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<div style="text-align: center;"><big style="font-weight: bold;"><big><big>The
Dead Souls News
Page</big></big></big><br>
</div>
<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;">
<div style="text-align: left;"><br>
<a name="11sep06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">11 September 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">News</span><br>
<br>
I'd like to start announcing things on the <a
href="http://lpmuds.net">http://lpmuds.net</a><br>
site. It's less painful for me, and plus people can respond<br>
with questions.<br>
<br>
So, from now on, please visit <a
href="http://lpmuds.net/forum/index.php?webtag=LPC&msg=9.1">here</a>
to see Dead Souls News.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Hosting</span><br>
<br>
The hosting situation <span
style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">is</span> a bit
confusing. Maybe this will<br>
explain things a little:<br>
<br>
<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Saquivor@Eternal Souls
<lpuni> whats up with lpuni.net dudes</span><br>
Cratylus <lpuni> ok here's the deal<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> tacitus was going to host on kyndig, because he
was sick of trenden<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> i said no let's try something else, and hooked
him up with wolfpaw<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> i happened to own the lpuni.net domain from
before, so i put it on lpuni's new wolfpaw account<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> so the New Lpuni was using lpuni.net, and the
old one still used lpuni.org<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> then tacitus changed his mind about wolfpaw and
decided to use trenden after all<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> so he removed the stuff from the wolfpaw account
<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> i figured "well, it's a shame to let a perfectly
good hosted<br>
account go to waste"<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> so i decided to move lpmuds.net to wolfpaw<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> however, wolfpaw hasn't updated the host/ip
thing yet, so lpmuds.net isn't on there yet<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> the only way to reach what-will-be-lpmuds.net
right now is lpuni.net<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> the end<br>
Cratylus <lpuni> oh, and lpuni.org is down because they broke
trenden's<br>
machine somehow, so they have to find hosting elsewhere<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="09sep06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">09 September 06</span><br>
<br>
Tacitus has decided not to accept Wolfpaw's generous<br>
hosting offer, even though I'm the one paying for the<br>
service. He's sticking with Trenden, and I wish him<br>
the best. <br>
<br>
That leaves me, of course, with a professionally<br>
hosted account on Wolfpaw to play with, so I've been<br>
messing around a little with forum software. To my amazement,<br>
I got a forum up and running with very little effort.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, right this minute, the only URL<br>
bound to it is lpuni.net,
but as soon as<br>
Wolfpaw changes the hostname stuff it'll be available<br>
at lpmuds.net. <br>
<br>
<br style="font-weight: bold;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="05sep06"></a>05 September 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">hotfix
update</span><br>
<br>
Zaphod@Hodge Podge found a security flaw in
admintool. Please<br>
visit the <a href="http://dead-souls.net/hotfix.html">hotfix page</a>
and update your admintool file ASAP. Note<br>
that I always thought it was a bit silly to encre/decre with the<br>
admintool, so I've simply removed it. From now on, just <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/ds-admin-faq.html#3">use the<br>
commands</a> when promoting/demoting someone.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="30aug06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">30 August 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">alpha code</span><br>
<br>
I've decided to make alpha code available for
download.<br>
Having others poke at my code before official releases might<br>
be nice, and I want to see if that's a workable model for<br>
doing things. Alpha code will not come with patches...that<br>
is, if you want to try out alpha code, you have to download<br>
the whole deal, not upgrade from previous versions.<br>
<br>
This is because I don't want people to apply alpha<br>
patches to their production muds and then flip out because<br>
the alpha code doesn't work right.<br>
<br>
If that suits you, you can download from: <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/code/alpha/">http://dead-souls.net/code/alpha/</a><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">distribution packages</span><br>
<br>
The default 2.0r26 and 2.1 package files have changed<br>
somewhat. They now have a "b" added to the filename to <br>
reflect this change. Basically, each distro is as it was, <br>
except that intergossip and intercre are no longer <br>
enabled by default for creators.<br>
<br>
It's a minor change, and I didn't want to go through
the<br>
hassle of a whole new version change for this one thing, so<br>
I expect the filename change will suffice to let people<br>
know...if they even care.<br>
<br>
The change is due to the situation on the router.
I've been<br>
absolutely loath to start banning people or muds, except<br>
where I just have no other alternative. In removing these<br>
two channels as default, I feel I have performed my due<br>
diligence in avoiding newbies getting trashed or offended<br>
on the yatmim router.<br>
<br>
It's a unique situation, in that many of the
"offenders"<br>
that have been causing problems on the router seem to<br>
be genuinely unaware of the rules, and sometimes even<br>
unaware of the router not being the same as the old one.<br>
I just don't have time to educate every ignoramus who<br>
gets offended when I call them on their behavior, and I<br>
just don't have the heart to punish entire muds just because<br>
a few nincompoops can't remember where they are.<br>
<br>
This doesn't mean it's open season now on newbies<br>
found on intergossip and intercre. It just means I<br>
don't have to shepherd every new mud through the<br>
gauntlet...something I, again, just don't have time for.<br>
<br>
Also there's a new channel enabled by default for
creators on<br>
new muds called "dchat". To join, type: <span
style="font-weight: bold;">call me->AddChannel("dchat")</span><br
style="font-weight: bold;">
<br>
<br>
<a name="25aug06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">25 August 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">other-lib compat</span><br>
<br>
This isn't something I've announced with great
fanfare,<br>
so I thought I'd give it a mention here. I'm working on lib<br>
compatibility systems. The idea is that I'd like it to be<br>
possible for people who have old areas they wrote for other<br>
muds to be able to use those areas in DS with minimum pain.<br>
There are two main ways to accomplish this:<br>
<br>
1) A translation system to turn old code to DS code<br>
2) An interpretation system to read old code and use it as if it were
DS code<br>
<br>
The first one is rather easier to do. I've put
together<br>
some lsed scripts that can be run to transmogrify Nightmare 3<br>
code into Dead Souls 2 code. You can see this script in<br>
/secure/scripts on the demo mud.<br>
I've already translated Praxis from NM3 into DS2
code.<br>
You can <a href="http://dead-souls.net/javaclient/demo.html">log onto
the demo mud</a> and check out /domains/Praxis<br>
for yourself. I'm done with the basics there, and will be<br>
seeing about getting the fancier stuff in there working.<br>
<br>
The second one is harder. Getting funky old
TMI-2/NM3/Skylib/LPUni<span
style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">*</span> <br>
code to work natively on DS is a tall order. I've put together<br>
a header file called compat.h which is enabled with the new<br>
COMPAT_MODE define in config.h. This enables the lib to<br>
read things like set_property as SetProperty, etc. You<br>
can read this file on the demo mud, as /secure/include/compat.h<br>
<br>
Even with that file, some of the scary old
habits of<br>
TMI-2 code break things. For example, there's no good way to<br>
make set("foo","bar"); into SetFoo("bar"); using a preprocessor<br>
define that I know of (please tell me if I'm wrong!). To get<br>
around this kind of behavior, I've added a new sefun file:<br>
/secure/sefun/legacy.c<br>
<br>
That file takes the hypergeneral contructors like
set(),<br>
add(), and query(), and parses them into code DS2 can more<br>
properly understand. It's not a foolproof fix, but it's working<br>
pretty well for a lot of objects.<br>
<br>
You can take a look at working TMI-2 code on the demo<br>
mud in /domains/Fooland. The majority of stuff there still doesn't<br>
work....it's still a work in progress. But type: <span
style="font-weight: bold;">goto /domains/Fooland/hall</span><br>
and: <span style="font-weight: bold;">lightme 30</span> and <span
style="font-weight: bold;">about here</span> and you'll see for
yourself that TMI-2 code<br>
*can* work on DS2. Sometimes it'll just work, sometimes it needs<br>
minor adjustments, but at least you won't have to do a drastic<br>
rewrite of every file in your old domain.<br>
<br>
Don't get me wrong, you obviously have a lot of work
to<br>
do if you're going to migrate to DS2 from another lib. Your<br>
paths will be different, you may need to add some lines or remove some.<br>
The idea isn't to have 100% drop-in compatibility with other libs.<br>
<br>
I mean, heck, you can't even do that with many muds<br>
running the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">same</span>
lib.<br>
<br>
No, the idea is to facilitate your migration. I want
DS2 to be<br>
a kind of Rosetta Stone for MudOS, a lib that people can use and <br>
refer to in a way that is as close to MudOS lib agnostic as possible.<br>
<br>
Of course, DGD or Cold or other driver based libs
are beyond<br>
the scope of my expertise. Maybe I can tackle those once we<br>
have a unified MudOS paradigm.<br>
<br>
I don't expect to be able to do this for all MudOS
libs,<br>
either. Lima, for example, is so weird that I don't even know if<br>
it's possible. The example objects and areas aren't enough for<br>
me to base a translation engine on...so if you have a Lima<br>
area you're not using, please donate it so I can us it as a<br>
base for translation.<br>
<br>
Remember, this is <span style="font-weight: bold;">*NOT*</span>
in the regular distribution. Don't<br>
try to get your old code to work on ds2.1. These capabilities<br>
are currently (mostly) only available on the demo and devel muds.<br>
Compat features will be more generally available in
the next release.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">*</span>I'm
told that LPUni code is not TMI-2, it has "<span
style="font-style: italic;">TMI-II compatability</span> (sic)"<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="23aug06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">23 August 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Releases:</span><br>
I am really getting comfortable with not having to
release<br>
stuff every five minutes. Yet...I'm starting to feel like I'm<br>
hoarding <a href="http://dead-souls.net/RELEASE_NOTES">goodies</a>,
and that's not nice. So I'm going to work<br>
out some sort of release schedule soon, so I can at least<br>
have a target date to miss. :)<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Connection page:</span><br>
I added a <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/javaclient/demo.html">connection page</a>
to make it easier for the<br>
casual visitor to the Dead Souls site to log into the demo<br>
mud and check it out for themselves. I know the java client is<br>
ugly, but it has the virtue of working well. If you know<br>
of another java client <span
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">that works</span>
(believe me I've played<br>
with the mudmagic one and others and have not gotten them<br>
to behave) please let me know.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">LPUni:</span><br>
There has been recent turmoil
in the LPUni community <br>
about the prospect of moving the site onto a server run<br>
by Kyndig. Dale at Wolfpaw has come to the rescue and offered<br>
a hosting package that I think is acceptable to everyone.<br>
<br>
I don't think Wolfpaw will be able to rival Kyndig's<br>
customer service for a couple of reasons. First, Dale doesn't<br>
do it as his primary job, so there will necessarily be some<br>
lag between service requests and action. Second, Dale doesn't<br>
have anything to prove. I suspect that Kyndig was Mr. Johnny-<br>
on-the-spot for Tacitus because he wanted to demonstrate stellar<br>
support, in order to facilitate the decision to have LPUni<br>
move there. For Tacitus the choice was a no-brainer. With<br>
support requests handled within minutes of filing them, and<br>
FREE service besides, well, it's a done deal right there...<br>
unless you actually care about the moral aspects of entering into<br>
a pact with Kyndig, which I did.<br>
<br>
My thrust is that folks shouldn't expect the kind of<br>
lightning-fast service Kyndig was providing in order to prove<br>
a point. Wolfpaw is a solid hosting solution, solid enough to<br>
handle mudconnector.com, which is the premier mud resource<br>
site. Having to wait a day or two for service requests on<br>
our discounted hosting package is part of the price we will<br>
pay for keeping our hands clean.<br>
<br>
If none of that stuff made sense to you, you probably<br>
don't know about the Kyndig situation, and really, you're<br>
not missing anything. It's a big dumb political brouhaha <br>
that you're just as well not knowing about.<br>
<br>
I've received some threats about being nominated for
an<br>
LPUni council position. Please note that I feel I am already<br>
participating to the best of my ability in the LPUni<br>
community, and me being in such a council would not have the<br>
effect folks think it would. Please don't bother<br>
nominating me. Thanks.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="10aug06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">10 August 06</span><br>
<br>
Ok. That wraps it up for the load testing. My<br>
fears were largely unfounded. I fired hundreds of playerbots<br>
into a mud running on Linux on a 1.2GHz laptop with .5 gig ram.<br>
The bots are created by an AI routine that telnets to the<br>
target mud, automatically creates a character, and then<br>
walks around the mud, picking things up, picking fights<br>
with orcs, and doing typical player things. They were coded<br>
to avoid idleness of more than 4 seconds, though a few<br>
malfunctioned due to unexpected stimuli.<br>
<br>
<br>
The results:<br>
<ul>
<li>Around 300 players, a slight lag could be found, if you were
looking for it.</li>
<li>Around 400 there was a minor lag.</li>
<li>Around 500 there was definite lag, as in "you could not miss
this" type lag. However, I remember playing on a mud back in the day
which had heavier lag with just 30 players on. <br>
</li>
<li>Around 600 players there was undeniably heavy lag. Most commands
ran in under 1 second, but some took a few seconds to complete, and
some errored out because the mud was too busy.</li>
<li>Around 700 players the mud was in definite "I'd rather not play
here" mode. Most commands ran in under 2 seconds, but some took several
seconds to complete.</li>
</ul>
<br>
These tests have proven very valuable in shaking out<br>
bugs I would not have spotted otherwise. <br>
<br>
I got as far as 710 players before running the tests <br>
started to get inconvenient for me (the bot generation process <br>
is a bit awkward). At this point I'm satisfied that if<br>
people run into a performance bottleneck when using Dead Souls<br>
it is *not* due to the base lib or MudOS efficiency.<br>
<br>
The news, therefore, is good for people running Linux<br>
on modern PC hardware. Even if your mud becomes the busiest in <br>
non-commercial mudding history, the software will keep up with you.<br>
As for bandwidth and clean area coding, that's on you.<br>
<br>
The news for Windows users...not so good. <br>
<br>
I don't know why, but it seems that you can't<br>
get more than 64 (or so) players logged on simultaneously<br>
to a Windows DS mud.<br>
<br>
It's possible that recompiling MudOS for Windows<br>
using Cygwin fixes this, but I don't know for sure and<br>
I will not be testing that in the near future. If<br>
you're running DS on windows and you <span style="font-weight: bold;">really
really</span> need<br>
to be able to have more than 64 players on at once<br>
right away, let me know and we'll discuss your options.<br>
Otherwise, I'm shelving that for now.<br>
<br>
Someday I'll have a newer PC to play with and<br>
I'll shoot for the 1024 player barrier. But that day<br>
is not today. <br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="09aug06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">09 August 06</span><br>
<br>
I'm just about done playing with load testing.<br>
The results have been fascinating, because I've<br>
just never had occasion to review data from "too<br>
many players" problems.<br>
<br>
The bad news is that MudOS is coded using many<br>
f*()'s, which limits the use of file descriptors<br>
in most cases to 255. Determining whether this is<br>
the obstacle it *looks* like will be a task for<br>
the future, as I need more time and beefier computers<br>
to extract the results I need and perform the <br>
tests I want.<br>
<br>
At some point last night I did an <br>
eval return sizeof(users()) and I got the staggering<br>
value of 407. However, there were errors all<br>
over, and the mud was, for all practical purposes,<br>
unusuable. It's not clear to me how far it'll<br>
go and still be usable in any way. I'm actually<br>
wondering if I hallucinated that because I<br>
haven't been able to reproduce it since.<br>
<br>
Anyway, that's the bad news. Right now you<br>
can't have a <span style="font-weight: bold;">ludicrous</span> <span
style="font-weight: bold;">number</span> of players on <br>
simultaneously.<br>
<br>
The good news is that you can have a <span
style="font-weight: bold;">large number</span><br>
of players on simultaneously. I've set it<br>
up so that my development mud (not the demo mud)<br>
has 160+ players at all times. This is to see<br>
what it's like to conduct business on a very,<br>
very busy DS mud. So far the lag is so minor as<br>
to be easily ignored. <br>
<br>
The system is a bargain basement beige box<br>
running an 800MHz Duron with a gig and a half<br>
of ram. Even with all those players bumping around,<br>
the process hovers around 40% cpu, and the amount<br>
of ram used is 81 megs. My guess is that with a<br>
3G proc and above, running on modern (eg not<br>
2002) hardware, you'd have scant chance of noticing<br>
200+ players, except for all the dying and <br>
shouting of course.<br>
<br>
Take a look if you'd like, by telnetting to<br>
rugose.com port 5050. Note that it's just a<br>
cable modem, and I use it for all my net traffic,<br>
so whatever lag you get is 90% network-based.<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="07aug06"></a>07 August 06</span><br>
<br>
In order to load-test DS, I've coded a playerbot<br>
object that telnets to the test mud and does<br>
typical player things: pick things up, wear them,<br>
wander about, open doors, etc. It does something<br>
at least once per 5 heartbeats, so it's quite a <br>
noisy thing.<br>
<br>
I also coded it to permit the rapid loading of<br>
many of them at once. The idea is to know what<br>
kind of bugs await me at the 200+ player threshold.<br>
<br>
The results are interesting, and rather better<br>
than I expected. On a half-broken, 512Mb ram, <br>
p3 1.2GHz laptop, I can run 180 of these busy little<br>
guys with no noticeable lag.<br>
<br>
Around that point, though, I start hitting<br>
some weirdness. It doesn't involve "performance",<br>
quite. It's more a matter of the existing systems not<br>
really being set up to handle 100 objects<br>
each with a separate short description in one room.<br>
That sort of thing. It's encouraging, though, that<br>
the problems I'm running into don't involve<br>
capacity, so much as tweaking functionality.<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="02aug06"></a>02 August 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Intermud:</span><br>
I've received some negative feedback from the<br>
DS community about the participation of muds from<br>
the old gjs router on our new yatmim. Intergossip,<br>
which used to be mostly PG-13 if not PG is now<br>
edging toward an R rating.<br>
I don't like it much, myself, because it tends<br>
to deter some people from participating, and the<br>
point of the router is participation.<br>
However, I feel bound by the rules I set down,<br>
and by the spirit in which I developed them. The<br>
idea is to foster community and support. My idea<br>
of community is not the only one, nor is it necessarily<br>
the correct one. I am reluctant to take it upon<br>
myself to dictate that only happy talk is permitted.<br>
I am committed to preventing abuse of newbies<br>
from happening on the 5 default DS channels, and<br>
I will be strict in enforcing the rules outlined<br>
on the router rules page. But I am loath to try to<br>
enforce politeness, because frankly I don't think<br>
I have the time or energy for it.<br>
I made yatmim a public router because I felt<br>
that it was a good idea to avoid a stagnant, <br>
insular atmosphere on intermud. I'm still confident<br>
I made the right choice, and unless things get out<br>
of hand, I will continue to enforce the rules as I<br>
have been.<br>
However, if what I start to see is a hostile,<br>
counterproductive atmosphere, I will interpret this<br>
as against the intent of the channels, and will<br>
feel unpleasant obligations.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">RELEASE_NOTES:</span><br>
After some thought, I've decided to share the<br>
<a href="http://dead-souls.net/RELEASE_NOTES">RELEASE_NOTES</a> of the
unreleased 2.1r* versions. This<br>
doesn't mean any releases are coming anytime soon.<br>
The idea is that I'd like folks to see that<br>
their bug fixes and requests are being addressed,<br>
and not just falling into a black hole.<br>
I also want people to know DS development <br>
continues, even though the release schedule is<br>
dramatically slowed.<br>
<br>
For those asking "why not just make releases<br>
like before?", the reason is that the packaging<br>
process is a very time-consuming one. It also tends to <br>
make it difficult to work on long-term projects, because<br>
every little thing has to be wrapped up and clean.<br>
This way I can have a big, messy, sprawling <br>
lib that lets me work on a piece here and a piece<br>
there as I see fit without worrying about having<br>
all the moving parts working right away.<br>
<br>
The changes in the release notes will sometimes<br>
be reflected in the demo mud, and sometimes not.<br>
Don't expect always to see the latest nifty<br>
thing show up on the demo mud when you see it on<br>
the release notes, but you should see it there eventually,<br>
when I do my periodic (sometimes piecemeal) porting.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">LPU:</span><br>
It looks like Tacitus is more or less retiring<br>
from his role as admin of LPUni. I don't know anything<br>
more about it that you guys, so I have no special <br>
insight as to where things are going with LPUni.<br>
However, it would be sad if it went away, because<br>
the forums and Wiki do seem to be a great benefit<br>
to the DS community, and potentially to the LP<br>
community at large.<br>
I hope that even if Tacitus is not able to play<br>
as active a role in the management of the site as<br>
he used to, that he leaves it up for the community <br>
to use as a resource for communication.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="28jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">28 July 06</span><br>
<br>
Added a reaper fix to the <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/fixes.html">fixes page</a>.<br>
<br>
I've completed the new doctool system, and have<br>
begun plowing into the lfun documentation gap. To see<br>
what the lfun docs will look like, log into the<br>
demo mud and poke through the files in /doc/lfun .<br>
Please note that the demo mud is not where I write<br>
the docs, so if it looks like the list isn't getting<br>
bigger, it has nothing to do with the amount of<br>
documentation I'm producing. I copy over to the demo<br>
mud as I remember to do so.<br>
<br>
I've also added the Praxis domain to the demo<br>
mud, so you can review the code. Remember it is still<br>
not completely ported, and even when it is done, it<br>
will not be "production quality" stuff. It's just<br>
a sample of what Dead Souls/Nightmare used to look like.<br>
<br>
Please remember that Dead Souls is made stronger<br>
by word of mouth. The more people try it, then the more<br>
people will adopt it, and the more work happens on it, and<br>
the better it becomes.<br>
<br>
You can contribute to this cycle by replying to<br>
any of the following forum threads as you see fit:<br>
<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://mudconnector.com/discuss/discuss.cgi?mode=REPLY&area=promotions&message=15115">http://mudconnector.com/discuss/discuss.cgi?mode=REPLY&area=promotions&message=15115</a><br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=44ca0daf3613ffff;act=ST;f=14;t=535">http://www.topmudsites.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=44ca0daf3613ffff;act=ST;f=14;t=535</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Your contribution to keeping Dead Souls on the front<br>
burner of mud discussion is vital in widening the public<br>
awareness of it. Even just a one-line opinion, "It rocks" or "It sucks"<br>
is helpful. Just post <span
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">something</span>!<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="25jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">25 July 06</span><br>
<br>
I've added a <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/fixes.html">General/Minor Fixes page</a>
to handle<br>
bugfixes that aren't critical to security or functionality.<br>
<br>
I want to keep such minor bugfixes separate from<br>
hotfixes, which are meant to be important, and shouldn't<br>
get buried under the clutter of numerous small corrections.<br>
<br>
I also don't intend to get sucked into frequent patch<br>
level releases, so that fixes page is where folks should<br>
expect to find their "upgrades" for a while. Please run<br>
diffs against the files in <a href="http://dead-souls.net/code/fixes/">http://dead-souls.net/code/fixes/</a><br>
if you want to know what's changed.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="24jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">24 July 06</span><br>
<br>
Well, I appear to have lost my mind. I'm<br>
<a
href="http://mudconnector.com/discuss2/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=positions&message=29939">advertising
for builders</a>. And, in what I suspect<br>
is an unprecedented display of utter shamelessness,<br>
I'm making an <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/renaissance.html#next2">open plea
for someone to give me their mud</a>.<br>
<br>
Well, <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/renaissance.html">read the
article in its entirety</a> to<br>
understand the motivation. <br>
<br>
Whether this fails or succeeds, I think it'll<br>
work great for me. If people do sign up and/or<br>
I get a dead mud to revive, it'll advance my sinister<br>
agenda of world domination.<br>
<br>
If both pleas go unanswered, I'll be able to<br>
devote my time only to the current DS projects.<br>
<br>
I'm honestly not sure which I'd prefer. Let<br>
the Fates decide.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="19jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">19 July 06</span><br>
<br>
Porting other LP mudlibs to Dead Souls is<br>
rather more of a pain in the neck than I'd realized,<br>
but I'm making good progress, I think.<br>
<br>
I have about 85% of the Nightmare 3 Praxis<br>
area ported over. The monsters don't work yet, but<br>
the rooms seem quite stable. To take a look<br>
around, telnet to the <span
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">dev</span><span
style="font-style: italic;"> </span>(not the demo) mud<br>
at <a href="telnet://rugose.com:5050">rugose.com 5050</a>, open the
reception room door, <br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">go north</span>, then <span
style="font-weight: bold;">go west</span> 5 times, then <span
style="font-weight: bold;">go north</span> into<br>
the campus stargate lab. Type: <span style="font-weight: bold;">dial
praxis</span>, <br>
then type: <span style="font-weight: bold;">enter gate</span>. Don't
forget your way back <br>
to the gate after wandering in Praxis.<br>
<br>
The <span
style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">dev</span> mud does not
auto-wiz you. Don't be<br>
surprised that you are not a Creator.<br>
<br>
On a separate note, Tyche's rudeness has<br>
given me an excellent opportunity to explain my<br>
side of the licensing disagreement, which<br>
I have attempted to do here:<br>
<br>
<a
href="http://www.mudconnect.com/discuss2/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=promotions&message=15678#15678">http://www.mudconnect.com/discuss2/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG&area=promotions&message=15678#15678</a><br>
<br>
I encourage everyone to chip in with their opinion,<br>
as I'm very interested in knowing what the DS <br>
community thinks of the situation.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="15jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">15 July 06</span><br>
<br>
So evidently some GPL militant informed on<br>
me to Sourceforge, and they've asked me to comply<br>
with OSS or remove my project.<br>
I gave it some thought, and decided to follow<br>
their "formerly OSS" policy, leaving an older,<br>
GPL version of Dead Souls available for download,<br>
and removing the newer stuff. Probably this will<br>
satisfy nobody but me. But given how some people <br>
have been approaching the subject, I'm disinclined <br>
to try to please anyone else with DS licensing.<br>
Sourceforge web maintenance stuff is down,<br>
but as soon as it comes back up I'll fix the<br>
project page to reflect the New Way.<br>
<br>
On a brighter-still note, very few complaints<br>
or bug reports have surfaced since the release of<br>
Dead Souls 2.1. W00t! <br>
<br>
As mentioned before, please don't expect<br>
patches or upgrades anytime soon. Please operate<br>
as if DS development is over. It isn't, and I<br>
will be developing new stuff, but it would be<br>
unwise for you to operate in expectation of it.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="12jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">12 July 06</span><br>
<br>
As I suspected, someone has flown into a<br>
tizzy over my <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/copyright.html#23jun06">revocation
of GPL</a>. Their rant is<br>
a perfect example of the sort of vitriol that<br>
made me choose to do that in the first place.<br>
Have a look at the discussion <a
href="http://lpuni.org/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&catid=20&id=606">here</a>.<br>
<br>
The 2.1 release is going a little slower than<br>
I expected. I've gotten a case of the "perfects",<br>
and I keep going over and over things to make<br>
sure it's all ok. <br>
<br>
We're still on track for "sometime this week."<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE</span>:
W00t! I can't tell you how relieved<br>
I am to be done. Dead Souls 2.1 is now available<br>
for download from the front page.<br>
<br>
If you find bugs, please tell me about it, but<br>
also expect a slower schedule for the release of <br>
patches. I need a break. <br>
<br>
Patches to upgrade to 2.1 will be available<br>
later today or tomorrow, as will be diffs.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="11jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">11 July 06</span><br>
<br>
I've disposed of all the items in the todo<br>
list of July 7. There is nothing wrong with<br>
the stargate. The example file has been renamed<br>
to avoid confusion, and to avoid it accidentally<br>
going live on the stargate network.<br>
<br>
I've killed the bugs found by the playtesters<br>
in the past few days, and unless something major<br>
happens, Dead Souls 2.1 will be released this week.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="10jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">10 July 06</span><br>
<br>
Things are going just great. At this point,<br>
the number and type of bug report coming in is<br>
such that I'm running out of things to do. I<br>
need playtesters, so please, if you get a chance,<br>
log into <a href="telnet://rugose.com:6666">rugose.com 6666</a> and
beat on that mud.<br>
Let me know what bugs you find. Thanks!<br>
<br>
Oh, by the way, <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/code/ds2.0r29.zip">2.0r29</a> is out.
We're getting<br>
closer and closer to <a href="http://dead-souls.net/ds2.1.html">2.1</a>!
W00t!<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="07jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">07 July 06</span><br>
<br>
A really surprising thing happened today. I<br>
decided to reorganize my .plan file and remove <br>
anything that wasn't either an important feature<br>
enhancement or a bugfix. I wanted to know *exactly*<br>
how close I am to releasing Dead Souls 2.1.<br>
<br>
After slogging through and tearing out pages<br>
of wishlists and maybes, this is what was left:<br>
<br>
- fix /obj/stargate<br>
- update colors with %%^^ data<br>
- verbify force<br>
- can't delete glass case?<br>
- are people defaulting to the start room?<br>
- sell machine to cat<br>
- make an npc's living body go away BEFORE the corpse is moved into the
room<br>
- make channels understand ) after : can have non emote messages after<br>
- SetMaxHealth shouldn't need to be in init()<br>
- help area<br>
- help newbie<br>
- apostrophes<br>
- add damage types to dummy<br>
- intergossip logging to two files?<br>
- review setinventory, is addstuff necessary?<br>
- Beggar says in English, "Hi, A mangy little rat."<br>
- shop in the town is confusing the maglite with the cheap one.<br>
- If a piece of gear is set for a "left foot" attribute, why can I also
wear it on my right foot? <br>
- the handbook says that its easier to kill things as a mage,<br>
- bug: cp sefun.c / <br>
- delete mfinger<br>
- SetEmptyName(), SetEmptyLong() and SetEmptyShort(). <br>
- install faq: if compile problems, try as root, try non 64bit amd<br>
- wipe the unused tc's<br>
<br>
That's it. Now compare the size of this list with<br>
the size of stuff in the <a href="http://dead-souls.net/RELEASE_NOTES">release
notes</a>. That's how close<br>
I am. I was shocked.<br>
<br>
So folks, I need your help. Any bugs that have been<br>
bothering you but you haven't gotten around to telling me,<br>
this is the time. If you feel like knocking about the code<br>
trying to break stuff, please log into the demo mud<br>
at <a href="telnet://rugose.com:6666">rugose.com 6666</a> and have at
it. <br>
<br>
It's ok that you'll make the list longer. That's<br>
what I *want*. I want to get these bufixes as over with<br>
as possible. <br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="06jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">06 July 06</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">more update news:</span><br>
<br>
I overlooked a couple of important things when<br>
I released 2.0r27. They have been addressed in <br>
<a href="http://dead-souls.net/code/ds2.0r28.zip">2.0r28</a>.<br>
<br>
There may be a compat buster here. One of the<br>
things that needed fixing was a peculiar bug that<br>
would generate extra corpses under unusual circumstances,<br>
during combat. This bug had some relationship to<br>
another combat bug that prevented the accurate<br>
recording of a player's deaths.<br>
<br>
In the end, the fixes for these two involved the<br>
manipulation of persistent player variables. The <br>
good news is that things now seem to work just fine,<br>
and the bugs are seemingly gone.<br>
<br>
The bad news is that since new player variables<br>
are involved, you may find that test chars created<br>
before an upgrade to r28 do weird things in combat...<br>
like not fight.<br>
<br>
The fix is to create new test chars.<br>
<br>
If Dead Souls was widespread enough that that<br>
there were muds out there that were open, with players,<br>
I'd look into some sort of system for updating <br>
older player files. Since this is not the case,<br>
I expect that people will be able to tolerate this<br>
minor inconvenience with minimal discomfort.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="05jul06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">05 July 2006</span><br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">router news:</span><br>
The gjs router has been down for a week now, and<br>
we may see some refugee muds start to make their<br>
home on our router, yatmim (which by the way, stands<br>
for Yet Another TMI Mud, which is how the router<br>
started out. It's a DS mud now.) Yatmim is public and<br>
so all are welcome, but there are some rules folks<br>
need to abide by. The point of yatmim was to have<br>
a reliable router for DS muds, but also one where<br>
new people wouldn't be afraid to ask for help. <br>
<br>
Please see the new <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/router_rules.html">router rules page</a>
for more info.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">update news:</span><br>
Version 2.0r27 is out. I'm ever grateful to the<br>
folks who find problems and report them...without<br>
their help Dead Souls would take much longer to<br>
get where it's going. Thanks, guys. <br>
<br>
It probably still has a bug or two, specifically in<br>
message boards. As usual, hotfixes will be posted<br>
on the <a href="http://dead-souls.net/hotfix.html">hotfix page</a>. As
usual, please let me know what<br>
bugs you find.<br>
<br>
One of the new features in r27 is that the install<br>
process will now work on Wolfpaw servers, so you folks<br>
staying away because you couldn't get it to work, come<br>
on in. The water's fine. Just be sure to run <span
style="font-weight: bold;">make -j 1</span><br>
instead of just <span style="font-weight: bold;">make</span>.<br>
<br>
For those uncomfortable with frequent patching,<br>
please be aware that it isn't absolutely necessary. <br>
See the <a href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/patches.html">patch
article</a> for more details.<br>
<br>
Note that for those unwilling to follow the<br>
standard patch procedure, diffs are being made<br>
available <a href="http://dead-souls.net/diffs/">here</a>.<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">LPUni news:</span><br>
Tacitus has made some improvements to the front page.<br>
Let's hope he keeps that up and fleshes out the rough<br>
draft we see today.<br>
<br>
He has also set up a "mud farm", with various LP<br>
lib flavors running. Take a look in particular at the<br>
Dead Souls 1.1 mud he's hosting. It should be interesting<br>
to see how different it is from DS2. The address is:<br>
<a href="telnet://lpuni.org:6501">lpuni.org 6501</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sourceforge news:</span><br>
In case you haven't noticed, I'm relying less<br>
and less on Sourceforge. They're great and everything,<br>
but lately they've been down a lot, and it made me<br>
realize I'm depending on them for stuff I can do<br>
myself. The download stats are totally misleading,<br>
and all their fancy project management stuff is just<br>
a waste on me. <br>
So you can pretty much figure on releases and<br>
patches showing up here first and more often than<br>
on Sourceforge. <br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="23jun06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">23 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
I've been frustrated for some time with the way<br>
the LPUniversity site seems almost intentionally<br>
designed to be confusing and inscrutable to newbie<br>
mudders. For example, if I didn't happen to know<br>
the site is supposed to be an LPC mud resource, the<br>
front page wouldn't be much help in informing me.<br>
<br>
So I bought a domain with the single purpose<br>
of clarifying things. It's a shame I had to take it<br>
upon myself, but you know what they say about things<br>
done right. <br>
<br>
The <a href="http://lpmuds.net">lpmuds.net</a> site
is intended to be a simple,<br>
easy-to-read description of LP muds. What they are,<br>
where you can get some, and where you can go to <br>
talk about them. None of this fancy calendaring,<br>
plenipotentiary council executive meetings, soup for <br>
the needy, whatever.<br>
<br>
It's just a web site with information that I<br>
hope is useful.<br>
<br>
If you have any suggestions or requests about<br>
what the site should have, please let me know.<br>
<br>
On another note, please be aware that Dead Souls<br>
is no longer GPL. For more information, please see<br>
<a href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/copyright.html#23jun06">this
article</a>.<br>
<br>
Saquivor has found a neat <a
href="http://mudsbuilder.sourceforge.net/">creation GUI</a> that he's<br>
adapting for DS use. Keep an eye on the <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/downloads.html">downloads page</a><br>
for a DS template. It should be available soon.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="18jun06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">18 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
The <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/code/patches/dspatch_2.0r21_2.0r26.zip">2.0r26
patch</a> is out. Anyone under that rev is<br>
subject to having their mud compromised by any creator<br>
at any time. Please upgrade <span
style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">NOW</span> if
you haven't already<br>
done so.<br>
<br>
As to the issue of Tacitus, please see <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/tacitus.html">this link</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="16jun06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">16 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
As usual, good news and bad news. The good news
first. Tacitus<br>
helped discover a serious security flaw in Dead Souls. Woot!<br>
Congratulations to him for being clever, and thanks for<br>
helping secure DS.<br>
<br>
The bad news is that all versions of DS are
affected, so<br>
you should lock your DS muds (using admintool) and avoid<br>
promoting anyone to a Creator position until the patch<br>
is in place. Hopefully I'll be able to cook something up<br>
this evening.<br>
<br>
The other bad news is that I found Tacitus trying<br>
to delete log files on the dev Dead Souls mud. I think I<br>
was fortunate that he missed a couple of details in rooting<br>
me, so he failed. However, until I can account for every<br>
free inode with recovery software, the dev mud will<br>
be locked also. Sadface.<br>
<br>
For some reason, he also chose to go online and
announce<br>
the details of the flaw without giving me a chance to<br>
address it. This means you are rather exposed, so please<br>
make sure to only allow <span style="font-weight: bold;">very</span>
trusted people to Creator postions.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="13jun06"></a>13 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
The <a href="http://dead-souls.net/router.html">I3
router box</a> suffered a storage subsystem failure:<br>
around 8pm the fiber array crapped out and took down the raid volume<br>
the I3 router mud was on. As of 9:20 I3 is back up.<br>
<br>
<br>
<span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"><a
name="09jun06"></a></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">09 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
ROXOR. I discussed with Marius the MudOS bundling<br>
question. <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/copyright.html#Marius">Here's the
scoop</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="06jun06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">06 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
I am so delighted I could pop any moment. Earlier<br>
today I checked the LPU forums while at a work site, <br>
and was just blown away to see Saquivor had solved<br>
the Windows sockets problem. I was all smiles, and<br>
could barely wait to get to my desk to poke at it.<br>
<br>
Then...sadface. It looked like we solved the
technical<br>
problem of networking, but the next problem involved GPL<br>
code. MinGW used libcrypto that I could not be sure<br>
was not GPL, and the native Win32 binary we made required<br>
that dll.<br>
<br>
In a burst of uncharacteristic optimism, I went<br>
about seeing if I could obviate the GPL library in<br>
question, and eventually solved the problem by using<br>
the MudOS built-in MD5 hash auth mechanism. JOY. I<br>
had to get pretty violent with the crypto code, but<br>
it appears to work well, and is far more secure than<br>
the old system.<br>
<br>
The only drawback is that new passwords are not
compatible<br>
with old passwords. A driver change will mean some<br>
pain. Fortunately this is an unusual situation.<br>
<br>
In the interest of cross-platform compatibility I <br>
plan to make the Unix side of the DS distro MD5 auth<br>
also. This will probably happen in the release following<br>
the release I plan to make this evening.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<a name="05jun06"></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">05 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
I spent the entire weekend hacking at MudOS to<br>
try to compile a native Win32 binary. I made a solid<br>
amount of progress, and I'm almost there, but I<br>
need help. <a href="http://dead-souls.net/win32/">Please see if you
can lend a hand</a>.<br>
<br>
I called RedHat bright and early today, to get<br>
in touch with the Cygwin licensing people. Predictably,<br>
I got no straight answers, and I am now officially waiting<br>
for a call beck from a Sales Rep named Mike within<br>
then next two to three business days.<br>
<br>
What do you suppose are the chances that a Sales<br>
representative will offer me what I want for free?<br>
----<br>
<br>
He got back to me! And the verdict is:<br>
<br>
<span style="font-style: italic;">" That license costs 25K per
year. I did not mention it as an option
because you mentioned you we looking for a free/low cost option. The
Buyout license doesn't qualify.</span><br style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">Mike "<br>
----<br>
<br>
</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">CASE CLOSED.</span><span
style="font-style: italic;"><br>
</span></div>
<br>
<br>
<div style="text-align: left;"><a name="03jun06"></a><span
style="font-weight: bold;">03 June 2006</span><br>
<br>
The good news is that version 2.0r24 of Dead Souls<br>
is now available for <a
href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=148388">download
from Sourceforge</a>.<br>
<br>
The bad news is that thanks to <a
href="http://mudconnector.com/discuss/discuss.cgi?mode=MSG2&area=promotions&page=2&message=15212">another
observation<br>
from that member of the mud community</a>, it's come to my<br>
attention that despite my best efforts, the Windows <br>
version of Dead Souls *still* may violate GPL.<br>
<br>
I am erring on the side of caution and have unbundled<br>
the Windows binary and Cygwin dll's from the Dead Souls<br>
distribution.<br>
<br>
I very much hope to have a Windows solution soon,<br>
as a substantial number of the Dead Souls userbase<br>
is on Windows, and presumably there are other folks<br>
interested in using it.<br>
<br>
If you can provide me with instructions on how to<br>
make a non-license-violating MudOS binary, or if<br>
you wish to provide me that binary already compiled,<br>
I'd be delighted to accept that contribution for<br>
consideration.<br>
<br>
Until then, hang tight. We'll figure something out.<br>
<br>
</div>
<br>
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a
name="01Jun06"></a>01Jun06</span><br>
<br>
<br>
Dead Souls has been removed from the mudmagic file<br>
repository. For details, please read <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/mudmagic.html">this article</a>.<br>
<br>
I'm delighted to announce that <a
href="http://www.mudmagic.com/community/pages/alexander_tau/">Alexander
Tau</a> has been<br>
promoted to a position of substantial admin authority at<br>
LPUniversity, and he has created a <a
href="http://lpuni.muddomain.net/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=47&func=showcat&catid=20">Dead
Souls forum</a> just<br>
for us! W00t! Congratulations, Alex. I'm certain you will<br>
do an excellent job.<br>
<br>
I've released a new article dealing with <a
href="http://dead-souls.net/articles/copyright.html">Dead Souls<br>
and intellectual property</a>, which tends toward the dry side,<br>
but it addresses issues that Dead Souls admins may have<br>
brought up to them. It's intended as a reference for the<br>
"official" position of Dead Souls on such matters.<br>
<br>
You may have noticed a sexy new CSS style format for<br>
some of the pages on the DS site. This is thanks to <br>
<a href="http://www.mudmagic.com/community/pages/kelvin/">Kelvin's</a>
efforts. He took my challenge of "if you don't <br>
like the site's look, do something about it" seriously,<br>
and boy, it sure is easier to read, isn't it? Thank you,<br>
Kelvin. <br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name="22May06"></a>22May06</span> <br>
<br>
If there's one thing that bugs me it's news pages for<br>
projects that turn into personal blogs. I can't promise it<br>
won't happen here, but I'll make the effort.<br>
<br>
I've updated the front page a bit for clarity. It was<br>
getting so *I* couldn't read it. I'm a fan of simple readable<br>
text, and I hope it's easier to get what you need from it.<br>
Also added a cute little favicon. <br>
<br>
As of the current version, 2.0r22, Dead Souls is now
a<br>
single download package...just one file to download whether<br>
you run the Windows version or the UNIX/source code version.<br>
The same is true for the patch. One file to rule
them.<br>
<br>
I've been asked by people how they can give back to<br>
the Dead Souls community. Easy. Evangelize. Tell people what<br>
you honestly think of the lib. If someone's in doubt as<br>
to which codebase to choose, point them our way.<br>
<br>
If you can help me promote the lib, you've done a<br>
good service. The more people use Dead Souls, the stronger<br>
we are as a community. Join the MUD forums and spread the<br>
word, or if that's not your style, lurk until the opportunity<br>
presents itself to give us a good old shameless plug.<br>
<br>
Also, spend some time on the LPUniversity
forums.<br>
(Update, 27sep06: go to <a href="http://lpmuds.net/forum/">http://lpmuds.net/forum/</a>
instead)<br>
Create a login, and chat a bit. Liven the place up.<br>
<br>
<br>
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