Area files, Ai, Race selection, "and a partrige in a pear tree"

Hi Guys,

For the last few days i have been playing around with the smaug engine and related files. i have been reviewing the code and tinkering with some light modifications etc.

so far so good..

Today i sat down and made a list of some of the things i would like to change within the source code of the smaug engine, mostly just little changes.

By about 5pm today i decided to just build a MUD game based from an old game design i have been working on here at home for a few years now. i think from what i can see so far i should be able to utilize the smaug engine to get the design of the ground.

so anyhow,

there are a few things i would like to ask over the next few weeks regarding this and that, so if i sound like im on crack with some questions, just humour me with your worldly knowledge ;P


first up for this post anyhow:


Q::1
is there a set of clean default "out of the box" area files that a new MUD developer could start from .. say something with just the basic's so that the server starts and your standing in a "loby" .. that way all you would need to do is create your own area's and link it up .. ? it would certainly help people have a better understanding of area files etc and whats required when building a new mud from scratch.

(i already got mine going, just thought i would ask for other people in the future that seemed confused bout this..)


Q::2
would you think it possible (suggestions welcome) that we could create a totaly seperate and individual "race selection" system, in this case a selection between two races.. ??

eg:

player connects to MUD server
player select's to create a new char
player chooses an acceptable char name
player enter's first room (complete with info on race choice, its a big decision!)

player makes decision and then leaves via one of two room exits, both are one way, no return exits.

now everything from this point onward .. depending on what race was selected, is customized to that selected race,
mostly to do with console output.

the next room would then continue with the normal kind of char creation method related to that race ..

end eg:

I believe i would need to hard code some of this but im still researching the smaug code, i did a similar thing with the quake 3 engine a while back..
eg:
#ifdef RACE_ONE
#ifdef RACE_TWO


Q::3
How many people can we have on a SMAUG MUD Server ?
has anyone ever got an idea of what the server can handle
ie: how many concurrent player's on the server at the same time ?

Hardware isnt an issue, heh, i mean i have an 1000a Alpha serv sitting here doing nothing at the moment ;P


Q::4

Has anyone ever worked on some light Ai within there MUD's ?

I have something here i developed for console chat games such as mmorpg's, to enhance the believability and realism of chats with npc's etc .. i plan to wittle it down a little bit and see if i can fit it into my new MUD.



btw, ive done up some crappy textpad *.are code colour definitions if anyone is remotely interested. i did em up with a carving knife in like 5 minutes so dont get to excited but they work ;P


cheers


Ormuz

1: Smaug comes with a set of default areas, if that's what you mean.

2: Yes, and actually I think this was recently discussed. All you would have to do is pretty much add new mpcommands to set a race and change creation process.

3: Smaug is meant to handle pretty much any number. RoD has a constant 100+ players on, last I checked.

4: I think you can make AI pretty decent with progs at the least. There was a script engine released on mudbytes that you could look into as well.

Similar answers to what Zeno gave, but maybe a slightly different perspective...

Q1: If I understand what you're asking for, no, you'd have to strip out the area files that come stock so that you're only left with limbo.are, newacad.are, newdark.are, and newgate.are, then you could copy/move the objects from the new*.are files that are coded in to limbo.are and be down to just what you're after.

Q2: Samson put something like that into AFKMud already, and it's a Smaug derivative, so yes, it certainly can be done.

Q3: I don't know that I've ever heard of anyone having reached the upper limit, but I had asked this question myself a few years back and the answers I got basically came down to what your OS could handle in the way of open files for the descriptor connections and the few files that have to remain open for smaug to run.

Q4: As I understand it, Eos has made extensive AI use in his Smaug derivative (AuricMud) so, again, it certainly can be done.

What do you have? I use editpad, but it might well be similar enough...