[rec.games.mud]: FAQ #4/4: Servers at a glance
Andrew Cowan
URL: http://www.mudconnect.com/mudfaq/index.html
Posting-Frequency: bi-monthly
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Detailed information about mud server types
This is part 4 in a 4 part series of FAQs.
Disclaimer: This document may be seen to be biased towards
TinyMUDs. This is because the original author of this document
mainly plays those types of servers, not because she thinks they
are inherently better or worse than other types of servers.
However, this document is meant to be generalized and useful for
all MUDdom, and so corrections and contributions are always
welcome. The new maintainers will be gradually modifying the FAQ to
be geared towards all of the various server types.
Table of Contents
* 4.1. What is a mud server
* 4.2. What does this section cover?
* 4.3. What is [server type]
+ 4.3.1. Envy
+ 4.3.2. Merc
MUD Servers at a Glance
4.1. What is a mud server
Please see section #3 of the MUD FAQ "Clients and Servers", a basic
overview is presented on mud servers in general.
4.2. What does this section cover?
Servers at a glance will provide more detailed information about the
various mud server types that are available. For each server type our
team will provide history, feature lists, resource locations, and
technical data. Not all of the server types will be included
immediately, however, as new sections are created they will be added.
4.2. What is [server type]
This section will describe the mud server types that we currently have
data for.
_________________________________________________________________
Envy:
Contributor: Erwin Andreasen (er...@andreasen.org), Michael Quan
(mic...@envy.com)
Server Family: DikuMud
Authors: Michael "Kahn" Quan and Mitchell "Hatchet" Tse (2.x), David
"Thelonius" Love, Guilherme "Kith" Arnold (1.x)
Language: C
Current version: 2.2
Status: Version 2.2 released March 1997. No active development.
Primary Website: http://www.envy.com/
Primary FTP site: ftp://ftp.envy.com/
Technical Details:
Operating systems: All UNIX (good portability). Macintosh in console
(single user) mode
Memory usage: About 5 megabytes with stock areas
Disk usage: About 8 megabyte after compilation with no player files.
Average player file is 10 kilobytes
Code size: 46000 lines of C code.
Derivatives: Greed (aka UltraEnvy/HomeCooked Envy)
History (submitted by Michael Quan):
Envy derives from MERC almost by accident. After MERC dissolving and
an absense from mudding, Michael Quan wanted to play again. A part of
the original MERC team (Michael Quan and Mitchell Tse) continued the
development.
1.x was developed with the idea less is better. David Love joined as
part of the coding and design team. Guilherme Arnold and a select core
of implementors guided the idea pool.
2.x had a 60% code rewrite over 1.x with features specific to the
playing population of the mud. Included were also better object
handling and system performance improvements. David Love and Guilherme
Arnold left the team.
Under the design guidence of Michael Quan and in a departure from how
muds are normally developed, the last major release of Envy included a
significant portion of contributed code and input from the public
rather than an active player base or coding and design team.
Features:
Envy fixed most of the bugs that plagued MERC 2.2. The mob programs as
added in MERC 2.2 caused too many problems and were removed. Races for
mobs and players were added. Better management of object and character
extraction was added ("deleted" variable) which makes the MUD more
stable. A better string manager, SSM was contributed by Melvin Smith
of mud++.
Envy is a nice and clean codebase. There aren't many features, so Envy
makes it easier for an experienced programmer to customize it.
Beginner programmers may miss some of the things implemented in more
feature-full bases like Smaug.
In addition, some parts of the game engine was rewritten to improve
code performance over Merc 2.2.
Additional URLs:
ILAB OLC for Envy 2.x
_________________________________________________________________
Merc:
Contributor: Erwin Andreasen (er...@andreasen.org)
Server Family: DikuMud
Authors: Michael "Kahn" Quan, Michael "Furey" Chastain, Mitchell
"Hatchet" Tse
Language: C
Current version: 2.2
Status: Version 2.2 released November 1993. No active development.
Primary FTP site: ftp://ftp.game.org/pub/mud/diku/merc/
Technical Details:
Operating systems: All UNIX (good portability). DOS in console (single
user) mode
Average player file is 10 kilobytes
Code size: About 30000 lines
Derivatives: Envy, ROM, Smaug, ACK, The Isles and all their
derivatives
History:
MERC derives from the original DikuMUD. The initial 1.0 version
improved incrementally over Diku, but the 2.0 version introduced a
total rewrite of the code and perhaps the biggest leap in code quality
of all derivatives. Gone were limiting features of DikuMUD like binary
files. Portability was also greatly improved. The code became much
cleaner.
Features:
ASCII pfiles allow easier expansion of player fields: rather than the
fixed-size binary format, you can add any new fields without having to
convert the pfile. This also helped portability: you could move your
MUD from one system to another by just recompiling the code. This
feature now appears in just about every modern MUD.
MERC features level-based equipment, the stats of which are based on
its level. This is a controversial feature, but it's one way of
keeping objects balanced.
Memory usage and speed were reduced compared to Diku, thanks to the
complete rewrite.
Of the modern Diku derivatives, MERC is the oldest one and thus the
one with least features. Since it is nearly 6 years old, it has also
several bugs. If you are looking for a Diku-derived base which you
plan to totally overhaul, MERC might be feasible choice but Envy might
be better.
There is a "sands_bugfixed" variant of MERC 2.2 which has some of the
MERC bugs fixed. However, the mobprograms of MERC 2.2 contain several
bugs; you might want to find the fixed version made by Markuu "Newt"
Nylander for ROM.
_________________________________________________________________
Credits
Erwin Andreasan (Envy, Merc) - er...@andreasen.org
Michael Quan (Envy, Merc) - mic...@envy.com
_________________________________________________________________
This posting has been generated as a public service, but is still
copyrighted 1996-1999 by Jennifer Smith. Modifications made after
August, 1999 are copyrighted 1999 by Andrew Cowan. If you have any
suggestions, questions, additions, comments or criticisms
concerning this posting, contact Andrew Cowan
(ad...@mudconnect.com). Other Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
postings contain information dealing with clients, servers, RWHO,
and FTP sites. While these items aren't necessary, they are quite
useful. I'd also like to thank cthonics (fel...@coop.com) for his
help in writing these FAQs, ashne and Satoria for their help, and
everyone else for helpful comments and suggestions. Thanks again to
Alec Muffett (a...@aberystwyth.ac.uk) of alt.security.
The most recent versions of these FAQs are archived at
http://www.mudconnect.com/mudfaq/ and on rtfm.mit.edu in the
news.answers archives.
_________________________________________________________________
Andrew Cowan / ad...@mudconnect.com