[zokemon]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

yes, but why not store them in the players string list, makes no sense to me

There's tons of reasons but here are some:

1. Client. and Clientr. variables must be loaded on login when the player connects to the server which can be very stressful on the server if there is a ton of archetypes and variables to load.
2. When using the rc command, /open, When you apply the changes, variables are reduced down to 255 or so characters which can screw up player data. Having it stored on the player variable clientside (I usually create a TStaticVar linked from player.mud) removes the chance of data being accidentally trimmed.
3. As with #2, having the data not with a client. or clientr. prefix prevents people with simple /open rights to both read and modify archetype/player data that you might want to keep secret.
4. A cool thing about MUDs is you can script it so that a high staff member could load the account data of someone else instead of him self for the purpose of fixing problems and seeing the world from that player's eyes. Just a small feature that I always loved. Doing this would require data to be stored in files though.
5. As stated before, having the account reset would screw up the player data which you might not want reset.
6. MUD data stored in text files on the server can be read from and written to even while the said account is offline.

There's way more but that's just some of the reasons off the top of my head.