umds in general are an extra bit of handy but unecessary fluff, because everyone who is not stupid uses a MU client rather than telnet, and any MU client worth its salt has a savvy aliasing feature.? The only thing a umd does for a character is +prove to a gm that the character already had the necessary materials to change their desc before actually doing it, ie "I go into the bathroom and change into my dark trenchcoat outfit from my flaming hotpants outfit so nobody will recognize me" becomes a bit easier to +judge when you already have umds for both outfits set up on your player object.? But then again, you could have written it up at any time under any circumstances, and a umd in no way proves that you actually went to a store and bought whatever you needed (assuming that would be necessary), nor does it prove you had the clothing in question on hand before the +judge showed up.

So all in all, descs rely on player integrity (which is generally a very good bet) for regulation.? A umd does nothing more than allow you to store your descs online, something that would only be relevant if you're on a stone-aged computer which only runs telnet (Gawd have mercy on your soul) or if you're on someone else's computer whose client doesn't have your aliases saved.? A umd system is on the whole more convenient, but it in all practicality does very little for most people compared to what their clients already do, especially considering how most clients allow you to freely import and export aliases in case your muxing bounces around between multiple boxes regularly.

Umds: nice, but not in any way necessary and in many cases totally redundant and superfluous.

As for Reiv's comment, it seems that private spaces will be accessible from anywhere, but as with most travel primarily by vehicle.  I'm not sure about editing your people who know about me list, but that seems like it would be an extraneous bit of code subject to far-too-tempting abuse.  If you want to change who knows about your place, delete your old private space and rent a new one via whatever system will be in place for such things, then inform the people you want to about where the new location is.

You will be able to manage the list of people who will be allowed access to your private place. No need to delete it and get a new one.

Will that require a +judge to certify that I have moved and so-and-so has not been told?  Or is there a seperate list for who has the key to my room and who merely knows where it is, the latter being uneditable short of a mind erasure or move?

As far as I know, you can move it at will. We're trying to avoid a key system. You should have access to the locks, and be able to add and delete names from the locking mechanism yourself. In theory, anyway. As I've said elsewhere, we don't have it yet.

Just as a note, some people still do use telnet, either from work where they can't put a good mush client on a system for their solitary use, or they may have a Linux system and have yet to explore MUSH's in general so have yet to download Gnome, TF, or any of the others that are available. On the MU* I staff for I recently had one of the latter show up out of the blue, totally new to mush'ing and was on raw telnet. So there are definately situations where a UMD is not only handy, but it might be downright necessary in some situations.

An alternative to UMD that was suggested earlier in this thread, just food for thought:

I happen to use UMD and suggest it to those starting the mush for the first time.  I think it's something to keep, and I like having new rooms with just the +view code.  Plus, that way you wouldn't have to enter anything to change the room desc, just point to +view here/ninja-monkey-room. 

My knowledge of the +view codes is a little hazy...it sounds like it's possible to set up the list of places and then with a command show anyone in the room that desc.  I may be misunderstanding...let me ask it this way...with a +view, does each individual have to actually +view it, or can the character who set up the views make one show up on everyones screen?

If the latter is the case, then that's cool, I didn't get that part.  I was trying to figure out a way whereby whenever anyone did a "look" it appeared as the desc set in the Room UMD...course, that's really the same thing as with +views...

I dunno...I think I withdraw the suggestion...

Though I don't know about Seattle's system, if it's like every other MUX, the room has its own main desc and any number of +views set on it.  So, typically for a multi-room apartment, for instance, the room's desc might show the main entry room, with the +views would represent different rooms as well as objects which could be examined by someone in the place.  Or the desc could describe the place in broad, general terms, leaving all of the rooms to +views.  But the desc remains static, and a player must +view each viewable room/object in order to see its desc. 

Now, I'm not sure how the system will work, but again if it's like other MUXes, you can alter the desc at your whim using simple commands.  So if it's absolutely essential for you to let people see what room they're currently in with 'look' instead of +view (like if you're an old MUDder who's set in their ways ), you can just use an alias to paste in the desc for the current location.  I probably shouldn't be commenting like this since I don't have the official information, but staff can treat this as my sort-of suggestions for how thing should work, based on their success elseMU, in case things haven't gone like that on Seattle 

When we purchase a private room will we have complete control over the coding for the room?  That way we can @desc it, add and delete places with ease, etc etc.  If so than I'm not worried about descriptions and +views.  There are plenty of people out there who have described how to code places in order to see different descriptions depending on which place you are at.  Thus, negating any need for +views, as when you do 'look' you'd see whatever description based upon your IC Place location.

Ok. As I said. We don't have the private places code up and running yet. So I can't fully answer these questions. It really depends on how much we can automate. The permissions on Rhost are complex, and one of the stumbling blocks we've run into over and over again is making sure that people have adequate permissions to make changes they need to change. As of now, we are not planning on making all PCs Builders. So that may answer part of the question. No, you will not have 'complete' control, but we will seek to give players as much control over their private environment as possible.

For the earlier comments, please see NES's comments on places. I think that's the best way to go, really, if we can manage it. You can build multiple rooms within a room using them.

Unfortunately ownership of an IC location can't be given to a non-builder character, ownership would be necessary to do many of the system commands (such as @desc or &attribute commands). We will be coding ways to change the description, aura, and similar variables as was allowed in previous (and existing) types of private instances. There will be thematic guidelines that of course cannot be overridden by descriptions.

Either way it will still be possible to write up some code and work with a builder staffer during some free time, in order to get it including into our place?  And if any builder would like to, there is a site with some places code that I don't know will work on Rhost or not.  I am mostly familiar with TinyMUX coding, but this also deals more directly with switch commands as well as places code (which both sound like they are on the MUX being built) so I dunno why it wouldn't work.  Anywho.

The webpage is...

http://www.hatrack.net/gwen/mushcode/changing-places.txt

Check it out.  Thanks.

The private spaces we're trying to create won't require a builder, hopefully. It will be automated. You stick in your nuyen, you get a space. Or, you get a space when you purchase your lifestyle in chargen. Ideally, the instructions for PCs to customize their space will be included, along with places code. But as I've already said, we haven't built the private spaces code, so we're not quite sure how it will work yet.

We already have places code on the Rhost site.

Builders have very limited permissions, and can only work on projects they own. Right now, we have exactly 0 builders. The grid is built, so we haven't needed any lately. I'm also not sure what sort of customizations you're looking for. One of the hallmarks of the new game is no extensive customization. That means, desc to your heart's content, but no 'toys.' We have code design guidelines that the coders must follow and that limits PC-specific code customization.

i am sorry about the missunderstanding i had last here i do understand it now