At the bottom of the file, there is stuff that even a person that knows how to start up
godwar muds will want to read.

NORMAL STUFF:

Starting up the mud is basically the same as any other code base, go to the src directory and compile the
mud through the 'make' command, and then edit the startup file changing the port to the port you want it

in the 'startup' file inside the src directory you should
see the following line:
set port = 5555
5555 might have been replaced with another number.

Replace '5555' with the port you want to start up your mud on.

To start up the mud, in the src directory type:
./startup&

./startup means run the startup file, & means run it in the background.
If you forget to run it in the background, press control-z to suspend
the startup file, and then bg to push it in to the background. If you
forget the bg command it will act as if the mud is frozen.



The mud will now be running on the port you entered, if for some reason
you want to change the port without changing the startup file, type in:
./startup port&

for example,
./startup 5656&
will start the mud up on port 5656 even if the startup file says the default
is 5555.



ABNORMAL STUFF YOU WILL WANT TO READ:

The Midnight Realities mud loads extremely different than regular muds, even
greatly different from Midnight Dreams.

When the mud loads, it first opens the file named 'boot' in the ../ directory
(right outside of the src directory).

this file begins with 'register'. This means that it is a registered script for
the mud to execute, without this the mud will not execute the script.

In the script it says "recurse data"
this means it will go through the data directory and load all the files in there
the same was the 'boot' file. The mud will only load files that begin with register.

# means comment out the rest of the line, it will act as if the line doesn't even exist.

Now is what you REALLY need to know about these.
In the file 'boot' you will notice something similar to the following:
global mudname '&BMidnight realities.... with more color'

This means that the mud name is exactly what it says in quotes. Anywhere in the code
where it refers to the mud's name, it will say whatever is in those quotes. In helpfiles,
when you refer to the mud's name, you can put $$mudname| and it will expand to whatever
is in the quotes, when it is sent to the player.

in the data directory is a file called 'immortals'
in this file, it says:
global owner Smoo
global coders 'Smoo Jeremy'

global Implementors 'Smoo Jeremy'
      ..highjudges..judges..enforcers..questmakers..builders
etc

For owner and coders it will only expand in to helpfiles and anywhere else like that,
however implementors, highjudges, judges, enforcers, questmakers, builders are special.
If you put a name in there, a player with a name inside there can log on and type 'relevel'
to become an immortal of that level.

YOU MUST reboot the mud after making any change to these files, for the changes to take affect.

in the file misc is all you will need to get your mud customized without having to do any REAL
coding. Inside there you can change the newbie safe period (players under the amount of hours
in there can only attack other players under that number, while players over can only attack
players that are over)

expmult: experience is multiplied by this number
expdiv: after the experience is multiplied, it is divided by this number.

maxquest: the maximum value of a quest card.

max_stat: The maximum values that you can train hp/mana/move will be this number for tier one,
          and it will be that number plus 5000 for tier two.

bonuskill: the number of mobs inbetween each bonus kill ("purple people eater bonus")
bonusexp: exp is multiplied by this number on bonus kills..


Take a look at the other files in the data directory, modify them to how you like.




NEXT: Area files
Area files load differently too, if you plan on adding an area, you will notice the 'area.lst'
file does not exist..the mud used to load this file and then read through there, loading each
area file listed in there.

However, with the new system it simply recurses through the area directory and loads ALL AREA
FILES that BEGIN WITH THE WORD 'register' at the top of them.

NEXT: core dumps

if you don't know what a core dump is, ignore this. If you do, make a directory called 'core'
in the root directory of the mud. If you ignore the files in this directory, they can grow
rather large as each time the mud does a REAL crash (not a copyover on crash crash) then there
will be a copy of the muds executable in that directory, as well as a copy of the memory that
was loaded in the mud at the time of the crash, for debugging with gdb. There will be one of
these for each crash..I recommend not having a directory named 'core' unless you really know
how to use this feature.

If you are trying to debug and you know how to use core dumps, then on the mud type setabort
and the next crash will make a core dump instead of copyovering.

NEXT: newbie wipe

the file 'pwipe' in the src directory is a script.
It loads a copy of the mud, and goes through all the players in the player directory, loading
them, and checking their stats to see if they are low enough to be a "newbie"..if they are a
newbie and they haven't logged in in a certain amount of time, determined by what their stats
are, then the mud will "delete" them, although it will actually just move them to the pwipe
directory incase the players want that character back. Each time a new newbie wipe is initiated,
it will clear out the pwipe directory.

After the newbie wipe is complete, the real mud will automatically post a note saying which players
were deleted, and copyover.

FINALLY:

If you have any questions, email me at smoo@hosting.smoolabs.net .. this email address isn't currently
100% working, if you get a responce back saying it was undeliverable, send the original email to
mptldc@yahoo.com .. please try the hosting.smoolabs.net one first, once it is working I will get the
emails practically instantly..

Also, I haven't made this yet, but there will be a website at hosting.smoolabs.net/realities for bug
updates, and any information you might want on the codebase.

Right after this is released, the original mud on port 5555 of hosting.smoolabs.net will be renamed to
Indigo 3.1, as I am getting tired of the Dream/Midnight whatever theme.

Have fun!
