/
umud/DOC/
umud/DOC/examples/
umud/DOC/internals/
umud/DOC/wizard/
umud/MISC/
umud/MISC/dbchk/
umud/RWHO/rwhod/
Using Cyberportals:
-------------------

There are two types of cyberportals -- Unter and non-Unter. Pre-Unter, a
cyberportal was simply an exit which had a special string as the success,
and that string was interpreted by the player's client to reconnect to
another mud. The character itself was actually not moved; the player just
logged into a new character on a new mud. 

In UnterMUD, cyberportals are much more real. They are actual exits to another
room on another Unter. When a player walks through one, their character and
everything they are carrying is actually transfered to the remote mud. In 
order to tell the client what's going on, the same special string is displayed,
which tells the client to reconnect to a different mud. Depending on the
client, the user may or may not have to manually relog in to their character.
(There is a version of tf out, called tf-unter1.01 that handles cyberportals
beautifully.) 

If a user is not using a smart enough client, or is using straight telnet, 
they will probably see the reconnection message, but their client will not
do anything with it. When this happens, they will have to manually QUIT,
and then connect to the remote mud and to their character there.

Characters sent to another mud are actually not deleted from the database.
Instead, they are 'ghosted' -- their location field is removed, and they
float in nowhere. If a user logs into a character that has no location,
they will be told to "go away", and then a cyberportal reconnection string
will be displayed, pointing their client to the proper mud where their
alive character should be. It is possible for a wizard to revive a ghosted
character, but this introduces a database inconsistency, and should be
avoided at all cost.

The cyberportal reconnection string (which is recognized by most clients
out there -- tinytalk, tinywar, tf, and tinymud.el, for instance) is:

#### Please reconnect to MudName@1.2.3.4 (host.name.if.known) port 6565 ####


Also, some clients have the ability to gag all lines up to a certain line
upon logging in. In clients that can do this (such as tf and tinytalk, with
the /quiet on option), it has been suggested that their source be changed
to look for the "### end of messages ###" line, which most Unters are now
using. If you're using a nice and robust client that will auto-reconnect
you, and can gag login messages, it will be possible to walk right through
a cyberportal onto another mud without you even noticing.


Making a Cyberportal:
---------------------
The first thing that must occur is that the wizards of two unters must
get together and exchange password information, so their unters know
and recognize each other.  Assuming this has been done, any player can
then make a link to the remote unter.  The player must first walk onto
the remote unter and find (or build) a linkok room.  The syntax for
making a link is identical to building an ordinary exit, only the 
destination room number should be fully qualified (the mudname of the
remote unter added on).  For example:

build exit "n;north;zoomud" 43@Zoo

will build an exit named "n;north;zoomud", with the destination being
room 43 on Zoo.  The exit works normally, except that anyone using it
will wind up on another unter.  ('drop' and 'odrop' messages do not
work over cyberportal links, however.)