Use of Clients on SWmud

This is a topic which has fallen under much conflict and scrutiny as to what is legal and illegal about clients. Hopefully this will clear those ambiguities up and help you understand more about what is right and wrong about clients.

Clients in general are not illegal to use. Many times they allow people to edit, cut and paste, and keep their screens in order so that they can better follow what they are doing; thus they can provide a separate screen to enter mud input from, while all your output appears on another window. This is a great help, and can also save the sanity of the avid mudder. However, there are some features found in clients which are illegal to use here.

Using a client for even the simplest things can cause problems for others as well as create havoc on the mud; thus certain aspects are illegal. A major no-no is using scripts. This is not fair to the players who cannot use scripts, as well as adding to the mud's CPU usage. Therefore, using scripts are illegal in any form.

Well, what about setting up friendly things? The following is an example of how even the nicest intentions can lead to disaster.

Example:
Wookiee Will has part of his client set up so that whenever anyone says 'hi' it will respond automatically with 'Wookiee Will says: hi'. Now this may look harmless but consider this scenario: Rodian Rob comes along and has exactly the same setup on his system to reply the same way Wookiee Will himself does. Now when Rodian Rob enters the room that Wookiee Will is in, and types 'say hi', which starts up an infinite loop that results in both players saying 'hi' a great many times. This is not good, and although a very rare occurrence, it serves as a clear instance to how even the most harmless of intentions can cause a problem.

Macros that send more than one command to the mud are also illegal on SWmud due to the same problems that scripts introduce. We want this to be a fair and enjoyable place for all, which means we also don't want anyone having an unfair advantage over other players. An example of a clear misuse of a script is as follows.

Example:
Rodian Rob has his system set up so that when Wookiee Will enters a room, he will automatically attack poor,
unsuspecting Wookiee Will. Now when Wookiee Will enters the room, he gets an onslaught of various attacks by
Rodian Rob, being at a clear disadvantage. This is why scripts/macros are illegal.

Using illegal scripts or triggers sent by a client can result in some harsh punishments. The following are the minimum punishments you can expect if caught scripting. Some variation is possible depending on the wiz and your attitude.

1st Offense: 1 monster death + 3 days in jail
2nd Offense: 2 monster deaths + 7 days in jail
3rd Offense: Rid
4th Offense: Rid + Site-ban

* This does not apply to auto-login triggers, which will result in jail until the trigger is removed, as this is a common default feature of several popular mud clients. Repeated punishment for auto-login triggers may result in more severe punishments.

So what IS legal about a client? A great deal of it relies on the judgement of the player, but here are a few guidelines. If you have doubt about using a client for a particular purpose, please ask and don't attempt it until you've been answered; if you are not sure, then simply don't do it.

What you can use clients for is capturing certain instances on the screen, eg. if you catch someone doing something illegal, a screen capture is the best evidence. Having split screens so that your input is on one window and mud output appears on another is also allowed. These types of things are both constructive to the user as well as the mud.