[MUD-Dev] Load Testing a MUD

[Matthew D. Fuller]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2003 at 03:46:50PM -0400 I heard the voice of
sszretter at hotmail.com, and lo! it spake thus:

> Has anyone come up with a way to load test a mud?

> For example, a program that will run on one or more computers and
> be able to log into the mud maybe, and then execute a few commands
> - like maybe walking around, typing help, or other informational
> commands, etc.??

Well, one simple way would just be to setup some triggers on a MUD
client, and start it up a few dozen times :)

You could also, with a bit more knowledge, stuff something together
pretty quick with any of the major scripting languages.  For
instance, I've used some Telnet:: module in perl for monitoring
network devices before; it would be pretty easy to feed it a list of
commands, movements, help pages, maybe some simple spells, etc, and
have it just put them in with random ordering and delays.  Fire off
a few dozen or hundred copies of the script, etc.

It'd take work to get it sufficiently intelligent to be able to find
and kill mobs, but you could setup special environments in the game
for that.  Name all the mobs "[KILLME rabbit]" and "[KILLME
squirrel]" or something, make them weak, but with lots of hp for
long fights, make the player strong, make the script auto-attack
'em...  You could spent a lifetime making it more sophisticated, but
you could get 80% or so of your loadtesting done for very little
effort.

Of course, if you've got something more intricate than a telnet-type
text interface, none of this applies :)

--
Matthew Fuller     (MF4839)   |  fullermd at over-yonder.net
Systems/Network Administrator |  http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/
       "Klein bottle for sale ... inquire within."
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