<!-- MHonArc v2.4.4 --> <!--X-Subject: A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction --> <!--X-From-R13: Uert [hag <tertNhav-pbea.qrzba.pb.hx> --> <!--X-Date: from fabius.globecomm.net [207.51.48.6] by mx01.ca.us.ibm.net id 859683712.73789-1 Sun Mar 30 01:01:52 1997 --> <!--X-Message-Id: Pine.LNX.3.91.970329010010.2208C-100000@uni-corn.demon.co.uk --> <!--X-Content-Type: text/plain --> <!--X-Head-End--> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <html> <head> <title>MUD-Dev message, A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</title> <!-- meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" --> <link rev="made" href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk"> </head> <body background="/backgrounds/paperback.gif" bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#006000"> <font size="+4" color="#804040"> <strong><em>MUD-Dev<br>mailing list archive</em></strong> </font> <br> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] <br clear=all><hr> <!--X-Body-Begin--> <!--X-User-Header--> <!--X-User-Header-End--> <!--X-TopPNI--> Date: [ <a href="msg00260.html">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00262.html">Next</a> ] Thread: [ <a href="">Previous</a> | <a href="msg00265.html">Next</a> ] Index: [ <A HREF="author.html#00261">Author</A> | <A HREF="#00261">Date</A> | <A HREF="thread.html#00261">Thread</A> ] <!--X-TopPNI-End--> <!--X-MsgBody--> <!--X-Subject-Header-Begin--> <H1>A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</H1> <HR> <!--X-Subject-Header-End--> <!--X-Head-of-Message--> <UL> <LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI> <LI><em>Subject</em>: A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</LI> <LI><em>From</em>: Greg Munt <<A HREF="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</A>></LI> <LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 01:01:34 +0100 (GMT+0100)</LI> </UL> <!--X-Head-of-Message-End--> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-Begin--> <HR> <!--X-Head-Body-Sep-End--> <!--X-Body-of-Message--> <PRE> Hi. I guess I'm a newbie all over again now, oh the thrill :) Nathan Yospe recently invited me to the list, so here's where i came from.. Im 23, and (like many, many others these days, i dont doubt) was introduced to muds at University, early in 1994. This was a TinyMUD derivative, UglyMUG. Six months later, after showing skill in the internal scripting language, I was offered an admin position on a new mud, based on UglyMUG code. In the autumn of 1995, I was made the first 'Deity' of that game (apart from the coder). This caused substantial jealousies to develop amongst members of the rank I was promoted out of. Around easter of 1996, at an emergency admin meeting, it became apparent that an email list had begun, behind my back. The intent of this email list was to oust me from my position. This meeting had been called after many months of political arguments and disagreements (primarily because some wanted all decisions to be subject to admin-wide vote, and I did not feel that this was appropiate for all decisions - specifically for promotions and demotions). Rather than return to my previous rank, I decided to resign totally from the administration. I became an outspoken opponent of the admin, mainly due to the fact that they placed the enjoyment of the game by its admin, above and beyond the enjoyment of the game by regular users. Eventually, in the May of that year, I was permanently banned. I began writing a new mud, entirely from scratch. This is now called "Frontiers". It's written in C++, under Linux. Unforunately, since the coder of the game I ran was *very* secretive about his code, I only gained experience in running a mud, and not writing one. So, not only am I writing from scratch, I'm learning from scratch too. Luckily, I was able to combine Frontiers with my studies, and it became my final year project at university (Martin Keegan: 'Most people would kill senior members of their family to do that!') - I guess I went to the right university :) Anyway, I'm now halfway through the 10000-word report, and am finding that *having to* document what I've done, including a full description of the design and functionality, is actually quite helpful in visualising what I'm trying to achieve. A broad overview of our major goals is detailed in our website, the URL of which is in my signature. But, in summary, we've taken Bartle's paper for the Journal of MUD Research, noted the four player groups he has defined, and tried to provide something for all of them. Obviously this couldnt all be done in a 20-week project, so I decided to concentrate on the central area, the main 'talker' area (for the socialisers) - mainly because I felt it was the easiest option, especially considering my TinyMUD background. I got bogged down by the very low-level code quite a bit (more than I ever could have imagined;) and some fundamental features, such as database saves, are still yet to be implemented. The game has been up and running for some months now though, with hardcoded Players, and we are starting to develop a core player base, currently in the region of 10 people. One of the main objectives of Frontiers is to combat what I see as the major failings of the mud 'industry' (if I may call it that), which is mainly the 'family tree' of muds; because most people use code bases, there is little innovation in mud design (my feelings on this are summaried quite well in the 'Stock Muds Considered Harmful' USENET thread). Frontiers is an attempt to break away from this stifled atmosphere, and (attempt to) produce something original and unique - something which might advance the community beyond late eighties ideas. Needless to say, Frontiers has always been intended to be GPL'd (also, we have no rules against the advertising of rival muds). We need more code bases out there, to break the hold of the 'big three' over the mudding community. And by 'more code bases', I mean original and innovative code bases, not another dull derivation of LP, or DIKU, or Tiny. I started real development in September of last year. Because of my limited experience in these matters, I've been slowed down by rewrites. Most of the code I wrote in the early days was complete crap - although much of the design has remained. I've tried to put in a lot of things to speed up database accesses; the database used something similar to a binary tree (except each node has 16 child nodes, instead of 2), and I use hash tables for player lookup. From what I have seen of what is posted to this list, it seems to be much more high-level than I have got to yet. Also, I really do consider my TinyMUD-only experiences to be a real disadvantage, so I've tried to get into LP- and DIKU-based muds, with varying degrees of success. Perhaps I might be invited by one of you to visit your mud, and have a look around? Anyway, I'd better stop here. I've already got carried away *far* too much for a 'short introduction', and yet I could write so much more... :-o Anyway, thanks for listening. I love the idea of being able to kick around some ideas with like-minded people; but from the length of the above, I assume you guessed that :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ T H E F R O N T I E R S P R O J E C T <A HREF="http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk">http://www.uni-corn.demon.co.uk</A> <A HREF="telnet://linux2.cms.shu.ac.uk:9999">telnet://linux2.cms.shu.ac.uk:9999</A> A planned Internet & MUD resource. YOU can contribute: see web for details. </PRE> <!--X-Body-of-Message-End--> <!--X-MsgBody-End--> <!--X-Follow-Ups--> <HR> <!--X-Follow-Ups-End--> <!--X-References--> <!--X-References-End--> <!--X-BotPNI--> <UL> <LI>Prev by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00260.html">Re: Mixture</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by Date: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00262.html">Re: Mixture</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Next by thread: <STRONG><A HREF="msg00265.html">Re: A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</A></STRONG> </LI> <LI>Index(es): <UL> <LI><A HREF="index.html#00261"><STRONG>Date</STRONG></A></LI> <LI><A HREF="thread.html#00261"><STRONG>Thread</STRONG></A></LI> </UL> </LI> </UL> <!--X-BotPNI-End--> <!--X-User-Footer--> <!--X-User-Footer-End--> <ul><li>Thread context: <BLOCKQUOTE><UL> <LI><strong><A NAME="00261" HREF="msg00261.html">A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</A></strong>, Greg Munt <a href="mailto:greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk">greg#uni-corn,demon.co.uk</a>, Sun 30 Mar 1997, 09:01 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00265" HREF="msg00265.html">Re: A brief introduction.. ok, you got me: an introduction</A></strong>, Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:nightfall#user1,inficad.com">nightfall#user1,inficad.com</a>, Mon 31 Mar 1997, 12:20 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00259" HREF="msg00259.html">Greetings. :)</A></strong>, Michael Hohensee <a href="mailto:michael#sparta,mainstream.net">michael#sparta,mainstream.net</a>, Sat 29 Mar 1997, 22:10 GMT <UL> <li><Possible follow-up(s)><br> <LI><strong><A NAME="00268" HREF="msg00268.html">Greetings. :)</A></strong>, claw <a href="mailto:claw#null,net">claw#null,net</a>, Tue 01 Apr 1997, 09:21 GMT </LI> </UL> </LI> <LI><strong><A NAME="00253" HREF="msg00253.html">Event Handling</A></strong>, Nathan Yospe <a href="mailto:yospe#hawaii,edu">yospe#hawaii,edu</a>, Sat 29 Mar 1997, 08:40 GMT </UL></BLOCKQUOTE> </ul> <hr> <center> [ <a href="../">Other Periods</a> | <a href="../../">Other mailing lists</a> | <a href="/search.php3">Search</a> ] </center> <hr> </body> </html>