A text Myst Online project

[Pavitra]

This was from /r/MUD, so I'd guess it's more to do with how rooms connect than with what room the player is in at a given moment.

Maybe the booklet could have modes/screens/tabs?

Speaking of screen real estate, I notice that the content seems to be limited to a fixed number of pixels in width. While it makes sense aesthetically to limit the line length for the description pane, perhaps the booklet could be allowed to make more use of the margins? (There probably should be *some* mandatory margins, but these would probably be better defined as a percentage of screen width.)

[Rhee]

Here's a little question for you amazing people who are putting this thing together... are you intending to add mobile support for this someday? I mean, as in I could log on and play over the browser on my smartphone, not if y'all will have lear jets and hop all over theplanet to solve our problems. I did sign up using my smartphone the other day, but then I couldn't view enough of the page afterward to go anywhere... maybe there's a setting on my phone I should be trying out that I'm not aware of.

Just curious! I don't know how much/little work it would be to implement or if it would even be worthwhile in the long run. I only (selfishly) ask because I am currently computerless and will be remaining so until I can save up enough pennies to buy another(ie. Christmas if I'm lucky, but maybe not until after that :/ ) so I'm feeling a bit myst-starved!!!!

[belford]

I can use it on my iPhone once I turn the font size preference down to the smallest. It's not pretty, though. Enough is going on that it might need a completely different UI for small screens, and that will be a long time coming.

The layout is, as you say, based on a desire for a maximum line width. Are you saying that you want the right column to be wider (while leaving the left column the same)? The booklet layout can't take advantage of horizontal space very well.

[Rhee]

Well, when I tried the other day, I could log in, and if I turned the screen sideways I could then adjust the font and text and line options (if I remained in upright position the boxes got squeezed into a uselessly small banner down the right edge if the screen). However, I couldn't get past this, because I can't pan or zoom or anything... the screen just locks on that upper left corner of the page. Having never actually played it until after becoming computerless, I don't know if there are other dialogs that I'm unable to see. It just says "in transition" and I'm not sure how to get any further haha! Maybe that is entirely normal and there's a command I have to enter? Also can't get a keyboard to pop up if that's the case...

Like I said before, its not that big of a deal, I mostly just wondered if its a route you intended to go down someday or not... maybe I'm the only onethat wants to play via smartphone! (Though it would be much handier to just carry the smartphone rather than a laptop or desktop when exploring ages ;P)

Edit to add: hmm got a keyboard this time when I tried! Maybe my fingers just weren't pointy enough last time lol so now I will look through wiki stuff to see if that helps me get somewhere.

[belford]

It should never get stuck saying "in transition". (For more than two seconds.)

[Pavitra]

Here's a proof-of-concept: div#leftcol has a width specified in pixels, and div#submain has no maxwidth.

Click for big: Show Spoiler

seltani-wide.png (199.96 KiB) Viewed 3798 times

It occurs to me that this may behave poorly on screens that are less than 900px wide, such as mobile devices. It's possible that the current scheme is the best arrangement possible without having separate display schemes altogether for desktop and mobile.

[belford]

I see what you mean. I *think* that can be managed with max-width instead of width, which will keep it from breaking on narrow screens. Of course, as noted earlier, it's a mess on narrow screens anyway.

New on the front page: a counter of how many people are logged in! Once you're signed in, the front page shows a list of who's logged in and what Ages they're in. This is a very crude "social" feature but it's what I'm starting with.

[Rhee]

It should never get stuck saying "in transition". (For more than two seconds.)

Ohnooooo I'm in a trap boooooook lol

I tried typing some random stuff into the command line and it said (in lovely deep red italic type) Error: you are not connected to the server. So perhaps my problem is only partially with the skinnyscreen/widepage incompatibility? Maybe my smartphone browser doesnt agree with websockets or something? (Ive got a Galaxy S3 with android OS, just using the default package browser...)

[Pavitra]

My first guess would be lack of websocket support; you can test here.

[Rhee]

Yeah, the default browser seems not to like websockets. I switched to a chrome browser and I'm having slightly better luck... I at least managed to get my very own pretzel-scented booklet! Also, I got a pretzel but that's beside the point. But now I'm still not getting anywhere.

Not to worry! I shall suceed. At worst, iwill have tp get another pretzel.