Thank you for choosing the DarkBlade Client. If there are problems with this client, please do email whitten@rocketmail.com with the specific problem and any error message. Updates for this client will be kept on the DarkBlade site (at time of writing, http://darkblade.ath.cx/ ... if it changes, search the MUD Connector and/or Yahoo!). Please email whitten@rocketmail.com with any ideas for additions to the Client or additions to this help file. If email traffic gets too bad, I may not have time to answer your mail, but I will try.

This is a basic help file designed to guide you through the more specific details of the client.



Contents:
The Client has these abilities:
Basic game functions Advanced Options Advanced game functions Media and color functions Out-Of-This-World Special Abilities (There are a lot of these) All-Time Best Feature:

Games Menu

This allows you to connect to other games than DarkBlade, with all the basic connection options as available in most MUD clients. It will store 500 game addresses, usernames, passwords etc. and shows you on the right-hand side of the page which username and address each game link currently uses, if these pieces of data have been set for that link.

More on passwords: The Client now stores your passwords in encrypted form, so even someone tech-savvy enough to know where to find them will not be able to read them off without figuring out how to decrypt them first.

Open in new window: This opens a connection to the selected game in a new client window, leaving your basic connection window connected to whatever game it might be connected to already, or unconnected if it isn't.

Open: This opens a connection to the selected game in the basic connection window, disconnecting any connection you have open there already.

File Sharing:

This file sharer is designed to let players to connect to each other so they can share files both ways, though not at the same time. Thus, if you have a problem connecting to a player, you can have them try and connect to you, and you can still send them files once you are connected. This is an issue when one player is behind a firewall and one is not.

This file sharer also verifies DarkBlade player identities by connecting to the DarkBlade server [not with your characters] and checking. You and the player you are sharing with must both be connected to DarkBlade for sharing to work. Although this is a partially successful security measure, if someone has cracked another player's password, they could still masquerade as them.

Accepting connections: Your client will always listen out for connections, whether or not you have 'accept connections' on. However, if you aren't accepting connections, when your client gets a connection, it will politely say 'No thank you' so that the connecting client knows what has gone wrong.

More about connections: If you are accepting connections, your client will immediately accept any player who connects to you. NOTE: THIS DOES NOT MEAN THEY CAN SEND FILES TO YOU! Once two players are connected, if either of them wants to send a file, the other player still has to accept that individual file, and again for any more files sent. The file size and name will be listed.

Cancel Transfer: This will cancel the sending and receiving of a file for both players. All sent files are put in the 'Files' directory where the client application is.

Your IP Address: You don't actually need this. I spent a while getting together some code for it, though, and you might want it anyway, so it's still there.

Back: Going back to other activies will not close connections or stop file transfers.

More About Files: DarkBlade and the DarkBlade Client and their maker and programmers take no responsibility or liability for the content or effect of any files transferred or the actions of the client's users. We cannot, sadly, guarantee that files will not contain viruses or system-crashing tricks, or that the port connection into your computer could not be cracked into. We therefore recommend that you share files WITH PEOPLE YOU TRUST! Do not share files with users you have known for less than a month or who may wish you ill. However, should a user damage your computer using the client's file-sharing capabilities, the DarkBlade administration will be happy to assist law enforcement by providing IP address logs of the offender so that they may be tracked down, if the matter is brought to our attention within a week of occurrence (we recommend doing it as quickly as possible). Moreover, the Client's socket is protected in that it will refuse any connection not verified to be from a DarkBlade Client. It is NOT merely a portal into your computer, but a controlled Client-To-Client interface.

Options:

We consider these largely self-explanatory, but:

The 'buffer size' option refers to the number of characters permitted to be present in the main textbox at any one time.

'Keepalive' means sending null signals which keep a player active on a game in order to stop them being idle-booted from it.

Do not allow pause button to toggle camouflage mode: Well, this at least tells you that you use the pause button to toggle camouflage.

'Play sound file...': Note: this sound file is 'beep.wav' and can be replace by another wave file renamed to 'beep.wav' if you want.

Media:

Media lets you play music and videos with the client or with your default players. Its purpose is to provide a little fun, though it also provides a useful invisible and simple music player, as well as a video-player that sometimes plays files none of the standard players will play. If/When the DarkBlade Radio is implemented, this music player will be used to play the radio's files.

Skins: These are not implemented yet. These are images which replace basic color-graphics within the client, to make it a little more interesting and graphical.

Color buttons: These allow you to set a lot of the different basic colors in the Client, and to return them to default.

'Do' Menu

This menu is for use with the current game you are connected to, to permit game-specific tasks like logging, printing out of data, entering commands etc.

Miscellaneous Client Information

Basic client options (e.g. buffer size) are available in the 'Options' page, and are set at reasonable default values to start with. Also, the client supports the telnet protocol, which means that it can connect to proper telnet servers. It is advisable to leave the mouse over all the buttons/images in the client and leave it there for a second - most have shortcut key combinations which can be used and which greatly make easier the task of navigating through the Client.