I've been resisting posting this until the commotion from the first died
down. I'll prolly won't post another until the Chinese New Year.
| Kilo Lima Lima Oscar dash Niner Four, over and out. ---o
_O_O_ Electronic and Electrical Division, Loughborough Corp. <+=+=+>
Mud-Dev FAQ
Last Played with 07/01/98
1. Frequently Asked Questions
2. Previous Topics
3. The Members
4. Resources
5. Glossary
Any corrections, suggestions and constructive criticisms, please email to
Ling, elkll@student.lboro.ac.uk.
Recent Changes:
Added a few more questions.
Previous topics now has its own universe as suggested by Adam Wiggins.
Plonked in a resources section.
Took out standard technical terms as suggested by Adam Wiggins.
Todo:
Conventions of example scenarios (Bubba, Boffo, Buffy, etc)
List of references for specific scenarios/docs (Bungle/Habitat/Great God
GooGoo, Crystalline Tree, recognising Sting in the weapons shop, etc).
Solutions for the scenarios?
Obtain addresses for the muds in the resource section.
Acknowledgments:
Everyone on the list who contributed with a bio, everyone on the list who
posts and special thanks to Jon A. Lambert, Adam Wiggins, Nathan Yospe and
lastly but definitely not the least, JC Lawrence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Frequently Asked Questions
1. What should I do now I have joined?
If you have not already, please read the rec.games.mud.* FAQs to familiarise
yourself with all the different sorts of muds out there. Now lurk for a few
days to a week to get the gist of what is going on. Chip in when you think
you have something relevant to say or perhaps start up a new thread on
something you want to talk about.
2. What is the accepted standard for posting?
In short: 80 columns wide with no embellishments like html code. A reply to
another posting must have at least the name of the original author if your
mailer does not automatically prepend one, eg:
[Bubba]
>On 4 Jan 98 at 22:20, Boffo wrote:
>> Buffy <Buffy@players-r-us.com> wrote:
>>> I just found a cool mud at <
http://web.mud.com>
>>
>> Golly Gosh! Cover me in eggs and flour and bake me for 40 minutes!
Web pages are usually put in angled brackets as above. MIME attachments are
encouraged to help illustrate a point (eg: a diagram to accompany an
explanation) but discouraged for frivolous items such as 'vcards'. When
simulating a log from a mud, put at least one space at the start so when it
is quoted, it will not get confused, eg:
> north
You enter a shop.
Will get quoted as:
> > north
> you enter a shop.
For attributions, use a bit of common sense, include enough of the original
message to make sense, no more or less. Avoid postings quoting an entire post
with a one liner reply (btw, one liner replies are bad :). Don't be afraid to
change the subject heading to something more relevant if the topic has strayed
somewhat (usually happens to most threads). Oh yeah, and a sensibly sized
signature.
3. What is meant by high signal to noise ratio?
The noisy postings include the likes of messages which essentially say "I
agree!" or does not relate to the purpose of the list (like what you had for
dinner, how your codebase/driver is clearly superior to all others in existence
and why language such and such is better than such and such). Try to keep on
topic and you won't go wrong. However, the list is infamous for long postings
which start with one topic and end up rambling on about something else
completely different towards the end. But so long as it is regarding muds...
4. I just made a post about such and such but no one responded to it!
There could be several reasons why no one has answered to your posting. If it
was to start a new thread, it could have been that the topic has just recently
been discussed, try waiting a while before bring it back up again. If it was
in answer to a current thread, other list members will have read it but not all
posts facilitates a response.
5. What's all this Bubba business?
Bubba, Boffo, Buffy and friends are all typical mudder players breed for test
scenarios devised by various list members. Originally procreated by JC
Lawrence (how, I don't wish to know) and has since then come into widespread
use amongst the mud usenet groups (much to JC's amusement).
[Did I get that right? - Ling]
6. Aaargh! The traffic is too much!
Perhaps switching to the daily digest mode would help? Please refer to your
invitation for the appropriate information.
7. Any laws I should abide by before I get in trouble?
Yes, please try not to mention this list on anything publically accessible
like web pages (oops!), anonymous ftp, usenet and other mailing lists.
8. How do I access the archives?
Currently, email the list owner with "Archive Request" and a short message.
Hopefully to be automated in the future.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Previous Topics
Here's a list of practically all the topics discussed since the list's
creation:
Server design:
Affects vs. spoofs
Security concerns of spoofs
Component based bodies vs. aggregate bodies vs. atomic bodies
Rooms vs. coordinate spaces vs. mixed forms of the two
Methods of handling coordinate spaces: neighborhoods, tree forms
R-Trees, R*-Trees, 3d arrays, Quad/Oct trees
Automated population containers
Event models
Internal process models
Security models
Multi-threaded server design [conflicts resolution?]
Database design for a server
Use of transactional databases in a MUD server
How to avoid resets
Parsing systems, and language development tools
Design of internal MUD languages
Variations on event-driven design
Disk vs. memory based designs for MUD servers
IO Socket efficiencies.
Telnet protocol and terminal emulation
Design of Object IDs and Object ID recycling
Artificial probability systems
Virtual rooms, virtual objects, virtual mobiles
Sending mail from within a mud server
String handling and memory
Verb handling - global vs. local vs. mixed
Generic objects
Object assemblies
Collision detection
Client scripting and scripting prevention
Graphical interfaces
Must have books for programmers
Web vs. Telnet
Game design:
Classes of players and what they want from a game
Levels vs. level-less vs. abstracted levels vs. level-comparatives
Keeping a goal progression without levels
Handling of character inventory and representation of inventory
Families and their impacts on clans, multi-charring, and tactics
Character senses, representation and extension
Re-usable quests or plotlines
Generic quest creation systems
Rumor systems, handling rumor propagation, and rumor decay
Races
Placement of characters in the MUD-world predator totem-pole
Handling of character death as an in-game event
Perma-death vs. resurrection
Economic systems (and lessons learnt by prior experiments)
Energy-style ecologies and economies
Ecologies for MUD worlds
Inter-player communication systems
Perceived danger levels for characters
NPC AI, goal-oriented NPCs, intelligently automating NPCs
Player characters as NPCs/monsters
Nutrition
Wounds and trauma systems
Combat systems (round based, no rounds, interactive, etc.)
Combat messages
Combat scripting and action
Dynamic descriptions and perception
Views on the "undead"
User command interface design
All about bows, longbows, crossbows, etc.
Festivals and in-game mud games
Supporting both RPers and GOPers
Virtual chemistry/alchemy
In-game political and social structures
Implementing mundane professions (or Nation of Shopkeepers)
Methods of integrating PK (coexistence with non-PK)
Handling poison and disease
Inebriation and drugs
Dragons - a number of viewpoints
Spoken and written languages
Food - interesting or irritating
Starting characters or creating characters
Amalgamud specification document
Alignment vs. reputation
Character positions and rank point system
Automatic name generation
Learning and skill progression
Classless systems and profession-based systems
Physics and the mud universe
Hard sci-fi vs. science fantasy
Character places of their own
Character henchmen and servants
Thieves - ideas
Allowing players to affect the world
Group play and group dynamics
Spells and spell-casting systems
Characters - heroes, nobodies, or prey species
Game balance
Hive minds
Traps and riddle lists
Representing character stats - numeric, descriptive and graphic
Settings for mud worlds
List members' inspirational fantasy and sci-fi books
Handling and building of large trackless areas
Gods and deity systems
Mud Administration/Philosophy
Lorry's document on wizarding
The morality of logging and snooping
Problems with socializers
Social control and engineering
Dealing with "problem" players
Is the virtual world real?
Gender issues
Bartle's mud papers
The purpose of mudding
Motivating builders and coders
Role-play vs. Game-Only Play discussion
PK vs. Non-PK discussions
The infamous rape discussion
Habitat papers and anecdotes
Overriding players' control of the character
[courtesy of Jon A. Lambert]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. The Members
Below is not the complete list of members but it does give a good picture
of a small and active cross section. Feel free to post one to the maintainer.
--------oOOOo--------
Travis S Casey
Occupation: Unix sysadmin
Address: casey@nu.cs.fsu.edu
Personal details:
- Started in '89 on a Tiny variant.
- Really started in '93 on MudDog (LP).
- Accidently wizzed on SWmud (LP).
- Erratic development of a cyberpunk mud.
- Contributed some to the Lima LP mudlib.
- FAQ maintainer for rec.games.design.
- Married with two cats.
Signature:
|\ _,,,---,,_ Travis S. Casey <casey@cs.fsu.edu>
ZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ No one agrees with me. Not even me.
|,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-'
'---''(_/--' `-'\_)
rec.games.design FAQ:
http://www.cs.fsu.edu/~casey/design.html
--------oOOOo--------
Matt Chatterley
Occupation: Student.
Location: England.
Addresses: neddy@itl.net
caffeine@unreal.org
root@mpc.dyn.ml.org
Personal details:
- Main interests are game design (theoretical), and ways to change
things that are (tm) into things that should be (patent pending).
- Occasional cynic, and critic of online gaming environments.
Server: Caffeine (LP)
Signature:
Regards,
-Matt Chatterley
ICQ: 5580107
"We can recode it; we have the technology."
--------oOOOo--------
Reed Copsey, Jr.
Occupation:
- Whatever I find at the time (Usually programming or database
administration or setup)
Addy: rdc@efn.org
Personal details:
- Too damn busy to do anything
- Spends lots of time lurking here, and unfortunately doesn't
participate nearly as much as he should and would like to
- Basically a self-taught programmer who spends more time
tinkering and coming up with different ways of doing things
than getting anything productive written
- Is always trying to figure out the best (and cheapest, as he's
currently way in debt) way to learn just about anything he can
get his hands on
Secret Server Project:
- Kolmteist
Server Highlights:
[ Note: This is mostly in design phase. I very recently decided
on a complete rewrite for both the server and the client, so all
that's left that is at all useful is some basic utility-type
classes: socket handling, data structures, string handling, etc... ]
- Written in C++
- Uses a relational database backend, though total persistence
is not (yet) a major goal (though this has changed many times
as he comes up with new arguments for or against it)
- Completely event driven
- Object customization through an internal extension language
- Current design (which will probably last another week
*snicker*) is actually inspired by MS Access (yuck),
with simple extensions being written as very straight forward,
macros on any object, which have the ability to call
user-written procedures, hopefully allowing some semblance
of flexibility in a roundabout way
- Hoping to allow players to use the same macro interface
in a stripped down manner to allow for a fairly high
degree of player-customization and automation (see below)
- A significantly slower-than-average combat system which is
completely unautomated unless macros are used... (Roughly turn
based from the player's POV, with a turn/round once every few
seconds, the avg fight lasting 1-4 minutes)
- Completely disassociation, both in code and in game, of players and
wizards/imms. (builder/administration have no direct in-game form)
- A custom client required for various reasons:
- direct path (completely bypasses the game server) to the
relational database backend, allowing building
and game administration even if the mud is down or the
builder doesn't want to deal with people
- more flexibility in display to allow better-than-ansi color
and text handling parsed client side, inline images, and
some html-ish functionality similar (and inspired by)
various mud extensions chaco add in pueblo (point and click
commands, etc)
- the ability to spawn multiple windows (crucial)
- Will have an account style login, with menu's to choose
which character(s) to play, each of which spawns a separate
window.
- All out of character communication, information, etc will
be directed to the account window (or a private chat-style
window spawned for private, ooc communication)
- the hope is to encourage roleplaying by complete separation
of VR and non-VR commands, both in the commands (without
using a special character like $, @, or #) and in output
Signature:
-- Reed
--------oOOOo--------
Chris Gray
Occupation: Programmer (UNIX?)
Addresses: cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Personal details:
- Never really played a MUD other than his own (bar 4 hours on Northern
Crossroads, and some LP experimenting)
- Old enough to be the father of most of you, so his perspectives
might be quite different
- Done very little RPG-ing, but a fair amount of Adventure gaming
- Thinks the Web and C++ suck big time! (shocking!)
- Studied programming languages for AI at Alberta. Attempted to
implement a language called ALAI (A Language for Artificial
Intelligence - original, huh?) but got bogged down.
- Taught computer architecture, programming languages, and adaptive
information systems for the department instead.
- Started but never finished PhD in required internal features for
multi-user protected OSes (at Alberta!)
- Creator of programming language 'Draco' for CP/M, later ported to
Amiga/68k.
- CP/M version of Draco still in Simtel. Docs managed to end up in a
McGraw-Hill book without any permission!
- Worked with Myrias, a parallel computer company.
- Wrote Myrias' ANSI C compiler.
- And Amiga Empire (rewrite of Empire, in Draco of course!)
- Heard about MUDs and wrote a quick and dirty AmigaDUM.
- Myrias went bust two months later (no connection!).
- Now works with the remnants of Myrias which has been brought back to
life.
- After 6+ yrs, AmigaDUM it is now called AmigaMUD and can be found on
Aminet (v1.1).
- AmigaMUD currently runs at mud.myrias.com 23 (normal telnet)
Signature:
Chris Gray cg@ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
--------oOOOo--------
Marian Griffith (De Vries Griffith to be more precise)
Addresses: gryphon@iaehv.nl
Web page: <
http://www.iaehv.nl/users/gryphon>
- Lots of information on the !Overlord project. An attempt to collect
ideas to improve on muds but does not aim at any finished product.
Interests:
- Interest in roleplaying and game world building but will talk about
anything ;) (except for pk because there's nothing to be added that
hasn't been said many times already)
Signature:
Marian
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...
Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
--------oOOOo--------
Michael Hohensee
Occupation: Part time student?
Addresses: michael@sparta.mainstream.net
Personal details:
- 17 yrs of age during March '97
Server: AeMud - Arbitrarily Expandable MUD
Server concepts/features:
- Written in C.
- Treats all objects equally for certain common uses.
- A spiffy and mostly efficient memory-allocation/recycling system.
(Which may actually be kinda pointless, but it was interesting to
code)
- A command queue that is used equally by players and computer-driven
objects.
- Highlights include interactive portals and simulation of liquids.
Signature:
Michael Hohensee michael@sparta.mainstream.net
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/9025/
Finger me for my PGP Public Key, or use:
http://sparta.mainstream.net/michael/pgpkey.txt
--------oOOOo--------
Derrick Jones
Addresses: gunther@online1.magnus1.com
Location: Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
Signature:
Gunther
--------oOOOo--------
Raph Koster
Occupation: Lead designer for Ultima Online, for Origin Systems
Location: Austin TX
Addresses: rkoster@origin.ea.com
Personal details:
- Creative director of mud (not actually director of UO).
- Married to fellow mud designer Kristen Koster, also list member.
- One kid, another on the way.
- BA in English (creative Writing) and in Spanish (Literature), and a
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
- Age 26.
- Particularly interested in social evolution in virtual environments,
and related issues such as administration of said environments,
methods of social control, user awareness of social context, etc.
- Game and server features that contribute to the above.
- Most everything Mike Sellers listed off ;) such as ecological sim
layers, Maslow, etc :)
Server: LegendMUD, known on there as Ptah
<
http://mud.sig.net>
<
telnet://mud.sig.net:9999>
- Used to run lectures often of interest to the mudding community.
Server concepts/features:
- Has evolved into a weird hybrid of LP and Diku.
Game concepts/features:
- First classless mud.
- Probably the first historical theme gaming mud.
- Attempt to provide a truly fictional immersion, from detailed
hand-designed questing, to carefully crafted and well-written
areas, to output designed to read like prose (see the speech
system for an example of what I mean - adverb support, etc etc).
- Word-based spell system (it doesn't work, wasn't pushed far enough
into the realm of spell language).
Server: Ultima Online, known there as "Designer Dragon"
<
http://www.owo.com>
Game concepts/features:
- World simulation.
- Maslow-based AI system for ecological sim and for basic human
activity (NPC moods, etc)
- Pool-based conversation system.
- Economic sim layer.
- Social control mechanisms (notoriety, etc).
- Dynamic modular quest system.
Noteable facts:
- Appears to be the first big mass market persistent world that really
breaks through and establishes the genre as a commercially viable
one.
- Pretty controversial, plagued with all sorts of problems from day
one, reviews range from stellar to in the toilet. ;)
[90% in English PC Gamer, January :)]
Signature:
-Raph
--------oOOOo--------
Jon A. Lambert
Occupation: contract programmer for 12 years, primarily mainframe DBA
Addresses: jlsysinc@ix.netcom.com
Web page: <
http://www.netcom.com/~jlsysinc>
Personal details:
- Former BBS operator - C64 and later DOS, ran many mud-like games.
- Occasional player on funny little Compuserve mud
- Attempts to rationalize interest in muds as practical professional
education. :P
- Player of paper & pencil games since mid-70s... primarily early
D&D, RoleMaster, Vampyre, Warhammer and Cyberpunk
- Favorite Computer Games - Tradewars, Civilization, Simcity, Hammurabi,
Empire, Railroad Tycoon...Ok just about anything design by Sid Meir
- Age - Too old to rock-n-roll, too young too die.
- Favorite color - blue
- Favorite character - Odysseus Laertes of Ithaca
Secret Project: TychoMud
Mud theme:
- Greek city states - synthesis of historical period 2500-200 BC with
unique interpretations of popular and lesser known mythologies.
Game physics, sciences and medical lore almost wholly based on
Plato's wacky universe. Yes, water does flow upward, at least
through the hole in middle of Earth.
Alternate Themes:
- Original FRPG campaign world.
- Dark postmodern theme.
Server concepts/features:
- Complete persistent objects backed by transactional relational
database
- Event driven and multi-threaded
- Graphical interface to text-based game
- Object-oriented concurrent stack-based mud programming language
(a twisted genetic mutation of Rexx, Java and Ada)
- Graphical user/builder component-level programming/building
Game concepts/features:
- Game system based on RoleMaster FRPG - skill driven system
- Heavy roleplay single account - multi-PC, NPC, or
gamemaster/storyteller
- Deistic intervention (always IC), capricious and encouraged
Direct
- Deistic programmed control of in-game systems (solar, lunar,
climate, oceans, etc.)
- Realistic flora and fauna ecologies (reset/repop - thou shalt not)
- Resource driven economies Social, political and economic driven game
- Magic rare and equipment poor
- Realistic professions
Signature:
Jon A. Lambert
--------oOOOo--------
JC Lawrence
Notes:
MUD-Dev list owner.
All postings as list owner are identified as such.
Occupation:
Contract programmer for 15+ years, ex-school teacher, printer,
sailor, fisherman and other sundries, small time SF&F, writer,
dinosaur, philosopher. Self taught.
Addresses:
claw@null.net (work)
coder@ibm.net (home)
Please use these in preference to all other addresses.
Personal details:
Started MUDding in '84 on Shades, SX MUD (MUD1/MUD2), and still
heavily influenced by same. Was a part of the IOWA project with
Pip Caudrey. Been working on a MUD server on and off since '85.
Major inspirations in chronological order: Shades, MUD2,
Transputers, Marcus Ranum, Uber, Unter, LP, Aber, Tiny*, Northern
Lights, MOO, Stephen White, LambdaMOO, a large bunch of IBM's OS/2
developers, Cool, Interlude (neat!), Dave Engberg, C++, Cold, Mike
Cowlishaw, Legend, ColdX, Greg Hudson, MUQ, BeOS, Inferno, Limbo.
Self-educated in pure math, english literature and religious
philosophy.
Server:
Unnamed, but last referred to as "Murkle". There are several
increasingly sarcastic acronymic expansions of "murkle" that are
left up to the reader to discover.
Server features:
Written in C++. Compleatly persistent world achieved by
transactional persistant store. Event driven heavily
multi-threaded lockless server design. OO internal programming
language ala Python/C. Server has no prior knowledge of the game
mechanics it is hosting. DB (persistant store) is disk based and
contains a full rollback feature for crash recovery, bug hunting
and logging. Same rollbacks allow for limited time travel by
users. Free user programming allowed. No logical difference
between mobiles, NPCs, and players. Players may control multiple
bodies simultaneously. Swarm-type bodies as possible. Players are
heavily abstracted from their characters, which are heavily
abstracted from their character bodies. Players connect to
accounts, from which they select characters to play, which in turn
control bodies. Thous shalt not repop, and thou shalt not reset.
No global namespace in game, players and characters all have
individual private namespaces.
Game features:
Particle based energy-centric resource economy drives and limits
the game world. Magic is merely a side-effect of the particle
economy. Permadeath. Free PK. Extremely high magic world. No
particular interest in RP. GoP-centric. Players and mobiles may
freely steal bodies from each other. The goal is to re-attain
godhood. Resolution of control from body toward player is
generally not possible. Violently fluid programmable combat where
very minor items and affects can be devastating. Skill webs. No
real levels. A human should never have to wait for a machine --
there is no waiting. Heavy use of unstable positive feedback loops
for populations and NPC behaviours.
Scenarios:
Bubba and the Crystalline Tree
The Great God GooGoo and his holy relics
Castle Krack, the Elven Forest, and the Sceptre
UggUgg's mana fight
Orc breeder/fighter/nobles
Mobile population migrations
A farcical justice system
Trash collectors (TC's)
Bubba digging the Panama Canal
...many others...
Signature:
J C Lawrence Internet: claw@null.net
----------(*) Internet: coder@ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
--------oOOOo--------
Kam Ling Lo (prefers Ling)
Occupation: Electronic & electrical engineering student, will probably
specialise in either digital communications, microprocessor
design or EMC. Or all three. :)
Addresses: K.L.Lo-94@student.lboro.ac.uk (or elkll@ for short)
Personal details:
- Year of the Dragon and 21!
- Knows far too much about cars and planes (due to over exposure from
bods of appropriate courses).
- All the computery stuff is self taught.
- Thinks gameplay is not emphasised enough on the list.
- Going for the purple hair and green eyes look.
- Heavily sci-fi orientated. Influences include all C64 and Amiga games
past, various books, cartoons, especially those with 'mechs in them.
- Strategy games, although there isn't a game out there deep enough to
keep him amused for more than a day.
- Somehow managed to accumulate knowledge of various paper games no one
else has ever heard of (eg: Air Eaters Strike Back!)
- Pet interests include artificial life and graphic novels.
- Extremely critical of computer games (very few games get rated good).
- Dislikes things by Sid Meir. :P
- Only non-athlete in England's sports University (bit of a bummer).
- Keeps changing projects and will probably go for a PBeM (upset over
time problems in muds).
Server: Renaissance (LP)
Server concepts/features:
- Undergoing a massive overhaul right now. Utterly gutted.
- Switching from the tradition view that the connection controls a body
in the game to the connection controls a soul which directs the
body. Oughta credit JC Lawrence one day for inspiration/blatant
rip-off.
- This design should eliminate a few design problems and further
minimise creators cheating by forcing creators to code only when
disconnected from the body.
- Aiming to release the mudlib towards the autumn of '98.
- Yes, that is its only redeeming feature.
Game concepts/features:
Server: Vague (Cold)
- Not even started. Still learning the ColdC.
Server concepts/features:
- Using ColdC, see their homepage <
http://www.cold.org>.
Game concepts/features:
- Meat of the mud is not remotely mud-like in the traditional sense.
- Players direct a team of agents on a series of missions, for each
mission a 1km x 1km world will be generated.
- Game will be turn based with a time limit for the player to input
their moves.
- Players perceive the game world through the eyes of their agents,
text descriptions will be generated on the fly.
Signature: [The fish stays no matter what]
| Kilo Lima Lima Oscar dash Niner Four, over and out. ---o
_O_O_ Electronic and Electrical Division, Loughborough Corp. <+=+=+>
--------oOOOo--------
David Love (aka Sauron)
Occupation: Student
Address: dlove@kusd.kusd.edu
Personal details:
- Worked as admin on ROCK
- Oldest of six children
- Has a grasp on perl, expanding on C, trying to learn Java
- Enjoys indulging in mindless hack & slash off and on
- Lover of the Final Fantasy series along w/ many console rpg's
- Pastimes: arcade games, paper rpg's, ccg's, computer games (XvT
and War2 among favorites), bbs-ing (anyone remember MajorMUD?)
Server: TWON, a slowly warping version of PennMUSH
Game concepts/features:
- Attempt at a hybrid between the RP aspects of a MUSH and the
in-depth combat style of a MUD
- Faction-based
- Attempts at a working real-time combat system
MU* Theme:
- Attempts to be an epic war story
Signature:
-Sauron
--------oOOOo--------
Greg Munt
I lurk too much. Partly due to being unemployed (maybe I should petition
BT(*) for free local calls), being overwhelmed by list traffic, and partly
due to the fact that I have been in New York for the past 3 or 4 months. Whilst
there, I got engaged to a Bahamian. Maybe my email address will swap a 'uk' for
a 'bs' soon (reasonably likely). At least local calls are free there. Grrr.
Found muds in early '94, in the form of a Tiny derivative, UglyMUG (one of
the few muds on JANET(**)'s PAD network at that time). Left six months later to
join the administration of a derivative of Ugly. 18 months after that, was
running it. 6 months after that, had been kicked out of the admin team, and
banned - now bitter, twisted, and forever opposed to democratic muds. The
so-called "Admin Wars" produced a satirical re-telling of Star Wars,
where I was reduced to a dribbling figure, shivering over a VIC-20 and a
2400 baud modem. (I kid you not.)
My 'real' experience has been working in COBOL/DB2 for British Steel.
Currently I'm trying to use that to get a job. Alternatively I might
have an opportunity as a Junior Games Programmer (with CodeMasters -
possibly UK-only company? *shrug*)! Who said mudding was a waste of time? :)
Since selling the VIC-20 (*koff*), I hacked up a mud from scratch, and
after six months produced "Frontiers". The website (at
http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk) was produced - not by me, I hasten to
add - in 6 days, and is infinitely better. It was around this time that I
began reading rec.games.mud.admin, and Martin Keegan wandered onto
Frontiers. (Read DejaNews for the results;)
Now, Frontiers has been closed down, and I have started anew. First
efforts are always worst efforts - probably - but I learnt a lot from it,
and continue to plod through. Current project is called "Ubiquity", and
is, I am quite proud to announce, at the design stage (Frontiers started
at the implementation stage *doh*). At the moment, it is nothing more
than a BBS with talker extensions, but I plan to later turn that into an
underlying command shell for a coordinate-based, all-singing, all-dancing
mud (yes, I'm still working that bit out). The command shell idea was
actually suggested (or I evolved it from one of his ideas, I can't
quite remember) by Nathan Yospe, on this list. This time I am going
slowly, working on the things I know about first, rather than tackling
everything at once, and achieving nothing (see Frontiers).
Age: 24.
Height: 6'8 (which may be irrelevant - though it's always
sort of relevant to people, when they meet me).
Likes: unconventional ideas.
Dislikes: the accepted norm (see DejaNews).
Worst attribute: 50% of my time is spent planning; 5% of my
time is spent carrying out those plans.
Best attribute: Selfless, emotional.
Best thing about my life: I'm so in love...
Worst thing about my life: ...with someone who lives thousands of miles away.
Claim to fame: I once met Ling's brother. He compared me to
John Lennon, which I still find amusing.
Signature: this one will become semi-permanent, I
think. It almost illustrates my opinion of the world.
Ha - even my mother calls me arrogant, now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a 99% chance that I hate and despise your miserable little existence.
(*) British Telecommunications charge 1UKP/hour for local phone calls. Scowl.
(**) The Joint Academic NETwork - now forms the *.ac.uk part of the Internet.
--------oOOOo--------
Mike Sellers
Occupation: Chief Creative Officer for The Big Network; Chief Alchemist of
Online Alchemy. Okay, both of those are real titles, but they boil down to
being a game and game-world designer.
Some previous occupations: creator of Meridian 59, user interface designer,
software engineer, animal fertility lab scientist, fantasy miniature
sculptor, movie extra (Apocalypse Now), and one-time circus roustabout.
Location: Pleasanton, California
Address: mike@online-alchemy.com
Interests and Personal stuff:
- Homeostatic mechanisms in world politics, ecologies, and economies
- Maslovian-inspired AI for NPCs and mobiles
- creation of strong communities online
- creating games that provide a truly immersive experience
- making online entertainment into a viable business
- being happily married with six kids :-)
Signature du jour:
Mike Sellers Chief Alchemist -- Online Alchemy mike@online-alchemy.com
"One of the most difficult tasks men can perform, however much others
may despise it, is the invention of good games. And it cannot be done
by men out of touch with their instinctive values." - Carl Jung
--------oOOOo--------
Greg Underwood
Occupation: Foole :P Student, primarily, Simulation design Co-Op to pay
the bills. (as a side note, I am probably one of the younger members of
the list, weighing in at age 23)
Addresses: s001gmu@nova.wright.edu
Location: Dayton, Ohio, USA (yeah, the place where they had the Bosnia
Peace Talks a couple years back).
Personal details:
- Used to work on Diku/merc/rom derivatives, specifically Eternity of
Discord. (the code base of which has survived in various forms
under a couple of of different names, which surprises the heck
out of me.. it sucks. :)
- Currently working on a home-grown project with a friend who is
currently a lurker on the list.
Server concept/features:
- Key features include event driver, object orientated nature of the
program, mSQL relational database for info management and non-io
specific, requiring specialised clients to transform data into
something more palatable.
Game concept/features:
- The major foci of the project include a MUCH more realistic combat
model from Diku. Key differences include combat between one
versus many results in one dead opponent v.quickly, usually.
- Heavy magic world with well defined metaphysics, which defines the
physics of the world.
- Primarily a numbers/resource management game, rp will be a side
effect due to the multi-player nature.
- Pkill & "permanent" deaths.
- Player characters will include self-preservation code/instincts,
player can override instincts for complete control but without
overriding, can't get character to behave self-destructively.
Signature:
-Greg
--------oOOOo--------
Adam Wiggins
Occupation: Lead programmer for Cinematix Studios, Inc
Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Address: nightfall@inficad.com
Personal details:
- Primary interests for a mud are enhanced 'realism' and internal
consistency of the game world, mainly getting rid of all the
old kludges (hitpoints, experience, levels, classes, tell)
and creating a much more detailed and complex world.
- Proponent of skill-based systems which encourage roleplaying
by making the charcter one plays act and respond as befitting
their race/temperment.
Server: Strife mud
Signature:
Adam
--------oOOOo--------
Nathan F. Yospe
Occupation: part time student, writer, cartoonist. (yes, really, all of these)
Addresses: yospe@hawaii.edu
Location: Hawaii
Personal details:
- Interests in elements of solid state and materials science, and
biochem, specializing in molecular genetics and crossover areas
with biomedical science.
- My goals are not particularly relevant to this list, aside from the
fact that I have written sucess at them into the ancient history
of my mud universe, by some anonymous other, fifty years after
I'll likely be dust. The goals: complete supplemental immune
system simulated by organic nanotechnology.
Server: Physmud++
Server concepts/features:
- Mud built by first defining fundamental laws and then constructing the
world in a lego-like manner.
- Functions as a client with a single server, every text transaction and
most decision-tree transactions are handled clientside and passed to
the server as tokened sequences.
- Physmud++ has evolved in the time that I have been on this list, from
a Diku-like C++ mud to what it is today, completely unique.
Server: GURU
Server concepts/features:
- Started 2.5 yrs ago, completion date of December 2002
- Graphical, VR orientated, mass scale distributed fantasy world.
- Designed from the world go for scaleability and most of the
innovations in Physmud++ are really those of the GURU, simplified
and tested in an environment that I can, peice at a time, actually
accomplish.
Signature:
"You? We can't take you," said the Dean, glaring at the Librarian.
"You don't know a thing about guerilla warfare." - Reaper Man,
Nathan F. Yospe Registered Looney by Terry Pratchett
yospe@hawaii.edu
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe Meow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Resources
Anything notable and mud related that should be read/investigated.
Webpages:
Marian Griffith's !Overlord project: <
http://www.iaehv.nl/users/gryphon>
Full of information useful to mud designer/admins.
Lucasfilm's Habitat: <
http://www.communities.com/company/papers/lessons.html>
Detailed document about an ambitious graphical mud.
Muds:
AmigaMUD: <
telnet://mud.myrias.com:23>
Chris Gray's sparsely populated mud. Of note as he is a list member and
this seems to be the only member's mud available for public access.
Armageddon:
To my knowledge the ONLY truly successful full-bore RP environment based
on a Diku-style server with full combat and the like. Often cited as such
at any rate. [Raph K]
Avalon, Gemstone, others:
Commercial text muds. Avalon has an interesting newbie tutorial mode,
and room description generation code that is nifty too. Gemstone was
and prolly still is the most popular mud in the world, period. It
evolved into DragonRealms. [Raph K]
DartMUD: <
telnet://dartmud.com:2525>
A very ambitious LP mud with lots of good ideas which never seemed to
have gelled together correctly. Plenty of bugs. A sequel is being worked
on.
LegendMUD: <
telnet://mud.aus.sig.net:9999>
The first classless mud, strange diku/LP hybrid. See Raph Koster's
bio.
Medievia:
The most popular free gaming mud I know of. Pioneered the use of things
like in-game spam ads for themselves and lack of due credit given for
code (:P) but also has things like ASCII map terrain, large
algorithmically generated areas, etc. [Raph K]
Almost all the muds done by Owen Emlen have interesting design
features to them too. (Aturion Dynasty, for example). [Raph K]
Not so mud related webpages:
AI Nodes/ANN: <
http://206.107.246.21/packhste/5/>
R-Trees: <
http://www.cs.cuhk.hk/~drsam/methods.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Glossary of Terms
The list has managed to come up with its own jargon, here are some of the
current buzzwords:
Artificial life: Similar to artificial intelligence except the concept is to
bestow individual components with rules or a program, the interaction of
various components will/should be more than the sum of the parts (emergent
behaviour).
Cooperative role-playing: Refers to a specific kind of RP where each
player's personal 'storyline' is paramount. All players are aware of,
and sensative to, the needs of each player for their story, and all actions
are completely consentual. This is the type of play usually found on
MUSHes.
Event: An alternative to polling. Objects generate events, which are
processed in their proper order by the event handler. This is frequently
clearer and far more efficient, especially with large numbers of objects.
Examples are a torch generating an event to burn out in two hours,
or a spell generating an event for an earthquake to occur in four seconds.
Fixed random seeding: Using a fixed value (such as a character's unique
ID, or the character's position in XYZ space) to seed the random number
generator, assuring that the same random number will always be rolled
if the circumstances are exactly the same, but requiring no storage.
Global namespace: Referring to the fact that most muds rely on characters
(and sometimes other objects) are given a single name. Typing 'who'
gives you a list of these; if you see someone named Bob you know that he
is the only Bob in the world, and can't be confused with anyone else.
This is as compared to a system of generated descriptions to which players
can attach proper names as they please, which may or may not overlap
or match up with the names assigned by other players.
GoP: Short for 'game-oriented play' or possible 'goal-oriented play'.
This is a compentative style of play usually oriented around the accumlation
of various resources (money, power, combat ability) which is frequently
found on LP and Diku muds.
Markup language: An internal set of codes used by a server to generate
semi-dynamic messages. An example is "%c dives %I %o" which might result
in "Bubba dives behind the wall", "A woman dives into the pool", or any
number of other strings.
mud: In all lower case, it is not an acronym. It is a collective term
for all the types of games discussed on this list, including both RP and
GoP.
Object: Because most of the servers discussed here are object-oriented,
the word object is being used in its general programming sense to include
characters, locations, inanimate items, and so forth, rather than referring
to only inanimate items as is typical on a mud.
Realism: This is not necessarily corespondance to the real world, but rather
refers to internal consitency. In many cases using the working of real
world systems (physics, for example) is a good example for how to build
a consistent system for a game world.
Repop: See Reset.
Reset: Usually a function called in a mud at irregular intervals, the purpose
of which is to put back into the game a creature/quest/item/etc.
Skill net: A single layered skill web. Skills are directly weighted to
each other. See skill web (NY)
Skill tree: A skill system where skills have a single parent and several
children. A skills at the bottom of the tree being very specialised. Skills
higher up the tree will affect the value of skills further down.
Skill web: a non-heirarchical two layered skill system wherin each skill
is weight-related to an arbitrary number of attributes, and the improvement
of skills therefore automatically improves related skills. Examples of
skills might be rowing and flycasting, examples of attributes, strength
(upper arm) and precision (forearm).
[Note: I triple weight my skill web, so that there are direct connections
to the condition of the character's body and mind, and so that the
resiliance of same are improved by conditioning. Nathan Y]
[Note 2: The web is modeled after a simple neural net design I found in
Dr. Dobbs' Journal. Nathan Y]
Verb binding: Attaching verbs to an object, such as 'fly' to a jetpack.
The command essentially does not exist when you don't have the jetpack.