Busy Busy Busy

I thought last week was going to suck.... and it didn't really. I didn't think this week was going to suck.... and it is. Two exams, two projects, and a lab report basically take command of this week. To top it off I have a world civ paper due in 3 weeks... 10 to 12 pages. I have a feeling my conscious wont let me do much coding until this stuff is pretty much taken care of so this week seems to be lost, no clue how the next few weeks after this will be, guess we'll see. I probably shouldn't feel this overwhelmed based on the work but I do, so I'm going to take care of this stuff and wait until all these extra stressors are out of the way. Hopefully I'll get through this without issue and I'll be back to coding in a week or two. At least I'm at a pretty natural break point in my coding, so why not take a break I guess. Anyway I'll let you all know when I have time again.

Later,
Toraux

Stuff Happening

Well, I wanted to get some coding done today but it didn't happen. All this homework, projects, and now I guess quizzes are stressing me a bit and making it a bit harder to get work done. My next few days are pretty packed so I'm not sure if I will even try tomorrow night, I guess it depends on how things go, hopefully I'll be back on track by Sunday night.

My next task is to write some python scripts to interact with the running game. I plan on making a script to provide status, one to provide access to the scrolling output log, and a means of shutting down the game without logging in. Next after that is some general clean up and code formatting, and then I'm moving on to improving overall persistence. My goal with this is to allow the game to load and maintain a large world with a minimum of memory usage etc.

Guess beyond this there isn't much to mention, hopefully by next week I'll be fully on track. I already got more done this week then I had originally though possible so I guess I can't complain. I'll probably be posting next once I have some more code done unless something big comes up.

Later,
Toraux

This Week

Well this coming week was going to be horrible. I had an OS lab to do, Digital Electronics Lab Report to write, and a matlab project for Signals and Systems. The tides have turned however, I got up this morning and blew away the OS lab in several hours. I thought it would take 10-12 hours like the last one was so this frees up a lot of time. I've been working like crazy on getting ahead of the game for other hw too, got my World Civ's reading done through Monday, and other homework done through mid week. Hopefully this means that I won't loose any coding time this week like I thought, and instead maybe pick up a little more. Friday night and Saturday I'm spending in New York training so I might loose some time this coming weekend.

I took advantage of all this today and got the new accounts system fixed up. There isn't too much of a change apparent for the user, but internally things are a bit better, and will support future changes that will be needed to finish up some comms stuff. Also, char creation now includes genders.

Can't wait until this game is ready, I day dream at least once a day about playing, what I would do as a player, the goals and dreams of my character and the means I would take to get there. Whenever I read or listen to my Civs lectures I think about the game from those terms, means of governments that might form, balancing the economy and agriculture etc. Half the movies I see make me think about it too. Hopefully things will speed up and I can get this thing to a beta stage relatively shortly.

Hopefully this week goes good.
-Toraux

Accounts

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, school as always has been hectic. Things are moving forward, but of course not as fast as I would like. My next project is pretty big, I've decided I need to overhaul the account system again. First off I need this so that I can make the news and announce prompt tags work based on each account. Secondly the current login code pretty much blows. Its disgusting to try to read and debug.

My aim is to have some sort of class represent accounts and to redo all of the Login code with a bit more preplanning. So far I'm turning up nothing, kind of a stumbling block because its so involved and has so many different cases. Then there also comes into the picture the storing of these accounts etc etc etc . And on top of that the synchronization issue where an account could be loaded or not loaded and if it is loaded it needs to be updated differently then an unloaded account. This might make persistence easier however as I figure out how to deal with it on a smaller scale here. Hopefully when I get back to school on Sunday I'll have time to get to this and get it done right. I don't want to have to modify login code after this until I'm ready to change char creation over to random selection of pre made chars.

I'm going to sleep soon now though and give this some good thought before I get too much further into it. Wish me luck.
-Toraux

Damn, What a Weekend

Well this weekend was a little heavier on the homework then I'd have liked. I spent all of Saturday getting almost all of my normal homework out of the way at home, and then spent all day today working on finishing my Shell for Operating Systems. Its pretty sweet, but I think all that time could have been spent more productively coding something cool.... like Dynamic.

I'm slowly making progress, committed some changes tonight and worked out my to do list some more, seems like its getting longer faster then I can work on them. I think now is also a good time to Mention that it is pretty much official, Sliis is working on help files and documentation for me, and Qyae is shifting some of his responsibilities to include web development. Hopefully we'll actually have a website soon, and testers will have a bit of information to turn to.

I was also thinking this weekend that I can possibly package up a jar from my code and run it on a virtual machine on my home machine on weekends. The next weekend that I have that I know I'll have time I'll give it a try, if it works then I can possibly run some more tests, but the less stable machine would still be somewhat of an issue I guess.

Anyway, time to get ready for sleep and stuff, Later.
-Toraux

Quick Update

Just want to post a quick update. The last few days of each week are usually hell for getting stuff done, and thus I haven't moved forward on coding since Wednesday. This weekend is looking like it will be rough too. I have a lot of homework, and I need to write a shell in c for my Operating Systems course due Tuesday, which could potentially take a lot of time. The command interpreter for it is already done but I got to code the piping operators, and that doesn't seem quite as simple. Hopefully I'll get this and my other huge stack of homework to do this weekend done in reasonably time so I can hit up some dynamic coding Sunday night.

Anyway, I need sleep.
Later
-Toraux

Sun Microsystems Needs Better Documentation

So last night I was messing around with some of my code, I decided to load up my Java into a jar and give it a try outside of eclipse. Of course my normal classpath setting wouldn't make Java understand that the database resource I needed was available so it wouldn't run. However there is this nice utility called Java-config that lets you set the classpath.... so lets use that. Wrong! Java-config's classpath options are all depreciated so they don't do anything. All the documentation online points to these as the ways of fixing this problem. Thankfully however I stumbled on a forum post that made sense.

If you can't get a class to load on your classpath with Java 1.5 and later: make sure its in your /opt/sun-jdk-1.5.0.08/jre/lib/ext/ directory, where the sun-jdk-1.5.0.08 is your version. Its similar under windows but I can't remember the exact path but it should be something like C:\Program Files\Java\Java-version-here\lib\ext.

I hope this helps someone else save 50 minutes of their life.
-Toraux

Contract and Copyright

As was brought up on top mudsites last night and early this morning, there was some concern over ownership of produced works in conjunction with this game. My intent is mainly to prevent work done for this game from showing up elsewhere, and I wouldn't mind letting people keep their work in the even that the project is canceled. On that note I think we can add another available position to the fold:

Law Expert - I need someone with some sort of legal background, whether it be a professional lawyer, or someone who is studying to be one, or have other exposure to business, contract, and copyright law. Just like the other jobs send an email to jobs@dymuw.slayn.net.

Hopefully before any work is actually published the legal matters will be handles.

Thanks,
Toraux

Dynamic Open Positions

Currently the Dynamic MUD staff needs to definately grow in a few areas. This listing will include any positions that definately need filling, as well as several that sometime over the next few months could potentially be filled, as well as other areas of expertise that would be good to have access to. If you would like to contribute and none of the jobs here fit you, you might consider applying anyways, impress me and i'll try and make use of you. I recommend checking out this to see the general guidelines and recommendations for applying.

High Priority:

Webmaster - We just got access to some decent free webhosting, which seems to mean its a good time to start developing the website. All applicants should have good understanding of PHP, MySql, CSS, html, and possibly other forms of webprograming and webpage design. I would expect the webmaster to be able to handle installation of other webscripts and modules and be capable of various design and graphics as well on occation. The webmaster will work with myself in integrating google adsense advertisements into the website and possibly writing web based utilities for game content creation or modification.

Non-story Content Developer - This position is basically going to be a documentation writer. Primary responsibilities include writing help files and tutorial guides for gameplay. Possibly also taking on the responsibility of moderating and organizing the socials (non gameplay related player actions like nod,wave etc) development and integration.

Content Editor - We will need an editor who is capable of proofreading for spelling, punctuation, and grammer. Someone in this position could possibly also take on further moderation or writing responsibilities if so desired beyond their base responsibilities.

Lower Priority:

Marketing - We will eventually need someone to handle advertisement and promotion of the game and website on other websites and forums to drive up our playerbase and readership. This position can also take on other responsibilities if the work required directly becomes low.

Art - We will need various sketch and graphic artists for various art projects related with publications, the website, etc. A portfolio of examples would be a good place to start with an application for this position.

Story Content Developer - Finally we will also be needing content editors to write up the various story and plot lines that will run behind the scenes. These content staff members will write up stories, and play various characters in the game to influence events. Interest in fantasy, sci-fi, and or history would be very helpful in this position.

We are currently not looking for coders, however sometime in the next year or two we might be looking for coders for side projects.

Please send all emails to jobs@dymuw.slayn.net, preferably putting Dynamic MUD and the position(s) of interest in the subject line.

Thanks all,
-Toraux

Application Requirements

The following are general requirements for those who are interested in applying for positions here for Dynamic MUD. These are general guidelines for the most part, but if you are serious about working on or with the game you should be serious about how you apply as well.

1. All applicants should hopefully have some sort of examples of past work, most likely not in the field of game development but in related fields, education, or other personal projects.

2. All applicants should understand that any work they do for the game will become property of the game, meaning you forfeit all rights to ownership of the works you do for the game.

3. Your application should include your favorite feature(s) mentioned here on the blog or elsewhere. Anyone who wants to be a part of this game's development but doesn't understand what it's about wont be a good fit with us.

4. On a similar note we will often take preference on those who have shown a previous interest in the game, either by signing up for testing, or by being frequently involved in discussion over the game in whatever public means of discussion that we can provide.

For the time being, anyone interested in applying for any positions should send an email to jobs@dymuw.slayn.net. This email should include Dynamic MUD in the subject line, and include the position (or general area of your expertise), why you want to work on the game, previous experience, and your favorite Dynamic MUD feature. I will try to get back to you regardless of whether we are looking to recruit for that position.

Thanks,
-Toraux

Socials Complete

Woo, socials are coded. Pretty simple system to use, but it took a bit to get it all implemented. Thankfully it is done and a few simple socials have already been scripted in. Hopefully soon I'll be able to have staff writing them on the side if they want to or have one of the data people work on adding some. This major enhancement brings me to 16716 total lines, and 9046 actual lines of functioning code. These changes also put me almost to the end of the fixes and improvements to comms, so I should be able to move onto some other stuff soon.

In other news, I set up an account with slayn.net, So I now have some free web hosting space and eventually a possible mud host. This means I'll be posting the new job advertisements sometime hopefully in the next few days (maybe tonight).
Later all,
Toraux

News and Socials

I added the news and emote commands today, didn't take long at all. The next thing I have to work on is the socials system which could potentially take several hours more then most additions. Total lines are up to 16034, actual lines of code hit 8662 today.

This is also a good juncture to think about a stylistic option for the game. One way would involve making the game more or less 'third person' and make all the messages you see include your name etc. This would actually be easier to code in a lot of ways and might make things feel more like a book, but might be harder to keep track of what your doing in a high stress environment. The other option is the standard first person. Right now I think I'm on track for first person, but making the switch might take a whole bunch of effort so I think I'll be thinking about it tomorrow on my coding off day.

I also managed to pick up a whole bunch of plastic coated calendars that the school is giving out today. Screw the calendar, the back is just as dry erase, a great way to do some design in marker and be able to move them around and store them etc. Hopefully this all makes sense, I'm finding it hard to stay conscious right now, kind of tired and I have an exam tomorrow morning.

Hopefully Friday and Saturday will be productive coding days, heading home Sunday and Monday and then back to the grind on Tuesday

Announcement

Well announcements are basically in. I will need to revisit it when I improve accounts later on to add the [ANN] to your prompt if you haven't read the latest announcements yet. I also improved help slightly. Next on the docket is news which will be quite simple I believe, and then emote, then socials. Things will hopefully start moving faster now.

Trying to do this around school is a hassle. I wish I had the time to just code for 4 or 5 hours a day at least but right now I feel lucky when I get an hour. my homework has been rough, and a couple tests this week two.

Oh, and on the matter of storage, I think I have several options now. The first would be to sign up for a free FTP/storage account at a place like maybe ripway. Of course this means anyone involved would need to share the same username and password so theres little to no accountability etc. I also got an offer today from someone to let me use their free hosting service to host that stuff which I think could potentially work quite well. I could also probably make use of this to host test servers and the initial website too.

Perpetually waiting for the weekend.
-Toraux

Damn School Work

Hey all, didn't get any coding done tonight, homework really pushed me into a corner tonight, and I have an exam tomorrow too so I've been busy. Hopefully tomorrow night will go better and I can finish implementing the announcement system.
Now that the help system is working I think I will be taking on someone to write help files and other for player documentation to get that stuff handled and at the same time out of my hands so I can concentrate on developing the code. I will post an official job description later this week, but the job pretty much seems like it's assigned. If anyone else is interested in it get in touch and we can see if I'm ready for more then one person in this capacity.

On a similar note I will be looking for some sort of free online data storage place that allows shared access to facilitate the movement of these data files and possibly other data files as well. Comments on any of these subjects are encouraged.

Until tomorrow then, I think I will sleep. Later all.
-Toraux

Shout and Help done

So I finished shout and help today. Shout works as it used to in the old proto-type, messages become broken up the further you get from the shouter. I also coded up the help system today. Help to the user appears to be the same as basically any help system in any other mud out there. Internally I improved the mechanism beyond the old system to allow it reload the help database while running, and eliminate the need for an index file. Help should work pretty efficiently and be easy to manage help files in. The next system i'm working on is the announcement system, which is about 40% done. Once this system is done i'll add news which should be an easy add, followed by emote and socials.

The code is now up to 15530 total lines in the files, 8396 of those are actual code, the rest is whitespace and comments, guess no one can say it isn't documented. Hopefully i'll be able to finish announcements tomorrow around my homework and studying. Cant wait to get all this done so I can run this for
real.

Later all,
-Toraux