MUD engine

[JoaoAfonso]

Good morning.

As you may already know from the past years, I am constructing a MUD engine. First I started with IB STD/CB, and recently I've migrated to EB.

http://www.codingmonkeys.com/index.php?topic=1156.0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

In EB it is much more stable, runs faster and as I coded everything from scratch, now code is much smaller, has lots of capabilities more and it's structure is good enough to permit a good evolution in the future.

Anyway, I want to make this game (I haven't explained what a MUD is because it's explained in both links before) accessible to everyone, and I figured out Unix OS cannot connect to it. I must find a way to do it, though, and I post once again about my MUD (sorry for the spam :/) for three purposes: first let you all know of my project and first project of this kind made in EB, second to invite you to take a look (world stills VERY small, we will start build now), and finally to ask a way to test UNIX OS to my MUD, without a PC with such system (eventually can I create a virtual machine with Unix in my XP? is there any application to fake the connection to work like a Unix? or does anyone knows already why a Unix connecting to my MUD breaks?).

Thank you and hope you enjoy.

[Jerry Muelver]

Joao, can your MUD engine be localized -- terms translated to work in local language? I had an idea to do a MUD in Ido, as a way of encouraging people to learn the language. You can't play, if you don't learn the language first (or during the play).

[JoaoAfonso]

I don't know if I have understand it well... but it is not coded to permit future translations. If I wish to change commands, etc, to other language rather than english, I have to translate it directly into source code. The world (rooms, items, non player characters), well that is easier as all data is in a MS Access database file.

It is not multilangual, so even being portuguese and MUD theme round roman and portuguese history, I choose english as main language because it is accessible and understandable to most persons. I know also that there are someone already trying to make a curious MUD project which consisted in have the same world, same npc, same items and same rooms, but each room/item/npc have all their descriptions in multiple languages, and a person when logs in chooses his main language and just sees the text in the respectively language. Btw, that can be a nice addon to Iberia Will put it my todo list that now is lightier than it was some months ago.

Jerry, I am thinking aloud, basically If your question was how to learn how to play this MUD, well, it has some inner mechanisms to make you figure out. Part is about roleplay, part are in help files.

Hope this helps, and thank you for the tip

[JoaoAfonso]

This is the last version of my MUD engine, including now, also, NCS code from the new EB library (without it, you cant make it run).
Is kinda stable, but always being improved. Code is not esthetically beautiful, and needs lots of improvements and lots of revisions... In a later stage, I will do it.
If in doubt or trouble running, say anything. If you want to test it, just open a telnet window and

"open iberia.zapto.org 5900"

This is the address of my MUD, which runs 24/7.

Hope can be useful (afterall, this is a multiplayer online game), and any comment will also be appreciated.

Thanks to many of you from which I got pieces of code, examples, help, etc, to construct it.