Okay, so, recently, I bought a book.

"LEARN C++ BY MAKING GAMES"

So far, the only games in there they explain are NIM and Blackjack.

I really want to make games like Achaea and Lusternia, and I've been teaching myself C++

Any sites or hints I could get?

Well, IRE games uses Rapture, which I think IRE owns? Not sure.

Starting you programming career with C++ and with a game for multiple players at the same time is probably one of the hardest ways. C++ is a difficult language, and while it is powerful, it also has too many features you need to be aware of at the same time.

On the other hand, it should provide a nice challenge. However, creating a game like Lusternia will be an awful lot of work! If you are alone and do it as a hobby I would assume years...

Making a program with multiple rooms where you can talk to each other, while in the same room might be something to start with, and then you can try to add more advanced features.... And if you don't know the language, a simple game like mastermind might be a start to begin understanding how C++ works.

Well, a nice site to start with might be:
http://www.andreasen.org/newmud/, giving you some mud systems created by others.

Searching for the right keywords at SourceForge will turn up MUD software that people are building in various stages of completion and in various programming languages, which you could either use as a foundation or at least a guide.

http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_sea...t&words=mud will turn up a list of all projects with "MUD" in them, but that'll also include MUD clients, etc.

Also, you'll probably find more pertinent information in looking at C++ networking than C++ games, because really, the core of the matter is creating a server that can listen for messages and produce messages over a remote connection.

I hear using C++ is a rough way to make a mud when it comes to the multi-user part. If I recall, a site I read earlier said something like "If you want to use java do this, this, this, and this. If you want to use C++, bang your head against something really hard, then call a friend and make him do it."

Fortunately, if you don't mind limiting yourself a little, you can find the code for meager, but functioning muds already out there. You can get one of those and modify and add to it all you want, or at least look at the code and get an idea of what to do. It shouldn't be too difficult to find one done in C, C++, or something similar enough that your book would still be useful.

You'll also want to learn how to use UNIX, as far as I know its the best (maybe the only? ) way of hosting a mud. Hosting costs money though, no idea how much. This part of mud-making isn't something I know much about.

Making a MUD is a lot of work, especially from scratch, and you are looking at years to get anything decent if you're working alone. If you start with someone else's code and keep your goals in reason, maybe you could get something interesting in several months.

This is true

If I recall correctly, it was formerly for sale for an undisclosed 5-digit figure. But now its not.

The above quote isn't especially helpful advice

I've heard good things about LPC and the codebases built around it. Might want to start there.

You could also buy a program called RPG Maker. It's not a MUD format, though. It's actually a cross between the Poke'mon layout and Final Fantasy battle sequences, though the battle sequences change between each version. I've built a decent game with RPGM before, but it took A LOT of time and patience. The latest version, RPG Maker XP, allows you to customize the game using the Ruby scripting language, allowing you to do basically anything that you want.

NOTE: Just a random side note, for my Senior project next year, I'm going to try to build an MMO using this program. I'll see if I can learn Ruby, and try and customize the game with those scripts. Anyone have any good ideas as to where to start learning Ruby? And is it easy to learn/effective?

Sorry to be a downer, but I'm fairly sure RPG maker wont be good for making a multiplayer game.

I can try, can't I!?

If I become a master coder of Ruby, I can TRY to put a script into it that'll allow it to become a Multi-player game.

It's not that simple, seriously. Basically, an MMO is a huge database of information on a central server. Relevant chunks of this information are sent to the user's clients. You can't just add a script and make it an MMO.

Well, if you guys are done shooting down Talnar's dreams now...

... can I get any other hints?

You'll (probably) receive a lot more help asking your question on the forums at TopMudSites or The Mud Connector where a wide assortment of developers post. Also check out The Mud Connector's resources section.

Good luck!

My best advice is to secure investment capital and have someone else do it for you.

I tried to make a MUD quite a few years ago with some friends, which abysmally failed due to the time commitment involved in creating an interesting and playable MUD, but I do recall that most of the freely available codebases are written in C rather than C++, such as DikuMUD (probably the most widely used free MUD codebase) and its derivatives (CircleMUD, Merc, etc.). I think if you dig around, though, you can find a few that are updated to use C++ instead. One thing you will have to consider is that a number of these codebases are very poorly designed and coded, and so are unreliable at best - and at worst may cause you to pick up bad coding practices if you aren't careful.

I would really recommend looking for an established MUD that will let you join their development team, and getting some experience with coding in an environment where you have someone more knowledgeable to turn to in cases of fatal bugs/massive data loss/etc, and can also get a feel for agile development and how a successful game is put together. I recall the most off-putting things about trying to code a hobbyist MUD were the constant crashes - caused mostly by my unfamiliarity with the coding language and assumption that I could work my way through things as I went.

Assuming that you want to have players on this game, you will need to either provide your own server (prone to serious lag with anything more than a handful of players, and will eat up bandwidth), or pay for a hosting service (fees can run from nominal to very expensive depending upon the type of service you're looking for - Lusternia and all the IRE games, for instance, are hosted through this company: OGSi).

I wish you luck, it's certainly a monumental task!

Creating a serious game is a task of herculean proportions even for people who have actual experience in programming games.
Here's my advice:

1. Don't expect it to be created any time soon. Don't expect it to be easy or hassle-free.

2. First, try to create a single-player MUD, a text-only RPG with a room-based design. "Otchlan", a Polish single-player MUD (yeah, it is an oxymoron) was coded in Pascal, it should be much easier in C++.

3. After you make that one (easy to say...), learn how to code multiplayer stuff.

4. Create a new game, a real MUD, using experience from points #2 and #3.

You can just move from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. A well structured single-player game can easily be changed to multiplayer, at least in this case.

I'll now add in my evening prayers to Buddha for you to be smitted... Heh. Just kidding.

But anyways, I'd still like to try to build one myself, or at least try. If I'm unsuccessful in building an MMO, then I'll just do a Single Player game that just throws you into the depth of the conflict... or at least I'll try to anyways. I've sorta got a plot for it, but seeing as I'm starting my Junior year of High School, I've got time to think about it... I need to find a mentor for the project, too... Hmmm...

Ooh, that reminds me, its time for me to dust of my mudmaking skills and try to make a rapture/LPCish sorta deal! time to fail!

Talnar, for the love of all that is good, don't try to use RPG maker for an MMO... even if you can get any sort of functionality (which would be pretty hard), I'm betting the performance would be TERRIBLE - not only are you using Ruby, which is slow on its own (I heard somewhere 60 times slower than C++? I forget where, could be wrong, but still) but you are using it through RPG maker - which I am also willing to bet you do not own leagally, because it was never released in the US.

Heh. Ohh well... Oh, and I don't even have it on my computer, but you CAN buy RPGMXP by downloading it from the website (google it if you wish to see it, for I am too lazy and tired to look) and after the free 30 day trial, you can buy it much like zMUD or something.

EDIT: Fine... I'll just make a truly interactive RPG... or as interactive as I can make it, I suppose.

EDIT #2: Is Ruby truly that slow? I've never really heard anything about it, but I'm still curious about it, and wish to learn it.