GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited November 2011
Well, I want to design a system that actively encourages people to do damage and use their utility. I WANT agro to bounce around, and I want every class to have ways of dealing with being beat on. GOOD groups should learn how to round robin their agro in very controlled ways, but even face roll groups should be able to do most group content by just bashing everything, provided people know to use their defensive cool downs when they are the hot potato. Obviously the good groups get an advantage because they don't run the risk of the guy who just had agro taking it back and having no Psychic Shield or whatever to throw up.
The very tip top content will require the good group who can cycle their agro correctly, as the enemies will do enough damage that someone without their defensive capabilities ready will quickly have their health overwhelmed, even with all the passive healing going on.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited November 2011
So I am contemplating gear. Essentially, how important gear should be. Should the best gear be dropped, or crafted? Perhaps requiring rare mats from the high end mobs? Should gear permanently degrade, forcing you to have to replace it over time?
I am just sort of throwing the questions out there, I really haven't given this an extended amount of thought.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Just so you guys know, I have the Mercurial repo setup, and I am putting code in it...but right now there are a couple of really serious bugs I am tracking down. As soon as those are gone, and people can actually do something fundamentally useful with the code, I'll put the repository address on blast.
I'd like to see armor being less important than weapons, of course, and have weapons be of significant importance. But that's me. I'd also like to see random generation on gear, but that might be something to implement later. As far as gear permanence, I think that depends on how you want the economy to act. Will ever baddy drop gold? If so, you'll want some big gold sinks. If not, you could make gold last longer. There's really a lot to consider.
Look at me. Look at me. Look at how large the monster inside me has become. Crunch Crunch! Munch Munch! Chomp Chomp! Gulp!
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
For those who care, I wanted to toss the source code license out there. For now, I am listing myself and the Penny Arcade Aeon Project as the copyright holders. It is a three part BSD license. Here it is:
// Copyright (c) 2011, Matt Holmes, Penny Arcade Aeon Project
// All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
// * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
// * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
// documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
// * Neither the name of the PA Aeon Project nor the
// names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
// derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
// ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
// WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
// DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL MATT HOLMES OR THE PA AEON PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY
// DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
// (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
// LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
// ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
I doubt most of you will care, but I wanted to throw it out there in the name of full disclosure. It's a pretty standard open source license.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Okay, I am getting close to the point where I am going to need a test server. I am putting some feelers out, but if you happen to know of a Linux/BSD server admin who has some free space, on a reasonable pipe, that is willing to give me a sandbox where I can install Mono, MySQL and Memcachd, that would be awesome.
I'll probably end up running the test server from my local box in a Linux VM for a while, which means the uptime will be pretty much when I am working on it...which is fine in this pre-alpha state, but I want to start working on a server for later.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
So I was sitting here hand entering some data in the current incarnation of the database, and it got me to thinking about the editing interface. My first thought is to provide a RESTful authenticated web service that authenticates against the MUD user database, and gets edit permissions right from the UAL's in the database. So if Builder Bob has a client (which I would presumably build) that can talk to this web service, he can edit live dev copies of any content he is authorized to make changes to. It won't modify the live copies, obviously. There will be a promotion process from dev to live, and how that will work is going to grow organically as we screw up and think of better ways to do things :P
It's likely that the dev database will be represented by a dev copy of the server, since generally content changes will coincide with some sort of code change.
I'm seriously considering the two servers sharing a chat/who interface though, so even when builders and admins are over on the dev server building and testing, they can interact with the main game via chat. If someone has an issue, we can at least know right away and log over to our live account and do some admining.
Seems odd to have two seperate ones running unless one is modifying base code. Which shouldn't happen often. Couldn't they just replicate objects and edit/test them that way without needing a completely different server/whatever to do it on? I mean if I need to edit room1 I can just make a room1a file, dink around with it and such til its keen then copy it over.
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Seems odd to have two seperate ones running unless one is modifying base code. Which shouldn't happen often. Couldn't they just replicate objects and edit/test them that way without needing a completely different server/whatever to do it on? I mean if I need to edit room1 I can just make a room1a file, dink around with it and such til its keen then copy it over.
Rarely will large content changes (aka content patches, additions to the world) come without changes to the code base. Someone has to code new triggers and AI routines, and they have to be tested in the context of the area they belong to.
I was thinking of doing the shadow copy of the world loadable for content only edits, which I may still do...but the likelihood of there not needing to be a dev server is pretty low.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited January 2012
This isn't dead! Thanks to @Infidel and PADev, I have a test server setup and Aeon is running great on it. I've also opened up the source repository, though the code is still very very early alpha. Sometime in the next week or two, I am will be finalizing a very very early alpha area that I will then "flip on" and invite people to stress test a little bit. Basically I want the server to die several times so I can figure out every crazy way that's possible right now.
I'll post more when I get to that point, but it's coming soon.
I keep both the Visual Studio 2010 solution files and the NAnt build files up to date, so this can be built and run on Linux right out of the repository. At some point, I will post detailed instructions on how to configure the server...but for now, only people who know what they are doing should even think of trying to build and run this.
GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Lots more code just checked in to Mercurial. The builder scripting system is really starting to come together. Most of what is there right now is total technobabble that most of you won't care at all about, but here is the important part: If you plan to build content, and you'd like to do your own triggers and scripting...learn Lua.
Damn, I didn't see this thread until just now. I've got a lot of MUD ideas, although things in the thread look like you've moved past a lot of them. Also, awesome to see that you're putting together your own codebase. I would have suggested Evennia were it still early, but it looks like you're doing a lot of work on controlling permissions and creating a system for who's allowed to affect what--something Evennia falls short on.
I wouldn't mind building and whatnot, but I'd probably need more of an idea of the direction.
piL on
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
Never heard of Evennia, I'll check it out if for no other reason than it's always good to look at other code bases.
And yeah, I am putting in an entire access control system, plus the scripting environment is going to be heavily controlled. No file I/O, no loading of arbitrary code.
There is a general game dev thread going now. Maybe if folks were still interested in a project like this that would be a good place to drum up support.
I'd be interested, I am always trying to get into MUDs, but not very many people tend to be helpful on a decently populated one, and playing solo is just like bleh
Unfortunatly I can't code my way out of a box, but I can pick up stuff pretty easily, used to make Diablo II bot scripts in Java-script, for what its worth (prob not much)
Posts
The very tip top content will require the good group who can cycle their agro correctly, as the enemies will do enough damage that someone without their defensive capabilities ready will quickly have their health overwhelmed, even with all the passive healing going on.
I am just sort of throwing the questions out there, I really haven't given this an extended amount of thought.
Crunch Crunch! Munch Munch! Chomp Chomp! Gulp!
// All rights reserved.
//
// Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
// modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
// * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
// * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
// notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
// documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
// * Neither the name of the PA Aeon Project nor the
// names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
// derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
//
// THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
// ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
// WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
// DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL MATT HOLMES OR THE PA AEON PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY
// DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
// (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
// LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
// ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
// (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
I doubt most of you will care, but I wanted to throw it out there in the name of full disclosure. It's a pretty standard open source license.
I'll probably end up running the test server from my local box in a Linux VM for a while, which means the uptime will be pretty much when I am working on it...which is fine in this pre-alpha state, but I want to start working on a server for later.
It's likely that the dev database will be represented by a dev copy of the server, since generally content changes will coincide with some sort of code change.
I'm seriously considering the two servers sharing a chat/who interface though, so even when builders and admins are over on the dev server building and testing, they can interact with the main game via chat. If someone has an issue, we can at least know right away and log over to our live account and do some admining.
Rarely will large content changes (aka content patches, additions to the world) come without changes to the code base. Someone has to code new triggers and AI routines, and they have to be tested in the context of the area they belong to.
I was thinking of doing the shadow copy of the world loadable for content only edits, which I may still do...but the likelihood of there not needing to be a dev server is pretty low.
I'll post more when I get to that point, but it's coming soon.
e: Sorry, forgot the link to the Mercurial repository: https://bitbucket.org/teganthegnome/aeon
I keep both the Visual Studio 2010 solution files and the NAnt build files up to date, so this can be built and run on Linux right out of the repository. At some point, I will post detailed instructions on how to configure the server...but for now, only people who know what they are doing should even think of trying to build and run this.
I wouldn't mind building and whatnot, but I'd probably need more of an idea of the direction.
And yeah, I am putting in an entire access control system, plus the scripting environment is going to be heavily controlled. No file I/O, no loading of arbitrary code.
I just came across this....MUD creation from a DragonRealms search....how is it going?
*Checks for pulse*
"It's dead, Jim."
Unfortunatly I can't code my way out of a box, but I can pick up stuff pretty easily, used to make Diablo II bot scripts in Java-script, for what its worth (prob not much)