I would hesitate to upgrade to a client based more heavily on XP / DirectX features, as that may make it even more troublesome to get functioning in a Linux environment., Removing the need for MDAC/J ...
I have created a simple class for allowing two players to speak in a custom language
#CLASS {Crypt}
#ALIAS \ {
#VARIABLE spmode {%1}
#VARIABLE cebuff {%-2}
...