Lulu's Java Mud / News: Recent posts

The lulu-jmud project has moved to http://code.google.com/p/lulu-jmud/ and www.jmud.org

I've implemented the "drop" command and have only to implement a "put" command before I consider item handling complete enough to get back to the combat code. "Drop" drops an item as long as the player has a "hand" free (or is holding the item in a "hand" already) and "Put" will transfer items from one slot to another (again, as long as at least one "hand" is free). "Put" will also check to make sure that the target slot has enough "bulk" left to handle the target item. (E.g. a helmet isn't going to fit in a pocket). ... read more

I've added a few features in this release:

1) @Flag annotation to mark Player fields as accessible to a MUD user.
2) "Set" command for updating Player fields that are accessible.
3) "Get" command for picking up items.

I've also added a "grabber" flag to the slot code that determines if a slot can be used to "grab" items; the idea is that a typical human can only grab items with their hands, so if their hands are full they can't grab anything. ... read more

I've just finished adding user-settable properties to the Player class: these properties are fields in the Player class that are exposed via reflection to users of the MUD based on a @Flag annotation. The @Flag annotation specifies the in-game name of the flag and any aliases. So far I've added "debug" and "auto look" flags. The flags are set using the (aptly named) "Set" command: e.g. "set debug off" (which does the obvious) or "set debug" which displays the status of the debug flag or "set" which displays all the flags and their statuses. ... read more

I've finally updated the project web page: I've added a list of existing features, hopeful features, a rundown on what JMud is and some contact information.

The theme has also been updated.

0.6.7 is out with a framework to support items. I've also posted a new database backup with all the tables and stored procedures necessary to handle slots and items. I'm slowly changing the database naming conventions to closer match where I work so please be patient.

Check out the new "Inventory" / "inv" / "i" command!

I have the slot code, tables and sprocs in. Now I'm working through some basic item handling code so that slots can be put to use; I'll probably start with some simple inventory code to recurse through the slots (and slots of slots) and show what a player has before moving into commands like get/drop/wield/wear etc.

Not very much new, just refactoring the direction commands. I am still working on it though and should have some "slots" plumbing in soon. ("Slots" are places to put "Items").

- fixed mob creation
- handled "no database connection" a *tiny* bit better
- implemented the "roomid" command class RoomID

- Converted all JDBC statements to stored procedures.

- Created new database backup.

- Fixed a show-stopper login bug
- Put all classes into packages
- Optimized code
- Removed a superfluous class
- Fixed JavaDoc tags

I've recently switched to Ubuntu (from Windows) so I'm working on getting my development environment set up (Eclipse, MySQL, JDBC connector, etc.). Once that is complete we should see some more updates.

I've landed a job as a Java developer. This project should see some more activity as I learn more Java techniques and Design Patterns.

- Added a "How it Works" document
- Reviewed and updated all comments in the source
- Standardized file and class comment headers
- Clarified (hopefully) some confusing comments

- Updated code to latest JDK
- Added roomid command (helps debug)

http://lulu-jmud.sourceforge.net

I've created another MUD application which got it's inspiration from JMAP: MUDCartographer - a MUD mapping program where you use the numberpad direction keys to create rooms just as if you were walking through a MUD with the direction keys mapped to directions.

http://mudcartographer.sourceforge.net

I've created a tool to map out rooms and draw them with connecting lines as text

I know, I've been pretty inactive. However, I'm back. I'm moving to Calgary in a few weeks, so I'll be busy for a while, but hopefully I'm into this for a while again!

I finally got around to reading the CVS docs, installing the software, generating a key, and checking in all my source files.

The code that compares what the user looked at now runs through each mob in the room (if any) and checks to see if any mob matches. If so the Mob's type's description is sent back.

Well, I worked out the bug in my code that was not allowing me to see people: I was retrieving the player descriptions from the database just fine, passing them to the Player constructor, and the player constructor didn't *do* anything with them. DOH!
Fixed now and works like a charm. Now I need to add looking at items and mobs.

The look command now looks! Unfortunately, it NEVER sees anything. At least it says it doesn't see anything though.
I'll keep hacking at it, something wrong with the Room.hasPlayer(String name) function

After adding the aliases to the database I also added all the classes to a package and I ended up breaking my reflection code because I was unaware that I had to account for the package name.

The command parsing with reflection is working again and a little better than before: instead of storing Class objects or names I store the Class constructor. When an alias comes in the constructor is pulled from the hash and a command instance is created with the constructor. This should be a tiny bit faster than getting the class, then getting the classes constructor.

All the commands and their aliases are loaded into the database (not normalized, but I'll get to it) and they are being used to create the command hash table when the game loads. Works fine except the Command objects aren't being constructed properly; something to do with a constructor argument type mismatch.