Firstly, I would like to say that I have only been playing BatMUD for a short amount of time, only about a month, however I really like the game as a whole.

In my opinion though, it lacks some accessibility to newer users, and while I understand that the game is almost completely text based and has a long and rich history, which I think only adds to the gameplay, I feel that the game could be made more involving and marketable if the letter based mapping system was further developed. My suggestion would be to stick with ther current system but create a customized font which depicts graphically the room it represents. For example, The forest could be a tree or the sea, blue with wave outlines. This would make the map more immediately intuitive, whilst still keeping the format of the text-based game and not requiring a large in complexity and space required.


Two good examples of something close to this being currently used are: (not made by myself)
http://upload.tactikool.net/bbfce60d-scree...2707ta5.879.png
http://upload.tactikool.net/96279151-cornflower.131.png

I would like to stress that while some thought has been put into this concept, it is by no means a fully realised proposal. I would welcome input and debate on the topic and while I am aware that this would require re-mapping a number of characters that are reused in different situations to signify different things (Such as f - light forest OR fish and b - bird OR bear), The gains would likely outweigh the required work in modifying the existing system - and depending on the way the server communicates data to the batmud client, perhaps entirely avoidable if the existing system were to remain alongside the icon method as optional for those who prefer it.

Thanks. Minorock