Running the mud driver on Windows XP

Maintaining a Linux server might be a challenging, especially if the only thing you want is to run the mud locally for development and testing. Or better, for fun.

The driver is not available in a native Windows format, or .exe. as everyone knows it. The genesis Interest Association made it available as a Cygwin executable. cygwin is an Unix environment on Windows and it has a very nice installer.

Here are the steps to have a mud running on your Windows machine in no time.

1. Install Cygwin
2. Download and unpack the Cygwin distro
3. Start the mud driver

1. Install Cygwin

The first step is to download the Cygwin installer:  http://cygwin.com/setup.exe. Save it on your desktop, it might prove useful later, when you get used to it.

Start setup.exe from your desktop.

Click next and select "Install from the Internet on the next screen

Choose the defaults on the next screens:

Choose where you will put the packages you download. So you're saying a working mom er... goddess cannot play RPGs ? :D

Most probably you have a direct connection. Choose this if you are not sure.

Any mirror on the list will do. If you know a mirror that is closer to your physical location, choose it.

Wait until the installation list is downloaded on the next screen

On the next screen, expand the section "Libs" and select the "crypt" package as circled.

Choose to create icons o the desktop and the Start menu.

The cygwin installation is done. Look on your desktop for this icon:

 Double click to start cygwin.


2. Download and unpack the genesis cygwin distro.

The cygwin distro ca be found at http://www.genesismud.org/distributions/cygwin-genesis-dist.zip
Dowload it an unpack it under c:\cygwin\home\mud  as shown below

3. Start the mud driver

Double click on the cygwin icon, as shown above.

> cd /home/mud/bin
> ./driver &

The mud driver is started. Look for the next posts o how to create
the root user ans start building your game.

Genesis herbs

Here is a list of herbs you can find on Genesis. Telling you where they are will only spoil the fun, isn't it ? :)

I would love to hear from you back with herb maps and "mixes" you would like to make on Genesis.

1	pendick_flower
2	bergamot
3	witch_grass
4	ginseng
5	morel
6	clover3
7	sparkweed
8	dill
9	oakmoss
10	w_hallow
11	aspen_bark
12	pindan
13	pindan
14	rushwash
15	paramol
16	yarrow
17	moly
18	skunk
19	seregon
20	savory
21	blue_gentian
22	cord_grass
23	surf_grass
24	sargassum
25	fucu
26	eel_grass
27	bch_willow
28	ss_grass
29	poison_ivy
30	bch_plum
31	lore
32	horsetail
33	saskatoon
34	bloodweed
35	bkd_sedge
36	grey_willow
37	glowshroom
38	drudgeworth
39	mandrake
40	cranberry
41	sm_camas
42	blk_currant
43	mindleech
44	kuko
45	raspberry
46	crocus
47	monkshood
48	wintergreen
49	basil
50	morning_glory
51	cinquefoil
52	clover4
53	mint
54	blung
55	argil
56	carlith
57	braspberry
58	hop
59	ronwath
60	sage
61	thyme
62	cladina
63	blackberry
64	fdlhead
65	onoclea
66	clove
67	fennel
68	tuo
69	licorice
70	laurel
71	narcissus
72	jewelweed
73	ungolestel
74	redweed
75	myrtle
76	parsley
77	lothore
78	ginger
79	brownslime
80	mittikna
81	strangleweed
82	asparagus
83	wild_cuke
84	coffee
85	tarragon
86	broccoli
87	tomato
88	garlic
89	attanar
90	oregano
91	curugwath
92	tyelka
93	suranie
94	chervil
95	hemlock
96	coccinea
97	bpotato
98	sumac
99	foxglove
100	hazelnut
101	alfirin
102	spinach
103	huckleberry
104	marjoram
105	rosemary
106	nightshade
107	treemushroom
108	nethra
109	caraway
110	bean_black
111	wild_plum
112	saffron
113	holly
114	dandelion
115	fireweed
116	lianor_berry
117	pawnrose
118	skullcap
119	adillyp
120	cattail
121	labr_tea
122	breadroot
123	soapweed
124	culkas
125	blueberry
126	astaldo
127	fordinfa
128	shamrock
129	amanita
130	wstrawberry
131	chokecherry
132	sarsaparilla
133	chicory
134	chantrelle
135	hawthorn
136	red_pepper
137	bunchberry
138	green_pine
139	tangleshoot
140	solinaith
141	sebre
142	morgurth
143	angurth
144	athelas
145	angeltear
146	belladonna
147	madwort
148	tiger_lily
149	frostheal
150	salt_wort
151	nightshade
152	darkroot
153	pumpkin
154	dajla
155	vinerot
156	darfern
157	flameroot
158	redeye
159	catnip
160	carrot
161	gonion
162	blade
163	fungari
164	handasse
165	numbis
166	moosho
167	ithilgil
168	bean_kidney
169	sphagnum
170	nasturtium
171	sea_lettuce
172	sea_bubble
173	bean_lima
174	rpotato
175	lady_slipper
176	hellebore
177	elidross
178	locoweed
179	columbine
180	chives
181	bilberry
182	bean_green
183	nilgu
184	kelp
185	sea_moss
186	emmelti
187	cedar_bark
188	simbelmyne
189	goats_rue
190	carrot_wild
191	greenslime
192	bean_fava
193	bur_reed
194	elkhorn_kelp
195	bull_kelp
196	laminaria
197	coral_alga
198	grass
199	lamia
200	blackroot
201	nettle
202	lissuin
203	raspberry
204	strawberry
205	marshmallow
206	lukilvor
207	whitehorn
208	wilcol
209	shadow_onion
210	bloodcreep
211	chartess
212	athly
213	wildfeather
214	streyroot
215	strim
216	annalda
217	khuz
218	maroea
219	laranthas
220	yam
221	hensbane
222	tansy
223	oreste
224	niphredil
225	calendula
226	carrot_black
227	daffodil
228	mandrake
229	beatha
230	veronica
231	marigold
232	glimmer
233	peanut
234	honeysuckle
235	elanor
236	borage
237	lavender
238	angelica
239	bee_balm
240	cattails
241	sun_stone
242	bloodfruit
243	selevon
244	angel_tears
245	lorea
246	osarni
247	maicari
248	marymoor
249	illavina
250	carolden
251	ripplebark
252	bellarnon
253	adildra
254	sussur
255	firemoss
256	ranindir
257	vamp_moss

Useful wizard commands

Here are a number of useful wizard commands.

Emotes without moving
At [yourWizardName] [command] - do something in someone's environment

Give yourself money
(we know it is only for testing purposes;)
money [copper] [silver] [gold] [plat]

Execute some LPC code on the fly
execr find_player("bendis")->command("say Hi");

Tracer tool
    At        Perform a command in the environment of a player
    Call        Call a function in an object
    Cat        Cat the file linked to an object
    Clean        Destruct all non-interactive objects in an object
    Destruct    Destruct a specific object
    Dump        Print various information about an object
    Ed        Ed the file linked to an object
    Goto        Enter the inventory of an object
    In        Perform a command in another object
    More        More the file linked to an object
    Move        Move an object to a destination
    Reload        Update, load, clone and replace an object
    Set        Set a tracer variable
    Tail        Tail the file linked to an object
    Top        Show top cpu statistics

Control
      control [target]

Shops

The mudlib offers support for commerce. A shop is a place or person who can buy or sell items.

The diagram below shows the objects used for the alchemist shop. The alchemist_shop sells athly, streyroot and strim. These herbs are kept in a  store belonging to the alchemist_shop.

Diagrams

The diagrams on this blog are produced using the DIA diagram editor. It is like Visio and it is free software.

In many Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu) you can install DIA via the system update.

You can download the source xml files for the diagrams to edit with DIA below.
Please let me know if you find discrepancies, mistakes or if you have an improved diagram. I will post it here with all the due credit.

Craft guilds

The mudlib provides support for four types of guilds:

1. occupational guild
2. layman guild
3. racial guild
4. craft guild

This post explains the structure of a craft guild, the services provided and sample code.

In essence a craft guild allows the members to combine a set of objects in their inventory to "produce" another object of some utility to the player. For example potions and buffs.

The example in this post will create an alchemist guild and it will be based on the standard distribution. To create your own sandbox and experiment with the code in this article refer to the Getting Started with LPMud article.

Craft guild services

A craft guild provides the following services:
    1. join services: join and leave the guild
    2. train services: train the special skill of the guild, in our case alchemy
    3. start services: the user can set its start location in a room in the guild
    4. special abilities, for example mix potion or elixir; in our case the guild will mix a potion

Optional a guild could provide an emblem, a shop, a post office or other related services.

Class structure
The classes participating in the guild implementation are shwon in the figure below. The classes in the packages in red are part of the mudlib while the classes in the packages in blue are part of the alchemist guild implementation.

The class diagram is given for reference, helping in understanding the workings of the guild. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Join services
The join/leave services are provided by a game room, joinroom.c , to which 2 actions are added: alcjoin and alcleave.

The diagram below shows what happens when a player joins the craft guild. after the player issues the command, a clone of the craft_shadow class is installed as a shadow for the player if the user is allowed to join the guild. Then the guild emblem and the guild soul and the guild specific player description are added. The guild soul hosts the guild specific abilities.

Train services
The guild allows the player to train the special skills defined by the guild, in this case alchemy. The train services are provided by a game room, train.c. The room inherits the skill trainer behavior from skill_train mudlib component.

Start services
[TODO]

Special abilities
The special ability provided by the alchemist guild is to carve a mortar which knows how to mix a potion. One could argue that the ability itself might be mix potion. In this case, the mortar class is already defined on Genesis and it is a good opportunity to reuse the code.

Getting started with LP Mud

If you are here probably you know what a mud is, and even more what an LP Mud is. If you don't, check the Genesis Mud website and you will get an idea.

If you decided LP coding is for you, this article will explain how to get started. Of course, you can always join Genesis at telnet genesismud.org:3011 and apply for a wizard position.

I believe that learning by doing is the fastest way to learn coding so here are how you start up your own sandbox.

I published a virtual machine on the Amazon EC2 cloud that has anything that you need to get you started. The mud driver and mudlib build are credited to the Genesis Interest Association.

Amazon EC2 is a Amazon service that allows you to run virtual machines ( a kind of computer :)) on demand. You don't need to buy a new computer and install Linux for several hundred dollars and a lot of sweat and time. Here is how to get your own computer or instance on Amazon for about 3 cents per hour.

You can get your mud sandbox up and running in one hour. Here are the steps.

1. Get an Amazon EC2 account.
Go to the Amazon EC2 page and sign up for an account.

Click the “Sign up for This Web Service” button on the Amazon EC2 detail page. You must have an Amazon Web Services account to access this service; if you do not already have one, you will be prompted to create one when you begin the Amazon EC2 sign-up process.

2. Login in the Amazon EC2 administration console.
Go to the Amazon ECS Administration Console login page and enter your credentials.




3. Create a spot request

Click the spot requests menu item. Choose the Community AMI tab. Enter ami-a147a8c8 in the search box to search for the Genesis AMI. Click the Select button.



Enter 0.04 as spot request. This will allow you to obtain an instance faster, in about 30 minutes.



Click continue. On the next screen accept the default values and click continue too.

The next screen asks to create a new key pair. This is an important file that you need to keep securely on your hard disk, as it allows the connection to the server via the root account.



Make sure you click the "Create & Download your Key Pair" and record the location where you saved it.

Click Continue to advance to the security group page. As your computer will be accessible from the Internet, it needs to be locked down for security.

From the bottom drop down select SSH and click the Add Rule button. This will allow only SSH connections to your computer for now. Click Continue.



The next and last screen is the summary screen and it should look like this:



Click submit to create your spot request. The request should be fulfilled in about 30 minutes. Go and drink a coffee and keep a tab on your instances. When your instance is started go to the next steps.

4. Download, install and set up PUTTY.

If you are using Linux you already have all you need. If you are on Windows, you can use PUTTY to establish and SSH connection to your server. You opened the SSH port earlier when you created the security group.

Download PUTTY. Download the whole installation kit for Windows as it has several utilities that will be needed. Run the installer.

5. Log in the "mud" account
Your instance comes pre-configured non-privileged account where you can run your mud. The password for this account is tom!bombadil.

As I posted the password for you to log in here on the blog, the first thing you will do is to change it.

In your AWS console click on the instances menu item. Click on your instance and on the bottom page copy the Public DNS value. It should look like this:

ec2-[yourIP].compute-1.amazonaws.com

Here is how you log in:

PUTTY (Windows)

putty -ssh -2 mud@ec2-[yourIP].compute-1.amazonaws.com

SSH (Linux or Mac)

ssh mud@ec2-[yourIP].compute-1.amazonaws.com

Enter the password: tom!bombadil

6. Change the password for the "mud" user

After login type this command at the prompt:

> passwd

Follow the prompts and change the password.

7. Start the mud driver

The mud driver is in the "bin" folder. Type the following commands to start it:

> cd bin
> nohup driver &

The second command starts the driver in such a way that it will not be shut down after you log off.

8. Open the port 3011

Your mud runs on the port 3011. Our security group configuration blocks everything except ssh. To open the port 3011 go to the AWS console and click on the Security Groups menu. Choose the security group genesis on the right pane.



Leave the select on "Custom" as we are adding a custom rule. Fill in the rest of the fields as in the image above and click Add Rule. The port is not open and you can connect to the mud.

9. Connect to the mud
Use your favorite mud client to connect to the mud. The host name is the public DNS name that you gathered above and the port is 3011. Create a character and look around.

Enjoy.