[MUD-Dev] Writing a MUD Server in Visual Basic?

[Matt Owen]

> From: Travis Casey [mailto:efindel at earthlink.net]
> Sunday, December 09, 2001, 4:18:19 PM, verb at rpn.port5.com wrote:
 
>>> A colleague of mine has recently been talking about writing a
>>> MUD server in visual basic, as he believes that the speed of
>>> current machines more than outweighs VBs sluggishness.
 
>>> I'm not so sure it's possible to write a server in VB, even for
>>> a small scale world (~64 players), aren't there threading and
>>> load balancing issues ?
 
>> If i had to write a mud server in VB, i would probably think
>> about reducing the strain on the server by processing as much as
>> possible client side.  If the server just had to maintain the
>> database, and provide a forum for the clients to communicate and
>> request data, VB should be able to handle it for whatever size
>> world. (this would also greatly reduce the bandwidth needed.)
 
>> However, this will reduce the versitility of the MUD, and the
>> players would have to install a large client to play, making the
>> mud less accessable.
 
>> VB just isn't suited for the task, and i would not consider using
>> it for a mud server under any circumstances. Tell your colleague
>> to learn C++ :)
 
> I'm not sure that VB's lack of threading and slower performance
> than "true" compiled code is as big an issue as people might think
> -- after all, LP muds and some other types also run on
> single-threaded interpreters.  Such muds were handling tens or
> hundreds of simultaneous players quite a few years back.
 
> The biggest problem I can think of with VB as I knew it is the
> limits on the size of the data space and code space.  How high are
> those in the newer versions?  Do they still exist at all, for
> practical purposes?
 
Ok, confession time. The colleague in question is in fact me. As I
am not a professional programmer (as many of you are), and as I also
do not have the C++ skills to code anything beyond 'Hello World', I
embarked on writing a MUD server in VB (originally version 5, now
version 6) about 18 months ago.  I worked on the code on and off in
my spare time. At the time of my original post however, I was at the
stage of scrapping it as a 'silly idea in the first place'. So I
posted to get the opinions of other more qualified MUD coders and
developers, to see if it was worth carrying on.

As it stands now. I have a fully working codebase, that can support
60 odd players (64 being the built in upper limit) with no
noticeable lag on a 500Mhz Pentium 3. Feature wise, it mimics the
style and depth of Shades.  This was my original design plan and I
am quite happy with how it turned out. For those who never played
Shades, it's basically a 'scavenger' type MUD, collect objects and
put them in special places for points. PvP is also supported. It
also has in-game object and room creation for players flagged as
'builders'. There are no NPCs as yet.

Long term, I intended to then develop the code into something
resembling the current crop of MUDs. I don't know if I ever will to
be honest.

Once again, thanks for your comments.

Matt.
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