Mirage Source

I call this engine MirageMUD.

This will not be a publically available engine, since i'll just be using it for my game, and my game alone. However, this will be the first ever MUD game to come from Mirage Source.

So, why make a mud from a 2D game engine?
Well, first of all, most of the features are there already, you'll be surprised just how much of the source you can actually still use. Although most of the code relates to the graphics engine, a lot of it which is used for storing data for the character and other things is still very useful.

But still, why not write one from scratch or use an engine dedicated to an actual mud game?
It saves time to use Mirage Source, since most of the basic features are already there for me. There will be a lot of time spent deleting things which arn't needed after I've finished getting the game to function properly in the way I want it to. Mostly everything involved with the 2D graphics engine will be deleted, and most of the other systems will be rewritten to work with the text-based system.
I wanted to have a custom stand-alone client and server, which would be unique. A lot of the open source mud servers are based on other common mud systems, and make use of the Telnet client, where as I wanted a stand-alone client with it's own interface.
Plus, being the first person to ever make a mud game from Mirage Source is just something that appeals to me.

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So, what is this game? Well, the game is called Avaritia Online, it is set in a world of fantasy and magic, pretty much the usual stuff you'd expect from any basic online RPG game. But what makes Avaritia interesting is the ability to create the world in your mind. The more you play, the more familiar you will get with getting to places, even though you can't see where you're going on the screen, you'll be able to vision it in your head.

Of course, this games are also challenging, it has everything you would expect from an RPG game, from the monsters to the quests, to the events held by players and staff.

Not to mention the development is far more flexible. I don't have to sit and decide what tiles or sprites would go with my game, I don't have to do things according to my knowledge on DirectX programming. Everything is in text, and it's up to you to be able to imagine what a monster looks like, what a spell effect looks like, or a room or forest.
Maps can be endless, there's no need to worry about how big your map can be, or how it's layed out. Each room is a grid, and grids can be connected to the North, East, South West, Up or Down. A room can be as small as 1 grid, or as large as 100.

These games are good for the imagination, and allow you to use your mind more creatively.

Here is a screenshot of the game so far. I've not yet put a nice graphical interface on it as it's only just in development. But as you can see, the mapping system works already, character stats are used from the original source.

This is NOT a mock-up.

Nice work.. =/

I've always liked Muds. I haven't played on in years though. If you open for testing, I'd love to try it.

Wow, nice work :O.

This is looking interesting, please post more screenshots.

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Well, yesterday I rewrote the mapping system. Nothing major, just changed it so it loads all the rooms into the Types. I also added a little code that displays a message when a player enters or leaves a room. This is obviously not displayed to the player themselves though, unless somebody else moves to a different location.

I'm going to finish the code for the mini-map and the room image, then I'm going to work on getting NPCs properly set up, although this may prove slightly difficult for me since I'm not sure of the best method yet.

Here's another screenshot which displays other players moving in and out of a room.

If you need room descriptions or anything at all, I still have all my work from the original mud I worked on with my friend from Sweden. We spent about 8 years working on it. We used the Smaug source, but by the end there was very little left of the original code.

I have over 30,000 original room descriptions if you ever need some ideas. This also coincides with anything else you might need.

When can we test it?

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shaded, I will most definately be looking for development staff soon, with experience in mud systems and mud games themselves.

Smaug is fairly good. I've used 4Dimensions, MUD32, Smaug, RPMUD, Quest, Adrift, SUDS, 3Kingdoms, WheelMUD and more.

I've played games like Achaea, Imperium, Dark Legacy, Legends of Terris, Nightmist, Realms of Kaos, Revelation, Deity Online.

So I know my sh*t when it comes to MUDs. It was playing muds that got me into game development, but due to the lack of sources available back then I got into 2D game development, since the resources were more available, but now i've got the knowledge to make a mud I thought it was about time to do it, but still using the engine I first ever used to develop games with.

William, I doubt i'll be releasing anything until the game is ready, which may not be for months.

i love it. I havnt done any real programming latley, so after seeing this I decided I need to learn how to make a game (well my ambition is to become a game programemr soemday:P) So I too set out to make a mud, I am stealing the networking from miragesource, but that is it. thank you for inspiring me to make this,

I've got some experience when I started my own MUD using ROM. It was called GiaMUD and I got Mud Magic to host my server for 7$ every 6 months (I think). Anyways, I had it all working from Cygwin My good friend, Trilo, is amazing with writing stuff up...be it stories, room descriptions, or anything...me and him used to play a few MUDs (mainly Carrion Fields (awesome!!); he probably still plays) and he did some cool descriptions and so on. Anyways, I'm sure he'd be happy to work on a serious MUD if I contacted him about it. If you want to see some examples of his work, I might be able to find some...

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Updated the interface a little.

In this image. The mapping system is fully working 100%. The new mini-map image updates to show your current position on the map. I've seperated the room content into 3 boxes to make things organised, it also makes things slightly easier when interacting with room objects. The textbox has been changed, text is smaller, there are no longer multiple colours per line as this was causing some issues, but some lines will be bold, and others won't be so we can make text stand out slightly if need be.
The room image has been removed. Although it does give players help with being able to imagine what the area looks like, I think it takes up too much space for important things.

You can now interact with other players! You can click them, and click the LOOK button to see their level and class. More information will be added but the basics are good enough for testing with.
I will be adding the attack feature next so that players can fight each other.

You can now see the full room description by clicking the LOOK AROUND button. This gives you some extra information about the room, and helps to create a more detailed image in your head.

There are other things that have been added and changed but nothing major.

After I have completed the player interaction stuff I will be working on Items and NPCs. Most of the code is already there (Since it's Mirage Source), I just need to work out a way to display things in the room content boxes, and make them interactive.

Screenshot:

I've now started to make the editing software for maps etc.

nice i like it

Update

Everything is coming along surprisingly well, besides getting NPCs to work properly, but that should be sorted out soon as I'm trying a new method.

I've added a few new things since last time. The inventory now works with the text-based system, as well as dropping items and gold. You can use the shout command so that players in the surrounding room can read the text. I've changed over to single character logins and got rid of the account system as requested by the co-owner.

Other things include features which make the game a text-based game.

Screenshots:


Now with Races!

Looks cool.

Your site looks like a freewebs template .

I doubt it was intentional, but you stole the name for this from Dragoons Master's game.

http://www.blackages.com.br/

Wooooowww, I saw the topic, read it all, but I didn't saw the Black Ages Online on top xD
That's my game's name! Change it! xD
I'm here for... more time than you do...
Black Ages, the name, exists since... middle-end 2003 A little before I came here, beg-2004.

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http://www.blackages.com.br

It seems to me that you have a huge list of rooms. I would sort them by areas so that you can organize it better, maybe you have already done this?

lol i hope you plan on making a GUI.

but on a serious note. pretty neat, looks a bit to boring for my taste but thats ok. Ive started work on a text based game from scratch, and ive gotten pretty far in only one week. Ive gotten a vis inv, vis equip, Character stats, primitive item desc, an original (i think) map system, and shops kinda working, still need to finish the vis shop part but thats half way done.

maybe we can compare source sometime?

I wouldn't look too far into it "Dragoons Master", it wasn't done intentionally, but i'm far too busy to worry about a silly name conflict at the moment. You came here beginning of 2004? Lol, I was the only super moderator on the old old forums when Granite ran MS years ago, I've been around a LONG time. Also, I tried downloading Black Ages from your site, and there doesn't actually seem to be a working download, or any sign of a playable game. Concerning the name, I've yet to get my books out to research the medieval life, and I'm assuming a new name will come from related happenings of that era since I want the game to closely resemble the history of the 15th and 16th centuries but still with the elements of magic and fantasy.
A lot of games claim to be set in medieval times, but it pi**es me off because there's nothing medieval about them, besides going around the game as a knight with a long sword killing goblins and skeletons.



True, there's no telling what rediculous amount of rooms will be used.



Yes, a full graphical user-interface will be designed for the game.

They all look a bit boring at first, but it's like reading a really cool book where you choose how the story goes. Now you don't actually have to be into books to enjoy these types of games, but they are highly highly addictive once you've gotten used to the graphic-less gameplay, because eventually you start using your imagination (Which most younger people these days don't know what that means. No offense, but WoW isn't the only style of RPG game out there).

I don't have visual inventory and stuff like that yet, not that it would be difficult to put it in as i'll also be using pictures for players, monsters and items on the ground aswel. I also have characters stats, and full AD&D ones working nicely. I've changed a lot of the formulas from Mirage Source to work better when calculating stats, experience and damage etc. which are becoming a little complex, but they keep the game nicely balanced and unique.



It is... lol

It's to release for about... 3 years xD
Well, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY think that we are going to release the game in the end of this month, we are in winter(south america) vacations (only July) and I'm doing a lot of work over the game.
It is playable, but the items and npcs are just not done as I would like them to.
And the download that is available at the web site is an old release, very old, a beta.

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http://www.blackages.com.br

So what you're saying, is just because his game isn't released, it shouldn't matter that the names are the same? Irregardless, it's been released in the past, beta, w/e. Your's hasn't. Ever.

And his game is older, and will be more fun. As well as the elementary reason you should care: He had it first.

>.>

When I saw that you had made a post I knew what it was going to say before I read it. You're becoming predictable Perfekt.
Like I said, I'll be changing the name, since the name wasn't a choice I made, but by somebody who has never even heard of Mirage Source.
I respect that there is another game with this name, and plan to do something about it, so mind your own business and stop taking my threads off-topic. If you're mature enough you won't respond to this.

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While looking into some books on the life and roles of people in the medieval ages (As early as the ninth century), I have decided to call the game "Heretic: The Chronicles" based on the fact that a Heretic is one who does their own thing so to speak, and has their own beliefs. People who decided what to believe, rather than going off the teachings of the catholic church, were called Heretics, it's a word which comes from greek and means "Someone who wants to choose for themselves", which is a great fitting to this game, as the idea of the game is to discover things, and make your own decisions.