[MUD-Dev] Building a New MUD

[SavantKnowsAll at cs.com]

In a message dated 12/16/00 11:30:36 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
mailinglists at mailroom.com writes:

>  I need to pick a codebase/driver for the MUD, and that's where my
>  first= problem begins. I was thinking of creating a driver from
>  scratch, but I've= had troubles picking out the 'proper' language
>  for it, and morever I= figured I need a lot more coding experience
>  (and MUD coding experience for= that matter), before I go out and
>  develop something of my own. Now I need= to decide on which driver
>  I should use, and I was hoping you guys will be= able to help me
>  that. I imagine that deciding on such a thing also relates= to what
>  sort of mud I hope to develop, but I'm not sure which details are=
>  relevant.

I don't know your exact level of coding experience, but from the sound
of it, holding off on writing a driver from scratch is a smart move.

As for what language/base code to develop in: My best advice is to go
with LP.  LPC is a greatly versatile language, easy to learn, and
quite ideal for the MUD environment.  You can pick up your base code
as well as a beginner and intermediate manual on LPC at
http://www.imaginary.com/LPC

Your best bet is to go with the Lima Mudlib with the MudOS
drivers. (Should be packaged together.)  Lima is pretty barebones, but
provides a pretty stable foundation for you to work from.  Most of the
files are mess (messy code - bad), but it's a sound codebase, and
MudOS is a sound driver.

LPC is a perfect OOP C environment.  Object Oriented C, to
over-simplify.  You'll be able to code pretty much anything you've
ever envisioned with a little practice.

>  Another thing I wanted to ask, is what thing I should plan before
>  actually= starting to code? I'd imagine that security, hierarchy
>  and other things as= well, but a list would be nice. One thing I
>  should clarify is that I do= have quite a few ideas for the mud and
>  it's not something that I just= thought of. I've had this thing
>  stirring in me for a couple of years now,= and I've finally decided
>  to start doing something about it.

Most MUD code bases (including the Lima/MudOS I spoke about above)
come with their security and hierarchy chain, and whatnot.  Your best
bet is just to start going through the files and changing easy stuff
around first (ie the strings).  It'll give you a basic grasp of how it
works, and get your eyes accustomed to ignoring all the colons,
brackets, quotations, and whatnot.

Otherwise, it's a personal choice.  Make a list, alphabatize it, or
blow it up into a poster... or just jump into the code and play it by
ear.  It's *your* mud for a reason. ;)
  
If you do end up going with LPC/Lima/MudOS, (or any LP for that
matter), here's some real basic advice.  You'll find the flist and
grep commands of utter importance.  Once in the game as your admin
character, say you want to find out what functions have to do with
your body that contain the word "action" (ie simple_action,
targeted_action, etc)... Simply type in: flist me | grep action.
It'll list all functions with the word action in it having to do with
your body.  Additionally, if you include "-i" after the flist, it'll
also show you where the file is located.  ie: flist -i me | grep
action.

Hope that helps.  Oh, and hello everyone. ;>

-=Savant
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