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Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 18:04:18 -0700
From: Chip Hayes <jwhayes@attglobal.net>
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Subject: Re: Multi-player IF (was Re: AI in IF)
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"David A. Cornelson" wrote:

> I cannot program a mud in Inform and I know of no mud with an english parser
> that I can program against, and a mud has no way that I know of to
> disambiguate sentences, and on and on...the features required for an IF
> development environment aren't necessarily excluded from a mud platform, but
> would it be easier to add these things to a mud or would it be easier to
> create an inform/z-machine type client/server environment that does all the
> things we want to do in IF coding?
>
> Jarb

Actually, the creator of the original MUD, Richard Bartle, developed a
low-level language (called muddle,) which can do some pretty amazing
things, all along the lines of what everyone has been discussing here.
His MUD2, which is still up and running in various incarnations, can be
either be programmed from within using an internal high level language
(BLANKing, much like the other muds that have since spawned from his,
only quite detailed in its abilities) or, if you are able to get a hold
of it (the license is rather expensive) using the muddle system itself,
which is extremely robust.

Parser disambiguation is as detailed as you want; very hearty object
creation and manipulation are available; and there's a plethora of
multi-user features that do all of what has been discussed here and more.

MUD2 the game is basically an old-fashioned treasure hunt, with a very
loose story (VERY loose) surrounding a collection of puzzles and scoring
opportunities.  Some of those can be done alone, others require up to
four players simultaneously to succeed.  NPC's are not very robust on
the AI front, but that is not because the language doesn't allow it...
just that for the MUD2 game itself, it isn't absolutely needed.
Especially when an immortal player can take over control of the NPC and
do with it as he/she pleases.

Muddle as a language is not the most user-friendly, though.  I had a
chance a few years back to do some programming in it and found it to be
a steep learninng curve.  Bartle wanted to develop a language that only
used symbols.  So there are an awful lot of >.<  and $-> type keywords
instead of "print"s and "objectloop"s.

Bartle's company, MUSE, has a web site at www.mud.co.uk for anyone
interested in taking a peek.

Chip
