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 wizard who created object
Sizes	size_name, size_order
Room instance	area, actions,
General room	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
Races	size limitations, stat modifiers, racial_adjustment_id (FK to racial adjustments),
Random monster generation parameters
Actions
Guilds
Skills
Areas
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
Items	Item class
General room	Room instance
Characters	Spells
Items	Spells
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