2. Using GNOME-Mud

GNOME-Mud can be used to play any kind of telnet-based MUDs, and should make mudding easier, both for players and coders. It can connect to various MUDs on the same application window, and load different settings depending on the character you're logging in. GNOME-Mud's goal is to provide a similar client to zMUD, a very mature MUD client for the Windows platform.

2.1. Basic usage

Starting GNOME-Mud opens the Main window, shown in Figure 1. The window is at first mostly empty, just showing some information about the GNOME-Mud build you're running.

2.1.1. Connecting to a MUD

To connect to a MUD, select File->Connection Wizard..., which will bring up the GNOME-Mud Connections dialog box. The Connection Wizard allows you to create different connections so you can store a list of "personalities".

To create a connection, enter a descriptive title (normally the MUD's full name) in the Title field and fill in the MUD's information in the Host and Port fields (leaving Port blank will make it default to port 23). You can also import those fields very easily using the GNOME-Mud MudList and selecting a MUD from there. Enter the character information in the Character and Password (password is only required if you want to autolog into the MUD). If you want to bind the connection to a set of aliases, triggers, variables keybinds, click on Select Profile and select the desired one from the list. See the section on Profiles for more information on them. Once you have filled all the fields, press Apply to accept the values of the new profile or to update them, in case a profile with the same title already existed, or Cancel to discard them. When a connection is created, it will show up in the left column of the dialog, showing the MUD title and character name. Select the desired connection and press Connect to start the connection. Close will close the Connection Wizard.

Alternatively, you can quickly connect to a MUD, bypassing the connection wizard selecting File->Connect..., which will bring up the Quick Connect dialog. Just fill in the Host and Port fields and press OK to connect to the desired MUD.

If you open various connections simultaneously, GNOME-Mud will place them inside connection tabs, which will appear below the connection screen. To close a tab after disconnecting from a MUD, select File->Close Window and the tab will disappear.

2.1.2. MudList support

GNOME-Mud can read MudConnect.com's MUD list, which is an extensive list of MUDs, with information about their codebase, host, port and including a description. There are two ways to use the GNOME-Mud MudList.

The most common way is probably by opening it from the Connection Wizard . This will open the GNOME-Mud Mudlist in "import mode". You will find a list of MUDs at the left column of the dialog, ordered by codebase. If you expand a codebase, you'll get a list of the MUDs in that section. Click on a MUD to see the information displayed in the right side of the MudList.Mud Name is the full name of the MUD, Telnet Address is the host and port where it is located and Codebase describes what type of MUD it is. Description shows a more or less description of the selected MUD. In "import mode", there will be a Import and close button, which will fetch the MUD info and fill it into a new connection in the Connection Wizard. There's also a Go to webpage of the MUD button, which will point a web browser to the webpage defined in the mud list.

Another way of using the MudList is exactly the opposite. Select File->MudList Listing... and you'll get the same dialog as if opened from the Connection Wizard, only the Import and close button will be replaced by Connect to the mud.

2.1.3. Disconnecting from MUDs

To disconnect from a MUD, you should try to use your MUD's logout command. Normally this command is quit or rent, but it can vary across MUD flavours. GNOME-Mud can "hard-disconnect" from a mud, using File->Disconnect, or just quitting from GNOME-Mud.

WarningWarning on hard-disconnects
 

It is very desirable that you disconnect from MUDs using the MUD's own logout procedures. Some MUDs have retarded quit commands to avoid people escaping from death during fights, so you need to wait some seconds or minutes since you send the quit command till you actually quit. If you hard-disconnect using GNOME-Mud's Disconnect, you may stay in the MUD for a while, idling and uncontrolled, while the MUD locks you in or it realizes you have lost your connection. This could be dangerous, as other players could take advantage of your idling to kill you or steal your possessions, for example.

2.1.4. Editing Profiles

Normally, each character class has different commands and abilities which require different configurations for the mudding session. Using Profiles, you can customize different features of GNOME-Mud to suit the current character's needs. To edit them, select Profiles from the toolbar, and a dialog with a list of customizable items will appear.

New

Brings up the New Profile dialog. Enter the name of the new profile and it will be created with empty values.

Delete

Deletes the selected profile. The "Default" profile can't be deleted.

Aliases

Aliases are similar to UNIX shell aliases. Pressing on the button will open an alias editor. On the top of the dialog, there is a list of defined aliases, and beneath it there are two fields to insert new values. To create a new alias, insert an shortcut in the Alias field, and the desired expanded command in the Replacement field. Clicking on Add will add or modify the edited alias and add it to the alias list. For example, filling in Alias with "wd" and Replacement with "who drow" will make GNOME-Mud send the "who drow" command to the MUD when the user issues a "wd" command in the input line. You can get rid of unwanted aliases by selecting it and clicking on Delete. Exit the alias editor with the Close button.

Variables

Variables are useful to replace things within Triggers or Variables. For example, if you have defined a trigger with a nick in it, you can use a variable instead of specifying the nick, so you just need to change the variable value to apply the trigger to another nick.

Warning

This feature is very limited at the moment and should be extended in future GNOME-Mud releases.

Triggers

Triggers are a very useful feature. When you define an Action and bind a Trigger to it, GNOME-Mud will execute the trigger when it detects that the action has occured. For example, setting Action to "You are being attacked" and Trigger to "flee", you will try to escape as soon as you get hit by an enemy. Please note that some MUDs consider any kind of automation as cheating , so ask the MUD staff about this before using it.

Keybinds

Keybinds perform commands when you activate a key sequence or combination. You need to insert a keybind in the Bind field and the command to be sent in Command. You can insert binds more easily using the Capture. When pressed, it will capture the next key combination that you press on the keyboard and insert it in the Bind field. Keybinds are useful for many things, for example, "speed walking". If you bind "Up" to the "north" command, you will be able to walk north just pressing the "Up Arrow" key.

Close

This closes the Profiles editor.

Use the
Connection Wizard to bind a profile to a connection.

2.2. Toolbar

The toolbar provides access to several commonly used routines.

Wizard...

Brings up the Connection Wizard dialog.

Profiles

Opens the Profiles Editor dialog.

Connect...

Opens the Quick Connect dialog. Use this to open a MUD connection bypassing the Connection Wizard.

Disconnect

Disconnects from the current connection. See the Disconnecting from MUDs for more information about this.

Reconnect

Reconnects to the current connection. If you loose the link to the MUD, you can hit this to get reconnected again. If the connection was open, it will close the current connection and start a new one.

Exit

Exits from GNOME-Mud.

2.3. Menus

The menu bar, located at the top of the Main Window, contains the following menus:

File

This menu contains:

  • Connection Wizard... — This starts the Connection Wizard dialog, which can be used to select to which MUD should GNOME-Mud connect.

  • MudList Listing... — This opens the MudList dialog, which can be used to browse a list of MUDs and connect to them or add them to your MUD connections.

  • Connect... — This opens the Quick Connect dialog. Use this to open a MUD connection bypassing the Connection Wizard.

  • Disconnect — This disconnects you from the current connection. See Disconnecting from MUDs for more info about this.

  • Reconnect — This will reconnect you to the current connection. If you loose the link to the MUD, you can hit this to get reconnected again. If the connection was open, it will close the current connection and start a new one.

  • Start Logging... — This will enable the recording of the currently selected connection. It will write all the output of a mudding session into the selected file.

  • Stop Logging — This stops the recording of a connection, if it had been previously started.

  • Save Buffer... — This permits you to save your current connection buffer into a file. Useful to keep deathlogs or questlogs. It will just take a 'snapshot' of past messages, writing it into the selected file. For real time logging, see 'Start/Stop Logging'.

  • Close Window — This closes a connection tab, even if the connection is still open.

  • Exit (Ctrl-Q) — This quits the application.

Settings

This menu contains:

  • Auto Mapper... — This opens the Auto Mapper feature (see the GNOME-Mud Auto Mapper section for more information.

  • Plugins — This opens a submenu with the list of available plugins for GNOME-Mud and the Plugin Information, which shows information about them. Currently, GNOME-Mud does not ship with any plugin, but creating your own should be pretty easy. An example of an useful plugin could be a graphical Health Points/Mana monitor.

  • Preferences… — This opens the Preferences dialog, which is used configure different aspects of GNOME-Mud.

Help

This menu contains:

  • Manual — This opens the GNOME Help Browser and displays this manual.

  • About — This opens the About dialog which shows basic information about GNOME-Mud, such as the author's name, the application version number, the names of several contributors to the project and a link toGNOME-Mud's Homepage.