So, I figured I might as well flog this here too.

If you want to make a sci-fi game and don't know much about code, you should probably check this out.
http://www.github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh

It's a complete source code and starter database from a functional sci-fi game. It uses PennMUSH with a mix of softcoded systems, and a custom PennMUSH-to-Ruby bridge that allows for writing of significantly complex systems in Ruby. It has:

• Multi-racial chargen (softcoded) - loosely based on the FUDGE system
• MongoDB-backed bulletin boards, following the familiar Myrddin command scheme
• Event calendars
• Hand-to-hand combat, with weapons, detailed damage modeling based on race, etc
• IC communications via 'subspace' (instant channels) and 'tightbeam' (message-based/IC mail)
• Contracts system for creating TPs in an IC way
• Economy, with banks and personal accounts
• Ship cargo mission system, with generated missions based on a basic commodity supply & demand model
• Full "semi/virtual" item system for creating items with MongoDB attributes attached
• Full RP (pose, say, etc) logging system, for player 'scrollback', automated XP awards, and admin * review
• Basic space system (softcoded) with ship movement, classes, etc. Ship combat is not supported.
• Faction/organization system (softcoded)
• Basic globals (+finger, who, etc)
• Room parents, exit parents, etc.

It was not at all designed to be split out and partially used, but you're welcome to try. It's all open source and I will help support it as best as I can in my free time.

It's also a bit more complex to set up than your standard MUSH due to the external dependencies. I'm happy to help with that part too.

Cross-posting from +bb2 on M*U*S*H:

I was one of the people ruminating on a new site, and it's time for me to step up. Since actions speak much louder than words, I'm kicking off the (fully open-sourced) development of, and sponsor hosting of, a new MU* index site. I've started a temporary Github repository at https://github.com/mucommunity/mucommunity and have opened a few issues that I'd like to solicit feedback and comment on before starting work on building anything. Your input is very welcome, whether you're technical or not.

I am also a -1,000,000,000 on &afinger functionality. If you must have this for some godforsaken reason, PLEASE let me globally opt-out of triggering people's afingers. Having to remember to +finger/silent is not a good enough solution in my opinion.

This has caused me to not play people's games before.

@Hexagon Sweet. Get in touch with me on MUS*H or the game "demo" port, wcmush.com 2199. It's, unfortunately, fairly unlikely that you'll be able to get it bootstrapped without a bit of help, but I'd love to see our many hours of hard work live on.

@Misadventure said:

You object to someone knowing you are reading their information?

Vehemently.

@Thenomain Yeah, all the systems and softcode is in https://github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh_systems. Navigating it can be a bit tricky if you don't know your way around, though. The RP log system uses @hook/after - see https://github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh_systems/blob/master/softcode/util/hooks.mush for the contents of what the @hooks point to. The underlying code to actually create the log entries in the database is Ruby and is at https://github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh_systems/blob/master/lib/lib-logs.rb .

Sure, you can grab the DB at https://github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh/blob/master/database.gz.dist and play with it if you want. Just expect lots of #-1s due to not having rpc().

If you just want to kick tires, come to wcmush.com 2199, create and run through chargen and you can see everything. I'm stepping out for a bit but might be around later to show you around more.

Quick note on this, today I spent some time and did some consolidating that I should've done long ago. https://github.com/tkrajcar/wcnh now is the one-stop-shop for the MUSH code, the Ruby code, and the softcode, and has an updated README with lots of useful information. I also updated and tested the Vagrantfile that's included for bootstrapping a simple VM with all the dependencies installed and confirmed the game compiles and runs fine on it.

Update! The Slack channel, where all the ongoing discussion of this project is happening, is now self-serve. You can go here and add yourself without needing to get me your email.

@purldator said:

I will be crafting my own TOS and Privacy Policy for weavewordswith.me. If you want I would be willing to donate a copy to you for your endeavor if you don't have a source for these yet. You can fine-tune it for MUCommunity's needs. I research this heavily; online communities are my shtick and I love knowing what makes them tick, and what keeps them safe, sane and secure (mostly). I do my best to catch all possible loopholes. While I Am Not A Lawyer, it's a start. No TOS/PP available shows zero due diligence which is way worse than a Layman writing his own TOS to do some butt covering.

Sure, that'd be great! Feel free to just open an issue on the repo with the suggested text whenever you have it.

Quick update: The previous Github repo has now moved to its permanent home at https://github.com/mucommunity/mucommunity. Prototyping is underway and I hope to have something worth showing off tomorrow-ish.

@purldator Glad it was a simple understanding. Not a problem.

Now, to business:

@purldator said:

1. The website is open source. No smoke or mirrors. Everything edited is documented and can also be reverted. Changes made are seen, issues are discussed and there's a good level of transparency, just enough.

2. It won't disappear if the current host suddenly disconnects. This is how I felt with WORA when someone told me it went under. The code board was indispensable but not even Wayback could archive it since a login was required to view. If the source is always on GitHub then someone else can easily take it and sync it somewhere else. Where it is hosted for public consumption really has no serious bearing.

3. It's all static files so it's easier to load and easier to maintain and easier with security. Especially if a CDN was involved eventually so anyone, no matter their geo-location, could readily access it. (It also helps with google pagerank; that's one key to getting proper 'exposure' out in the online-wild.)

This is all very similar to what we are working on with MUCommunity. Not only is the site open source, but we're using a platform-as-a-service provider that's deeply linked in with the source; no server administration, merged changes automatically deploy, and pull request branches get a temporary staging version of the site to preview the changes. Along with having a robust list of people with merge access, this should fully alleviate both the "take my ball and go home" factor and the "hit by bus" factor.

While I'm a big fan of static websites when able, this doesn't seem like a good fit for that to me, because we want to collect ever-changing statistical data that would be a pain to maintain in static files. Databases are good at this sort of thing and we should use them. However, as discussed in our Mandate/Charter topic, the expectation will be that all user contributions are Creative Commons-licensed. That will allow us to easily publish all of the site's data in an API/machine-readable format (both on-demand, and possibly publishing privacy-sanitized DB dumps, similar to Wikipedia).

This doesn't really necessarily address the 'federated identity' problem at all, but it is an essential component of what I want to build for MUCommunity.org to ensure that it's not something that dies with me (or my interests).

Something must've gotten lost in translation. No disdain intended at all. Mostly I was just trying to unify communications from discussions on two different MU*s, plus this forum, into one place (ie the Github issue list), but also trying to ensure you didn't feel like I was trying to tell you how to run your own project, if that's what you were doing.

Sincere apologies. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help or clear up intent.

@purldator said:

words

It's not clear to me from your post if you're asking about collaborating on what I am working on, which is a community-driven game index and general MU*ing community site, or doing your own thing. If it's your own thing, keep on truckin'. If interested in contributing to what I'm doing, the best way is to weigh in on the issues list I linked to earlier.

Already some good input from @Rook in there, by end of this weekend I should be in a good place to put together a quick prototype UI we can argue about. Then comes the data modeling and making it not-static.

@Misadventure said:

You object to someone knowing you are reading their information?

Vehemently.

I am also a -1,000,000,000 on &afinger functionality. If you must have this for some godforsaken reason, PLEASE let me globally opt-out of triggering people's afingers. Having to remember to +finger/silent is not a good enough solution in my opinion.

This has caused me to not play people's games before.

Cross-posting from +bb2 on M*U*S*H:

I was one of the people ruminating on a new site, and it's time for me to step up. Since actions speak much louder than words, I'm kicking off the (fully open-sourced) development of, and sponsor hosting of, a new MU* index site. I've started a temporary Github repository at https://github.com/mucommunity/mucommunity and have opened a few issues that I'd like to solicit feedback and comment on before starting work on building anything. Your input is very welcome, whether you're technical or not.