Weekly Update for the 27th of June 2004

[Ammit]

News:
We're still soliciting player histories for the staff documentation. Anything's fair game for a write-up of your character. What do you want remembered about your character? What did s/he do, and who did s/he interact with? What would other members of her/his clan remember, what stories would the grandchildren tell? Write-ups of past clans, including the slew of player-created desert elf tribes, are also quite welcome. Let us immortalize you. Send your emails to sanvean@armageddon.org.

We are currently #7 on Top Mud Sites! Thanks for voting.

Code Changes:
Merchant Script Addition (Halaster)
Script to allow PCs to look at their reflection in mirrors. (Naiona)
Arena script. (Naiona)
Spell updates (Nessalin and Halaster)
Look bug fixed (Nessalin)
1 Script added and Misc. Script Maintanance (Raesanos)

World Changes:
1 NPC added (Adhira)
2 objects for Raesanos (Ashyom)
4 NPCs and 2 objects added (Ix Machina)
Removed the Tesdanyali merchant from Tuluk. (Louten)
1 item from JCruise and 1 NPC from Regur added (Mekeda)
Luirs Updates (Mekeda)
2 NPCs from Duncan and 2 NPCs from Iax (Naiona)
2 objects from crymerci and 19 objects (Nidhogg)
2 objects and 2 NPCs (Raesanos)

Staff Changes[/u]:
Dyrinis - stepping back to HL, and will initially be helping/advising with the Arm of the Dragon
Laeris - stepping down to Legend
Naephet - returning from leave, hurrah!

Document Changes:
Webpages Added:
http://www.armageddon.org/general/social_mores.html (Sanvean)

Webpage Updates:
Wiki additions from Ammit, Ashyom, Sanvean and Savak
http://www.armageddon.org/general/illness.html (Sanvean) - typo fixed
http://www.armageddon.org/general/mineral.html (Sanvean) - typo fixed
http://www.armageddon.org/general/noble.html (Sanvean) - link added
http://www.armageddon.org/general/staff.html (Sanvean) - updated

Typos/bugs/ideas:
AMoore (3), Anael (1), Ashyom (1), Callisto (1), Delcarion (1), Delirium (5), DragonzHell (2), EvilRoeSlade (1), Fatman (1), Gilvar (2), Hade (1), HaiWolfe (1), Hoodwink (1), Jmordetsky (1), Kai (1), Khorm (1), Lorrain (1), Myrdryn (1), Naiona (1), Nari (1), Phoenix (1), Savak (2), Sleazye (1), Soltun (1), TheFlash (1), Vox (1), Werd (2), Zwen (2)

Fixers included Mekeda, Sanvean and Savak

Current Open Clan Assignments[/u]:
Allanak Templarate and Militia: Dyrinis@armageddon.org, Kivan@armageddon.org, Naiona@armageddon.org and Wachabe@armageddon.org
Anyali: Louten@armageddon.org
Atrium: Adhira@armageddon.org
Bards of Poets Circle: Sanvean@armageddon.org, Mekeda@armageddon.org,
and Ixmachina@armageddon.org
House Borsail: Kivan@armageddon.org, Naiona@armageddon.org and Wachabe@armageddon.org
Desert Elves: Bhagharva@armageddon.org and Myrixt@armageddon.org
The Guild: Nidhogg@armageddon.org and Tiernan@armageddon.org
Haruch Kemad: Bhagharva@armageddon.org and Myrixt@armageddon.org
House Kadius: Ashyom@armageddon.org and Sanura@armageddon.org
House Kurac: Gesht@armageddon.org and Mekeda@armageddon.org
Northern Templarate and Militia: Myrdryn@armageddon.org and Nidhogg@armageddon.org
House Nenyuk: Ammit@armageddon.org, Kurano@armageddon.org and Nidhogg@armageddon.org
House Oash: Ashyom@armageddon.org, Myrdryn@armageddon.org, and Nechomacus@armageddon.org
House Salarr: Ixmachina@armageddon.org and Xygax@armageddon.org
Tan Muark: Naephet@armageddon.org, Gilvar@armageddon.org, Zhaira@armageddon.org and Adhira@armageddon.org
House Tenneshi: Dakurus@armageddon.org and Adhira@armageddon.org
House Tor: Gilvar@armageddon.org and Sanura@ginka.armageddon.org
T'zai Byn: Tlaloc@armageddon.org and Raesanos@armageddon.org
House Winrothol: Ammit@armageddon.org and Tlaloc@armageddon.org

There are 27328 rooms, 19018 objects, and 6652 npcs in the game.
3171 items are craftable (17%)
102 applications approved, 14 rejected, 77 edited.

Special apps should be sent to Brixius@armageddon.org

[sacac]

pc mirror reflections.. damn
Our Imms are the best, I believe
[/brownnosing]
J/k
But awesome and the social mores website is awesome
First week back and halastar is already busy.. I'm sorry..  :lol:

[Anonymous]

Dyrinis was an Overlord?

[Vettrock]

I looked at the updated staff page (http://www.armageddon.org/general/staff.html ) and I noticed some of the immortals are missing. Adhira, Ammit, Bhagharva, Dakurus, Halester, and Myrixt for example.

In addition the wizlist in the game still has Halester as a Legend.

[Trenidor]

In addition the wizlist in the game still has Halester as a Legend.

He still is a legend, I mean, look at how people sheak when they hear his name?

Anyway, I noticed this week there were lots of single bug people, either there's a bug everyone knows about, or we've got a few problems.



Srry I just had to say that.

[Xygax]

Anyway, I noticed this week there were lots of single bug people, either there's a bug everyone knows about, or we've got a few problems.

We definitely have hundreds and hundreds of bugs, as any complex game whose codebase is almost 15 years old ( more ) will have.

But, also, a lot of people use "bug", when they should be using "typo" or "idea."

[sheep]

I thought programs would lose most of their bugs over the years as more are found and fixed? No sarcasm or anything, I honostly don't know a thing about the game's codeing.

[Xygax]

Certainly bugs are ironed out and fixed over the lifetime of any program, but games (like most other software) are also continually enhanced with new features.  These new features introduce new bugs, and the interaction of these new features with old systems can also introduce subtle bugs.  Worse still, one of the maxims of programming is that for every bug you fix, you introduce ten more.

If a piece of software never evolves in any way, beyond having its bugs fixed (and that with great care), then yes, it's probable that eventually the huge host of initial bugs would eventually begin to dwindle to a more managable size.  But the fact is, software that doesn't change and evolve isn't very interesting; and this is especially so for a game like ArmageddonMUD.

And, none of this even begins to mention the bugs that can be introduced by new and/or bad data.  Often, systems are designed to manage only a limited amount of data, and a long lived piece of software may wind up managing more data than expected.  In other cases, erroneously formatted or entered data can reveal other holes in a system that had seemed bug-free, previously.

Adding and losing knowledgable coders to a development team can cause problems, too.  People with new ideas may revamp systems without understanding the whole problem, and people who understood the whole mass of the code well, in general, can leave large gaps in the knowledge of a team of implementors when they leave.

So...  no.  Programs don't become bug-free over time.  Like everything else in the universe, they tend toward chaos.

[sheep]

So do the numbers of bugs in a game like armageddon continue to rise forever, or is there an equillibrium where the number of bugs fixed cancels out the number of bugs introduced?

[Forest Junkie]

So do the numbers of bugs in a game like armageddon continue to rise forever, or is there an equillibrium where the number of bugs fixed cancels out the number of bugs introduced?

It sounds like Xygax was saying that, basically, when you input new code, new bugs arise. When you fix those bugs, the fixed bugs cause more bugs to arise. It's a vicious cycle of pain!

[sheep]

The game doesn't eventually develop so many bugs that it's unplayable does it?

[mansa]

No.

When you introduce new code into a system, it will never be -perfect-.  People will always find a way to abuse the new system.  That's why there's always changes to code.

For example, someone might introduce a new 'sword' into the game.  It might be the strongest sword in the game, because some staff member put the damage to 9 instead of 6.  You could call that a bug, because everybody will now buy that certain weapon, and use it, and abuse the mistake that the staff member did, when they made it.

Will the game ever become unplayable?  No.  We have -excellent- staff here, and they are very quick about protecting the game and any problems that might arise.  You can -always- remove code you added.

There are some examples of that, in this game.  Some staff members were working on certain spells, or some wagon code.  Or even some poisons and spices.  The game is always morphing and changing.  That's why it will never grow old.

[Agent_137]

If i have no coding experience, but I thought I'd like to help out sometime in the future, is it something I should even bother with? Learning code?
Is there some huge helpfile on diku that I could read somewhere? Or is it rather obtuse and I would need some coding experience and teaching before bothering to think about bothering with it?

[mansa]

Easiest way is to find the DIKU code out there, and run a mud yourself.
Google it!

[SailorMars]

It's bee a while, so correct me if I'm wrong...

Diku was written in C, not C++, though some modified Dikus switched over to C++. Anyway, if you can write those languages, you can comfortably work with the stock Diku code.

[Xygax]

Assuming a relative mastery of C and C++ (which isn't actually requisite, a sane person with some common sense can do a lot with a MUD codebase just by cutting and pasting, though I'm not actually advocating that), you might also want to learn some about TCP and how it works, and the telnet protocol.  Some familiarity with scripting languages like Perl, Python, JavaScript, etc. might also come in handy.

Then you might want to spend some time reading up on MUD administration techniques and philosophy (a lot of effort has actually been put into this), as well as overall MUD design (again, a lot of thought on this on the www).