Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Any interest in a MUD programming contest?

KaVir · 03-01-2009, 05:32 AM

While I agree that it's a very cool concept, I still think it's too open ended for a contest. It would also require a certain degree of existing infrastructure, which would tend to tie it to a specific codebase (asking people to write their own codebase as well would be just too much, IMO).

You're also talking about a world which can be interacted with in ways that weren't anticipated, which by its very nature is something you can't...well...anticipate when designing it. It's the sort of thing which you might (or might not) discover through playing or during testing (I'm sure most mud developers have amusing anecdotes about unexpected side-effects of features they've implemented).

My entries could be compiled and executed as standalone C or C++ programs, and could be tested without even being added to a MUD. I did provide instructions for installing them into Merc 2.1, and included a separate copy of the entry preinstalled, but only because it was a requirement of the contest that the entry should work with one of the codebases in their database. The code could just as easily be added to any other MUD written in C or C++, and indeed I've used it in my own (custom) C++ codebase.

03-01-2009, 05:32 AM	#11
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	Re: Any interest in a MUD programming contest? While I agree that it's a very cool concept, I still think it's too open ended for a contest. It would also require a certain degree of existing infrastructure, which would tend to tie it to a specific codebase (asking people to write their own codebase as well would be just too much, IMO). You're also talking about a world which can be interacted with in ways that weren't anticipated, which by its very nature is something you can't...well...anticipate when designing it. It's the sort of thing which you might (or might not) discover through playing or during testing (I'm sure most mud developers have amusing anecdotes about unexpected side-effects of features they've implemented). My entries could be compiled and executed as standalone C or C++ programs, and could be tested without even being added to a MUD. I did provide instructions for installing them into Merc 2.1, and included a separate copy of the entry preinstalled, but only because it was a requirement of the contest that the entry should work with one of the codebases in their database. The code could just as easily be added to any other MUD written in C or C++, and indeed I've used it in my own (custom) C++ codebase.