LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Moderators: Public Relations Department, Players Department
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Since people seem to have some interest in games similar to Cantr these days, and lots of people are out there making their own browser games, I thought I'd pop in with a link to LabMUD, the demo MUD for FutureMUD. FutureMUD's a C# MUD engine designed for RP (roleplay) focused MUDs with features like a levelless, classless system, permadeath, crafting, etc. Even in its Alpha stage, it's much meatier than Cantr in a lot of ways (though it does lack some critical features that need to be included for the game/game engine to be considered at a beta/release stage.) LabMUD, the demo MUD, isn't open to players yet, but it has a guest lounge and I'm happy to show people around OOCly and talk about MUDs and stuff while I'm online. I figure if everyone assumes I'm talking to y'all, I may as well actually do it, right?
HOW DO I CONNECT TO LABMUD?
(For those in the know: labmud.com port 4000)
Why bring up FutureMUD/LabMUD if the demo MUD isn't open to players/characters yet, anyway?
Because FutureMUD as an engine will, once it's released, be available and free for anyone to build a game with. And some of the core principles behind FutureMUD are to make the MUD building experience as much of a soft-coded experience as possible, so it minimizes the programming requirements to get these things set up.
I'm looking into getting the engine translated into a few different languages, too, though that's a side project of mine and not something that is necessary for release, or will likely even happen before release. Luke and I were talking about the Google API and how he reckons we could "real time" (with maybe a second or two of lag?) translate inputted text like emotes and says from one language into another and it got me thinking about local translations for commands and prompts.
Off the top of my head, critical systems that are not in the game that will be required for release:
- crafting (all the backend stuff for this is in now, though, and Luke assumes his crafting/project system will be relatively straightforward to program)
- ranged combat
- hitpointless system (all the backend stuff for this is in now, so transitioning to a system of brain destruction/organ damage/blood loss should be *relatively* straightforward)
What might be required for release, or what might go in right after release:
- weather
- farming (requires weather to be in; is personally the system I'm most excited about, and therefore something that absolutely must happen one day for our marriage to continue to be a peaceful one)
What is definitely not required for release, and will not be in for release, but is on my personal wishlist:
- a FutureMUD mud client that makes connecting to MUDs simple and easy, no more fiddling with settings to get everything looking right, or hunting for connection details: all the futuremud worldfiles packaged into one neat client with unicode fonts, MXP/MSP support, etc. For Windows/Mac/Linux systems. Download it, click on the icon to open it, see a list of available MUDs with neat icons/logos, click on one, have the ability to save username/password details... And boom, in the game. Things like graphical mappers, user defined buttons, whatever... all also on the list.
- the FutureMUD engine translated locally (commands, etc.) into multiple languages, with (if possible) real time translation provided by Google Translate using the Google API. Luke thinks there's a 5000 translation limit per day using it freely, but they have plans that may increase that limit, etc. The only things that would require that sort of translation would be emotes and says, and in most cases a slight lag time wouldn't be life or death when using those commands.
- construction (this may be tied into the project system, which is separate from crafting)
- animal husbandry/domestication (might be included in farming? I can dream.)
- sailing (and... mini-forts... right? right guys?)
HOW DO I CONNECT TO LABMUD?
(For those in the know: labmud.com port 4000)
Why bring up FutureMUD/LabMUD if the demo MUD isn't open to players/characters yet, anyway?
Because FutureMUD as an engine will, once it's released, be available and free for anyone to build a game with. And some of the core principles behind FutureMUD are to make the MUD building experience as much of a soft-coded experience as possible, so it minimizes the programming requirements to get these things set up.
I'm looking into getting the engine translated into a few different languages, too, though that's a side project of mine and not something that is necessary for release, or will likely even happen before release. Luke and I were talking about the Google API and how he reckons we could "real time" (with maybe a second or two of lag?) translate inputted text like emotes and says from one language into another and it got me thinking about local translations for commands and prompts.
Off the top of my head, critical systems that are not in the game that will be required for release:
- crafting (all the backend stuff for this is in now, though, and Luke assumes his crafting/project system will be relatively straightforward to program)
- ranged combat
- hitpointless system (all the backend stuff for this is in now, so transitioning to a system of brain destruction/organ damage/blood loss should be *relatively* straightforward)
What might be required for release, or what might go in right after release:
- weather
- farming (requires weather to be in; is personally the system I'm most excited about, and therefore something that absolutely must happen one day for our marriage to continue to be a peaceful one)
What is definitely not required for release, and will not be in for release, but is on my personal wishlist:
- a FutureMUD mud client that makes connecting to MUDs simple and easy, no more fiddling with settings to get everything looking right, or hunting for connection details: all the futuremud worldfiles packaged into one neat client with unicode fonts, MXP/MSP support, etc. For Windows/Mac/Linux systems. Download it, click on the icon to open it, see a list of available MUDs with neat icons/logos, click on one, have the ability to save username/password details... And boom, in the game. Things like graphical mappers, user defined buttons, whatever... all also on the list.
- the FutureMUD engine translated locally (commands, etc.) into multiple languages, with (if possible) real time translation provided by Google Translate using the Google API. Luke thinks there's a 5000 translation limit per day using it freely, but they have plans that may increase that limit, etc. The only things that would require that sort of translation would be emotes and says, and in most cases a slight lag time wouldn't be life or death when using those commands.
- construction (this may be tied into the project system, which is separate from crafting)
- animal husbandry/domestication (might be included in farming? I can dream.)
- sailing (and... mini-forts... right? right guys?)
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- MattWithoos
- Posts: 513
- Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:51 am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
I could just ask you in IRC but wanted to give you a bump because the game sounds really promising... So on with my question - can you ask the prime developer for Mac/OSX instructions to play? I tried ssh'ing to the port and host but it timed out.
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Mudlet works as a client for Mac but lacks Unicode support. I'd recommend downloading that and connecting via client if possible. If I find a client that has Unicode support for Linux/Mac, I'll mention it.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Luke/Japheth's updated the patch notes recently, for those interested, particularly (and most recently):
Alpha-004
Surgery:
Infection:
Alpha-004
Surgery:
- Created a system for surgical procedures
- Initially implemented procedures include Medical Examination (used to determine general health and physiology of patient), Triage (used to quickly assess stability and criticality of a patient, as well as useful in identifying potential internal wounds), Amputation (cutting something off), Repartation (attaching something that has been cut off back on), Exploratory Surgery (determines internal bleeding and organ damage in a patient), Internal Trauma Control (stops internal bleeding).
- Tidied up system for internal injuries to reflect the new model
Infection:
- Created a system for wounds, bodyparts and organs to become infected
- Infections have different types; initial types will be Simple Bacterial, Infectious, Gangrene, Necrotic and Fungal. Each infection type has different effects and different vectors of spread. Different locations may have super deadly infections that can be caught (don’t swim in a sewer with open wounds or you will die).
- Wounds become infected when in infectious environments. Antiseptic treatments are the most effective defense, but a clean wound is substantially less likely to become infected.
- Once infections take root they will get better or worse over time depending on the traits, merits/flaws and effects of the user. Initially in LabMUD this will be largely based on body by default, with a couple of merits/flaws added for infection resistance or susceptibility. Certain medications will give an infection-fighting effect while they’re in the system – some medications may be only effective against certain types of infection too, so rare infections might require rare medications.
- Infections that get to a certain strength may spread – depending on the infection type this may mean spreading to another wound, spreading to an adjacent bodypart (gangrene for example), spreading to a specific organ (for later planned organ-attacking infections), or even spread to other people in the vicinity (Infectious).
- Some infections can do permanent damage that cannot be healed if they get to a high intensity (Gangrene, Necrotic). Outside of this, infections mostly cause a substantial amount of pain and lack of wound healing unless they get into an organ; untreated, this may lead to death.
- Characters now sweat when they exert themselves heavily.
- Sweating will soak through to worn clothing as well as making you thirsty. Clothing will show up as (sweat-damp), (sweaty) and (sweat-drenched) as it gets more sweat on it, and then (dried sweat) when the sweat dries. Sweat can be washed out of clothing by players with water, just like blood.
- At the moment the amount of sweat produced by each bodypart is determined by its relative hit chance…this is a temporary workaround, in future bodyparts will be able to set their “relative sweatiness” so for example “chest” and “groin” can sweat more than “fingers”.
- The cut-in threshold has been set at “Heavy” exertion (in the future you may sweat at lower levels in hotter weather, but there is not yet a weather system). The balance of this may need to be calibrated but initially if you do something that keeps you at an average of “Heavy” exertion for approximately 30 in-game minutes (6 RL Minutes), you will get about 4 in-game hours worth of passive thirst (which is roughly equivalent to real world based on my research).
- Added several new internal organ types: Intestines, Stomach, Spine, Lung, Trachea, Spleen, Kidney, Esophagus
- Damage to your ear organs now causes deafness. Note: ear organs are not the same as the ear locs.
- Damage to Esophagus, Stomach or Intenstines makes eating and drinking difficult. This will tie in with surgical procedures to attach IVs so food and water can be given intravenously for people with such injuries.
- Implemented a breathing system. Races can be flagged as needing to breathe, and also flag which fluids they can breathe.
- Rooms have a fluid for their atmosphere. This is by default determined by terrain. Most terrains would have a breathable air gas – underwater locations would have water, space might have nothing. Eventually the intention would be for effects/spells etc to be able to override this.
- In order to breathe, a being needs to be able to breathe the fluid in the room they’re in, and have at least one working lung and trachea. Both of these organs are highly susceptible to internal bleeding – a dagger or gunshot to the lung could now cause you to drown in your own blood.
- On the 10-second health tick, a being needing to breathe will take hypoxia damage to all of their organs if they cannot breathe. The amount of damage taken is determined on a per-organ basis, and is designed to be fairly slow (except to the brain, where it is configured to cause damage sufficient to cause unconsciousness after a minute or so).
- Hypoxia damage is relatively quick to heal if it is minor.
- Reworked how organ damage is applied – certain damage types (Hypoxia, Electricity, Crushing, Shockwave) always have a chance to damage organs, Piercing/Ballistic wounds have a chance on “Moderate” or higher wounds, and all other types require a “Severe”. Chance to damage an organ is then determined by the organ’s hit-chance. This means for instance that crushing wounds to the head are basically always going to be dealing damage to the brain for example, and a moderate stab to the chest has a chance of hitting a target’s heart – but it would take a severe chop to get the same result (this is balanced out by these wound type’s ability to cause bleeding).
- Some enhancements to Gender in Progs mostly relating to use in messages – e.g. him/her, he/she etc.
- Added Roles to the prog system, allowing characters/chargens to be tested against the presence of roles in progs (useful for building secrets/secret areas as well as in a few chargen options), and exposed some properties of roles to the system as well.
- Implemented on a helper system to control automatically manipulating tools and reagents so that surgery and eventually crafts (and magic, or whatever other systems need it) use the same system. This would mean that if you had multiple phases requiring that you wield different tools, the system will automatically get those tools from the room, containers (in the room or on your person), sheathes, attachments etc, and put tools back when done.
- Significantly reworked a number of performance-impacting data types (characters and items being the prime culprits) that could cause big performance stalls when a bunch of them were loaded for the first time at once. These are now “late initialised” in a batch, which means the database only needs to be hit once. For example, when loading a player for the first time and loading all their items to outfit them, the MUD would stall for 4-5 seconds. The same outfitting procedure now runs under 0.1 seconds, which is low enough to not cause any lag.
- ...I suspect the reason it still takes even 0.1 seconds is because of the way effects are loaded and I think I could get some more performance increases in this area with some effort, which is forthcoming.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- SekoETC
- Posts: 15523
- Joined: Wed May 05, 2004 11:07 am
- Location: Finland
- Contact:
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
This sounds very detailed but I've never played anything that required telnet and I have a sort of aversion to that. Maybe I'll get over it one day.
Not-so-sad panda
- Snickie
- RD/HR Member/Translator-English (LD)
- Posts: 4946
- Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:28 pm
- Location: FL
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
I like this. ![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I want to beta test it when it's ready (but who knows if I'll have the time)
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I want to beta test it when it's ready (but who knows if I'll have the time)
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Okay, instead of more combat screen shots, I'm going to post some admin side stuff related to how building works. I'm only going to touch on it very very basically, though.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/bU7s81m.png)
The first thing you're going to want to build is a shard, or shards. Think of it in the context of planets, or planes. As you can see, we have two shards on the demo MUD.
After shards, there are zones - regions within a shard. These can be as big, or small, as you'd like. They exist for organizational purposes, for progging, weather, echoes, etc. We have a few zones listed in one of our shards (The Lab.)
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/HITnI8j.png)
After zones, there are rooms - technically cells, at the moment. For the purpose of this post, rooms and cells are functionally identical, even though in reality they are... slightly different. Cells are your most basic building block, and in the future you will be able to nest multiple cells within a single room. The above image displays all the rooms in a particular zone.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/ulGoo5T.png)
Sandwiched between my score output and my inventory is a hastily built little room for our Guest Arena, in the Void zone within The Lab shard. The Arena should really have been its own separate zone, but it's not too much of a big deal since it's an OOC thing. Anyway, I've included a quick little break down of what a room looks like for an admin. Players don't see all this information, at least not laid out in such a plain way.
You have the name of the cell, and the description of the cell, which are immediately visible to player-characters (provided their characters can see, anyway. If they're blind, or it's too dark out, they will see something else.) Player-characters can also immediately see the exits of that room, which can include directions, buildings, etc. depending on how the admins have built their game. Admins can also see (and when editing, select) a terrain type, which sets a number of conditions in the room - the rate of infections for wounds, walking speed, difficulty to perform stealthy maneuvers or spot stealthy maneuvers, specific selection for progging functionality, forageable profiles, etc. The cell/room I'm in is a Wasteland.
Then you have the Overlay, with a revision number. This gets a little tricky to explain without delving too deeply into the building system, because it's an integral part of that, but in brief - you need an overlay package to build rooms. These packages are given a name, and are assigned a creator. You can swap these packages in and out of the main gameworld at will, provided you have the admin privs to do so. You can also view revision history, so there is a "paper trail" so to speak, and admins are forced accountability as everyone else (other admins) can view their work and see exactly what they're doing.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/bU7s81m.png)
The first thing you're going to want to build is a shard, or shards. Think of it in the context of planets, or planes. As you can see, we have two shards on the demo MUD.
After shards, there are zones - regions within a shard. These can be as big, or small, as you'd like. They exist for organizational purposes, for progging, weather, echoes, etc. We have a few zones listed in one of our shards (The Lab.)
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/HITnI8j.png)
After zones, there are rooms - technically cells, at the moment. For the purpose of this post, rooms and cells are functionally identical, even though in reality they are... slightly different. Cells are your most basic building block, and in the future you will be able to nest multiple cells within a single room. The above image displays all the rooms in a particular zone.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/ulGoo5T.png)
Sandwiched between my score output and my inventory is a hastily built little room for our Guest Arena, in the Void zone within The Lab shard. The Arena should really have been its own separate zone, but it's not too much of a big deal since it's an OOC thing. Anyway, I've included a quick little break down of what a room looks like for an admin. Players don't see all this information, at least not laid out in such a plain way.
You have the name of the cell, and the description of the cell, which are immediately visible to player-characters (provided their characters can see, anyway. If they're blind, or it's too dark out, they will see something else.) Player-characters can also immediately see the exits of that room, which can include directions, buildings, etc. depending on how the admins have built their game. Admins can also see (and when editing, select) a terrain type, which sets a number of conditions in the room - the rate of infections for wounds, walking speed, difficulty to perform stealthy maneuvers or spot stealthy maneuvers, specific selection for progging functionality, forageable profiles, etc. The cell/room I'm in is a Wasteland.
Then you have the Overlay, with a revision number. This gets a little tricky to explain without delving too deeply into the building system, because it's an integral part of that, but in brief - you need an overlay package to build rooms. These packages are given a name, and are assigned a creator. You can swap these packages in and out of the main gameworld at will, provided you have the admin privs to do so. You can also view revision history, so there is a "paper trail" so to speak, and admins are forced accountability as everyone else (other admins) can view their work and see exactly what they're doing.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Anybody interested in being a part of a soft release for LabMUD, hit me up via PM.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
- Rmak
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:00 am
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Cool
Quote Wolfsong:
They aren't playing children; they are playing mentally ill people.
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
They aren't playing children; they are playing mentally ill people.
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
![Cool 8)](./images/smilies/icon_cool.gif)
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
-
- Posts: 85
- Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 3:40 pm
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Can it be played on a mobile device
(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(" )_(" ) signature to help him gain world domination.
5211-1.20: You skillfully kill a hawk using a brand new screwdriver.
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your
(" )_(" ) signature to help him gain world domination.
5211-1.20: You skillfully kill a hawk using a brand new screwdriver.
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Yes, but with difficulty. I do not recommend combat while logged in via a phone, or even large group encounters.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
- Greek
- Programming Dept. Member/Translator-Polish
- Posts: 4726
- Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 5:41 pm
- Location: Kraków, Poland
- Contact:
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
Hi, I've created a character (I hope I did) but I got overwhelmed by all the questions. When I've finished, I've already forgotten what I was going to do.
‘Never! Run before you walk! Fly before you crawl! Keep moving forward! You think we should try to get a decent mail service in the city. I think we should try to send letters anywhere in the world! Because if we fail, I’d rather fail really hugely’
- Wolfsong
- Posts: 1277
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:33 am
- Location: Australia
Re: LabMUD/FutureMUD - it's like Cantr, but telnet
If you join the discord, link on the forums, there are about 20 or so MUD veterans on there who can help walk you through chargen. Otherwise, message me and I'll help when I get home.
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/BdOyvWS.png)
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest