[MUD-Dev] Carnage, scripting newbie guides

[Nathan Yospe]

On Tue, 30 Sep 1997, Koster, Raph wrote:

:On Tuesday, September 30, 1997 2:47 PM, Adam 
:Wiggins[SMTP:nightfall at user2.inficad.com] wrote:

:> I started on one of my own, anyways.  Not too sure, but I think the 
:name
:> was Worlds of Carnage.

:Just for the record, Worlds of Carnage, done by DimWit and Gilgamesh, 
:was the first Diku to use an embedded scripting language, as opposed 
:to calling spec_procs. Merc's mobprogs are based on their work, and 
:used to be acknowledged as such in the docs... Merc's mobprogs, which 
:now seem to be in common usage in the Diku world, also suck compared 
:to Carnage's system. After WoC (founded in I think '92, and which I 
:think is still around, though at one point the building that housed it 
:burned down) came Legend with a somewhat nicer script language of its 
:own and then Merc, and then another (Imperium Gothique?) that 
:drastically extended and expanded mobprogs. Legend's original immortal 
:staff is largely old Carnage players...

:Far as I know, mobprogs is the only one of these that was ever 
:released, although Cythera is running WoC code and has its "acts" 
:system as well.

Just a note, Newt, who wrote the Imperium Gothique version, is a lurker 
here. I used a version of his script in a Rom I ran a couple of years ago.

An additional note: all of these scripting languages used a runtime text
interpreter, similar to having a player type in commands to the mob, or
to some activator mob for objects and rooms.

:> The Newbie Sword was your standard issue weapon with a really
:> nicely-written script attached to it.

:For me the best part about the newbie sword was putting it in your 
:backpack and hearing it make muffled noises and complain about getting 
:closed up... :) Then again, I didn't come to the mud as a newbie, so 
:it was fairly annoying to me.

Anyone else think of Cutbert, from Gardner's Wuntvur books, when they read
this?

Now, on to my addition:

I've been moving more and more of the interface of my game off the host and
onto the client. As such, the client has unlimited available information, 
and opportunities for cheating are rife. As I intend to release the code...

...but on the flip side, this means people can ultimately customize the
client to their heart's content. The client is in Java, and the two 
versions (so far) are interfaced text-and-pictures (with optional mouse
controls) and remote subhost (runs on a host system to a telnet client).

This has three major results. #1 - clients have most of the personal memory
(as opposed to game critical data, which is kept secure on the host) making
limitations on memory a nonissue.
#2 - clients could theoretically become 100% graphical, or any varient on
such, with no penalty on gameplay for text clients.
#3 - the internal language becomes a representational resource allocation
and assembly system, instead of a text scripting system.

This third result is the one relevant here. I'd like some feedback on what
might be possible with such a system.

--

"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 at hawaii.edu   http://www2.hawaii.edu/~yospe           Meow