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Online Creation (OLC), or Online Building is a type of software add-on for MUDs that allows users to edit world data while simultaneously playing the game. Referred to by the acronym "OLC" or "OC", this was a significant improvement for Dikumud variants, because they typically require a restart in order to implement any changes. TinyMUD, LPMUD and MUSH, MUCK and MUX software are all similar in that they provide extensibility and customization live without rebooting the game server, but typically use other words to refer to their editors (though, some do call theirs OLC). Many refer to the power to create online as "wizard", "builder" and "immortal" features, or "online building".

Hidden Worlds' OLC

Hidden Worlds online building system was written for Merc 1.0 by Kalgen of Zebesta. It was used as inspiration for NiMUD's OLC system, which became a popular OLC for Diku.

The Isles NiMUD's OLC

The first publicly available OLC was released officially in the software package NiMUD or "The Isles MUD" by authors Herb "Locke" Gilliland and Christopher "Surreal" Woodward in September of 1993. After their first mud, CthulhuMUD, was hacked and vandalized only a few short days after the project was initiated; the following weeks produced a project called NiMUD, which contained the first publicly available OLC for Merc/Diku MUDs, and pre-dates CircleMUD's OLC. News of the release was spread on Locke and Surreal's favorite muds, distributed via FTP services which offered places to host mud software, and on ISCABBS, where Locke had first started mudding in 1992. Because they had been hacked, NiMUD was to be an open source project, where the code was given away because Locke had decided that security was an illusion and he wanted to combat negative energy by avoiding revenge on the hacker and instead produce quality public domain software.

NiMUD's OLC feature was inspired by the online building system of Hidden Worlds, which Locke was a player on. The system used by Hidden Worlds was not publicly available open source, and thus its usage was limited to that single MUD. He invited his friend, Chris Woodward, who named himself Surreality, though on The Isles he was known only as Surreal. On Hidden Worlds, Locke never reached the level of immortality required to build, though Surreal did. They decided to write an online creation system, and start a MUD derived from Merc, which itself was derived from Diku. Though the project had started around the time of CthulhuMUD in September, they adapted it to Merc 2.2 after its release in October 13, 1993 . It was publicly released in various stages of development from 1994 to 2005, by its surviving author.

The Isles OLC became the source work for derivatives such as Ivan's OLC, EnvyOLC, ROMolc and ILAB/OLC. It was influential in the design of some other online building systems for Diku-derived muds and multiplayer games. It was the first complete package for Diku, and did not expand upon "modification" commands found in Merc at the time.

It has a relatively restrictive license compared to other editors and DikuMUD itself, because one needs to not only contact and inform the author before doing so, but also get authorization in order to distribute derivatives. Many variations have been made without authorization, but the surviving author has forgiven fans of the software for illegally porting his software. Other mud softwares pre-dating Diku have had elements of 'live editing' or 'live creation' of mud content. It was a multi-state gaming engine/editor hybrid, which provided a unique interface solution for editing mud content online while playing.

ILAB/OLC for Merc/Envy

Jason Dinkel was given permission by the software's surviving author to port The Isles NiMUD's OLC to Merc/Diku-derived software as the "ILAB/OLC" package. Minimal changes were needed to develop the port, but the port's success came from its easy installation into Merc/Diku variant MUD software. The software's popularity continues to grow, and it has been ported to a variety of MUD softwares and is currently included in at least 35 derived works, many of which were released to public consumption without permission, in ways similar to the way Dikumud was originally 'leaked'. From this version came EnvyOLC.

Oasis OLC

"Your Job as a Tinyworld Architect: Wow, you finally got your mud up and running, and now you want to create a world to fit all of those stories you have running around your head. As a Tinyworld Architect or builder, your job is to create areas for players to roam around in, solve puzzles, and gain experience. There is a world included with the CircleMUD distribution which is intended to serve as a stepping stone and a basic guide on what can be done with a world for your mud.

Muds may have many different ways of coding things, but in general, most people tend to judge them on the number and quality of areas that they possess. The areas are what tend to make a mud original. For example, one mud could be based upon a magic-rich world and the code and areas would reflect this, while another could revolve around cities and thieves. Each of these muds would have its areas designed in such a way to flesh out this theme. In essence, building an area is like writing a book. It needs to have a plot, needs to be descriptive, and needs to be populated with memorable people and places." (quote from the CircleMUD 3.0 Builder's Guide)

Mozart OLC

"Mozart is one of the oldest, most developed muds on the net. The world has over 28,000 rooms in 200 zones among three major areas. The Surface is the largest and most newbie-friendly. Beneath, the svirfneblin city Galtherdelve and the drow city of Aluhryn in the Underdark are more dangerous, and player-killing is legal.

All the major features of mud clients, including aliases, speed-walking, and command history, are provided by the game itself, so all our players - even those on telnet - are on an equal footing.

Immortals have access to full OLC including every feature we can think of, all the way up to LP-mud style scripting. If you have a new idea, we'll work to make it possible." (quote from Mozart MUD)

SMAUG Online Building

SMAUG's online building was inspired by (but contains no code from) the online building system that was used by Mozart MUD in 1993, and was written completely from scratch.

It was built upon the existing Merc 2.1 commands to set flags on objects (oset) and mobiles (mset) through allowing changes of object and mobiles to be reflected onto the index objects if a prototype flag is set. Room editing does not depend on this as there is only ever one instance of a particular room, but many instances of the same object or mobile.

SMAUG's online building system is quite extensive, allowing editing of nearly everything you could imagine, including editing and creation of rooms, objects, mobiles, resets, mudprograms/scripts, message boards, races, classes, spells, shops and more.

See also

• Multiplayer Games

External links

• NiMUD and its OLC system
• Mud Magic's Code Repository
• FTP.GAME.ORG's MUD file repository

References

• Template:Newsgroup reference Google
• Template:Newsgroup reference Google
• Template:Newsgroup reference Google
• Template:Newsgroup reference Google First public release of NiMUD
• Template:Newsgroup reference Google First mention of CthulhuMUD containing an OLC system (unreleased)