[DGD] Mudlibs

[Erwin Harte]

On Fri, Aug 24, 2001 at 04:06:07PM -0400, Stephen Schmidt wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Par Winzell wrote:
> > May I suggest the standard route of acquiring a developer account
> > on an existing LPMud? Typically this is 'wizard' status, and it is
> > often gained simply by playing.
> 
> DGD-relevant question: Is that even possible under DGD? Are
> there any DGD-based muds open to the public which promote
> their own players to wizard rank?

I don't know about 'instant-wiz', but I know that IgorMUD is open for
the public and has been for the past 10 years, 7 or so years of which
it has been running DGD, currently 1.2.18 + patch. :-)

You will have to really play yourself up to wizard-level, though.  One
downside to IgorMUD is that the mudlib is derived from the 2.4.5 lib
and you can still see that in many a piece of code, legacy problems
are such fun! ;-)

I'm sure Dworkin has a better list of DGD muds, open or not, and there
is always the mud-connector (http://www.mudconnect.com/) to search at.

> Not-necessarily-DGD-relevant comment: The notion of promoting
> players to wizard after they make level X, so common in the
> Elder Days, is all but dead in my (admittedly quite limited)
> experience. It was probably a bad policy to start with, and
> the surprise is that it lasted so long as it did. Perhaps it
> worked better back in the days when most mudders were also
> computer programmers than it does now. Its flaws include:
> 
> 1) There is little correlation between having the skills required
> to make level X and the skills required to be a productive wizard.
> The only major overlap is that both require lots of free time and
> a willingness to spend it in front of a CRT. In particular, reaching
> level X requires no coding ability at all, and coding ability,
> even untrained, is rare enough in the general population that
> most players who make level X don't have it.

In return I'd like to point out that it would be preferable to have
wizards that have a reasonable notion (even if that notion is a bit
outdated after a few years) of what is already out there in the
actual game.  Gives you a better chance of having wizards create
something that fits in, or complements what's there, instead of doing
version 1001 of the same sort of area/guild.

> 2) Automatic promotion to wizard produces more candidate new
> wizards that most muds, in this day of small and understaffed
> muds, can absorb at once.

Maybe there's a reason some muds are understaffed.

> 3) In these days of mud-in-a-box, someone who really wants to
> be a wizard (and that's one of the praimary requirements) can
> usually pop open their own mud-in-a-box without investing the
> effort required to make level X at an open mud - a level usually
> set at an incredibly high level to choke off the flood of candidates
> created by 2).
> 
[...]
> > The benefit of starting with small managable 'toy' projects, going
> > up to custom-effect armours and weapons, to large, inter-connected
> > areas of rooms and objects, cannot be over-stated.
> 
> With this I completely concur. Unfortunately it's getting
> harder and harder to find the chance.

Maybe you're looking in the wrong place.

> I persist in thinking that what is needed is a small public
> school that would have examples to work from, a small staff
> to answer questions and help fix mistakes, and a certificiation
> program that would let a prospective wizard approach an open
> mud and say "I have finished Grade N at the Mud School" which
> would let admins take him on without taking up the time required
> to evaluate his skills. But earlier attempts to do this, my
[...]

Yikes, no.  Next you're going to suggest a MSDW (DGD-Wizard) program?
The sort of thing you're suggesting is basically what I'd expect from
an up and running LP/DGD mud with a reasonably sized wizard population
where some of the wizards volunteer to help the 'newbie wizzes' and
others just go about their own way (i.e: idle and chat).

But hey, if you're willing to deal with the 'students', go ahead and
set it up. :-)

> That said, I would be interested in contributing to the
> development of examples for newbie wizards to work from,
> if an open-access site to host them could be found (and if
> the difficult problem of choosing a mudlib could be solved).

Why, just use 2.4.5 which nobody likes (anymore), problem solved, :)

-- 
Erwin Harte <harte at xs4all.nl>
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