's no "guess the verb" issue, since you can type help <command> and get a
description of what it does.
On alter Aeon, you play as a combination of the six classes, picking one to be
your primary. Which class you choose will determine what style of character you
end up with - a mage is going to have a lot of offensive spells but not a lot
of health, whereas a warrior will focus on physical skills and be more sturdy.
You can apply a bit of Dungeons and Dragons-esc logic to your choice, if you're
familiar with that.
As for the connection bit, its worth pointing out that this is not an
audiogame. Its purely text-based. Muds, in their simplest form, are telnet
applications. The reason people recommend mush-z is because MushClient, the
program that runs it, is a really, really powerful telnet client. Its where
most of the work happens: processing the text you receive from the mud and
acting on it, for example to play a sound or tell you that you're injured.
If you're running on windows 10, it'd probably be worthwhile for you to install
mush-z to your documents folder, rather than program files. This may resolve
some of the technical difficulties.
I know this hasn't covered all your questions, so let me know what else you
need to know, and I'll see if I can help you get up and running.
Best,
John
From: Damien Sykes
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2017 21:39
To: blind-gamers@groups.io
Subject: [blind-gamers] MUDs
Hi there.
You know, I wasn’t sure if Alter Aeon was discussed on here much any more.
Given that updates are still posted here that sends me a clear message that it
is still popular.
I have been hesitant to try MUDs for a while due to the fact that I always knew
them to be mainly textual, leading to a lot of confusion and frustration for
beginners of the text gaming world, and a slight sense of anticlimax for those
more used to real-time gaming such as myself.
However I was recently informed that MUDs have now become more than just the
traditional text adventure style game and can now include audio, action hotkeys
etc, like any other audio game might.
To that end, I have been recommended to, and trying to get into, AA. However so
far I have found the whole concept confusing and almost advanced.
I know something like Crazy Party is no comparison to something like AA, but
this is how clueless I am in that I’ll have to use it to try and conceptualise
things in my head, as it is the closest thing I’m aware of.
1. To connect to a Crazy Party server you use Crazy Party and wait for players
to connect. With AA, it seems there are various applications that will support
it and there are people there all the time. Is this because AA is centrally
rather than individually hosted? What are people doing and what would I be
expected to do? Last thing I want is to find myself logged in, clueless as to
what to do and have someone say, “what are you doing just sat there?” or even
worse getting killed.
2. In Crazy Party you simply choose a username and host a server or choose one
to connect to. AA seems to want character types, skill levels etc, which goes
way over my head. Seems like AA is taking real life concepts like priests and
crafters and fighters and the like, none of which I’m good at in real
life...Are these just game related? What is expected from each profession and
how do you learn it? Is this specific to AA or are all MUDs like this?
3. Despite the fact I was told that it was like a regular audio game, I’m still
being asked to type in text commands. I always found this a little daunting in
offline text adventures, given you have to know all the commands, what you can
do with each command etc. Whereas an adventure game like Chillingham gives you
a set list, a text adventure could have a whole host of relevant options. While
I suppose this gives more replay value to those who are used to such systems,
to those who have had little, if any, experience with this form of gaming it
can be very confusing. Especially if you don’t know how movement works. To give
an example, “Forward is not recognised as a valid exit”? I didn’t get that
message on AA, but a text adventure I tried to see if I could get used to the
system before deciding whether to try out MUDs.
4. Now for the software...AA seems to guide blind players to something called
“MushZ”, which I believe is some derivative of another gaming system that is
designed in such a way as to make it easier for us to play. Problem is, I’m
getting tons of errors regarding TTS and sounds, and even more warnings about
uninitialised variables. There’s nothing in the docs regarding this leading me
to assume that I’m one of a few, if not alone, in having these errors.
Needless to say. MUDs still seem like a whole planet away from audio gaming and
so I feel something a bit more is needed for beginners than, here’s the
software, get playing. During the short spell I actually played MUDs several
years ago, someone was practically holding my hand and guiding me every step of
the way, so that when I lost contact with this person I pretty much had to stop
because I still didn’t know what I was doing. Is there something I am missing?
Are there thoughts from other beginners in this area? Or is it one of these
merky areas where it’s hard for people to get into it unless you were
practically brought up with it, kind of thing?
Cheers.
Damien.
