[MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

Whoops!  Some things I forgot to write in the original posting:

In <33c08c90.129757984 at relay.mnsinc.com>, on 07/05/97 
   at 02:14 PM, caliban at darklock.com (Caliban Tiresias Darklock) said:

>On Tue, 1 Jul 1997 19:59:09 PST8PDT, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>It seems that the actual development of
>servers isn't being addressed here; just the implementation of them.

Nope.  You just missed that traffic -- a lot of it happened back last
year and a little at the beginning of this year.  Unfortunately none
of the new crowd, such as yourself, have started such threads (excl
this one).  Quite a bit of base discussion on the methods of approach
of a MUD server went on.

>Development implies a progression which I just don't see happening.

Lets have a look at this.  [[New text from here on]]  A quick summary
of recent list traffic:

  Affects vs affects vs spoofs
  Security concerns of spoofs
  Componentised based bodies vs agregate bodies vs atomic bodies.
  Rooms vs coordinate spaces vs mixed forms of the two.
  Methods of handling coordinate spaces: neighborhoods, tree forms
etc.
  Classes of players and what they want from a game.
  Automated population containers.
  Levels vs level-less vs abstracted levels vs level-comparitives.
  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 of such, and extension of such.
  Event models.
  Internal process models.
  Security models.
  Multi-threaded server design.
  Database design for a server.
  Use of trasactional databases in a MUD server.
  Re-usable quests.
  Automatically re-created random quests.
  Generic quest creation systems.
  How to avoid resets.
  Rumour systems, handling rumour propagation, and rumour decay.
  Languages and races.
  Placement of characters in the MUD-world predator totem-pole.
  Artificial probability systems.
  Handling of character death as an in-game event.
  Perma-death vs ressurection.
  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 NPC's, intelligently automating NPCs, 
    player characters as NPCs.
  Virtual roooms, virtual objects, virtual mobiles.
  Nutrition.
  Wound systems.  
  Parsing systems, and language development tools.
  Design of internal MUD languages.
  Variations on event-driven design.
  Disk vs memory based designs for MUD servers.
  Combat systems (round based, no rounds, interactive, etc).
  IO Sockect efficiencies.
  Telnet protocol and terminal emulations.
  Design of ObjectID's, and ObjectID recycling.
  
And a whole host of others I can't be bothered to recall right now. 
There's been discussion of possible changes and advancements to be or
being made, a bit of disagreement on whether those things were
advancements or steps backward, and a lot of throwing the spaghetti up
on the wall to see if it sticks.  Yup, there isn't any sort of orderly
progression with a stated accumulation of agreed upon advancements
which are amalgamated into some moddish server or game design. 
Instead everybody picks out the bits they like, fits them into their
own ideas, and moves on.  Think "compost", "catalyst", "diamond mine",
and "mine field".  

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
...Honorary Member Clan McFUD -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...