[Newworlds]

For all of you that have the desire to build a MUD, I thought that I would give you the best advise that I can on the first steps. You may scoff at this and say "NO WAY" but if you are very serious about undertaking this project, read on.

Here is some advice that I always tell people that are debating about playing a MUD or making a MUD: PLAY A MUD! Having run a successful MUD for many years now (and enjoying the headaches somewhat), if I had any tiny inkling of the difficulty in maintaining and running a MUD when I put together NW, I would have run from that project like a forest fire.

The information below is pulled from another thread and placed here for your convenience. Follow what they say and you will not be caught by many surprises.

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Originally Posted by Jazuela Square by square. If you're not willing to map out the game world, don't expect any builder or coder worth hiring to waste their time helping you out. You can use MS Excel, or any of the dozens of map-creation programs available. How can you even think to ask someone to help you build, when you can't even tell them exactly what you want to see, and where? I know as a builder if the admin said "create a zone, make it around 50 rooms, and put it northwest somewhere," I'd laugh and walk away. You couldn't even -pay- me to work with someone who doesn't care more about their own mud than I do. When it comes to owning and running a MUD, there's no such thing as "can't I JUST." Toss that word the heck out of your vocabulary, friend. If you're not willing to put in 110% effort on your own project, don't expect anyone else to either.

Originally Posted by Threshold The #1 MOST important thing to do before starting your own mud is work as a staff member on AT LEAST one other mud for at least 1 year. You will learn alot from working on another mud. You will see first hand either good or bad staff management (seeing either one is helpful). You will see how people deal with preventing (or failing to prevent) abuse either by players or by staff. You will see how people deal with game and class balance. These are invaluable lessons that cannot be well learned on your own. By watching what works and doesn't work, you will obtain a greater understanding of what you are doing. Furthermore, by being a staff member, you will have some understanding of what it is like to be in that position.

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So, my friends, the answer to the question on How to build your own MuD is a process beginning with:

1. Play on a MUD that has the style of what you want to build
2. Be a staff member or builder on the above MUD.
3. Establish your idea for your game.
4. Create maps and backgrounds for your idea.
5. Find a Codebase that you can work with.
6. Make sure you understand you will need a website.
7. Understand that you will need a host ISP (a paid for location to hold your game and run it).
8. Understand that you will need to know how to run your game from the host ISP.
9. Realise that this process will take 1000's of hours of commitment.
10. Realise that 9 out of 10 MUDs never bring in more than 10 players.

After doing and accepting rules 1 through 10, if you have the heart, patience, and time, GET STARTED!

Good LUCK!

[Baram]

Stickied.

#9 may be a bit of an understatement!

[gth]

Also bear in mind that #7 and #8 aren't the necessity, especially when you're starting out with little or no playerbase. With the proliferation of broadband, as long as you have a reliable 24/7 connection along with a server or PC that can run your MUD, you should be fine.

Also check that your ISP allows you to host web services of some kind (from both a policy AND a protocol and port-forwarding perspective), and go nuts. Just make sure you backup often to a device that isn't connected to the 'net, since you'll probably get hacked a few times over if you're new to hosting.

[Newworlds]

Originally Posted by gth Also bear in mind that #7 and #8 aren't the necessity, especially when you're starting out with little or no playerbase. With the proliferation of broadband, as long as you have a reliable 24/7 connection along with a server or PC that can run your MUD, you should be fine.

99.99% of ISP's do not allow IRC or Net Hosting Networks to be setup on a personal computer with a home internet service. Yes, you can do this, but if you are caught you will get shutdown and the openware of your network will often get you hacked and wormed.

Not to mention the fact that every interruption in your service will cause anyone connected to link die or get booted. This can be frustrating with unreliable home internet service.

[newbie]

Originally Posted by Newworlds Understand that you will need a host ISP (a paid for location to hold your game and run it).

Originally Posted by Newworlds 99.99% of ISP's do not allow IRC or Net Hosting Networks to be setup on a personal computer with a home internet service.

I think the use of the term ISP is adding unnecessary ambiguity.

You can run a MUD from your home computer. In fact these days its easier than ever and is the perfect solution especially when becoming familiar with code-bases and general mud development and maintenance.

There are however a plethora of services out there to make the whole experience a lot less hassle and a lot less hazardous. A quick google search for MUD Hosting will give you thousands of results.

For the more technical savvy there's the VPS route. But for any perspective MUD administrators out there. Know that getting hosting, setting up the mud and keeping it running is one of the more trivial parts of the exercise. The real work comes in building that world. That's where you'll lose the man hours.

[Davion]

Originally Posted by newbie I think the use of the term ISP is adding unnecessary ambiguity. You can run a MUD from your home computer. In fact these days its easier than ever and is the perfect solution especially when becoming familiar with code-bases and general mud development and maintenance. There are however a plethora of services out there to make the whole experience a lot less hassle and a lot less hazardous. A quick google search for MUD Hosting will give you thousands of results. For the more technical savvy there's the VPS route. But for any perspective MUD administrators out there. Know that getting hosting, setting up the mud and keeping it running is one of the more trivial parts of the exercise. The real work comes in building that world. That's where you'll lose the man hours.

I have to agree with you here. Getting your codebase up and running is super easy, and you don't even need to pay anymore. There are plenty of people who have built up their games on free hosts, and are now providing free hosts of their own to people. Since slayn.net died, there's been a few free hosts that have popped up. This is a good place to start if you're looking for a free host. There's also LooHosting and a few others.

Now, the hosting part is kinda over-stated, however, some things are extremely understated; #5, and #6. Finding a codebase you can work with is a good start of course, but learning how to program is definitely the kicker. 99% of the "successful" muds out there, aren't running a pure stock codebase. You just don't see it. You have to at least, be able to read over a little code, and be tech savvy enough to understand some of it. Also, creating a website is no easy feat. You have to, at the bare minimum be able to write/modify some HTML to get anywhere close to a usable, interesting website. You can say "oh! we'll get a coder, and a webmaster"... ya, good luck with that .