[MUD-Dev] code base inquiry

[Mik Clarke]

J C Lawrence wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 16 Nov 1999 21:39:33 -0700
> Ben Greear <greear at cyberhighway.net> wrote:
> 
> > My personal opinion (and I have been living in a cave of my own
> > construction for several years) is that text based MUDS are in a
> > decline, and have been for years, even as the rest of the NET has
> > expanded.  Although I do not know the answer, I wonder if the huge
> > number of forks in the MUD tree is part of this decline.
> 
> Certainly the rate of forks which have significant user bases seems
> to have declined mightily in the last 5 years.  Instead we know of a
> comparitively large number of new code bases, none of which has a
> significant user base that I know of.  In looking at product life
> cycles this either indicates that MUD servers are about to become an
> assumable commodity, or that we are at the precipice of a major
> paradigm shift for MUD servers.

Or there has yet to emerge a server with sufficient significant 
enhancements that it becomes a 'must have'.  Non coders looking
to start a mud will want something they can get support (and
stock areas) for.  Coders looking to start a mud want something
they can tweek into thier own fork.  Until we get a code base
with enough added 'must have' functionality, stock areas and
that is fairly well known, we won't see a major shift.  Right
now it seems like new muds are fairly evenly distributed over all
of the existing code bases (with ROM out, why are people still
starting Mercs? With Smaug out, why are they still starting ROMs?)

This is sort of where I'm trying to push CthulhuMud - ROM area
compatability, advanced profession system, open ended mechanisms,
better spell casting, advanced scripting, event driven actions.
Only problem is that it makes things more complex for the coders,
which scares many of the startups away.  I aim for someone to
be able to install it and set up their world without having to
know how to program (meaning they may not use some of the features).
It should also be possible to take an existing ROM 2.3/Sunder mud,
replace the driver with the CthulhuMud one and have it run (more
or less properly).

Mik



_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev maillist  -  MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
http://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev