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Archive-name: games/mud-faq/lp Last-modified: 95/03/07 Version: @(#) rec.games.mud.lp Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 1.2@(#) Posting-frequency: monthly rec.games.mud.lp Frequently Asked Questions List (FAQ) written by George Reese (Descartes of Borg) 940711 Last Modified: 95/03/07 ****************************************** This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions on the news group rec.games.mud.lp. All readers are strongly advised to read this FAQ before posting questions to the news group, as your question may already be answered in here. This FAQ will be posted regularly to rec.games.mud.lp. The rec.games.mud.lp FAQ is divided up into four sections: Section I: Introduction Section II: Playing LPMuds Section III: Coding on an LPMud Section IV: Starting Your Own LPMud In detail: Section I (Introduction) I.1 What sort of posts belong in rec.games.mud.lp? I.2 What is an LPMud? I.3 Isn't Amylaar an LPMud? I.4 Which is the real LPMud? I.5 How did LPMuds get started? I.6 What do the terms "alpha testing", "beta testing", and "fully open" mean? I.7 Where are some ftp sites with LPMud stuff? I.8 Is there anything about MUDs on WWW? I.9 What are some MUD related mailing lists? Section II (Playing LPMuds) II.1 How do I play an LPMud? II.2 How do I get a list of LPMuds? II.3 Are all MUDs in English? II.4 Ok, the MUD is asking me for a name, what do I do? II.5 They told me I had to register! II.6 Name and password set, what next? II.7 I don't want anyone knowing my email address! II.8 Is it asking me for MY gender? II.9 What does it mean by race? II.10 What is a class? What is a guild? II.11 I am in the MUD, what do I do? II.12 What are some common commands? II.13 What is an alias? II.14 Why doesn't the MUD save my equipment when I quit? II.15 What else is there? II.16 Why is the MUD admin ignoring me? Section III (Coding on an LPMud) III.1 What is coding? III.2 What is LPC? III.2 How do I get to code on an LPMud? III.3 How do I learn to code? III.4 What is TMI-2? III.5 How do I learn to code a room/monster/weapon/armour...? III.6 But you said that all MUDs use LPC! III.7 Can I take my area from LPMud X to LPMud Y? III.8 My code is not working! How do I fix it? III.9 What is an efun? an lfun? a kfun? a simul efun?... III.10 Can I code offline? III.11 How do I put my code into the game? Section IV (Starting Your Own LPMud) IV.1 How do I start my own LPMud? IV.2 How do I find a site? IV.3 Can I charge players to play my MUD? IV.4 Why can't I use any of the other servers or mudlibs? IV.5 Our system needs upgrading, can't I get donations? IV.6 I have a site, now how do I choose a server/mudlib? IV.7 Where can I find all this stuff? IV.8 Help! I can't get my driver to compile, what should I do? IV.9 I have applied patch XXX, and now nothing works anymore. IV.10 Can a MUD server run on DOS? IV.11 Can a MUD run under AmigaOS? OS/2? Windows NT? etc...? This FAQ is not intended to be a substitute for the general 3 part MUD FAQ's. I strongly recommend people new to MUDs read those first. This FAQ deals with a particular class of MUDs known as LPMuds, and therefore does not even attempt to cover information important to other classes of MUDs. Credits for information in this FAQ beyond the information provided by the author: Abigail, Stig Bakken, Jose Corrales, Felix Croes, Joshua P. Dady, Lars Duening, Monique Girgis, Pelle Johansson, Andru Luvisi, Joern Rennecke, Danne A Solli, Christina Sterman-Hack, Lars Syrstad, Pekka Timonen, Linus Tolke, John Viega, Petri Virkkula Section I: Introduction ****************************** *** I.1 What sort of posts belong in rec.games.mud.lp? ALMOST anything dealing with LPMuds. Rule number 1 being that the topic of your posts must someway affect the LPMud community. We do not care about Dikus and MOOs and so on. They may be very nice servers, but if we wanted to be reading about them, we would be reading rec.games.mud.diku and so on. The second rule is to avoid posting on the following topics: a) Where is CheeseMUD? I have not been able to connect all day! If it is going to be down a long time, the admins should post to rec.games.mud.announce. Otherwise, it is either a short connection loss or it is just your problem. DO NOT POST THESE QUESTIONS HERE OR ANYWHERE. b) Advertisements for new MUDs. These belong in rec.games.mud.announce c) FascistMUD's admins are such jerks! They cheated... Why would you post this? I guarantee you will accomplish nothing by this. First of all, ALL MUD admins have bad days where they may do something very unfair. It is the nature of things. So you may be the unfortunate victim of a rare set of circumstances rather than of a mean admin. Secondly, even if the MUD admin is a jerk, no one on this newsgroup cares. People will play such MUDs either because the admin is damn good at creating a game or because the players are other jerks who like the atmosphere of lawlessness. Players like you may login from time to time, but eventually they will figure it out. d) Don't posts mudsex sessions. Those are for rec.games.mud.tiny. *** I.2 What is an LPMud? An LPMud is one of many classes of MUDs, or multi-user domains. A multi-user domain is defined solely with respect to its ability to allow multiple real individuals to come together in some sort of environment. Although the most common environment is a gaming environment, MUDs need not be games. In fact, among other uses of MUDs that I know of, there are virtual colleges, a MUD where victims of abuse can come together in a productive environment, and MUDs designed to bring students with disabilities into social contact with one another and others. The single defining theme for MUD is therefore being a virtual environment where multiple people come in contact. An LPMud specifically allows the users to manipulate the environment through a language called LPC. LPMuds are computer programs which listens to the internet for people attempting to connect, reads LPC files, and acts upon those LPC files according to the rules of the LPC language to create the virtual environment. Currently, I know of 6 major LPMud servers: CD, DGD, LPC4, LPMud, MudOS, and Urimud. With most other MUD games, users do not have access to create in the language used by the MUD. LPC is used not only to give users such an ability, but it is also designed with both ease and power in mind. *** NOTE *** Rust has informed me that Urimud LPC has been renamed ROC. If it is in fact worthy of being renamed, then it is not an LPMud. Until I have more information on it, however, it will be included here. *** I.3 Isn't Amylaar an LPMud? Amylaar is a person, not an LPMud :). He is the primary author and torch bearer of the LPMud name. Given the generic sound of the term "LPMud" these days, people often refer to LPMud 3.2 as the Amylaar driver. *** I.4 Which is the real LPMud? LPMud 3.2 is the official continuation of the original LPMud server, however, all servers listed above (with the possible exception of Urimud) are equally real. All have two traits that make a MUD an LPMud: 1. The environment is created through files written in LPC. 2. The environment can change as new files are added and old ones changes, even while the game is running. *** I.5 How did LPMuds get started? I am not the greatest historian, and may be wrong on some important facts here, but this is the first shot at the FAQ, so here goes... Once upon a time, there was Lars Pensj÷ (the ÷ being an o with two dots over it... to an American, that is roughly pronounced "Penscha"), who wrote the original LPMud coming from an AberMUD background. If you play current LPMud's of the LPMud type, you won't really notice much of a difference from the original. From the coders' point of view however, LPC is nothing like it was with the original. For a long time, there was only LPMud run by Lars with patches by everyone under the sun. The original LPMud run by Lars was called Genesis. Its base town called Larstown was taken mostly from AberMUD. Eventually, others got tired of waiting to see their patches added to Lars' driver, and Lars was working on version 3.0 of his driver as he was gradually losing interest in the project altogether. Version 3.0 turned out to be buggy as hell, and generally unworkable for a real LPMud. CD, LPC4, LPMud, and MudOS, all derive from this server as people saw good things in it and began creating working versions of LPMud 3.0 after their own concepts of MUD server design. Unlike the others, DGD was created from scratch. It therefore is missing a lot of the baggage which has come down from the beginning of time in the other drivers. Urimud, on the other hand, is derived from LPMud 2.4.5. *** I.6 What do the terms "alpha testing", "beta testing", and "fully open" mean? Generally, a MUD goes through three basic stages. The first stage, "alpha testing", is a developmental mode in which players are rarely allowed access to the MUD. Things are in such a disarray or in a flurry of changes that playing a consistent game is impossible. In the "beta testing" stage, a MUD is generally opened to players solely for the sake of testing that the MUD works. Without actual play testing, it is impossible to determine if a MUD can handle being fully open. MUDs in either of the above stages generally will not compensate players for mishaps due to bugs in the game, and they will often even purge players from the MUD. The purging is done either because old player objects are no longer compatible with new ones or because the MUD needs to be re-balanced to fit new code. In the final stage, "fully open", a MUD is just that, fully open. That means you can expect certain standards from the MUD, including such things as not dying from bugs. Nothing is ever bug free, so generally fully open MUDs will compensate players for mishaps which occur because of a bug. On the flip side, these MUDs usually also smite players who gain from bugs in the system. *** I.7 Where are some ftp sites with LPMud stuff? See Section IV: Where can I find all of this stuff? *** I.8 Is there anything about MUDS on WWW? The following is a list of LPMud related WWW URL's, a few of which are even written in the MUD programming language LPC: http://bat.cs.hut.fi/ http://tmi-2.lp.mud.org:5550/ http://www.lysator.liu.se:7500/no/mud/main.html http://www.imaginary.com/ http://www.pvv.unit.no/viking/ *** I.9 What are some MUD related mailing lists? The following lists use the majordomo software. To subscribe, mail majordomo at the sites mentioned with "subscribe list-name" in the body of your mail. To get more information on the lists below, mail majordomo at the site mentioned with "info list-name" in the body of the mail. Naturally, list-name should be replaced with the appropriate list name. intermud@imaginary.com lpc-language@imaginary.com nightmare-mudlib@imaginary.com Try a mail to Majordomo@ibr.cs.tu-bs.de with ``help'' in the body to get information on mailing lists for the LPMud 3.2 and 3.2.1 drivers. Individual MUDs may have their own mailing lists as well. Check with your LPMud for details. For people running lists with an audience beyond a single MUD, please let me know of your list. If you use list software not listed, I need the name of the list, how to subscribe, and how to get more information. Section II: Playing LPMuds ****************************** *** II.1 How do I play an LPMud? You must first find the internet address of the MUD you wish to play. Once you find the address, most often people use the "telnet" program to connect to this address. The MUD FAQ has an excellent section on MUD clients, which are alternatives to the plain vanilla "telnet" program. However, generally speaking, with "telnet", you can access the MUD of your choice by issuing the command: telnet address port For example (% is considered your prompt): % telnet nightmare.imaginary.com 1701 % telnet 129.10.114.86 5555 And so on. Some telnet programs do not allow you to pass arguments at the command line. Instead, you get something like this: % telnet telnet> open (to) nightmare.imaginary.com 1701 Once you succeed, you will get a welcoming screen which should say the name of the LPMud and ask you for a name. A common error people will make is leaving off the number at the end. If you do that, the telnet program assumes you mean to go to port 23, and it will give you a login prompt to the host machine. In addition, *some* VMS telnet programs use the following syntax: telnet 129.16.50.30/port=1701 *** II.2 How do I get a list of LPMud's? I know of no place that lists ONLY LPMud's, however, there is Doran's Mudlist, which is produced semi-regularly and lists MUDs by type. You thus have all your LPMuds grouped together. You can find it posted to rec.games.mud.announce. Additionally, there are many dynamic world wide web mudlists available. The two largest are: http://www.imaginary.com:1696 http://tmi-2.lp.mud.org:5550 Keep in mind, however, these lists hold only LPMuds which support intermud communication. They are by no means full lists. You will also find that many MUDs on this list are in some sort of developmental stage. *** II.3 Are all MUDs in English? No. To provide a list of such MUDs is beyond the scope of this FAQ. Check the mudlists for a full and current listing. However, I would like to know about other languages which might be supported in the LPMud world, so please mail me if you have a MUD in a language in other than English, German, or Swedish. Known languages: Dutch English German Swedish *** II.4 Ok, the MUD is asking me for a name, what do I do? Make up a name. Avoid using your real name or common names, real and mythical. You want not only to give character to your persona, but you also do not want everyone saying "Hey! Aren't you Bob from JustAnotherMUD"? I chose the name Descartes, because I was a philosophy major in college. In general, it is safe to assume any name consisting only of more than two characters and less than ten (a to z) is acceptable on any MUD. Some MUDs allow really long names with spaces, apostrophes, hyphens, and other marks. Others are in between the extremes. Try the name you want. If the MUD will not allow it, it will tell you, and it should tell you why. After making up a name, one of two things will happen. Either you will be prompted for a password, meaning you have picked a name someone else is using, or it will ask you to create a password, meaning you are a new character. If the first thing happens, just try again with another name. If the second happens, you are in good shape. To create passwords, make up one different than the one you use to access computers. Although MUDs encrypt passwords for storage, nothing prevents an unscrupulous MUD admin from intercepting that password and using it for unethical purposes. It is also recommended that you use a password with numbers and mixed upper and lower case letters in it. *** II.5 They told me I had to register! Some MUDs require all their players to register before being allowed to play. Also, it may be the case that someone from the same place as you has been causing trouble, so the admins of the MUD in question have decided to require only people from that site to register. If this is the case with the MUD you wish to play, simply follow the instructions they give. In most cases they will give you an email address where you should send your registration. *** NOTE *** There seems to be some difference of opinion on this one, so I decided to quote one of the comments: "Well, I have to disagree with this section: E-mail addresses are very difficult to verify in bulk, and really not worth the trouble unless you perform site registration. I believe the only people you have a legitimate need for an email address from is your wizards. Other than that, knowing the ip they log in from should be more than sufficient." -Rust (John Viega) *** II.6 Name and password set, what next? This is where you get to see why there is so little in common among LPMuds from the player's point of view. Some LPMud's will ask you a series of questions about who you are and what sort of character you would like. Others ask nothing more. Among the questions you might be asked are: what is your email address? what is your real name? what gender would you like to play? what race would you like to be? what class would you like to be? etc. *** II.7 I don't want anyone knowing my email address! MUD Administrators have a legitimate need to know your email address. No one else does. If a MUD requires you to give your email address it should either offer you the option of keeping it private, or it should automatically keep the email private. If they do not keep your email private and you desire privacy, do not play the MUD. Do not complain, however, that they ask for it. *** II.8 Is it asking me for MY gender? No. The game wants to know what gender you would like your *character* to be. This means you can play a character of the opposite gender, your own gender, or one of the alternate gender types which might be offered. The other side of the coin to this, however, is that you should *never* count on other people in real life being the gender of the character they play. *** II.9 What does it mean by race? Many LPMuds have a feature called character races. The term "race" in these instances is not the same as the term used in modern society. In fact, the LPMud term race would more correctly be referred to as species. In fantasy type LPMuds, you will often see a selection of "races" like human, orc, artrell, gnome, etc. When you are asked to choose a race, a list of possible races should be provided for you. *** II.10 What is a class? What is a guild? In general, a class is a grouping of players with common abilities. A guild as well can be said to have the same definition. Many MUDs, if they use either of these concepts at all, add some very individual nuances. To MUDs which do not have classes or guilds, the concepts are naturally irrelevant. Those which have one or the other are often using the terms in an interchangeable fashion. Finally, those MUDs which have both often define class in a more generic manner than guild. For example, on Nightmare, a class is like a profession and the guild like a particular job. You might have people in the fighter class who are in the templars guild, and others who are in the rangers guild. In short, the guild is a way of specializing your class abilities. Other MUDs allow "multi-classing", which may mean joining multiple guilds, classes, or both. It is always best to check out the "help guild" and "help class" command on any given MUD to see how it defines these terms. *** II.11 I am in the MUD, what do I do? There is no one answer to this question, as the answer will vary from MUD to MUD. No matter what, however, you should see if the MUD has a "faq" command to get a listing of that MUD's frequently asked questions. In addition, you should learn how to use the "help" command as well as find out about the rules governing that MUD. *** II.12 What are some common commands? The following commands exist on virtually all LPMuds: (Naturally, these are not cmmands on non-English MUDs) help ([topic]) Gives you help. The () indicate that you do not need to type in a topic. If you do, you get help on that topic. If you just type help, you will either get help on where to find other help, or you will be put into a help menu. tell [player] [message] Sends the string [message] to the player whose name is [player] anywhere on the MUD. Some LPMuds do not allow players to tell to one another as it is viewed unrealistic. say [message] Sends [message] to everyone who is in the same MUD room as you. This command is almost always aliased to "'", such that "'hi!" is the same thing as typing "say hi!". who Gives you a list of everyone connected to that MUD. look Gives you a description of the MUD room in which you are in. look at [object] Gives you a description of the object in question. II.13 What is an alias? As with UNIX, most LPMuds provide some sort of method for creating "aliases". An alias is simply a way in which you can have a easy to type command represent another command. For example, you will often want to type the phrase "get all from corpse" on any LPMud. It is much easier to make an alias so that whenever you type "gac", the LPMud interprets that as "get all from corpse". In order to create aliases, you need to know how your particular MUD handles aliasing. Older MUDs use a device called a quicktyper. Newer MUDs have alias commands built in. Try issuing "help alias" and "help quicktyper" commands in order to find out how aliases are handled on your MUD. If your MUD uses quicktypers, you will have to go find the quicktyper object before you can create aliases. Ask any other player on such a MUD where there quicktyper can be found. *** II.14 Why doesn't the MUD save my equipment when I quit? Balancing a MUD so that everyone is not dripping in wealth and that all players actually have a chance to die is hard work. It is nearly impossible. One thing that makes it easier on balance admins is the non-permanance of objects (in other words, objects do not save). For a MUD to save equipment, it requires a complete rethink of the way that MUD is balanced. It goes beyond the difficulty of balancing the MUD however. There are MUDs which do save equipment. The character of the game itself however gets changed by what appears to be a simple change. Therefore asking your mud admin, "can't you change the game so that it saves equipment" is not so simple or limited as it might seem. To make such a change to an existing MUD would actually change that MUD in such a way as it would be unfamiliar to you. Putting it simply, saving equipment is not an impossible thing. However, the consequences of doing so are way beyond what most players are capable of realising unless they have been involved with MUDs before. To do so on an existing MUD would change it forever. Every now and then, new MUDs appear with this feature. But most do not and will not. *** II.15 What else is there? Explore the MUD! Most gaming MUDs have places called "newbie" areas which are simplistic places for people new to the game to go and get the hang of things. When you first log in to a new MUD, you should ask the others where the newbie area is. Also, read the login screen and news which scrolls across your screen at login time, as they contain important information about characteristics unique to the MUD you are playing. Ask people questions. Just make sure you have read the help files first, or you will be sure to annoy someone. In addition, try not to choose a single person for your queries. Constantly being asked questions by the same person can often annoy people as easily as stupid questions. *** II.16 Why is the MUD admin ignoring me? Admins in particular are prone to a MUD disease called "idling". This means that the lights are on, but nobody is home. An idle person is simply someone logged in to the game, but who is perhaps not actually at their computer terminal. That person is thus not really ignoring your question, since the person is never actually seeing it. If the admin is not idling, chances are that person is being overwhelmed with questions or is actually coding online. Many LPMuds will tell you that the person to whom you are talking is "idle" or "editing". If you get that response to a tell, do not expect an answer back right away. In addition, if it says the admin is editing (or anyone else for that matter), then it is generally considered rude to continue telling to that person as it makes it difficult for the person to edit. Amylaar says: "Another possibility is that this person is at the terminal, but the window for the mud you play is not in the visible area, or it is, but players are shouting so much that this window is mostly ignored. Some people don't mind being 'beeped' (sending a ^G in a tell or say, or with a special tool), and will then notice that there is something in this window. Note, bowever, that others feel very strongly against this, so that it is a good idea to check out first with somebody resposive if it is right to beep that particular person." Section III: Coding on an LPMud ****************************** *** III.1 What is coding? Coding is writing files for the computer to read. In the case of LPMuds, this means writing files in a computer language called LPC. The LPMud server reads these files and interprets what those files are telling the computer to do when certain player actions occur. Often that means things like displaying a description of a room when you enter it and so on. The LPC files which make up the backbone of any MUD are called the mudlib. Coders use the mudlib code in such a way as not to have to rewrite many of the most common instructions over and over again. With most good mudlibs, therefore, there is more creation involved than coding. *** III.2 What is LPC? LPC is an object building language created by the author of the original LPMud server, standing for Lars Pensj÷ C. Structurally, it is much like the more popular programming language C. Designed with LPMud object building specifically in mind, it puts the power of game building in the hand of the general user. *** III.3 How do I get to code on an LPMud? Policies vary from MUD to MUD. Some MUDs require you to make a certain player level before being allowed to code. Others require you to pass a test or fillout an application. Still others just let anyone come on and code. If you really want to get in on things, the best thing to do is either to talk to the admins of the MUD you are playing, or go to TMI-2 (tmi-2.lp.mud.org 5555) and check out the board they have of new MUDs starting out needing coders. Keep in mind that many MUDs which are open to players already have more coders than they need. *** III.4 How do I learn to code? There are two parts to learning how to code on your MUD: 1) learning LPC and 2) learning your MUD's mudlib. Each MUD should have detailed documentation on part 2. Two LPC textbooks, a beginner and an intermediate, exist to take care of part 1. You can get the textbooks via ftp at: ftp://ftp.imaginary.com/pub/LPC/doc They come in many different formats. Documentation, however, will not really do anything without looking at examples, practicing, and talking to more experienced coders. Examples should be everywhere on your MUD (though they are not necessarily good examples). Practicing is simply just copying code you do not understand, making small changes to it to see what they do, and learning from what happens. To learn more about how to code from others, talk to more experienced coders on your own MUD or visit TMI-2 which has a centre designed for teaching LPC. *** III.5 What is TMI-2? TMI-2 is a place centered around the advancement of LPMud "technology" and the promotion of its use in all spheres. TMI-2 stands for "The MUD Institute". You will often find many of the people responsible for creating most of the C and LPC servers on which the MUD world runs, and at times, they might even not be idle! It is an excellent place to discuss ideas and learn more about LPC and LPMuds. *** III.6 How do a I code a monster/room/weapon/armour... Read your MUD's documentation, as this varies greatly from MUD to MUD. "Also, questions like that are almost impossible to answer in any other way than showing an example. Thus, a much better question is: 'Where can I find an example of how to create a XXX?' or 'I don't quite understand this part of the example on how to...'" -Drevreck (Lars Syrstad) *** III.7 But you said all LPMuds use LPC! Yes, they do. However, they do not all use the same mudlib. The mudlib is the basic LPC files you make use of then you write your LPC files. The LPMud server in turn interprets your files and stores them in memory. Two MUDs using different mudlibs therefore can be wildly different from one another. And since the mudlibs are so different, the files you will write will be equally different. An analogy might be that of a human dialect. Quebecois French and Continental French often use different words and such in order to express ideas. In spite of this, the language structure is the same. So, both are still French even though you sometimes need to say different things in order to mean the same thing. In writing an object in LPC, you are almost always using the mudlib's LPC files rather than totally writing files from scratch. You do this through something called inheritances. Inherited code which exists on one mud may not exist on your mud, or may exist differently. Therefore when you try to use that code, it will not work as you expect even though both are in LPC. *** III.8 My code is not working! How do I fix it? 1) Determine if the problem is with: a) the object failing to load b) the code causing an error when it runs c) no errors, it is just the expected things do not happen 2) Ok, you know what "type" of error you have. Now you need to isolate it. Isolating it depends on the type of bug... a) the object fails to load. You have the bug isolated for you you in your error file. The location of the error log depends on the file name of the object with the error. It also depends on the way your mudlib logs such errors. Nightmare, for example, logs compile errors to /log/errors/std for obejcts in /std, etc, and /log/errors/descartes for objects from /realms/descartes. TMI-2 would log my errors to /u/d/descartes/log. I am not sure where the put mudlib errors. I *know* with MudOS the driver does isolate the error for you to a useful degree of certainty. More on this later. For LPMud 3.2.1, you can use the: #pragma verbose_errors preprocessor directive to make compile time errors include a bit of context in error messages. Some mudlibs turn this #pragma on by default. b) an error occurs during execution. These are logged in the mud's runtime error logged, and they ALWAYS reflect the exact line where something happened. On MudOS muds before 0.9.20, the system runtime log was /log/debug.log. The mudlib in later versions has the option of naming it whatever. Amylaar says: "Brought over from LPMud 3.[01].x , LPMud 3.2 uses /`hostname`/debug.log. LPMud 3.2.1 allows you to pass the option --debug_file to change this default. If there is a triple fault (i.e. an error while the master was processing an error in error processing), and you compiled the driver with the TRACE_CODE option, there will also be a trace of the last instructions executed. Moreover, if the driver is not out of memory, and there is no triple fault, the apply runtime_error() is called in the master, with the error message, file name, object name and line number as arguments." Note that for drivers which can compile LPC code to C and then link it into the driver, no line number information will exist to help you in debugging. You should therefore debug your LPC code thoroughly before compiling it to C. c) no errors, you just do not get expected results. These are the hardest to debug. You need to go through the code and test i. WHICH CODE IS BEING EXECUTED ii. THE VALUES OF THE VARIABLES IN THE EXECUTED CODE How do you do this? Take the following code with a priveledges bug... /* from /cmds/adm/_rid.c */ int cmd_rid(string str) { if(!archp(previous_object())) return 0; if(!str || !user_exists(str = lower_case(str))) return 0; if(!((int)USERS_D->rid_user(str))) return 0; message("system", "You rid "+capitalize(str)+".", previous_object()); return 1; } /* EOF */ /* /secure/daemon/users.c */ int rid_user(string str) { return rm(DIR_USERS+"/"+str[0..0]+"/"+str+SAVE_EXTENSION); } /* OTHER CODE DELETED FOR BREVITY */ This is not real code (as a lot more should exist in such an operation). However it does serve the point. This code will load fine and execute without error. However, it will not delete the save file of any user. If anyone executes it, the following will happen: > rid weenieplayer What? > So what do you know? You know you typed "rid weenieplayer", and you know you got 0 returned. One of the following things happened: 1) The "rid" command never got executed. 2) The archp() returned false for the person executing the command. 3) For some reason, str was equal to 0. 4) rid_user() in users.c returned 0 to the command. How do you know if 1 is the problem? put the line... write("rid command executed") as the first line of the cmd_rid() function in the rid command. If the rid command is executed, you will see that it is executed before you see "What?". If it is not, you will just see "What?". If you do not see that line in write(), then you know your bug is with you whatever calls the "rid" command. If you do, then you know you must proceed further. Do the same after each line which returns 0. Make sure each write() string is unique so you know *which* line is being written out. This will tell you exactly *which* line is returning 0 in the rid command. In this case, it is #4 which is the problem. The users daemon is returning 0 for for rid_user(). This means that rm() is definitely returning 0. rm() only returns 0 when an rm fails. rm() only fails when an object does not have proper access. Therefore, in this case, you need to fix the bug in your security. If for some reason you cannot go editing the files in question (i.e. they are in the base lib files to which you have no access, changing them would be even more troublesome, etc), you should consider the efuns trace() and traceprefix(). Do you need to go through all of these tedious steps? No, you can generally make good guesses as to where to look the more familiar you become with the code. For example, in this case you pretty much could have elimited step 1 if that command is an old command which used to work. After all, it is highly unlikely that the mud would suddenyl stop executing that one command! Furthermore, if you had just made a change to the security system, you would immediately suspect that rm() failed and thus would have checked that first. This is why presenting me with your entier rid command would have been useless to me. I would have looked at it and said it *looks* ok. But I have no idea what changes you have recently made to your mud, nor do I know from looking at the code which of those lines is returning 0. I can only basically tell you that one of those lines is failing. However, if you were to tell me that for some reason your user object was returning 0 in trying to rm() the user file during the rid command, I could tell you details about the relevant parts of NM mudlib security to this daemon. And then you could use that information to debug further and ultimately fix the bug. *** III.9 What is an efun? an lfun? a kfun? a simul efun?... For any function in LPC, there are three distinct parts... 1) the prototype 2) the call 3) and the definition Whate differentiates all of these different types of functions is *where* they are defined. The definition of the function is the part which says what it does. Therefore: 1) afun: Auto function (DGD only) the function is defined in the auto object and behaves like and efun from other drivers. This function is really a very special type of lfun. 2) apply a function defined in the mudlib designed to be called only by the driver. All applies are also lfuns. Most of the functions in the DGD's driver object and other's master object are applies. In addition, the functions create(), init(), and reset() are also applies for LPMud 3.2 (not 3.2.1), MudOS, CD, and Urimud. 3) efun: external function this type of function is defined external with respect to the mudlib. In other words, in the driver. Since it is defined inside the driver, it is faster, but the mudlib is left with little control over what it does. 4) kfun: kernel function (DGD only) This type of function is much like an efun in that it is defined external to the mudlib in the driver kernel. There are some ways beyond the scope of this FAQ in which kfuns differ from efuns, ways which have little bearing to daily coding. 5) lfun: local function Any function defined inside an object in the mudlib. The functions you write (like create() or reset()) are lfuns. 6) simul efun or sefun: Simulated External Function lfuns defined in an object known as the simul efun object. Any object in the mudlib is allowed to use these functions as if they were efuns (treat them like local calls). You might also want to keep in mind the difference between a local call and a call_other. A local call is a call to a function defined in your object or to one of the objects it inherits. A call other is a call to a function defined in another object. Efuns and simul efuns, though not defined in your object, act like local calls. Afuns and kfuns are in fact local calls, since all objects inherit the auto object to which they are local. *** III.10 Can I take my area from LPMud X to LPMud Y? Can you? If they use the same mudlib, yes. May you? Often MUDs have restrictions against importing code in order to keep the MUD unique. *** III.11 Can I code offline? This is a question best left to your admin, but in general, the answer is yes. The advantages to coding offline are that you can use a visual editor like vi or emacs or *giggle* TeachText on your local machine where speeds are much faster. The disadvantages are that you do not get the immediate feedback on how your server works that you get online, and you have to take the extra step of using ftp to transfer the files from your home machine to the MUD. In order to know if you really can code offline or not, you need to find out from your MUD's admin if there is a way to ftp code into the MUD. You might also want to consider getting a local copy of your mudlib to run on your computer at home. Abigail also points out: "Actually, there is a way to code off-line without needing to ftp. If you have 2 windows and a mouse you can use to cut-and-paste text, you can make your file off-line in one window, and when you are done log in to the mud on the other window, start ed with the desired file-name, give the append command, and use cut-and-paste to copy the contents of the file form on window to another. Then close the ed session. For me, it is usually the fastest method to create small files (up to 100 lines), or to make patches." *** III.12 How do I put my code into the game? A file is considered "in the game" if another file already visible to players references it. So, to put your stuff in the game, you need to change code already in the game to reference your code. This action normally requires the action of MUD administrator. Most MUDs have some sort of quality control policies which state rules for having your code reviewed. Section IV: Starting Your Own LPMud ****************************** *** IV.1 How do I start my own LPMud? 1) Come up with a unique and interesting idea 2) Find a site Either: 3) Choose a server 4) Choose a mudlib Or: 3) Choose a mudlib 4) Choose a server Or: 3) Choose a server 4) Write your own mudlib Or: 3) Write your own server 4) Write your own mudlib 5) Define administrative policies 6) Find people to code areas for the MUD 7) Get some areas completed 8) Open to players (generally a good idea to beta test) *** IV.2 How do I find a site? The most common method is to talk to the administrator of the machine from which you access MUDs and the rest of the Internet. If the resources are available, they will often allow you to run your MUD server unless something political like a no-games policy is preventing it. If you are not running a MUD as a game, however, this is not relevant. Never run a MUD without talking to your system administrator. LPMuds take up a lot of system resources, and many places simply cannot spare those resources on a single project, especially if the project is non-essential to the functioning of the entity running the machine. Not only is it just plain wrong to run a MUD without permission, it also predisposes sysadmins to saying no to people who ask them when the resources are free. If you cannot run it on your local machine, post a note on the sites-wanted board at TMI-2. Do not post to USENET newsgroups unless you have a working MUD. It does not need to be complete, but posting notes saying "I have a cool idea, will someone give me a site" is inappropriate, unless that idea is completely fleshed out with some sweat in the form of work on paper and such. Another avenue of finding a site is talking to local internet access providers. Often, they have extra small machines on which a MUD could be run (sometimes for a fee). The most expensive route is to buy your own machine and your own Internet hookup. *** IV.3 Can I charge players to play my MUD? If you write the server from scratch AND you wrote your mudlib from scratch and you have agreements with the coders who wrote areas on your MUD, the answer, of course, is yes. The above will take roughly 3-5 years of full-time work to accomplish as well :). If you do not wish to go through 3-5 years of developing your own server and mudlib, then your only choice is to use the DGD LPMud server and pay its creator, Dworkin, a monthly fee. You will also have to develop your own mudlib, as no mudlib currently exists for DGD which can be used commercially. *** IV.4 Why can't I use any of the other servers or mudlibs? They all come with some variation of the same copyright. Since all drivers except DGD were derived from LPMud 3.0, they all require a copyright at least as strict as that one, which basically states that you can use the server as you like, so long as you do not make a profit off of its use. Most current servers have much more strict and explicitly copyrights. On top of that, many of the mudlibs which exist also have similar copyrights. To require money of your players is therefore a violation of international copyright laws. *** IV.5 Our system needs upgrading, can't I get donations? Yes, you can request that your players donate money as long as the end of that money is to run the MUD and donations are not a prerequisite for play on the MUD. In other words, they must be donations, not fees. *** NOTE *** I am not a lawyer, nor am I the author of all the MUD code out there... Therefore, keep in mind that what I am saying about copyrights is my interpretation and not binding upon ANY of the server or mudlib authors out there. For reference to what is binding with respect to my code, see the copyright notice which accompanies it. *** IV.6 I have a site, now how do I choose a server/mudlib? Some people have a favourite mudlib, and therefore go at building their own MUD from the angle of using that mudlib. Others have a favourite server and start from that angle. Others simply want to start a MUD fast, while others want to really tinker with it and make it their own. The following is a rough guide to what is out there: *** NOTE *** In this section, I make two uses of the word "native". In one sense, I use the word alone when referencing whether a mudlib is "native to" a particular driver, meaning that it was written to work specifically with that driver. The opposite of native in this context is non-native. The other use is in the sense of "native mode", meaning LPMud 3.0 style. Native mode is often identified through the use of UID security and other 3.0 features. The opposite of native mode is compat mode, which means LPMud 2.4.5 compatible. *** Servers (drivers) *** CD Generally considered a slow driver, however it is designed to work very closely with the CD-lib. Therefore tests showing the CD driver to be slower are not necessrily fair as sole factors since they are mudlib-independent tests. The CD-lib is considered a well designed lib which is often a factor which leads people to choose this server. To see a CD server MUD, visit Genesis. DGD DGD is built on the belief that small is good. This is absent of much of the extra baggage which exists in all other drivers since it was created from scratch. There currently exist two native mudlibs for DGD, one of which is a MOO simulation. DGD's documentation is sparse. It does support compile time LPC->C compiling, meaning that when you compile the driver you can have some of your LPC files converted to C and compiled with the driver. In addition, unlike other LPMud servers, it is disk-based, meaning you can run a huge MUD on virtually no RAM. You therefore never need to reboot or save objects. Dark has written intermud support for DGD which can be gotten separately from the driver. LPC4 Maintained by Profezzorn, it supports a scripting feature that allows you to execute LPC files as atomic programs without running the MUD in the traditional sense. In addition it features lambda closure types which are actually understandable to most people. It is designed for speed through the philosophy of creating large numbers of efuns to perform CPU intensive work. It runs only in native mode. I know of no MUDs using this driver in practice. LPC4 also has socket efuns with TCP support. LPMud Considered the fastest of all the LPMud drivers, it supports both compat mode mudlibs (like LPMud 2.4.5) and native mode mudlibs (like LPMud 3.0). It also has closures which are beyond general ease of comprehension. There are few mudlibs in wide release native to this server. MudOS The most feature-filled of the LPMud drivers, this one comes with TCP support for mudlib objects allowing you things like WWW, finger, SMTP, USENET, and other such access to Internet resources from inside the mud. It also comes with a choice of well-developed mudlibs native to the server. MudOS allows you to choose between UID support and no-UID support, which makes it easy to hack a LPMud 2.4.5 MUD to work with MudOS if that is your cup of tea. Though significant speed gains have been made recently, LPMud 3.2 is still faster. MudOS supports a new function pointer syntax which is as functional as LPMud's closures without LPMud's obscure closure syntax. Urimud Urimud is descended directly from LPMud 2.4.5, as opposed to the other LPMud's (except DGD, which is created from scratch), which are all descended from LPMud 3.0. Its most prominent feature is that it can handle running multiple MUDs on a single process. *** mudlibs: *** CD-lib I am told this is a very well-designed mudlib. Some features of it are an enhanced sense of reality through player recognition (you must make the acquaintance of players before knowing who they are) and UDP intermud communications. Runs under: CD (native) Discworld Advanced command parsing system and user interface, as well as many concepts you will not see in other mudlibs for any server. Too many frogs and wombles. Runs under: MudOS 0.9.20 (native) Foundation I A basic mudlib with nothing extra for people who want a solid design base from which to design a unique mudlib. No combat or anything else fancy is included. Nothing about it is pre-disposed towards fantasy or even game playing for that matter. On the positive side, there is nothing to deconstruct in order to build your own mudlib and there is more of a solid base to work from than something like Lil. The downside is that you will have to put in a lot of work to make a playable game from this. Runs under: MudOS v20.23 (native) Heaven 7 Runs in both compat and native modes with autoconfiguration for whichever driver you are chosing. Since it runs under 3 different drivers, you have the advantage of portability. Security under native mode is questionable, and it does not take full advantage of any one driver. Runs under: LPMud 3.1.2 (native), LPMud 3.2 (non-native), MudOS (non-native) Lil A small, essentials only mudlib. Designed basically to give you examples of files as they must minimally be for the MudOS driver to run. Only useful if you plan really to write something totally from scratch. Runs under: MudOS (native) LPMud 2.4.5 The most well-known mudlib in existence. It is rather simple, not the best design, but if you know it, it is useful. Also, the widest range of drivers support it. Good for putting up and running a MUD quickly. It is very ancient and inferior in design, flexibility, and functionality to modern mudlibs. Runs under: DGD (non-native), LPMud 3.2(non-native), LPC4 (non-native) Mellville Designed for DGD. I know absolutely nothing at all about it. Runs under: DGD (native) Nightmare 3.3.1 Nightmare is good for getting a mud up and run quickly for those who are not necessarily experts and has an easy to handle intermud system. It has a limbed-combat system, however, this system is not the most effecient and is considered difficult to modify. Nightmare has a stack based security system that gets away the flaws of UID-based security. Also comes with WWW support. Just to be clear about everything, however, I wrote this lib, so understand from which point of view I am commenting. Runs under: MudOS v20.23 (native) TMI-2 1.2 Generic, designed for those who want to tinker around with their mudlib rather than get a MUD up in no-time flat. Designed to be easily modified and comes with a full-range of intermud support as well WWW support. Features include the ability to take over monster bodies. Runs under: MudOS v20.23 (native) TubMUD Very intricate, and, according to Rust, "it is beautiful if you can figure it out." Intended more for Tub wizards to run at home than for wide-release. Runs under: LPMud 3.2 (native) If I have missed a lib, or stated something incorrect about your server or mudlib, or simply ommitted something, don't go flaming me. Email me the correct information so I can include it in the FAQ. I did my best to be fair in this, but in simply undertaking this task I have opened myself up to flames from anyone who I might have gotten wrong or simply does not like what i said. So please be gentle, and understand I mean no malice or ill-will anywhere in there! *** IV.7 Where can I find all this stuff? The following are important ftp sites: *** NOTE *** The sites listed are PRIMARY sites. First try a site on your side of the Atlantic before attempting to download across the ocean. If you have any troubles looking for something, always check out the following ftp sites for LPMud junk: actlab.rtf.utexas.edu bat.cs.hut.fi ftp.ccs.neu.edu ftp.lysator.liu.se ftp.imaginary.com servers: CD: ftp.cd.chalmers.se DGD: ftp.lysator.liu.se /pub/lpmud/drivers/dgd LPC4: ftp.lysator.liu.se /pub/lpmud/drivers/profezzorn LPMud 3.2: ftp.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de pub/games/lpmud/*3.2*@*.tar.gz MudOS: ftp.imaginary.com /pub/LPC/servers/MudOS Urimud: ftp.netcom.com /pub/urimud mudlibs: Basis: actlab.rtf.utexas.edu CD: ftp.cd.chalmers.se Discworld: ftp.ccs.neu.edu Foundation: ftp.imaginary.com /pub/LPC/lib/Foundation Lil: actlab.rtf.utexas.edu LPMud 2.4.5: ftp.lysator.liu.se Mellville: ftp.ccs.neu.edu Nightmare: ftp.imaginary.com /pub/LPC/lib/Nightmare TMI-2: ftp.ccs.neu.edu *** IV.8 Help! I can't get my driver to compile, what should I do? Thanks to Rust for putting together an answer for this question. First of all, learn how to redirect stderror to a file if you don't already know how, or at least find a computer where you can cut and paste. Then, you have 3 options for getting these errors to a more experienced driver person: a) You can try The Idea Exchange or TMI-2, two MUDs dedicated to MUD development, where people who may be able to solve your problem, or at the very least you can post it on your target driver's board on TMI-2 or the appropriate newsgroup on The Idea Exchange, where they will be seen by knowlegeable people fairly quickly. b) You can post it to this newsgroup, but don't cross post, and it probably wastes a lot more bandwidth on this newsgroup than on The Idea Exchange or TMI-2. c) you can mail the maintainers of your driver: 3.2: amylaar@meolyon.hanse.de MudOS: tim@hollebeek.hep.upenn.edu, apang@actlab.rtf.utexas.edu CD: jacob@dd.chalmers.se DGD: dworkin@hippolytos.cd.chalmers.se LPC4: hubbe@lysator.liu.se URIMUD: urimud@netcom.com For MudOS help, you are most likely to get a timely response by posting to the MudOS newsgroup on The Idea Exchange (imaginary.com 7890). For 3.2 help, and probably DGD and URI help as well, you're probably more likely to get a timely response by posting on the proper board on TMI-2, since the creators and the people who use their drivers tend to congregate there. For LPC4, your best bet is direct mail, for CD, either direct mail or visiting Genesis and mailing Tintin et al, and for DGD you might also want to visit the pattern: epsilon.me.chalmers.se 6047 *** IV.9 I have applied patch XXX, and now nothing works anymore. (Answer from Joern Rennecke) Have you supplied the proper -p option to patch? If not, you might end up with a patch applied to the wrong file. Check with the appropriate man page to "patch" for more details. *** IV.10 Can a MUD server run on DOS? Yes, most of the servers have DOS binaries available. In addition, most of the mudlibs have had their files arranged and ported so they fir in the FAT 8.3 naming scheme. If you wish to allow others access to the MUD over modem lines, be sure to get the comdrv17.com file with your server and mudlib. For those who choose mudlibs with colours in them, the current batch of drivers was compiled in such a way that the drivers do not send output through ANSI.SYS (thus no colour). *** IV.11 Can a MUD run under AmigaOS? OS/2? Windows NT? etc...? These are the ports of which I am aware: AmigaOS: DGD LPMud 3.2 MudOS Atari: DGD LPMud 3.2 System 6 & 7: MacMud 3.2 which is LPMud 3.1.2 (MacTCP required) OS/2: LPMud 3.2 MudOS Windows NT: Ha ha ha ha! Nothing runs on Windows NT! ********** Please mail corrections or additions to the address in my .signature. -- George Reese (borg@imaginary.com) http://www.winternet.com/~borg/ phone/fax: (612) 829-5495 ftp://ftp.imaginary.com/users/borg "No one ever conquered Wyoming from the left or from the right." -Camper Van Beethoven