Before doing anything else, please look at license.doc in the circle/doc directory. It contains the original DikuMUD license distributed with the original DikuMUD in 1990. Since CircleMUD is based on the Diku code, the DikuMUD license still applies -- this means you! USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ANY CAPACITY IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET DOWN BY THE DIKUMUD LICENSE. ============================================================================ Welcome to CircleMUD 3.0! I hope you enjoy your stay. This file has a quick intro to what Circle is, followed by some tips on how to get started quickly. I. Background and Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CircleMUD is a derivative of DikuMUD -- the Multi-User Dungeon developed at DIKU (the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen). Circle 1.0 ran at Johns Hopkins University with moderate popularity from January to September of 1992. Since June of 1993, it has been maintained as a public code base that anyone can use to start a MUD, although there is no specific MUD which is CircleMUD per se. Hundreds of carefully spent hours have gone into the development of Circle, but it is not a finished product -- it's only a beginning. It has only a small number of spells and skills, a small world with relatively few areas, and only the 4 original Diku classes. From a gamer's point of view, it pales in comparison to other MUDs which have dozens of spells spread over a dozen classes, a rich palette of skills, and thousands upon thousands rooms, mobiles, and objects. On the other hand, from a programmer's point of view, Circle is very highly developed. While the look and feel of the original DikuMUD has been maintained, much of the underlying code and many of the structures have been optimized, reworked, or completely redesigned to be efficient, compact, and easily changable and extensible. Dozens of features which have become standard in the MUDding world over the past few years, although they were not part of the original Diku release, were added to Circle. The final product is a launching pad for your own MUD ideas. My hope in releasing Circle is that it will free potential MUD implementors from having to worry about dealing with bug-ridden code or wasting time reinventing the wheel by recoding standard MUD features, allowing them to devote more effort towards creatively shaping Circle into their own unique vision of how a MUD should look and feel. So, it is with this message that I inflict my code on the world: don't just put another generic MUD on the Net -- give us something new and exciting, and have as much fun as possible in the process! II. Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before doing anything else, please look at license.doc in the circle/doc directory. It contains the original DikuMUD license distributed with the original DikuMUD in 1990. Since CircleMUD is based on the Diku code, the DikuMUD license still applies -- this means you! USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IN ANY CAPACITY IMPLIES THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTOOD, AND AGREED TO ABIDE BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET DOWN BY THE DIKUMUD LICENSE. Also, out of courtesy if nothing else, please keep the 'credits' file intact. You can add your own credits on top of the existing file, but I'd appreciate it if you would not simply remove it and all references to the word "Circle" everywhere in the MUD. III. Enough talk! Let's get started already. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you're like me, you don't like to read a lot of documentation when you have a neat new toy to play with. In fact, if you've even read THIS far, I'm impressed! So, below, I've written some short tips on how the budding but impatient MUD implementor can get started quickly. However, you should be aware that there is a wealth of additional information availible in the /doc directory, and you'll be doing yourself a favor by reading over some of it eventually. The README file in the /doc directory describes each documentation file in detail, but there are several main files which should be of interest. For the administrative side of mudding, running.doc gives an overall description of how Circle works, how to get it to compile for the first time and get it running, and hints on maintenance and day-to-day administration. For the coding side, coding.doc dives into Circle's code and describes how to add new commands, spells, skills, socials, classes, and whatnot. For the builders in your group, building.doc describes how to create new worlds, including rooms, objects, mobiles, and shops. Now, as promised, my get-started-quickly tips: * All source code is in the /src directory. Before compiling, take a look at the beginning of the Makefile and set options as required for your operating system. Type 'make' to compile only the main Circle server; type 'make all' to make the server as well as Circle's dozen or so maintenance utilities. running.doc in the doc/ directory has more information about compiling and compatibility. * The server should be run from Circle's root directory. For debugging and testing, you can just type 'bin/circle &'. To run the game for extended periods of time, use the autorun script instead. autorun automatically reboots the game if it crashes, and handles moving old system logs into the /log directory. The game will run on port 4000 by default. * When the MUD boots, it will give status messages describing what it is doing to initialize itself. Note that if you use 'autorun', these messages will automatically be written to a syslog file and will not appear on the screen. If nothing goes wrong, the last message should be "Entering game loop.", follwed by "No connections. Going to sleep." This indicates that the MUD is operating normally, and is waiting for people to connect to it. * Use the 'telnet' program to connect to the MUD; i.e., type 'telnet localhost 4000'. Note that you must run the MUD in the background in order to be able to telnet to it from the same terminal. Make sure you include '&' at the end of 'bin/circle' or 'autorun' to make sure the MUD is running in the background. * Make sure you don't run more than one copy of the MUD at once! Before starting it, check whether or not other copies are already running by using the 'ps' or 'jobs' command. Use the 'kill' command to kill old MUDs before starting new ones. * The first character who logs in to the game will be made a level 34 god. The first god can then use the 'advance' command to create other gods. Use the 'wizhelp' command to get a list of god commands; use the 'commands' command to get a list of other commands. * There is a file in this directory called "FAQ" which contains the most frequently asked questions about CircleMUD and answers to them. Read it! If you have strange problems -- and you can't figure out the answer by reading the docs -- fear not, there are many other resources you can turn to. The best is probably the CircleMUD Mailing List, which you can subscribe to by writing mail to "majordomo@pvv.unit.no" with a message body of "subscribe circle". If you want to write mail to the list, address it to "circle@pvv.unit.no". Over 150 CircleMUD imps read that list regularly, so chances are you'll get help very quickly. If that doesn't work, you can always contact me directly by writing to jelson@cs.jhu.edu. Or, take a look at the CircleMUD Home Page which is at http://www.cs.jhu.edu/other/jelson/circle.html, which may eventually have some on-line documentation for Circle. Good luck, and have fun! Jeremy Elson aka Ras/Rasmussen jelson@cs.jhu.edu Version 2.20 release: November 17, 1993 Version 2.11 release: September 19, 1993 Version 2.10 release: September 1, 1993 Version 2.02 release: Late August sometime.. Version 2.01 release: Early August sometime.. Version 2.00 release: July 16, 1993