Display files are displayed by the BBS to the user at certain times while a user is online. These files exist in the theme's text directory and have an extension of either .ANS or .ASC, where .ANS files contain ANSI color codes and .ASC contain either pipe color codes, or no color at all.

Some display files are displayed by certain events within the BBS, such as the user's birthday. Others are used within certain functions of the BBS such as reading messages. Others are shown by executing a menu command on one of your menus, or from within MPL or Python scripting.

Every prompt shown to the user within the BBS can also be replaced with a display file, so you will find and want to use these files everywhere.

The extension of the display file will automatically be resolved based on the user's terminal emulation. If the user has ANSI graphics enabled, then Mystic will select a .ANS file. If no .ANS file exists, then Mystic will instead look for the same file but with an .ASC extension. Similarly, if the user does not have ANSI terminal emulation, then Mystic will immediately look for the .ASC extension.

Pipe color codes can be used in .ASC files, and Mystic will filter them out just as is does anywhere else in the BBS, displaying the colors when the user has ANSI and not displaying colors when they don't. This allows the option to have a single .ASC file which can work for both ANSI colors and non-ANSI emulations, if so desired.

Note that all extensions are lower-cased on operating systems with case sensitive file names.

Mystic has the capability to allow up to 10 variations of any display file to be selected a random each time it is displayed. This is done by changing the last character in the file extension to a number from 1 to 9, but IN ALL CASES at a minimum a file with a 1 must exist for Mystic to select a randomly displayed file.

For example: If the display file named EXAMPLE.ASC and EXAMPLE.AS1 exists, Mystic will randomly select any one of the following files that may exist for display, because a filename with a 1 as the last character of the extension exists:

 EXAMPLE.ASC
 EXAMPLE.AS1
 EXAMPLE.AS2
 EXAMPLE.AS3
 EXAMPLE.AS4
 EXAMPLE.AS5
 EXAMPLE.AS6
 EXAMPLE.AS7
 EXAMPLE.AS8
 EXAMPLE.AS9

Mystic allows every display file to be shown as if it were being displayed at a specific modem baud rate. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, from embedding a Display Code within the display file itself, to using parameters when executing from a Menu Command or MPL/Python script.

These files are automatically displayed by Mystic at certain times during a user's session if they exist in the current theme's text directory. The file extension will be excluded from the file name within the table shown below, but the file extensions as explained in the previous section will apply to all of them:

Note: All file names are lower-cased in operating systems that use case sensitive file names.

This section will walk through the order of events that occur after a user successfully enters their password and logs into the BBS: