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- From: exel@netcom.com (Me)
- Subject: rec.games.mud.diku FAQ (frequently asked questions)
- Message-ID: <exelC955pD.8ys@netcom.com>
- Followup-To: rec.games.mud.diku
- Summary: This is the first part of the rec.games.mud.diku FAQ. This provides
- general answers only.
- Reply-To: mondays@bsu-cs.bsu.edu
- Organization: Guernica
- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 19:48:48 GMT
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.edu
- Lines: 554
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.games.mud.diku:4230 rec.answers:1280 news.answers:9715
-
- Archive-name: games/mud/diku/faq
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- DikuMud FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Last Update--05-14-93
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Authored/Compiled by Frederick Myers <reni> <mondays@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
-
- This document will be posted bi-weekly to rec.games.mud.diku. The offical
- archive site will be 147.226.11.94 in pub/reni/mud/faq/
-
-
- The following is the FAQ for rec.games.mud.diku and a general game
- FAQ for DikuMud games. This FAQ is divided up into three different
- sections: INTRO (general information and background) , IMP_BUILDING (questions
- concerning starting a mud, building areas, etc), and FTP (well known ftp
- sites for various Diku mud utilities, patches, and sources).
- More information on muds can be received from rec.games.mud.announce (a
- general 3 part mud FAQ is posted there), online within whichever
- mud you decided to play, and from the various ftp sites located at
- the end of this document.
-
- All information is correct to the best of my knowledge. I take no
- no responsibility for any inaccuracies contained in this document.
-
- This document may be distributed freely. Any use of any of the contents
- here-in must be credited and the author should be notified if possible.
-
- The following people have lended a hand with contributions/comments
- for this docuement...
- -Sebastan Hammer- Donated notes on DikuII and on
- DikuMud history.
- -Adam Coggins- Spelling and grammar checking.
- -Dean at Arctic Diku- Provided a list of common stock
- Diku bugs.
- -Furey at Merc Industries- Provided some technical
- info for starting a mud.
- -Others....Dan Brumleve, Naved Surve, Mort, Sven Nielsen
- and Bombman.
-
- -Apologies if I have spaced anyone...
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ##INTRO##
-
- "What is a Diku Mud?"
- A DikuMud is s specific species of one of the fastest growing forms
- of computer games called Mud. For more information on
- muds in general, please consult the general mud FAQ
- posted on rec.games.mud.announce.
- DikuMuds are highly influenced on the AD&D format for adventuring.
- Though DikuMuds are not an exact duplicate of AD&D, both share
- many common qualities, enough so a person who is familar with
- AD&D will feel quite at home with the DikuMud world. But by
- no means is AD&D experience required for a person to prove
- to be successful.
- While some muds are based on pure social interaction and
- some based on pure fighting, DikuMuds are evolving into the first
- intelligent compromise between the two.
-
- "Where did this DikuMud come from?"
-
- DikuMud was originally developed by Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen,
- Hans Henrik Staerfeldt, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer.
-
- A small bit of background of DikuMud, according to
- Sebastian Hammer:
-
- "The game originated at the Department of Computer Science at the
- University of Copenhagen (in Danish: Datalogisk Institut ved
- K|benhavns Universitet; or, amongst friends: DIKU) The foundations
- of the code were laid out in March of 1990. Our background (Mud-wise)
- was primarily Abermud (LpMud was just emerging at the time), and
- our object was to make a better AberMud. We wanted to make it
- fast, compact and CPU-efficient. We wanted to allow more than
- the 18 (or so) players-at-a-time that AberMuds permitted in thos
- days, and we wanted a bigger world, so that players could truly
- get lost in there (back then, 500 room AberMuds seemed the norm).
- Also, we wanted to make it more interesting for players to
- cooperate, rather than just run madly around in search of beasts to
- kill.
- I guess we reached some of our goals, but far from all of them.
- Currently, we are working on DikuMud II, which is still
- under debugging. We have ceased to support the original code in any
- way, since so many "improved" versions have started to circulate"
-
-
- "Where and how do I connect to a DikuMud?"
- DikuMuds are located on different computers throughout
- the world. These computers can be at universities, companies,
- or even be personal workstations. To connect to these games, you
- need two things-
- 1)Access to telnet.
- 2)The mud's host name or IP number and
- the protocal port that the paticular
- mud is running on.
- Telnet is, to put it very simply, like a telephone. From the
- computer, you "dial in" where you want to connect to
- and your in (assuming the game is up).
- Since most people are going to play on a VAX/VMS or
- Unix based platform, I will use those for examples
- on how to connect. Asgard.cs.bsu.edu 6969 will be the
- mud we will use as an example to connect to.
- (147.226.112.94 is the IP number of that same machine).
-
- From a unix based machine- (The % is your prompt)
- %telnet asgard.cs.bsu.edu 6969
- or
- %telnet 147.226.112.94 6969
- or
- %telnet <CR> <- That means hit the return key
- telnet>open asgard.cs.bsu.edu 6969
-
- From a VMS based machine- (The $ is your prompt)
- $telnet asgard.cs.bsu.edu/port=6969
- or
- $telnet/port=6969 asgard.cs.bsu.edu
- or
- $telnet <CR>
- telnet>asgard.cs.bsu.edu 6969
- or
- $telnet/port=6969 147.226.112.94
-
- ***NOTE*** Some versions of VMS choke when you use the
- IP numbers, so it is suggested that you use the
- name instead of numbers.
-
- "Where can I find out where these muds are located"
- Word of mouth is a good way. So are the news groups.
- Different muds are always being mentioned in
- rec.games.mud.diku plus a listing is posted every
- two weeks in rec.games.mud.announce. Look for the
- "Totally Unofficial List of Internet Muds".
-
- "Ok, I'm connected, what do I do now?"
- Many DikuMud's have a lot of differences on how a person
- goes about making a character. But there are some common
- similarities between all of them.
- -Name- This will be your character's name for the
- game. It is suggested that you do not make up
- a name that is complicated to spell (something
- like Gustralieb you be a pain for other
- players to type) or something that could possibly
- be the name of a monster in the game (something
- like Dragon or Guard has a great posibility
- of being a monster (or mob) in the game). If your
- name is one of the above, you can find yourself
- being killed at times when a sensible name could
- have saved your life.
- -Password- This is what will prevent other people from
- playing your character. Pick a password word that
- is hard to guess and one that you currently do not
- use on another mud or system.
- Bad passwords include your real name, character name,
- and anything less than 3 characters.
- It is recomended that you choose something that
- includes some non-standrard Alpha characters such as
- # or @ or * (you get the idea). So, a password
- like #Chapo1* would be a good, hard to guess password.
- -Sex- No, not if you get any, but what gender you want
- to be. Most commonly this will be Male or Female, but
- a few muds have the option of being Other or Neuter.
- -Class- There are usually four basic classes that
- DikuMuds usually have.
- 1)Cleric - a healer
- 2)Warrior - a fighter
- 3)Magic User - a spell caster
- 4)Thief - a rogue
- Some muds also have many other split style classes
- such as Rangers, Paladins, Bards, etc. Usually on the
- log-on screen, there will be some sort of online help
- that will help you in the decision of your class.
- There are a few other things some muds include such
- as hometown and stats. For these items, there should
- be sufficient online help to guide you through on the
- paticular DikuMud you are playing.
-
- "What is a client program, or TINTIN?"
- A client program is basically a program that you
- use to connect to a mud that has many enchanced features to
- help (in some opinion 'cheat') in the game. The most commonly
- used client for DikuMuds is TINTIN. TINTIN was specifically designed
- for play on DikuMuds and is only available for Unix platforms.
- Such features could be things like macros, aliases, and triggers.
- Sites where you can get tintin is listed later in this document.
- Further info on clients programs and their fucntions is contained
- in the bi-weekely rec.games.mud.announce FAQs.
- [NOTE]: This program is currently not proter to VMS systems, though
- there has been talk of people working on a VMS verion.
-
- "Ok, I have a character, now what do I do?"
- First thing you would want to do is get to know
- the mud and it's commands. Some things you can do is type...
- 1)HELP- This will give a general listing
- of the commands available.
- 2)INFO- Will give you a brief introduction
- to the paticular mud you are playing.
- 3)COMMANDS- This command is not on all muds, but
- what it does is gives you a listing of all the
- commands available to your character.
- 4) HELP <keyword>- This will give you a more
- precise definition. An example of what you
- could type is HELP SAY. This will give you
- an explaination and proper syntax for the
- command say.
- Ask around. Most people are general nice by nature and will
- offer some (sometimes a lot, sometime very very little) help if
- you ask nicely and are not annoying about it.
- Read everything you see. Things like the MOTD (Message Of The
- Day, which you see right before you enter the game) will provide
- very important information sometimes.
-
- "What are hit points, mana, & movement?"
- Hit Points -- A numeric representation of the amount of hits/damage
- that your character can take. Everytime you are hit, you loose
- some amount of hit points. You are considered officially dead
- when you reach -11 hit points, though at 0 you can not do anything
- except for hope there is someone around who will heal you.
- Mana -- This is the amount of spells you can cast. Everytime you
- cast a spell, a certain amount of mana is subtracted from your
- working total of mana. Mana is like the working energy that
- you can use to cast spells.
- Movement -- This is the amount that you can walk/run etc etc.
- A decent comparison could be the amount of energy your
- player has. Some skills also subtract from you movement
- points.
-
- "What are some other things that I should know?"
- Don't be annoying. Such things are constanly whinning
- to other players and wizards will be the quickest way
- of being rejected by the players of the mud.
- Avoid player killing unless it has been _explicitly_
- allowed on the mud you are playing. Usually if player killing
- is not allowed on a mud, and someone violates this, it is dealt
- with very sternly.
- Avoid unecessary shouts. Such things as shouting
- "LAAAAAAGGGG", "GOODBYE SO-AND-SO", "LEVEL!!!", etc generally
- do nothing but annoy other players and can be taken
- care of by using tell or say.
- Don't litter. Leaving junk around does nothing more than
- drain the machines resources. See if the mud you are playing
- has the junk command or a dump where you can dispose of
- uneeded items.
- Remeber, that it is only a game and the main purpose is for
- you, as a player, to have fun, explore, and talk to people.
- And do not let mud playing take priority over you school/job
- work, which happens all to often.
-
- "What is a crash?"
- A crash occurs when a)The system that the mud is located
- fails or b)The actual mud itself fails. When a mud crashes, you
- will be thrown out of the game and you will not be able to
- connect back to the game until it is rebooted.
- Because of crashes, the importance of saving you character
- is very important. All you need to to do is type 'save' and your
- character is saved, thats it. No excuses.
- In event the game does crash, and you loose items/experience, then
- usually (not always, and it is not required) immortals/gods will
- reimburse your items. But remember, the keys words for you to get
- reimbursed is politeness and courtsey. Chances are, if you lost
- something, then other players did to. Avoid telling your local god 100
- times that you lost something. Usually, if you told them once,
- they know and will get to you as soon as they can. And remember,
- nowhere does it say they have to reimburse you.
- In the event of a crash, do not go straight to rec.games.mud.diku
- and post a message saying "Blah mud crashed 4 seconds ago, what
- happened?". That posting will usually be met with negative
- reponses. POST TO THE NET ONLY AS A LAST RESORT. If the game
- is going to be down for an extended amount of time or if there
- are serious problems, usually there will be a message at the
- port the game ran on, or there will be a posting on rec.games.mud.diku
- concerning the down time.
-
- "What is some of the slang or jargon I hear on these muds?"
- -brb --- Means be right back.
- -rl --- Means real life. Something like "I'm bored rl" is
- commonly heard.
- -brb rl --- Put the two together and you get "Be right
- back, real life". You know, like going to the bathroom.
- -pk, pk'ing --- Player Killer and Player Killing.
- -newbie --- Someone who is new to the game. Associated
- with the word clueless.
- -mob --- A mobile, a monster in the game.
- -immort --- A player who has achiver immortality on the
- mud and is considered a god.
- -imp(s) --- The person(s) who run the mud. They have final say
- over everything.
- -afk --- Away from keyboard.
- -afw --- Away from window.
- -inv --- Your inventory, what you have on you and is not
- currently equiped.
- -equip --- The items that you are currently using. Like the armor
- you are wearing.
-
- "What about this newsgroup, rec.games.mud.diku?"
- This newsgroup was designed to help filter a lot of
- traffic that flowed through the newsgroup rec.games.mud.
- The newsgroup is designed for discussions about anything
- pretaining to DikuMud games. Anyone or anything is open,
- though messages that obviously have no purpose, like
- "Big Fat Hairy Mud Rules/Sucks!!!!" are generally frowned
- upon and are a waste of people's time and of network
- resources.
-
- "What is DikuII, and when can I expect to see it?"
- A note on DikuII from Sebastian Hammer:
-
- "DikuMud II is our attempt to deal with some of the shortcomings of the
- original game. The number of widely different Diku-versions out there
- indicated to us that there was a need for a stronger base system for
- people to work on. Some of the main improvements are:
-
- * A much more powerful Special Procedure system, allowing an arbitrary
- number of special routines to be associated with a mobile, and to
- be called at different times. One procedure interprets a simple
- mobile-control language, so that a lot of actions can be controlled
- straight out of the data files - no recompilation needed. This system
- also forms the base of an automated Law Enforcement system, which
- keeps the cities clean and safe with a smile.
-
- * A totally revised scoring system.
-
- * A better function-call structure. The game_loop from comm.c has been
- replaced by an event-driving sort of thing - adding a ton of
- flexibility and greatly reducing CPU-usage.
-
- * Cleaner internal data structures - most of the world-related
- structures from structs.h have been turned into a single structure
- with various appendages. This allows a bunch of fun things like
- carrying eachother (horses), entering boxes, etc.
-
- * A new format for the data files (no online building - it's still our
- belief that the best worlds are written in a word processor), using
- symbolic names, the C-preprocessor. Data is sanity-checked and
- converted into a binary format which also forms the base of the:
-
- * Flexible object-saving and crash-protecting system.
-
- * Various other changes, such as much cleaner shop-code, a
- mail-system, better bulletin boards, etc., etc.
-
- The release date is still unresolved, but all of the above is
- implemented and functioning quite well. Debugging and cleaning
- remains."
-
-
-
- ##IMP_BUILDING##
-
- "I really like DikuMuds, I want to start my own!"
- Well, before you go off and do that, there are some
- things you need to know or have.
- 1)A good, working knowledge of C. Though with the
- amount of enhanced muds that are available, this
- is still a good thing to know becuase you are never
- going to find 100% bug free code.
- 2)A machine. Some general requirements include:
- a)32-bit processor
- b)5+ megs available (greater than 10 is desirable)
- c)2-8 megs of available memory
- d)Network bandwith running(to Internet) at about
- 50 kilobits/second
- DikuMuds are not very CPU intensive, so very little
- CPU time is needed for all practical purposes.
- 3)Explicit System Administrator Approval. Muds do not
- go unnoticed on any machine where there are any other
- users. Get this before you do anything or you could
- find hours and hours of hard work down the drain.
- 4)A large amount of time to devote to actaul work
- on the mud and time to spend online in the game
- doing administrative duties. This has caused the
- eventual death of many muds.
- 5)A creative mind. Be creative about your work, no one
- really cares for a dull, boring mud.
-
- "Well, I do not want to run my own mud, but I would like to create an area."
- Some tips in writting an area.
- 1)Get documentation- Basic DikuMud documention
- is helpful, but ask a wizard at the mud you would
- like to build for documentation that was made specifically
- for that mud. This is helpful because the actual format
- for area creation and many of the different bitvectors
- vary greatly from mud to mud.
- 2)Muditors are very helpful. The most common is
- Muditor V.5. Some muds have online creation which
- will enable a person to create and area online. Consult
- your local mud admin for more information about online
- creation.
- 3)Planning. Plan out your area. Make a detailed map and
- think of a good general story or theme for your
- area before you start construction.
- 4)Don't just make an area for the sake of it. If you
- make an area jsut for the sake of it, this usually
- shows and people do not want a boring, non-planned
- area. All you will do is waste your time and the
- admin's time.
-
- "Ok, I think i can start my own, but I hear there are bugs
- with the stock code, what are these?"
-
- Unfortunatly, all code will have bugs, here are some of
- the more well known bugs that should be looked at when
- starting your own bugs. (NOTE: These are all fixes that require
- knowledge of C..told you you needed to know C ;) )
-
- --Problem with realloc() in db.c with the world, and to a
- lesser extent mob_index and obj_index.
- --Problem in do_pour. This bug allows players to preform
- 'pour cup cup' and have an infinite water supply.
- --Problem on do_taste. A player can taste the bread, but when
- he tastes the bread, it will apply the breads fill value
- without actually eatting the bread, thus having an infinite
- bread supply.
- --Problem in nanny(). In nanny(), if a player answers 'no' to
- the 'is that really your name?', but the name pointer is
- never set to NULL. So, when you drop link, the same pointer
- will be free [using free()] again inside free_char().
- --Problem in generic_find(). Uses str_cmp() instead of isname()
- in FIND_OBJ_EQUIP.
- --Probelm in affect_from_char(). The variable hjp is given the
- value hjp->next.
- --Problem in shop.c. A has the scroll 'a tattered scroll' he wishes
- to sell. Upon selling the item, a check is made for the keyword
- scroll in the shopkeeper's inventory. Since scrolls of identify
- and scrolls of recall are produced by the shop and have the
- keywords 'scroll', the games assumes that the first scroll is one
- of these items and destroys the item and never places back for
- resale.
- --Problem in the init_socket. The ports do not seem to clear freely,
- so you end up with a lot of port binds. Here is a patch provided
- by Dean@Arctic. (note:syslogf's probably need to be changed back
- to stock)
- int init_socket(int port)
- {
- int s, sbuf, opt;
- struct sockaddr_in sa;
- struct linger ld;
-
- memset(&sa, 0, sizeof(struct sockaddr_in));
- sa.sin_family = AF_INET;
- sa.sin_port = htons(port);
-
- if ((s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: socket(): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- exit(0);
- }
- opt = 1;
- if (setsockopt(s,SOL_SOCKET,SO_REUSEADDR, (char *)&opt, sizeof(opt)) < 0) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: setsockopt(REUSEADDR): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- exit(1);
- }
- ld.l_onoff = 0; /* let's make sure this isn't on */
- ld.l_linger = 1000; /* who cares what this is */
-
- if (setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER, (char *)&ld, sizeof(ld)) < 0) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: setsockopt(LINGER): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- exit(1);
- }
- /* unless you've written an 'intelligent' process_output, you don't need
- this setsockopt */
- sbuf = MAX_SOCKET_WRITE;
- if (setsockopt(s, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF, (char *)&sbuf, sizeof(sbuf)) < 0) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: setsockopt(SNDBUF): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- exit(1);
- }
- if (bind(s, (struct sockaddr *)&sa, sizeof(sa)) < 0) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: bind(): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- if( close(s) ) {
- syslogf("init_socket: error closing socket: %s", strerror(errno));
- exit(1);
- }
- exit(0);
- }
- if( listen(s, 5) < 0 ) {
- syslogf( "init_socket: listen(): %s", strerror( errno ) );
- exit(1);
- }
- return(s);
- }
-
- ##FTP##
-
- Below is a list of commonly used sites for DikuMud related
- items. All sites/contents are subject to change.
-
- ucbvax.berkeley.edu-- pub/games/dikumud
- contains-
- Source- MERC (most recent), Copper2,
- and SillyMud.
- Patches-oset, whod, and alias.
- Worlds-arachnos, dwarven kingdom, and
- mage tower, rome.
- Editors-mudiotor v.5, DIKUedit.
- Clients-TINTIN v.2 and v.3.
- ferkel.ucsb.edu-- pub/DikuMUD
- Contents vary. Most stuff is usually
- found in the incoming directory. As of
- this posting, this site contains MERC and
- TINTIN.
- ftp.math.okstate.edu-- pub/muds
- Contents vary. Has Merc v1.0, Rome, and TINTIN v.2.
- 147.226.112.94-- pub/reni/dikumud
- Archive site for this FAQ and the Diku List.
- Older SillyMud
- Accepting uploads.
- coyote.cs.wmich.edu-- pub/Games/Diku
- Contents include Arachnos, Dwarven, and Drow areas.
- ZoneMaker v1.2, TINTIN, and standard documentation.
- ftp.lysator.liu.se-- pub/lpmud/clients
- Has pmf, another commonly (but less) used client
- program.
- ftp.cis.ufl.edu-- pub/games/mud
- Offical site for SillyMud
-
- One final note---Playing a mud of any sort is NOT a right. The people who
- run the game and the people who owns/runs the system that you
- are playing from are not required to let you play. If you abuse
- your privledge of playing, there are good chances that it will
- be taken away
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
- |||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||
- frederick myers ||| I don't mind about the state
- mondays@bsu-cs.bsu.edu ||| of mind. You know it's good
- reni@asgard.cs.bsu.edu ||| for nothing and I left you
- 00fwmyers@virgo.bsuvc.bsu.edu ||| behind.
- |||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||-------|||
-
-
-
-
- -There is also a problem with port not free'ing fully, and thus
- you get ports binds frequently. Here is a patch from Arctic
- Mud. (you'll probably have to change the syslogf()s back to stock):
-
-
-
- --
-
-
- {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}I sold out and made a .sig{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
- frederick myers mondays@bsu-cs.bsu.edu exel@netcom.com
- Reni--> 147.226.112.94 6969
-
-
-
-