Savitar - 1.4.3

I'm not what you can call a hard core MUDder. Just too many things in my life, but I've always been interested in them. After playing from the terminal I decided to look into clients, and Savitar was the only one still in development.

Unfortunately, Savitar has a LOT wrong with it. The program crashes approximately five out of eight times run. Fortunately, this is not usually during a MUD session, but most usually when maintaining your MUD list. Removing a MUD from the World Picker almost always causes a crash.

Speaking of the World Picker, this is a great idea, but why can't you find it once you've closed it? Because it's hidden away under "Open New World." Why it would be there instead of in a clearly labeled spot is beyond me. (Actually, I'd prefer that it be left open and not closed when you select a world, but that's me.)

Triggers really got under my skin. There is ZERO readable documentation on triggers and as a newcomer to MUDs I really have a problem with them. Here's how I got trapped by one: I wanted to greet someone, so I typed "Greet <person>." Without my knowledge Savitar trapped this text and triggered something. What, I have no idea because it's not listed in the documentation, but my damn "a" key became a carriage return and I had to actually shut the software down to reset. This happened to me several times before I finally managed to remove the trigger (and by the way, that is done with the EDIT menu's CUT command, instead of the common sense DELETE key. I don't know why.)

Default font size and background colors make it virtually impossible to read anything. Fortunately, this is something that is more easily found to fix.

I'm impressed with the concepts of Savitar, and from what I've seen of other reviewers' comments and Jay's responses, but there's a lot that needs to be fixed before, in my opinion, this should move to a shareware product. Right now I'd consider it in alpha testing, and it shouldn't cost $15. ($5 for Alpha, $10 for Beta, $15 for finished product.) Although I freely admit to knowing absolutely nothing about software development or programming, so the price could be a function of something else.

This has the potential to be a really good product (especially with the developer's attitude, which is the best I've seen from a shareware vendor), but as it stands right now, I only recommend this product because it's the best in a field of one.

~D.