Well I've gotten so many new users lately, most who have upgraded to win7 and are trying to play majormud again... problem is megamud is outdated and you need to install winterhawks paths to play on a newer system... problem is the install of these two programs don't work very well the way newer OS's install the programs...
Soooo I've updated the installer program for fresh installs.
Now when a user downloads the MegaMUD_ODSBBS.msi file it already has all of winterhawks data included in it so there is no reason to upgrade it after. It will also install to the C:\MegaMUD directory to make sure we avoid other potential future problems with the new directory structure of the OS's...
The other problem new people have is they forgot how to configure things, so I set it up so it creates a shortcut and menu link that automatically loads a new default.ini character file with many of the settings already done for them... so they don't spend an hour trying to figure out they need to change from dialup to telnet support, and then edit the bbs file after that... along with all of the dozens and dozens of annoying options to tweak it to get it to work right for a new character.
I've set it up to use the most basic options so someone can start fighting right away without tinkering to get it to go. (ideal for the warrior type just checking a system out really) As people need to they can slowly add the options back into the mix as their abilities change or they decide they want auto-sneak/hide/light/cash etc etc on.
Now the last addition was also having a bbs.ini file included in the installer so they can directly after the install is completed, just click the connect button and its auto-sensing and showing the logon screen without having to even enter any bbs data... this is something other systems could do too if they want to customize it for their system.
http://ods.ods.net is the website where you can click on the download megamud link to get the file and give it a try... it also has some information on the screen for vista/win7 users who I know have been sctruggling with trying to find out where the hidden megamud data is on their system that isn't getting deleted and making megamud not work right after re-installing megamud a dozen times... its frustrating which is why I made this to kinda take any thought out of the process for people to avoid these problems for new users in the future.
Umm I used "advanced installer 8.9" for this repackage after editing many files and selecting what should be included... this is actually a free program you can download, it comes with a 30 day trial for the full version, but the freeware version of it after those 30 days is actually what I used to repackage this... so no purchase will be needed to keep changing this to fit anyones need... and if people have other ideas they can freely change it themself without any cost.
Only side note I guess is the links people will click to load this... have the "default.ini" loaded everytime... so for systems where people play multiple characters they will have to recreate desktop links and edit the properties to point to the new character file, or simply remove this autoload and do what they've always been doing all this time... I just wanted to make something that removed 95% of the issues I got with every new users who hasn't touched it in years and just wanted to get back into the game easy as cake.
so yeah once again check out http://ods.ods.net and check out the megamud download page for the file... can easily be edited/repacked for custom installs for bbs's so users don't need to know anything but how to download a program and click the connect button... (also you will need to edit the logon automation in bbs.ini as its keyed for prompts on my bbs)
MegaMUD - installer updated to create less problems for user
Moderator: Mod Squad