Advice

Plugins for MUSH

Here are a selection of Plugins for Discworld MUD players who use the MUSH client. All are presented here by kind permission of the original authors who are credited below.

In order to use them, click the link and chose to save them somewhere on your hard drive. They download as zip files so use winzip to extract the files. Next, put the files into <MUSH>\worlds\plugins, substituting <MUSH> for the folder that you use for MUSH. This plugins folder should already exist. Within MUSH itself choose File then Plugins ... to get to the Plugins screen. Now choose Add... and select your desired Plugin. Click on close once it appears in the list.

Note that the plugin will not be visible in game until a situation arises that triggers its use so be patient. They start working only when needed. Also note that I give no guarantee about the performance or stability of any of these Plugins. Use them at your own risk. Do not use more than one Plugin at once if both are designed to do the same thing. Try them all individually and pick a favourite.

Latest Plugins

All three plugins are by Beale. All three are aimed at the latest MUSH versions as there have been some changes to LUA handling. Use older plugins from further down the page if you do not wish to update MUSH. Version 4.0 or above of MUSH is required for using these plugins. If you have any problems then I'll gladly assist if you contact me in game, but please be aware that Beale is the clever one, not me, so asking him might be even better. :o)

G15 Keyboard Plugin - Amazing. So good it gets its own page complete with pictures of it in action. Click the link to go to the page.
Latest Health Bar - Did you like Enhanced Health Bar LUA? Did it stop working with the new MUSH and LUA updates? Was it even more troubled by the score brief changes? This new version fixes some bugs and returns your favourite plugin to working order. Delete the old, install the new in the usual way. Sorted. Users of the previous version may encounter runtime errors. These can usually be fixed by undoing the changes you previously made to the Global Preferences file (see old version below). New users should not encounter this issue.
Latest Colour Triggers - Hmmm. Seems the last one had a few bugs but Beale is not to be discouraged. This download has been thoroughly bugfixed and polished. See the original below for more details.
Latest Sciante Bar - Sciante's old bar still works ok (see a few versions below), but if you like to calibrate it with "score brief" then the recent changes to that command make things a bit weird until you enter combat. Some like this plugin for it's XP rate monitoring. For the fussy, Beale tweaked it and here it is, fixed. It's been reported that this one has problems if using 64 bit Vista.

The Second Wave

Small Health Bar LUA (UPDATED - 30/07/05) - Beale returns with this minimalist offering. Everything here is in numbers rather than bars which should mean it works for non-windows users. It updates from hidden MXP information, which means that it can update every time you send a command (and from combat monitor messages). Another new feature is that messages appear on the game screen to inform you of changes in values. Note - I like this one and it seems to be stable on the latest version of MUSH. I prefer Beale's other new bar below however. After installing this bar you may need to quit and restart MUSH. Also, do a "score brief" to calibrate it at the start of each session. Important - Upgrade to MUSHClient 3.66 or higher before using this plugin. There is a link to the upgrade at the bottom of this page.

Statistics Bar LUA - Sciante brings us this offering. No bars mean wider compatibility and there are some handy functions to track your XP gain rates. You can see how much you have gained in the time you have been playing and it also calculates you average xp gain rate per hour. A nice one for number chasers so that they can boast more accurately. This bar only updates from combat monitor messages and "score brief" in the same way as Beale's older bars (on which it is based). Note - Nice one Sciante. This is a worth addition to the plugins collection and I hope we see more from you in future. Nice and stable too.

Statistics Bar Small LUA - Sciante returns with this second bar. Following suggestions from myself, Sciante kindly rescaled the bar for those of us whose screens aren't large enough to fully appreciate the bar above. There are no other differences, so if you like Sciante's bars just pick the one that is the right size for you. Note - Same as the above but with smaller text.

Enhanced Health Bar LUA - (UPDATED - 30/07/05) - Beale is back and in top form. This plugin is no longer a beta release as the issues appear to have been resolved in this update. Please let Beale know if you find any issues. You could tell me but I can't fix any problems. It includes:
- Health and GP are shown by bar graphs.
- XP is given as a number.
- HP, GP and XP update from MXP (i.e. every time you enter a command, no matter what the command is) and also update from combat monitor messages.
- It displays coloured messages on the main game screen about important losses and gains.
- In-game time and date are displayed, now with greater detail so that you can tell whether you are in the Prime or Secundus portion of the year for example.
- Game time is updated in real time and is not tied to command entry.

Notes - Before following the normal installation procedure you should first go into Global Preferences in the file menu of MUSH and click on the LUA tab. Edit the information there, adding two dashes before os = nil so that the line reads "-- os = nil -- no operating system calls" and click on OK. You can then add the bar as normal. If you get any errors that relate to "OS" then you didn't get the previous bit right. Once it is in I suggest restarting MUSH although this is not always needed. On the start of every session do a "score brief" to calibrate the bar. It is only as accurate as your system time and date are. Important - Upgrade to MUSHClient 3.66 or higher before using this plugin. There is a link to the upgrade at the bottom of this page.

Colourtriggers - Beale takes a different slant in this latest plugin. Unlike most of the above Plugins, this one is a totally different idea and can be run in conjunction with other plugins without anything crashing. It doesn't put anything new onto a bar either. It does nothing unless you know how to use it.

Basically, it makes it easy to set up colourtriggers without interupting your gaming or puzzling over regular expressions. To learn how it works, once you have it up and running, type "help colourtriggers" or "syntax colourtriggers" in game. These work seemlessly as if it were a new command in the game.

I've tested this plugin and it seems stable. I can't say I've used it extensively as I like to micro-manage my own triggers in excruciating detail, so this isn't for me. If you want a simple way to colour code game events without too much fuss then you'll love it. Personally, I'm just impressed that somebody came up with something that isn't a bar for a change. Makes you wonder what else is possible.

The Original Batch

Info Bar - Supplied by Beale, this is a modified version of the original by Nick Gammon supplied free with MUSH. Beale had this to say, "this is the plugin I wrote an age and a half ago. It uses VBScript, so it should work with older versions. It shows the monitor line, tactics and damage messages. It does mess up colours a bit sometimes, that's a bug with MUSHClient, alas." Warning - I got numerous errors with this one and it broke my connection to the MUD. This one is only recommended for people with outdated versions of MUSH who find problems with the other Health Bar Plugins.
Health Bar VBS - Supplied by Beale, this is a modified version of the original by Nick Gammon supplied free with MUSH. Beale had this to say, "This is the plugin with the scripted portion written in VBScript. It'll work with almost any version people are likely to have." Note - I found no problems with this one but prefer the LUA version below.
Health Bar LUA - Supplied by Beale, this is a modified version of the original by Nick Gammon supplied free with MUSH. Beale had this to say, "This is the Lua version. (I prefer writing in Lua.) It'll only work with versions =>3.53." Note - This was my favourite until Beale's new bar arrived (see below). Upgrading MUSH to the latest version is nice and easy to do so so don't be afraid to upgrade. This bar updates during combat and from typing "score brief" only. At any other time it will not reflect the current situation.

If you have a handy Plugin and would like to see it here then please let me know. I'll be glad to include your Plugin for download and give full credit to the player who supplies it.

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