I've Moved!

I've decided to move this blog and combine the development of the Bedevere MUD with the development of some other games.  Please visit the new DedTreeJig blog.

Naughty Words, Magic and God

I am a practicing Christian (ask me what that means), so there are things that will and will not be included in the Bedevere MUD Engine based on my faith and world view.

Magic - You will be able to add potions, tinctures, trinkets and the like that can increase or decrease stats. Weapons and armor that increase damage, dexterity and the like.  However there will be no magic or spell system in the game.  While I don't believe that playing games with magic and spells is necessarily evil, as a Christian I don't feel they have a place in anything I create.

Word Filter -  The Bedevere MUD Engine will include an extensive word filter. The filter will be used for usernames,  character names and all conversation within the game, even private conversations.  You can edit or entirely remove the word filter, but I hope that you don't.

God - How you handle religion your own MUD world is up to you, but the BME will not have a system for handling gods or deities.

You may also want to read Why am I writing a MUD engine?

Community Chest

One of the next things I will be adding to the Bedevere MUD are chests.  Chests are objects (not necessarily chests) that can spawn items in rooms.  They can spawn one off  items used for a special event or they can spawn items on a regular schedule for general quests. Chests can also require keys to open.  Unlike other items, the description of a chest will be appended to the room description to allow for a more complete overview of the room.

Mobs and Combat Code

Originally the MUD was designed to use static monsters that would have a chance of re-spawning every so often. This was to give the appearance of movement, but it has limitations in combat. I decided to rip out the static code and go with moving monsters, or MOBS (mobile objects). This really enhanced the world within the MUD, especially when other monsters enter a room where you are already in the middle of combat.  One of the downsides of this was I needed to handle when these new monsters entered, and at this point I also realized a design flaw. During each combat round, players would only battle one monster while the others (if they weren't battling another player) would patiently wait their turn for battle.  While it's a very polite way to fight, it doesn't make for challenging combat.

So, over the past few days I ripped out all of the combat code and rewrote it so that every player in the room and every monster in the room get a chance during a combat round.  Not only did it make combat more challenging, it also allowed me to streamline the combat code considerably.

Approvals, Validations and other Adminy Stuff

The past few days I have been working on email validation and approval functions.  The game will have three modes for handling new users.

Email Validation - The normal validation deal, a users creates an account and a character and are then emailed a validation code which they must enter before they can begin playing.

Manual Approval - In this mode users don't have to enter an email address, but they must be approved by an admin.  When a new user account is created the admin is sent an email letting them know about the pending approval.  This method is designed for closed games.

Open - In this mode there is no validation or approval, once a user creates their account and character they can begin playing.

Updated Bedevere Mapper

 Here's an screen shot of the newest Bedevere Mapper. It's looking much better.  This screen shot is of the Mac version, I am not a fan of Mac's at all but the software I am developing the Bedevere MUD in makes it easy to create cross platform applications. The Bedevere MUD Engine and Editor/Mapper will be released for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Mapper screen shot

This is a screen shot of the mapping feature of the editor, it's still a work in progress, bit already it makes creating the game world much easier.