2015-05-27 12:10:20

hello!
so basically i've been looking at all the games and whatnot and been wondering how hard is it to code a mud?
how do you do it? are there engines out there to help or is it java or what? so yeah, thanks

Nathan Smith
Managing Director of Nathan Tech
It's not disability
It's ability!

2015-05-27 18:31:49

I haven't ever used any of the pre-built mud engines out there, but I would imagine it is incredibly easy.  If you are going for traditional text and turn based combat I mean.  The largest part is likely just typing out your descriptions and story ideas.

Muds are fast and easy to code from scratch, so I would imagine that any pre-built engine is going to make everything even faster and easier.

If you're looking to make your own mud, then I wholeheartedly encourage you to go for it!  big_smile  There are loads of people who will gladly play it.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2015-05-27 20:08:05

As a suggestion, I have never seen a mud engine as complete and powerful as CoffeeMUD. Take a look at it wink

2015-05-28 00:05:21

hello
thanks for your encouragement aprone!
will have a look at this quote coffeeMUD quote
thanks!

Nathan Smith
Managing Director of Nathan Tech
It's not disability
It's ability!

2015-05-28 15:34:54

Hi,
I would not suggest CoffeeMUD simply for the fact that 1) it is written in Java; and 2) commands and other content that can't be added without code is incredibly difficult to add. I'd go for something like Dawn of Time, where a simple command looks like:
void do_command (char_data *ch, char *args)
{
// enter c/c++ code here...
}
Yes, its written in C, but at least the command is easy to add. To get the command to actually show up, add it to the command table and your done. (And no, it isn't that complicated to do.) If you want to get started, PM me, or ask on this topic; I'd be glad to help you work with it, as I have changed and modified it myself.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2015-05-28 21:43:02

Hi,
I've been using evennia. It's a barebones mud engine written in python, and barebones as in you have the command infrastructure, database access, telnet, mccp, etc handeled for you already, you just need to build a mud.
It has an active community on irc if you need it, and it's extensively documented. here.
http://github.com/evennia/Evennia
If you get bored of the others i'd suggest you to try this, as it's actually pretty powerful.

This is not a signature.

2015-05-29 17:33:31

The issue with Evennia is that you have to build everything: rooms, items, objects, etc... into the MUD codebase. I'd prefer a MUD engine that already had that in, as well as admin commands. From looking at Evennias source code, it seems that it's a literal copy of PennMUSH with a broken down feature set. At least, that's what it seemed to me.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2015-05-29 19:02:21

Seriously Ethin, what's your problem with Java? And CoffeeMUD is one of the most complete MUD engines, featuring gravity, IAs, languages, a complete editor to build the world, a web interface with statistics, configuration and hall of fame, you have access to the whole code and you can even program with Javascript inside the game world!

2015-05-29 20:21:25 (edited by Ethin 2015-05-29 20:25:10)

@Genroa, there's your problem right there. Java. To create commands and other things, such as a Hello, World! command, it takes over 45-60 lines of code; in Dawn of time, to create a simple Hello, World! command, it takes 4 lines to do so. plus, CoffeeMUD is a huge memory hog. I used it for a MUD and it took up almost 1 GB of RAM, plus I got billed $300.00 for the overuse of resources. Do you see any other MUD engine taking more than 100-200 MB of RAM? Also, the JavaScript interpreter that CoffeeMUD uses is different from the web JavaScript we use to make web pages non-static. Also, modifying the code is insanely difficult. In Dawn of Time, I just go to the src directory, and if I want to add a wizard command, go to act_wiz.cpp, add the code, add it into the command table, compile it, and I'm done. For CoffeeMUD, I have to recompile the entire MUD to add one command and make it work properly.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2015-05-29 20:23:33

Hi.
One of the problems associated with 'complete' MUD codebases is that they have lots of stuff you probably won't ever need and that make your MUD look like simple coppys of those codebases. In coffeemud for example, there are hundreds of custom abilities, races and object classes directly integrated in the code. It would take weeks if not longer for you to get rid of all the code you don't want, just for your MUD to look original. So writing most systems from scratch isn't as bad as you might think, especially since barebones MUD codebases like evennia already have the basic stuff like the telnet infrastructure and base room/character classes you can use in their existing forms or modify. Though if you don't have any programming experiance or are just starting out with mud creation you should use something like coffeemud to get a feel for the stuff you're going to need to make an original, playable MUD.

2015-05-29 20:26:58

@Superantoha, exactly. I like Dawn of Time (DOT) for exactly that reason. While it certainly has a ton of abilities - spells, skills, commands, etc., it is easy for me to modify and update.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2015-05-30 10:06:33

Hello,
evennia is really awesome. The builder support is super nice and for beginning programmers, nothing can beat python.
The community is really active and it really only takes a couple minutes to get up and running.
Circle mud is another very nice code base as well, but I don't think it is very newbie friendly.