UPDATED!
Alright, so I have this project going. I want to create a MUD.
Not like a real MUD, where I expect a little playerbase and stuff.
No, just making the thing so it works and probably deleting later.
So, what I am starting off at is at like zero knowledge on how to get things rolling.
I've been programming in Java for several years now and I think it's not that much of a problem for me to learn something new.
The problem is: MUDs are a "dying culture". You really have to literally dig through the internet to get help, find out how it works, find out how to program it, find out EVERYTHING you need to know to get a MUD programmed, online and playable.
My first issue was, how do I start? Where do I begin at?
I though finding out about the language and stuff was a good go, so I digged.
Fault number 1: To think it's not gonne be "that hard"...
Creating a MUD is insane! Well not really, but hell, try yourself to find resources. It's insane how old most of the things I found are, which doesn't really bother me. What bothers me, that most of the things I found didn't really get me anywhere.
I found several sites, explaining this and that, though, one youtube video interested me the most.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmAgQEQsdPk
How to make a MUD Game! (Easy) ... Of course I would click on that. Well turns out this was actually helpfull looking, if the damn website www.mudmaker.com wouldn't be offline. Really great site, bad luck I guess, a few years too late.
But let's get to topic. If you want to create mud, and you are mostly an lazy idiot with a bit of programming knowledge in anything (So some words don't really surprise you) then you are right here. I'm listing some things I've found here and explain a little bit to make your looking easier. (Since I would have liked to have that)
If you don't know what MUDs are or you have never played one theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen go fuck off this topic and start playing one, since if you don't know what it is, how you wanna programm it?
Good, first off, we'll start with LambdaMoo. The language and a MUD that is.
http://cmc.uib.no/moo/yib/
(If you came this far, then I'm starting to like you.)
What you need to do that tutorial I just linked are these things: (it actually says in the tutorial, but I wrote it a bit more simple)
LambdaMoo Character/Account - Easy thing to do.
Connect to, using your client: IP adress: lambda.moo.mud.org | Port: 8888
Then the usual MUD login: 'connect guest' | '@request <character-name> <email-adress>'
Good, takes some time until it's activate, but really not that long. (Problem about human activation, people have to WAIT!)
Now, the programmers bit. To make this easier: Wizards like it if you have a description and gender set. (@describe me as "..." and @gender <whatever>)
'@go #56651' | 'ask James for Programmer Bit'
Now all you have to do is wait and hope an admin noticed it so he gives you the programmer bit. You could also ask them directly, but hey, I'm making the rules here. (In this post at least)
Good got your programmer bit? It's in your inventory btw. 'Install programmer' and here ya go, you're a programmer.
Now you can go and start making the tutorial I've linked you above. I won't explain things to you, I'm just guiding you through the process so you find stuff easier and get results faster. Also, so I can find the stuff I found again. (basically you are skipping the whole google thing)
If you are lost, try asking the admins in LambdaMoo to help you out. They are mostly nice people
(If you came this far, then I'm starting to hug you gently.)
Phew, done already with the pet rock thing? Wow, pretty good.
For now...
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Fault Number 2: To think bringing a MOO online is an "easy pie"
It's not easy at all.. Ok well it may be "easy", but still, think of me gathering all the information on how to do it, step by step. And here are my results.
You did the pet rock tutorial (It's sweet, isn't it? I made a gay rainbow rock, full of awesomeness) and you know the basics?
This doesn't mean you can create a server right a way with your own moo. Nope, the tutorial didn't cover "everything". But you know your way around. To make things easier from now on, espescially for me since I hate being on a server and learning stuff (I want to be local, offnet, secure. Really, I'm freaking paranoid on this),
I'll show you step-by-step on how to bring online a MOO server, running on your local WINDOWS (I love linux, I just hate operating it
) machine. (based on LambdaMOO)First thing you'll need: http://www.chrisunkel.com/WinMOO/
(thanks god for WINMOO, it's SIMPLE AND FOR WINDOWS.. working on win7 btw)
Download latest version, create a folder somewhere you'll find it again, extract the file there aaaaand....
Download a core, I would say we take Lambdacore right? (You know, since we managed to get through a lambamoo tutorial and stuff, why not stick with it for first.)
Here, the lambdacore: www.lisdude.com/moo/lambdacore-latest.zip
You want a different core? Oh well, since I'm nice today (actually not) http://www.lisdude.com/moo/#cores
Now you should have WinMoo extracted in the folder you chose, along with the lambdacore.db in the same folder. Good, good.
(Came this far already? Ok then, drop your shirt, I'll be gentle.)
To start the server now, you'll need to do the following:
run cmd
cd <your folder path>
winmoo -l logfile.txt <yourcore>.db <yourcoreoutput>.db <port>
(Note: yourcoreoutput should be something like: mymoo-latest.db, it will autocreate that)
To make this simpler for the next time we'll create a .bat file. Simply, create a .txt in that folder, put in the commands from above, rename to <whatever>.bat, run it. Does exact the same thing, just simpler and faster.
Good. Now it's online. Go ahead and connect to it.
Having problems with that? Well...
Use your normal Moo client, or normal win telnet. Use your LOCAL IP, if you don't know how to get that one, I even got a nice "stupid kiddie knows better then you" video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0LK2X3s1v0
(Note: It may be german, don't mind that, just look on what he does at 0:20.)
If you are more then a reader then a watcher (this tutorial totally proves that) you can just type in the cmd: ipconfig and you should find it there. I really don't want to do everything for you, so if you don't find it at this point, go ask your son/daughter, they probably know it.
(err, If you don't have a son/daughter you should consider becoming gay, for me, we'll have fun)
And not to mention the port that you used (you should definitly know that one)
(Note: It's offline, just you know. Don't need to be worried, you are safe in your own MOO. We'll talk on how to bring it online later. We actually will talk about lots of stuffs later)
Phew... Alright, connected and in your own LOCAL MOO. That feels quite nice right? Well, considering it's 100% vanilla and clean, and you can't do anything other there then programming yourself something to do it's not that nice. But you have your own MOO server and know how to get into it.
You can program in it and can do tutorials in it from now on.
Easy.
(Wow, you really want to do that right? Alright, drop your pants.)
To be continued...
Still editing, don't read further, fuck off this topic, I AM NOT DONE YET!