UC MUD Code Planning

Interface and code

• Web based?
• AJAX?
• Rails?
• Ruby?

Brainstorming

1. Have defined sections of the page for basic ways to interact with game
   • Room/environment view box
   • Inventory
     • Item view
   • Other characters/NPCs
     • separate from room? or basically like the room is a container and a subwindow that shows what's in the room--items, players, npcs. Things #an go in and out without changing the view of the environment.
   • Combat
   • Conversations
     • Include emotes here? basically, an action window?
     • Split between chat lines/tells/room actions? If we have chat lines/tells
2. Obvious and non-obvious methods of interaction
   • Obvious methods (go north, wield sword, don armor, press button) as clickable links
   • Non-obvious methods not displayed, but given an empty text box to input commands
3. Way to script things?
4. Mobile site?
5. Telnet option
   • Web interface a wrapper around all information given, but with traditional telnet interface of many lines coming at you?
   • Or telnet interface with a text-based browser style? Keep the different windows?

Database

Fact tables

Every fact table has a non-null primary key (not listed b/c I don't want to have to type "PK" over and over). If a column is a FK link to another table, it will be noted.

Table	Columns	Notes
Objects	wizard_id (FK to wizards), creation date, mass, size_id	wizard_id is id of creator of object
Actions
Sizes	size_name, size_order
Rooms	actions, general_room_id (FK link to general room)
Room transitions	Starting_room_id (FK link to rooms), ending_room_id (FK link to rooms),
General Rooms	description columns
Items	object_id (FK to objects)
Item personalization	item_id (FK to items), character_id (FK to characters), new field name, description
Living creatures	size, race_id (FK to races),
Characters
Player Races	race_id (FK to races), player race boolean, elite player race boolean
Races	size limitations, stat modifiers, racial_adjustment_id (FK to racial adjustments), racial_group_id (FK to racial groups)
Racial group	description, size limitations
Random monster generation parameters
Guilds
Skills
Areas	area_name, description	areas are used for wandering monster limitations. areas can overlap
Item class
Actions
Spells
Status adjustments
Racial adjustments
Metadata	table name, column name, PK_flag, FK_flag, FK_link (FK to metadata_id, self-referential)	Can we have this auto-generate? Based on system tables?
Players	user_id, object_id (FK to objects), password (encrypted?),
Character sort orders	sort column, asc/desc
Wizards	character_id (FK to characters), wizard_class_id (FK to Wizard Class), wizarding_start_date
Wizard Class	class_name, permissions

Dimension tables

Where X and Y are items in different fact tables.

• If X will have at most one of Y, then X should have a foreign key to Y's primary key (noted above)
  • If X will always have one Y, then that foreign key should be constrained to not null
• If X can have many Y, and Y can have many X, then X and Y need a dimension table. Said table should consist of only two items: the primary keys of X and Y

X	Y	This represents ...
Characters	Skills
Characters	Guilds
Characters	Status adjustments
Characters	Racial adjustments
Actions	Meta-table item
Area	Room instance
Items	Item class
General room	Room
Characters	Spells
Items	Spells
Character sort order	Player

Working tables

Temp tables to be used while player is logged in, dropped after/at reboot

• Inventory? How to persist, write to more permanent table?
• Status that wears off

Table brainstorming

1. Everything as an object
   • Rooms are containers
   • Characters and Monsters/NPCs modeled the same, also containers
   • Object table includes very basic information common to all objects. PK/FK link to other tables
2. All actions have common ties
   • Actions include spells and attacks, but also skills, emotes, buying, etc.
   • Any interaction with an object, including yourself. Leveling up is an action.
   • Not all actions can be called directly. Some can only be called by computer/other action. This flag can be one of the common ties
   • Actions PK/FK link to other tables to further define them
   • Are actions also items? Or can items have actions? Or can items have access to a class of actions?
3. Classes of items/actions
   • Clearly defined definitions of items and actions. Adding a new item/action must go into one of these groups. Adding a new class rearranges the DB a bit.
   • Subclasses/Superclasses can be defined to combine/narrow things down. Probably superclasses are more likely, to make things have only one class?

Interaction

• Modeling NPCs as computer-controlled PCs
• Objects with built in calls for actions?
• Characters as special kinds of items?
• Rooms as special kinds of items?

UC_MUD