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Vigud · 07-21-2011, 05:59 AM

Yes, I think there really is a need for a new MUD engine. I've been looking for one for myself and haven't found an ideal one, although I must admit I have quite non-standard requirements. But I share some pain with other people I've seen asking for help in choosing the right codebase for them.

To answer your question as to what features should be included, I think this is a good start: . But there are other important things that I feel I should mention here.

Permissive license... Because some people would like to at least have an option to make money on their MUDs. GNU GPL would suffice in that case, but some people distribute binaries in form of offline builders, offline testing environments, world editors and maybe more. Then, GNU GPL would force them to distribute the source code, which is unacceptable for most of MUD admins, if not all of them. Of course, if you're writing your code in Python, Ruby or the like, then that's a different story.

The code should make sense. It seems to be too obvious, but often it is a problem (for example, where two completely different programming languages are used to build one MUD codebase, it is problematic to choose where to add things you'd wish to have in your MUD). Try hard to avoid conceptual errors.

Don't be fooled into thinking that LPMUDs are for roleplay, Diku derivatives are for mindless killing and MUSHes are for story-telling. You can do anything, you can write a monolithic MUD engine in C enforcing story-telling, or a modular LPMUD-like creature written in Python, or an AberMUD-style game done the backend-frontend style (driver-mudlib, hardcode-softcode), or whatever else you can imagine.

Also, make the main repository public, so that people don't wait ages for an update or patches...

07-21-2011, 05:59 AM	#5
Vigud New Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 3	Re: Need for a new MUD engine? Yes, I think there really is a need for a new MUD engine. I've been looking for one for myself and haven't found an ideal one, although I must admit I have quite non-standard requirements. But I share some pain with other people I've seen asking for help in choosing the right codebase for them. To answer your question as to what features should be included, I think this is a good start: . But there are other important things that I feel I should mention here. Permissive license... Because some people would like to at least have an option to make money on their MUDs. GNU GPL would suffice in that case, but some people distribute binaries in form of offline builders, offline testing environments, world editors and maybe more. Then, GNU GPL would force them to distribute the source code, which is unacceptable for most of MUD admins, if not all of them. Of course, if you're writing your code in Python, Ruby or the like, then that's a different story. The code should make sense. It seems to be too obvious, but often it is a problem (for example, where two completely different programming languages are used to build one MUD codebase, it is problematic to choose where to add things you'd wish to have in your MUD). Try hard to avoid conceptual errors. Don't be fooled into thinking that LPMUDs are for roleplay, Diku derivatives are for mindless killing and MUSHes are for story-telling. You can do anything, you can write a monolithic MUD engine in C enforcing story-telling, or a modular LPMUD-like creature written in Python, or an AberMUD-style game done the backend-frontend style (driver-mudlib, hardcode-softcode), or whatever else you can imagine. Also, make the main repository public, so that people don't wait ages for an update or patches...