MXP is the Mud eXtension Protocol that has originally been designed and developed for Zmud MUD client, and later evolved into an open specification usable by other clients.

The most popular clients that support it currently are: Zmud, Cmud and Mushclient. The Two Towers web client also supports MXP and has it enabled by default.

To use MXP, you must first enable it in your client.

If you use The Two Towers web client, MXP will be already enabled - you do not have to configure anything.

If you use the Zmud client version 6.15 and over, MXP support should be already on, unless you have turned it off. All you should need to do is type "set mxp on" to enable this. If you have disabled MXP, turn it back on in your client from the "View" menu, "Preferences", "General" and then scroll way down to the MXP option.

If you use Mushclient version 3.10 or above, MXP is off by default. You must use the "Game" menu, "Configure" option, and then select MXP/Pueblo from the dropdown menu. Where it says "Use MXP/Pueblo", set to "Always On". You should also uncheck the "Use custom link colour" option, to allow the MUD to colorize the hyperlinks depending on the message class they are part of.

If you use any version of Cmud, MXP should be on by default. You should just have to type in "set mxp on" to get clickable links. If this does not work, use the Options menu, select "General", pick "MXP" and enable MXP to see clickable links.

If you use Cmud 3.0 and above (currently in beta), you will also have to enable the "Force remote MXP" option.

If you use any other MXP-supporting client, check its documentation on how to turn on MXP. You should also type: "set mxp on" while connected to The Two Towers.

Once that is set, MXP should be working all by itself once you connect to The Two Towers again. The additional login message you will get will look like this:

    MXP-supporting terminal detected; negotiating MXP...
    (If you can see a 'VERSION' HTML tag below, your client MXP support is turned off;
     press ENTER to continue in that case);
    MXP enabled.

The Two Towers MUD supports a subset of the protocol, which allows us to do the following:

• The MUD output can be now displayed with all range of HTML colors, rather than being limited to ANSI's 16 colors. Zmud, Cmud and our web client can also change font face and font size. Use the "color" command to change any message class to use any color/font you want!
• Some handy hyperlinks are provided for parts of the MUD output, for those who prefer to play games with mouse rather than keyboard. These include:
  • land and water exits - clicking on the exit links will move you around. This includes "go" for land exits, "swim" for water exits and "launch" / "land" for when you are in a boat. Right-clicking on an exit link will also allow you to "look" through that exit.
  • objects - Objects listed in room's contents will appear as hyperlinks; right-clicking on the link brings up a popup menu for some command shortcuts. The popup menu is different for different types of objects (NPCs, locked chests, items, etc.). This category also includes links on travelto destinations within signpost descriptions.
  • inventory - All objects in your direct inventory will be hyperlinks, allowing you to look at them. A popup menu for each item will let you manipulate the item.
  • doors - A popup menu is available on hyperlink for each door listed in room's detailed description, allowing you to quickly manipulate it.
  • board posts - When you look at a board (or at a gossiper NPC), each post will be a hyperlink so that you can read it with a single click.
  • --More- - prompt - You will be able to click on the prompt to see next page of text, if you prefer to use mouse instead of keyboard.
  • help files - When viewing help files, any reference to another help file (such as in the 'See also' list) will be a hyperlink. References to web pages in help files will work as hyperlinks as well.
• HP and EP graphical gauges are available in Zmud, Cmud and the web client. They usually appear above the main MUD window; in the web client they are on the scroll image below.

If you do not want/like some of these features, they can be turned on and off individually. You can do it either with the "set" command (see "help sets") or via the "settings" command menu.

Unfortunately, though clients claim that they support MXP, not every of them supports in fully and there are some known bugs in the implementation. The problems we know of are:

Zmud-specific:

• Setting a custom (MXP/HTML) color to any message class will cause all standard MUD colorcodes to be ignored within that message. So eg. if you set your comm color to "skyblue", you will be unable to see the colorcodes sent by other players on the comm.

Cmud-specific:

• There are some problems with using MXP/HTML background colors with standard (ANSI) foreground colors, MUD colorcodes included. The background may disappear where it shouldn't.

Zmud/Cmud:

• Increasing font size does not work too well with multi-line messages (the lines overlap).
• Changing font size or face for a message class that contains hyperlinks (room_desc, item_desc, exits, water_exits) may create the "hotspot" for the link to be active in wrong place, as if the font was never changed in first place.

Mushclient:

• HP/EP gauges are not supported.
• Changing font face and font size is not supported.
• Hyperlink "expiration" is not supported. That is, if you move to next room, the hyperlinks in the previous room will still be active.

If you find any problem not mentioned above, report it normally using the "bug" command - we will try to investigate the issue!