I expected you to make a comment that Mushclient was heavily used now, yes. I pointed out why, and why I think that's a rather false claim-- it's not growing here because of the appeal of Mushclient on the whole.

Also: AG never had a very broad appeal as I understand it. It mostly got people who preferred Mushclient as their main, but there really wasn't any kind of migration or a large number of users. You're seeing the migration now simply because there isn't an alternative, and Lusternia requires an actively updated system in order to participate. Since there are so many lines and afflictions it is... difficult to do it yourself, so you have a whole bunch of people on Mushclient now who wouldn't be, if there had been options.

To be fair, though, I wasn't actually saying that MUSHclient was heavily used. I was just saying that you might be surprised how many people are now using it, whether out of want or need. I'm personally surprised how many people use Treant, and that's just the ones I know.

Treant is pretty much the only option these days. Palisade is defunct, all the other systems have mostly petered out. For the general Lusternian player, Treant is the only option. Which is better than no option, but still. There are definitely a lot of Treant users, so no, I don't think I would be surprised by how many people use it!

I really like the mudbot system I bought. Although I've had to put a lot of work in, adding afflictions and coding a few zmud options to make it work better, and I'm sure I have a lot left to do, it's way faster than the type of system you'd have with zmud or mush. In Lusternia, there seems to just be so many other things to check for (wounds, multiple healing balances, etc) that processing speed of a system is actually a really big issue.

Mush is very good, and now free. Problem is it requires coding in an actual language. Not like Zmud, which any idiot (hi!) can learn to code in.

It's both a perk and an important life skill!

I know Iasmos and I disagree on this point, but I found zMUD to be substantially more flexible. The scripting languages are better, and that's what's most important to him, but zMUD's hyperpolymorphic, yes-sir-I-will-make-this-variable-work-like-that attitude towards life allows for a lot more dynamic work to be done in one or two lines of script, which is important for on-the-fly modifications.

Yeah, I really disliked MUSH's interface, too. You can't pin the scripting window and adjust things without having to pause what you're doing in game, whereas with zmud, I carried on an entire guild meeting the other day while coding up my sap-queue system in the background. Or, like Xavius says, you can easily change a variable value, especially something that's a 0/1 on/off counter, just by typing x=1 into the command line, or make a quick temporary alias for convenience during hunting or questing without even having to open up the settings editor.

We've seriously derailed this thread now, but...

You can actually make aliases in MUSHclient that will make it behave more like zMUD, if you're so inclined. Regex aliases are far more flexible than zMUD's aliases.

You'll have to show me that trick! One of my favorite aspects of zMUD was that:

#trigger {@x} {@y}
#alias {@y} {@z}

...was perfectly valid in zMUD. MUSH seems to object.

Dear god, after spending a day trying to help people setup settings, I am about to scream. Xenthos is absolutely right. I think about 75% of Lusternia's playerbase uses MUSHclient, because that's where Treant is. There aren't commonly available systems on other clients except for CMUD (which is hellish if you have an older computer). The issue is, most of these people are new to MUDs or to coding, and have a lot of trouble doing basic pattern matching...because MUSHclient is built for coders, not for newbies.

It's not Iasmos' fault (and props for the how to code in MUSH file I found on your website while trying to help people), but more Lusternia's - on other IREs you find at least a dozen different systems for (cheap) sale or free to pick from, including basic nexus ones. Lusternia is so complicated, that there is a grand total of 3 free systems, one of which is outdated (palisade) and the other isn't updated anymore (catarin's).

This surely can't help with the barrier to joining combat, if people (even with a system) don't even know how to use the client for simple variable manipulation. No anger at anyone I tried helping today, just at the complex game that's led to the situation that's led to me being entirely frustrated.

/rant.

Hmm, Sadhyra makes a good point. Every now and then I take a step back from combat and what I still have to learn, and realize how complex Lusternia's combat is and how long it took me to get even a small grasp on it.

AQUAMANCY - CURRENTS
Syntax: AQUACAST CURRENTS
Currents may only be invoked within your demesne. All enemies within your watery demesne will be pulled by currents. The further out from the center of the demesne, the greater frequency the currents will hinder your enemies. However, the area surrounding the center of your demesne in the radius of 3 locations is a 'still' area where the currents die out.

Does this do anything now?

Oh and on the case of systems lets not forget about ol man wizzard Ethelon! I've probably 10 years of working Mushclient, and I still have almost no clue about anything important.