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Mark Singer



Joined: 2012.09.10 00:00:00
Messages: 1
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Just a couple of questions about TriadCity from my brief look.

1) Is there any way to combine the client's middle and right-hand (environment and communication?) panes into a single pane? I found trying to simultaneously process a view of the world in the middle and text communication on the right to be incredibly awkward.

2) When I tried to look at the sign at the log-in point, it said it would open in a new window. Was this supposed to be a new window/pane within the Java interface or a new browser window? I didn't see one either way, but I wondered what I should be looking for at that point.

To be fair, I'm very familiar with MUSH/MUX/MOO etc. games, so that's my model of a text-game interface. Still, I found having to divide my attention between two parallel streams of real-time information and dealing with things that were supposed to do something they apparently didn't do was enough to make me log out of TriadCity after a little over two minutes. I'd like to give the world a try if I can solve those two immediate hurdles, though.
Mark Phillips


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Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
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Hi Mark:

(What happened to the display of your name on the message? It's correct in the forum list.)

Re question #2: new browser window. Sounds like your browser or antivirus is blocking them.

Re question #1: The Facebook version of TriadCity consolidates game and chat messages into a single window. You're certainly welcome to try that and see if you like it better. I find the FB client a little squeezed, but, that's how much real estate they let you use. Which is doubtless why their stock is tanking.

FYI the separation of messages into independent game and chat windows was a feature request from players who found a consolidated view too much to process. We were a bit concerned that this would come up again when we were forced to consolidate them to fit into the FB screen size, but, there've been no complaints. Interesting how different people's expectations are!

Thanks BTW for the suggestion of making the font sizes tweakable. I dunno why but it never occurred to me, and I've been squinting more and more as my eyes become further outside their warranty period.

Thanks - hope this helps!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012.09.14 00:07:30


Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
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Shawna Ruttan



Joined: 2005.04.23 00:00:00
Messages: 19
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Just thought I'd throw in that I tried using the Facebook app, and it's not set up for secured browsing, though as often as I tried to switch it to simple HTTP instead of HTTPS, it still kept trying to go secured.
Mark Phillips


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Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
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Facebook gives you the option of interacting with their pages over the "https" protocol rather than the standard "http". The difference is that with https the network traffic is encrypted. That's a good thing if you're sending credit card numbers or confidential medical records or etc. Doesn't matter at all for TC. So, when Facebook tells you the TC page is "unsecure" it simply means the page containing the applet is accessed over standard http. No biggie.

Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Shawna Ruttan



Joined: 2005.04.23 00:00:00
Messages: 19
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Wouldn't have said anything if it actually let me continue on to the app unsecured. As it is, it tells me "Secure browsing is not supported. This application does not yet support secure browsing (HTTPS)" and refuses to load the app at all, giving me no option to access an unsecured version. I'll go look into switching secured browsing off.

ETA: And holy crap, the first thing it did was send me to a porn site. Secured browsing is back on.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012.09.14 16:24:32

Mark Phillips


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Joined: 1969.12.31 00:00:00
Messages: 2199
Location: Watsonville, CA
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Yeeps! I don't have those experiences at all when I go there. [Edit: just tested again. I have secure browsing disabled. Straight into the TC page, and then to the applet after clicking the "Visit TriadCity" icon. No warnings or porn sites. What's up with that?]

Well, maybe a couple of new priorities, then:

- We can serve the FB TriadCity page over https.

- We can also make the FB version of the client available via the SM web site. You could have your choice of client experiences: do you want separate Game and Chat windows, or do you want them consolidated? My only concern about this is that it would confuse people. What do you think?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012.09.14 17:25:58


Bartle quotiet: E80, A67, S47, K7. TriadCity characters: Mark, Poobah, Occam, Abelard.
[Email] [WWW]
Shawna Ruttan



Joined: 2005.04.23 00:00:00
Messages: 19
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I'll check again when I get home; I know my supervisor was saying there was something wonky on this PC earlier this week, it might still be lurking around. I'll mention it to them so that they can get to work on it. I prefer to browse what I can in a secured manner, though, so a secured version of the app would be *awesome*.

On the other note: A player new to TC probably hasn't yet experienced the sheer amount of text that exploring and investigating the world can produce, so is less likely to see the necessity of having separate world chat/player chat panes; other MUDs I've played haven't quite been on par with TC for verbosity. It's easy for a single line of chat from another player to get lost among everything else, especially when it's all formatted the same way, so I find having the two panes helpful. A large MMORPG-that-shall-go-unnamed actually implemented the ability to separate out the different chat sources, based on popular demand, so I don't think I'm in the minority here. That said, I like the idea of having the FB version of the client available, as I'm all about choice; people can vote with their log-ins, so to speak.
 
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