rec.games.mud.lp: reading list 1

Now that I have gathered together all the threads posted to rec.games.mud.admin which were interesting enough to take note of, the next forum on the cards is rec.games.mud.lp.

On a preliminary note, I get the feeling that a lot of the threads in this newsgroup are too implementation related. I find little value in these sort of posts, and a lot of it is quite dated given the aging of LPmud/MudOS over the years.

1991-11-20: Graphical Mud - How are they going?

A short thread where an early 3D MUD is mentioned. A 3D world, with a custom client, based on an LP driver.

1992-01-30: Building tools and doc files

The downsides of generated rooms. Pros and cons of different methods of training creators.

1993-02-21: What would you like to see?

.. as in, in the ultimate MUD driver. Multiprocessing. Blocking functions in place of the asynchronous offerings MudOS has ("call_out", "input_to", ...). The suitability for cooperative threading for games like MUDs. Pre-emptive versus cooperative threading. Distributed MUDs.

1993-03-12: Magic

A magic system as a procedural effect, where components have characteristics and their combination determines the result. The unpredictability of such a system. The ability to effect the game world. That the more dynamic a game system allows the creation of things to be, the more difficult is to create them.

Pinkfish was doing it back before we knew we wanted to..

1993-08-24: Permanency in LPs.. does it work?

A persistent world, where nothing respawns and player changes remain. Hard enough to get an area coded, let alone when with one play through it becomes obsolete. Player created content. Comparison of player created room quality to that of creator created rooms.

1993-11-06: Multi-threaded MUD driver

More discussion on the repercussions of adding some form of multi-threading to an LP driver. An interesting point this thread brings up relates to usage of an euid based security system.

1993-11-06: MUD Economies

Description of a "proper economy" in a MUD by the name of Shattered Worlds.

1994-11-24: Mudlib security

The transition from uid-based security to stack-based security, as a more secure approach, after changes in MudOS. Rather than checking the player who did the action, or the previous object in the call stack, instead checking all the objects in the stack.

1994-06-14: Connecting MUDs

Having interconnected MUDs. Being able to walk between MUDs. Imbalance between the participating MUDs. Duplicated player names.

1995-08-19: Some Economical Thoughts

Proposal for an economy based MUD with a wide range of player professions, harvesting of raw resources and so forth. Making armour from processed corpses.. wtf?

1996-06-18: Realism in MUDs

A pretty good thread, with very little flaming. Confusing realism with tediousness. Assertions that realism is at the expense of playability. The assumption that a realistic implementation has to be done in an unplayable way. Juggling of inventory, in terms of what is being held, carried and so forth. Reference to Gemstone III in the case of specific implemented examples of realism.

1996-08-19: Realistic MUDs: Mob behavior

Starts with giving NPCs a life, engaging in activities for a reason. Then devolves from this into discussion of existing limited approximations which aren't anywhere near as hard to implement. Wanders into introduction systems. Rumour systems. Adding continuity by doing away with resets.

Cross-post: rec.games.mud.admin

1996-12-08: Developing a graphical MUD in Java / java and dynamic reloading

Some back and forwards about the practicalities of code reloading in Java at the time. Comparisons with LPC, within which this is easy. Class reloading is the main thing that my code reloading module allows for in Python.

Cross-post: rec.games.mud.admin

1997-01-03: Player Killing / Intelligent monsters / Ranged attacks

How to ensure that player killing is balanced. Realism without impacting playability. Town/city guard behaviours. Bounties (and how they turned out on Discworld). Griefing and site-banning griefers. Justice systems.

Appeal of killing players over killing NPCs. Ways to make NPCs more intelligent.

Different types of ranged weapons. Feeling of helplessness/unfairness felt by players when attacked remotely. Taking cover.

1997-01-25: End of Nightmare Mudlib Development

Entitlement causes George Reese to withdraw his Nightmare mudlib from circulation.

Current position: July 30th, 1997.