Frequently-Asked Questions

How Do I Play TriadCity?

This answer is about the mechanics of entering commands and reading the results. For basics re what should you be trying to do, have a look here.

TC's a textual virtual world. You "play" it with words.

You can use your favorite MUD client, or any of our graphical clients. We have clients for the Web, Android, and iOS (iOS is currently in beta test).

We'll use the screen shot below to explain how our GUI works. It's a picture of the TC interface for players. (It's been shrunk to fit here: the real one fills your entire browser page.) There are four parts to the screen:

1. The Character panel on the left gives you a quick graphical overview of your character's current condition.

2. The Game panel in the center displays messages sent to you by the game. This will include descriptions of the place where your character is currently located; descriptions of the things or people you look at; descriptions of events that happen around you; and outcomes of the commands you type. For example, you may type "look door": this is where the description you asked for will be displayed.

3. The Chat panel on the right displays messages sent by other players. These could be messages intended for everybody; messages intended just for the characters currently located in the same place as you; or messages intended for you privately. They'll be color-coded by type so you can tell them apart.

4. The Command panel at the bottom is where you enter the commands which cause your character to take actions within the game world. We used the example "look door" above: this is where you'd type that command. Just hit the enter (or return) key to send your command to the game.

That's it. Simply type your command, then press enter; and read the messages in the game and chat panels. Not too tough, eh?

Of course, you'll need to learn the commands. That's not too tough either: there are only about twenty that are really critical, and the good news is, they make reasonably good sense. "Look door" means "look at the door"; "say hi there!" means "say the words 'hi there!' out loud". Simple. You can also type everyday English if memorizing commands isn't your thing. "Look at the door" works just fine. Or you can use built-in shortcuts: "l door". Or you can define aliases: "alias ld look door" lets you type "ld" from then on. After a few minutes it's very straightforward.

The Command Reference lists every available command; you can find it here. You should read the section titled "Basic Commands" before starting. You'll have more fun if you learn the other commands eventually too; but you can do that as you go along.

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