<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="content-type"> <title>Dead Souls FAQ</title> <link rel="icon" href="./favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="./favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> </head> <body> <pre style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;"><big><big><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dead Souls FAQ, v2.5</span></big><br><br>Written by Cratylus @ Frontiers, October 2005<br>Updated February 2008<br><br><a href="#1">What is Dead Souls? </a><br><br><a href="#2">What is it for?</a><br><br><a href="#3">What is a MUD? </a> <br><a href="#4"><br>What's a mudlib? </a><br><br><a href="#5">When I configure Dead Souls, it says it is a MUD. <br>If it is really a mudlib, why would that be? </a><br><a href="#6"><br>Is Dead Souls really Nightmare in disguise? </a><br><br><a href="#7">What is Nightmare? </a><br><br><a href="#8">What is the relationship between Nightmare and Dead Souls? </a><br><br><a href="#9">How close?</a><br><br><a href="#10">Why mess with Dead Souls, then? </a><br><br><a href="#11">Fine, but what's so special about Nightmare/Dead Souls? Why are you <br>making such a big deal of wanting people to use it? It isn't <br>better than everything else, surely. [insert mudlib name here] <br>is newer and has [insert feature here] and [other feature]! </a> <br><br><a href="#12">What's LPC?</a><br><br><a href="#name">Why is the name "Dead Souls"?</a><br><small><br></small></big><small><a href="#controversial"><big><big>I heard you are controversial. I don't like controversy.</big></big></a></small><big><br><br><a href="#driver">I heard you switched to a driver other than MudOS </a><br><a href="#13"><br>How do I get started?</a><br><a href="#14"><br></a><a href="#14">Anything else?</a><br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="1"></a>What is Dead Souls?</span> <br><br> Dead Souls is a "mudlib". <br><br> Dead Souls 1 was a public domain release of a mudlib<br>called "Nightmare". It was difficult to use, and buggy.<br><br> Dead Souls 2 is a re-release that fixes the bugs and<br>makes it super easy to use for both beginners and advanced admins.<br><br></big><big> There is also a Dead Souls MUD, but this is not what people <br>usually mean when they refer to Dead Souls as a game. <br><br></big><big><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="2"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">What is it for?</span><br><br> It's for building a game. If what you want to do <br>is play a game, you're looking for something else.<br> <br><br style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="3"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">What is a MUD?</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><br><br> A MUD is a computer program that uses text (most MUDs do not use <br>graphics or sound in-game) to describe virtual environments you can manipulate. <br>You enter a command, the program tells you how the virtual world responds <br>around you. Typically there are other people connected to the same program <br>over the Internet, and you can interact with them as well. A MUD can be mostly <br>social, or mostly game oriented, with quests and puzzles to solve or <br>villains to defeat. The name MUD is an acronym that originally stood for <br>"Multi-User Dungeon", in accord with the "Dungeons & Dragons" style of <br>many early MUDs. Now it stands for different things to different people, <br>but the basic concept of operation is the same, whether the game is set <br>on the moon, in Manhattan, or in Middle Earth.<br><br>See also:<br><a href="http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/jargon/html/M/MUD.html">http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/M/MUD.html</a><br><br><br style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="4"></a></span></big><big><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">What's a mudlib?</span> <br><br> There are many different types of MUD programs. Some are<br>executable programs, with all of their virtual worlds<br>defined in one big file. Others are entirely interpreted,<br>such as java muds, which are composed of thick forests<br>of folders containing java files.<br><br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPMUD">LP MUDs</a> are something between the two. <br><br> Generally there are two main parts to an LP MUD <br>program. First is the "driver". This is an executable program <br>file (in Windows, you'd see the driver has an .EXE extension) <br>that enables the input and output of data, accepts network <br>connections, performs basic calculations, etc. The other part <br>is the mudlib, or, more properly, MUD object library. This is <br>usually a large set of files in plain text that the driver <br>reads and uses as a basis for the game. Some files provide <br>information about rooms and environments, some files provide <br>information about objects or creatures, etc. When players <br>connect, the driver provides them the world that these <br>files describe. <br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="5"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">When I configure Dead Souls, it says it is a MUD. <br>If it is really a mudlib, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">why would that be?</span> <br><br> Dead Souls is not intended to be a fully-developed <br>MUD when you install it. Instead it provides you with <br>the basic framework you need to make a MUD of your own. <br>After you set up Dead Souls, you should rename it, and <br>customize the lib (that is, library) files to create your <br>own world. When you first run Dead Souls, you will <br>have some rooms available to explore. This is not your mud. <br>It is just a set of sample places and objects to help <br>you understand how to build a MUD of your own. So in a <br>way, Dead Souls provides you a kind of "starter" MUD, <br>but since it's just examples, you can't really <br>consider it a MUD until you change it to suit <br>your creative vision. <br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="6"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Is Dead Souls really Nightmare in disguise?</span> <br><br> Let's break this question down into its components:<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="7"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">What is Nightmare? </span><br><br> Nightmare was a mud. It was part of a branching of mud development <br>that occurred early in the days of popularized mudding. Some folks <br>decided to take MUD library development in a particular direction, <br>and eventually made available what is now known as the Nightmare mudlib. <br>Nightmare went through a few major changes, most notably from version 3 <br>to version IV. By that time, the development of Nightmare was solely <br>managed by a coder who called himself Descartes.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="8"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">What is the relationship between Nightmare and Dead Souls? </span><br><br> It appears that Dead Souls began as a "development" MUD. This means <br>that while Descartes ran his own MUD, he also worked on improving that MUD's <br>lib. It is unwise to make major changes to a MUD that people are playing on, <br>so the Dead Souls development MUD was one which served as a platform to <br>develop, extend, and improve the Nightmare lib without risking harm to active players. <br>Sometime after the release of the Nightmare IV mudlib, Descartes decided to <br>withdraw it from distribution. Based on their interpretation of copyright <br>law, people now do not distribute the Nightmare mudlib on Internet servers. <br>However, somewhat inexplicably, Descartes released the mudlib for his <br>development mud, Dead Souls, into the public domain. This meant that the <br>Dead Souls mudlib was completely free to be used by anyone in any way they <br>chose, be it distribution, modification, spindling or folding. Because Dead <br>Souls was the development mud for Nightmare Mud, which was the base of the <br>Nightmare mudlib, the relationship between the two is a very close one.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="9"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">How close?</span><br></big><big><br> The similarity between Nightmare and Dead Souls can<br>now best be described as close cousins, rather than twins.</big><big><br><br> At one time it was almost identical. A close comparison of the <br>Dead Souls lib that Descartes released (version 1.1pre) against the <br>last released Nightmare lib (IVr6) reveals that they are very <br>nearly the same thing, file for file. <br><br>The main differences between the two are:<br><br>* A small number of Nightmare library files aren't on Dead Souls.<br>* Dead Souls doesn't come with the driver or install script the Nightmare had.<br>* All documentation files were removed from Dead Souls.<br>* "Nightmare" in file headers was changed to say "Dead Souls"<br><br>This might sound like a lot of difference, but consider this: not counting <br>documentation, Nightmare IVr6 lib contained 1064 files and directories, and <br>the Dead Souls 1.1pre lib contains 1082. Dead Souls 1.1pre actually had more <br>lib material in it than the last release of Nightmare.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="10"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Why mess with Dead Souls, then?</span> <br><br> The main problem was that Dead Souls was a bear to set up. Because <br>driver development had not stopped (the driver is a separate software project), <br>but lib development had, incompatibilities grew in number over time. Using <br>the original driver from 1997 created a MUD that lacked important features <br>of modern muds, and risked instability. Using a modern driver required a <br>modification of fundamental lib systems that required some expertise to <br>perform. People stopped using Nightmare because they couldn't get it, and <br>they didn't use Dead Souls because the damn thing didn't work right. My own <br>Nightmare lib MUD, Frontiers, continued to chug along, quietly fading into <br>obscurity along with all other Nightmare IV based MUDs, while scrappy young <br>newcomers like CoffeeMud lib started elbowing their way into the MUD community. <br><br> Then a funny thing happened. I really got into lib coding. I mean, full-on <br>lib obsession. I can't really explain it, other than to say that when I was <br>younger it seemed hard and impenetrable, but now that I've been working in a <br>technical field for years, I have the mental tools (and patience) required to <br>disassemble and understand complex systems. I got turned on by analyzing and <br>understanding stuff that I'd considered over my head in years past. <br> But I was living in the past. I couldn't share my exciting lib ideas <br>and discoveries with anyone else, because the Nightmare LPC community was <br>in the very last stages of extinction. <br><br> I decided to do something about it. Maybe I'd be whistling into the wind, <br>tilting at windmills, or even worse, just talking to myself. But I decided <br>I'd make Dead Souls a viable lib for people to use, because it would be fun, <br>and because it might be nice to have other people to bounce ideas off of and <br>steal code from. At worst, I'd be doing nothing more pathetic than, say, <br>building model ships in my basement. At best, I might revive a once-thriving <br>MUD development community. Either way, it sounded like an enjoyable project, <br>so I proceeded.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="11"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Fine, but what's so special about Nightmare/Dead Souls? Why are you <br>making such a </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">big deal of wanting people to use it? It isn't <br>better than everything else, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">surely. [<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">insert mudlib name here</span>] <br>is newer and has [<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">insert feature here</span>] and [<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">other feature</span>]!</span> <br><br> Yes, that may be. My experience with other libs is limited, and I'm sure <br>that Dead Souls pales in comparison to others in one feature or another. My only <br>answer to that is, go ahead and use the lib you're comfortable with. I make few <br>claims of superiority. I'll be the first to admit there are still things <br>to fix and systems to implement. But if you are not sure which lib to pick, <br>Dead Souls is an excellent choice as a solid, stable, flexible and powerful platform <br>to build your MUD. You can do anything in a MUD with LPC, and I mean anything. <br>If you happen to have Nightmare experience, Dead Souls will be a homecoming...<br>like an old comfortable shoe, but without the holes or the stink.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="12"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">What's LPC?</span> <br><br> LPC is a kind of programming language. Dead Souls lib files don't <br>just contain descriptions of places and things: they have a format that describes <br>their relationships to the driver and permits you to do fancy stuff...pretty much <br>any text MUD thing you can think of, you can do in LPC. <br><br><br style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="name"></a>Why is the name "Dead Souls"?</span><br><br> I don't know for sure. I've had more than one person say that<br>they are afraid their workplace will discover they are using software<br>with such a satanic-sounding name. I suggest that if it's really a<br>problem, do a recursive search and replace of "Dead " to "Saved ".<br><br> Though I can't say for sure about the name, I do know that<br>George Reese had an interest in the Russian language, and "Dead Souls"<br>is the name of a widely known piece of Russian literature. I suspect<br>the two facts are not accidentally coincidental.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE!</span> (23 Feb 2008): I've received an explanation from George<br>regarding the name. To summarize, He really liked the Nine Inch Nails<br>cover of the Joy Division song "Dead Souls" (which he also liked)<br>which was named after the Gogol novel, and he viewed the lib as a ghost town <br>waiting to be populated by living people replacing the "dead serfs".<br>Ta-daa!<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="controversial"></a>I heard you are controversial. I don't like controversy.</span><br><br> Using Dead Souls is not controversial. I occasionally<br>get into forceful debates with forum admins or people that maintain<br>other codebases. This does not mean that using SmaugFUSS is<br>a "vote" for its maintainer's opinions, and it doesn't mean that using<br>Dead Souls is a "vote" for mine. If you find their software useful, use<br>it. If you find DS useful, then use that. You are not required<br>to agree with my sense of humor or ideas about forum etiquette<br>to get support from me or the DS community. In fact, if you <br>disagree with me, it's probably a <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">good thing</span> for you, in that I'll likely<br>be extra nice to you just to prove you don't need to be my sycophant<br>to get along in the DS community.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="driver"></a>I heard you switched to a driver other than MudOS</span><br><br> Starting in Dead Souls 2.5a15 the bundled driver is FluffOS.<br>FluffOS is a derivative of <a href="http://mudos.org/">MudOS</a>, maintained by the <a href="http://discworld.atuin.net/">Discworld MUD</a> team.<br>There are numerous advantages to using FluffOS: It is currently maintained,<br>it has superior handling of 64-bit environments, it's been updated<br>to work in modern libraries (e.g. ualarm changes and the like), and it's<br>been "battle tested" in a very active mud for a very long time. The<br>switch to FluffOS is a substantial net plus for Dead Souls, not just<br>a fashion statement.<br><br> Note that this is not a "turning away" from MudOS, since <br>FluffOS still has MudOS as its base...serving kind of like it chassis.<br>It is not unreasonable to consider FluffOS the "current fork" of MudOS.<br><br> Note also that this does not simplify in any way the<br>status of the driver licensing for Dead Souls. Because FluffOS is<br>a MudOS derivative, a Dead Souls mud running it is still <br>subject to the MudOS team's and Lars Pensjö's <a href="http://lpmuds.net/copyright.mudos">restrictions</a>.<br><br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="13"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">How do I get started?</span> <br><br> Download the latest version of Dead Souls from <a href="http://dead-souls.net/">http://dead-souls.net/</a> <br>and install it. <br><br> The distribution file includes both the<br>Windows and UNIX versions. Read the <a href="ds-inst-faq.html">installation FAQ</a> for details.<br><br> Once you log in, read the Players Handbook and the Creators Manual.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"></span></big><big><br><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a name="14"></a></span></big><big><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Anything else?</span><br><br>Read the <a href="http://dead-souls.net/ds-admin-faq.html">Dead Souls Admin FAQ</a>.<br><br>Read the <a href="ds-creator-faq.html">Dead Souls Creator's FAQ</a>.<br><br>Read the <a href="ds-inst-faq.html">Dead Souls Installation FAQ</a>.<br><br>Read the <a href="example.html">Quick Creation System Example Page</a>.<br><br>Read the <a href="debugging.html">Debugging Guide</a>.<br><br>Read the <a href="editor.html">Editor Tutorial</a>.<br><br></big></pre> <big style="font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;">The end.<br> <br> <a href="index.html"><small>Dead Souls Homepage</small></a><br> </big> <br> </body> </html>
