Everyone,

please let me offer some insight on Batclient's development at it's
current, in this rather long post:

At the time planning work for the Game client started in 2005, the core
function for it was to "familiarize new players to the Realm of BatMUD
by providing an easy-to-use, universal interface to the Game." This,
while yet preserving the overall atmosphere of "mudding" and notably, by
not compromising the playability of BatMUD through any other (current or
future) means.

Since its earliest releases, we've added literally hundreds of features
that have gradually started to also raise interest in our most seasoned
players- e.g. by such as introducing powerful scripting, trigger and
plugin options. Now, we've now reached (or are very close to) the point
where Players can potentially create pretty much "anything" on their
own for the Client..like such as a mapping system. (Needless to say,
some bugs/issues naturally still exist and many docs are still lacking.)

We've had steadfast progress on new features that have been introduced
in order and according to the long-term plan we formed already in 2006.
Now, in 2009, Batclient is at v1.94, exactly where it should be; but..
it COULD be even more!

As you know, B.A.T. ry fully supports the development of Batclient,
meaning it also covers the financial costs originating from it's
development work. We recognize that this is always a concern, whenever
you have a more or less hobbyist/volunteer based organization with
little income. While we're not about to disclose any exact figures, a
rumour has it that being employed by McDonalds flipping fries would've
paid better-- and that the overall cost of the client is still less or
in the close range of our 2nd best offer for its development (to what
was offered as package x at the time).

Now, we're at what one could call the crossroads.. Should we recognize
the active "Batclient user community" (see: client-channel, Batclient
web forum/board) and push full speed ahead, or, should we hold back and
consider the "program" (not just a project) to be at its Final version?
We can go either way without obstacles.

Our grand plan since day 1 was that Batclient^2 would yet include many
features that we haven't seen so far in the releases, such as having
graphical inventories (style: think of Ultima Online and Darkfall) with
items draggable to your worn equipment (paperdoll), and to such as the
sales-channel.

Or, is there something else ahead?

...

You, as the Player can give us insight on what to do next. Please
offer your thoughts in the newsgroup and guidance through "poll 26".

Btw, as a side-product, the "new" website (http://www.bat.org/) has
also benefitted greatly from the people we've the pleasure of having
working with Batclient, their expertise (especially our beloved gfx
and layout artists) has been priceless.

If for some reason you've read my post this far, but have never tried
Batclient, you probably should download & try the latest version:

http://www.bat.org/play/batclient/


On behalf of the development team,

Amarth Shadowstring