[ScryMUD] News and Updates

[Edward Roper]

We've had some great volunteer efforts and contributions lately. I'd like to
take a few moments to highlight those as well as to keep everyone up to date
on ScryMUD development. I think I'll send out updates like this whenever there
are significant events taking place.

Thanks for being a part of ScryMUD,
Edward

Contents:
I.   Currently in the Works

	 1. Weather and Climate
	 2. Hegemon Development
	 3. Builder's Guide
	 4. Balancing Act
	 5. The Website

II.  On the Drawing Board

	 6. Equipment Classes
	 7. Random Equipment

III. In Support of Development

	 8. QA Test Framework
	 9. Source Documentation


======================
Currently in the Works
======================

Weather and Climates
--------------------

   Gingon has been busy implementing in-game weather and climates. At last
   update this is very near completion. In my opinion these feature-adds will
   contribute significantly to the subtle ambiance of the world. 

Hegemon Development
-------------------

   Jaeger has taken over development of Hegemon, the ScryMUD Java client and
   builder tool. I'll leave it to her to reveal her grand plans ;)

Builder's Guide
---------------

   I've started on a ScryMUD Builder Guide in DocBook[1] XML. Currently I
   think most builder knowledge is obtained via. oral tradition. Contribution
   to this project is most welcome. I imagine this will be a pretty slow going
   project (I hate writing documentation). I'd like to follow this up with a
   "New Player Guide".

   If you'd like to contribute and aren't familiar with DocBook XML, don't
   worry. Although presentation goes a long way toward making documentation
   more accessible, it's the content that matters most. Feel free to send your
   contributions as plain text. I'll be happy to convert them for you. If on
   the other hand you'd like to give DocBook a shot there's a pretty good
   reference at the DocBook site[2].

   The Builder Guide is available via subversion:
      svn co http://www.wanfear.com/svn/scrydocs/trunk scrydocs
      svn co https://www.wanfear.com/svn/scrydocs/trunk scrydocs

     Once this has "filled out" a bit I'll keep current copies up on the
     website in various formats.

   1. http://www.docbook.org/
   2. http://http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/docbook.html

Balancing Act
-------------

   A short review of the skills/spells currently available reveals a huge
   balance skew, not just crossing class boundaries but within the skill-sets
   of a class.  Addressing these concerns is a broad project. I'm not a very
   good statistician nor have I ever been fond of calculating probabilities.
   If you are and would like to donate some of your time... (hint, hint) In
   the meantime, I'll being plugging away slowly.

The Website
-----------

   In order to better facilitate the development and restructuring of the
   ScryMUD website I've created a subversion repository for it. Currently
   Jaeger is spearheading the initial revamp. The repository is not yet public
   access, so contact me if you'd like information on helping out.

====================
On the Drawing Board
====================

  
Equipment Classes
-----------------

   Equipment "Classes" are on the drawing board. Essentially these will allow
   builders to arbitrarily categorize equipment and assign these categories to
   mobs.  Random gear will be loaded onto the mobs from this category-pool. 

   These categories will be implemented with objects as their members. That is
   you won't associate a category with an object, but rather an object with a
   category. This will allow the same object(s) to exist within many classes.

   For example:
     Class: garland_citizen_weapons
      Member: a short sword
      Member: a dagger
      Member: a boot knife

   Then you could take a garland "citizen" mob and associate
   "garland_citizen_weapons" with it, telling it that at least N items from
   this class and N max items from this class should be loaded onto the mob.

   Along with this I'm going to try and make mobs a bit smarter, using the
   appropriate gear when the occasion calls.

Random Equipment
----------------

   Randomly modified equipment is on the drawing board. These will be standard
   objects (armor, weapons, etc.) that can be marked as candidates for random
   bonuses/penalties. These bonuses and penalties will be based on random
   chance in addition to the location and (if applicable) mob possessing the
   item. Hopefully I can come up with a way to attach meaningful "identify"
   titles to these objects. Modifiers will in 99% of cases be very small, yet
   significant enough to warrant people checking out their equipment.

=========================
In Support of Development
=========================

QA Test Framework
-----------------

   I'd like to get a nice test framework put in place. I've never been an SQA
   guy, so I'm not too terribly familiar with best practice as far as this
   goes.  Whatever we end up with I'd like to utilize a decent coverage tool
   and automated builds / tests. The latter is less important to me than being
   able to say with confidence that a given release is "stable".

   If you happen to be familiar with this sort of thing, have a few cycles
   to spare, and you're interested in helping please let me know.

   If you have any experience (and therefore input) about various tools such
   as gcov, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well.

Source Documentation
--------------------

   I'm looking at DoxyGen[1] as a possible documentation tool. I'd like to
   document where appropriate to lower the barrier to code contribution. Along
   with this perhaps we'll get a better big picture as to which interfaces and
   object models need to be revisited.  If you have any input about how to
   best accomplish this, please chime in.

   1. http://www.doxygen.org/