It doesn't. Thank you so much for explaining all that. You really know your mud history!! On Dec 14, 2022 1:56 AM, Travis Siegel <[email protected]> wrote: > > Well, you see, in the beginning, there was Diku mud. It was released, > and became very popular. It also got changed because it was opensource > (well, not really, because opensource wasn't really a thing back then, > just folks willing to share their code to have the most exposure > possible), that lead to all kinds of clones (so to speak). To my > knowledge, diku was the original mud that provided a complete world > classes, areas, levels, and the like, basically, an entire mud for > basically no work by the folks hosting said mud. > > Well, it worked, but folks wanted more features, more areas, more > classes, and so on, so various other versions of diku mud were > released. Circlemud being the most popular, followed by so many clones, > I doubt even the internet archive has copies of all of them, godwars, > rom, tartarus, envy, smaug, and so on. The problem (as I see it) with > all of these variants, is that for the most part, what changes is the > areas, and (sometimes) the list of commands, but the basic game play > hasn't changed, and indeed, the starting areas don't change a whole lot > from mud to mud. After you get used to one, you can play any of them. > Nothing wrong with that, it's just not my thing. > > I much prefer a challenge, and logging into hundreds of muds over the > years, just to have 90 percent of them be practically identical clones > of one another turned me off completely to those kinds of muds. Plus, > until you customize the prompts, there's way too much spam for your > average screen reader user, especially during combat. > > Of course, all muds suffer from that in one way or another, but if your > prompt takes 3 seconds to finish talking, because there's so much > information in it, and it shows up every second or so, you can see why > screen reader users are at a great disadvantage. > > LPC style muds are a completely different concept. > > (well, that's not entirely fair, let me back up a moment). > > From the admin perspective, diku style muds were great, because they > basically were a game ready to run. All you needed to do was install > the software, select your port, and poof, entire game ready to go. > > Nothing wrong with that. > > the problem is that most admins were in such a hurry to get their games > up and running, that they did next to nothing to make their game > different from every other clone out there. > > And, to be fair, changing a diku style mud isn't easy, it requires an > entire recompile of the game, so if an admin doesn't like the experience > formula, they can change it, but then they have to recompile the whole > game to make the change. > > Want to add a new class, other than the basic four (thief, mage, > fighter, cleric), then you need to make the changes, and recompile the > whole game. > > It's no wonder folks didn't want to mess with the internals, plus it > took a certain amount of programming knowledge to make such changes, and > (for the most part) game admins aren't programmers, they just want to > run a fun and entertaining game, so I don't blame them at all. > > Now, later revisions of the various clones introduced methods for > dealing with most (if not all) of these issues. I.E. area editing was > added to some of the clones via OLC (OnLine Creation) commands. Those > allowed reloading of the various areas without having to recompile the > mud. But, you still had to restart the mud after a recompile (then they > added the copyover command to solve that problem), folks could remain > connected to the mud while effectively rebooting the game to add the > latest changes, and so on. > > Then LPC showed up. > > LPC isn't really a mud type, it's really a programming language, but > it's used in muds by having a driver program which remains the same, > then pieces of code this driver runs. > > Those pieces can change, be reloaded, removed, added to, and in fact, > practically rebuild from scratch the entire mud all without ever needing > to shutdown. Entire areas/commands/worlds can be built and added to the > running game without having to reboot the mud at all. > > The thing was though, for the most part, LPC muds were distributed with > a basic library of commands and small areas demonstrating the > capabilities of the server. > > Then, admins would have to build their worlds (muds) using the LPC > command set. > > But, because there were only demos of how things worked, this meant that > each and every LPC mud was totally unique, because there weren't any > prebuilt areas, monsters objects and the like you could just hook up, > and slap a new name on it, and poof, you have a mud game. > > It took a real investment of time and effort to make an LPC mud into a > full blown game. > > And, also, because of that, you could be pretty sure that no LPC mud was > going to be a clone of another LPC mud, because they all had to build > their own world. > > Now, that's changed too, and now you have LPC distributions that contain > entire systems ready to go, such as discworld, nightmare, and others, > but for the most part, even today, LPC muds are pretty much built to be > unique, and that's a lot better in my opinion. > > Of course, LPC muds also didn't (originally) have the massive spam traps > for their default command lines, which made them way more screen reader > friendly. > > These days though, there's plenty of muds that aren't based on either > one of these systems, though generally, even those tend to mimic one or > the other of the base Diku or LPC muds, simply because they were first, > and folks tend to stick with what works. > > > When you log into a mud, that initial screen you see, (you know, the one > with all the spammy ascii graphics?) If you read it carefully enough, > you'll see the mudbase, and if it says diku circle or someother variant > thereof, you can be pretty sure there's going to be serious spam in your > future if you don't modify your basic prompt pronto after logging in. > > So, that (not in a nutshell) is the reason I'm not a fan of diku style muds. > > This brief history lesson leaves out a *lot* of details, but it should > be sufficient to get the main points across. > > You may want to google diku or lpc for further details on the various > systems if you're still curious after this entirely too long message. > > Hope that doesn't confuse you too much. > > > On 12/13/2022 10:36 PM, Heather Seaman wrote: > > What are Diku-style muds and circle muds? Which type would a mud like Alter > > Aeon or Ardwolf be under? Or are those in yet another catagory altogether? > > Thanks for responding to a curious reader. On Dec 13, 2022 2:16 AM, Travis > > Siegel <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Not a fan of diku style muds. Smaug is too close to circle to make me > >> happy. Got tired of those kinds of muds way back in the 90s. I got to > >> the point where I could hit level 10 in less than an hour on any of > >> those mud versions. Decided they were no challenge, plus I don't > >> particularly care for their interface. I much prefer LPC muds, where > >> each one is unique. Sure, sometimes I don't like those interfaces > >> either, (or the mud content, or the game play, or whatever), but I've > >> found over the years that non diku style muds contain way more > >> entertainment for me overall, so that's primarily what I stick to these > >> days. > >> > >> > >> On 12/12/2022 11:20 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote: > >>> Has anyone else tried this one yet? One of the ports for it is 4000. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in > >>> defense of liberty: > >>> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." > >>> -Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940) > >>> > >>> . > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >> > >> > >> > >>
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