This program does not require external libreries. All you have to do is uncompress the contents of the .zip file in a folder of your choice. During the uncompression the following subfolders will be created:
where basefolder is the folder where you choose to uncompress it. If the Players folder has not been created, do it manually. The folder itself must be empty at the beginning. Before the first 1.0 release it is possible that the /tranlations and the /doc folders are empty. Do not worry about it. It will be fixed in fourther releases.
If other folders are empty, this means that the .zip file is corrupt. Please report to the project administrator (currently at videogames@ls-itp.it).
Binaries must be in the project-root folder, as long as .ini files. If .ini files are missing, the MUD itself will create them with the default settings.
The /src folder (well... it is /sources folder) is not distributed in this .zip file, 'cause it would be too large. But you can download it from the same site where you find this zip, and, if you own a license of Delphi 7.0 or higher you can recompile it. But please remember that this project is OPEN SOURCE, so PLZ, do not try to charge your users with developing fees of any part of the code you extract from this project!
If you know what you are doing you can simply edit the .ini file. In further developements there will be a specific section on the .ini file options and all the possible results. Otherways, simply run the MUD and choose the "secret/options" menu on the client form or the #options command (this could change on the beta release application).
In the /prototypes folder you can find all the object information files, in single line record format (.csv files) and in xml forma (.xml files). DO NOT CHANGE THE NAMES, or the MUD will not boot. In future releases there will also be application to test the sintax of this files, but by now you will modify them at your own risk. So, please do not do that if you are not sure, and, at least, save a backup of the original files before starting editing.
Note that in those files you can change most of the MUD data
Not jet used, this folder will contain the language personalization that will be sent to every client whi is going to connect to the MUD. Not the language of the MUD itself, but of the messages that the client will show and all the commands that the client must parse. So you should have as much as you can of thoose folders with translations of commands and messages.
In future will be posted detailed instructions on how create those files
This file contains the pre-game menus. It is complicated and I'm not going to explain it here. But, as long as the texts in this release are in Italian, you probably would like to change them in a language of your choice. In that case change the ≶text> fields of the entering_screen.xml file but leave the rest unchanged until you know what you are doing. Note that the number of items so you can change the pre-game menus as you like with little limitations. I will provide as fast as I can a file entirely written in English.
The /WorldData folder will contain all the data needed to create the world itself (languages, nationalities, map, zone initializations)
The /Zones folder will contain the area files. Those files will not be loaded if you do not put a descriptor in the /WorldData/Zones.xml file. By now it is not possible to do that, 'cause the zone loading system is not ready yet.
In the current release, when you start the application you will have the server main terminal form. In the command line (the combo box in the bottom of the form) you can write both client and MUD commands. But before experimenting the #connect command you MUST configure the SMTP server! You can configure this information in the .ini file or using the "sectrt/options" menu or the #options command.
After you connect to the local host with the client (the server client itself cannot be used with remote hosts), you will have to create a new account using your email as userID. For security reasons the server will shut down the connection send you a mail with your new password (if you use a false email or you do not have a valid SMTP server configured you would never know password). After that you can access the game menu itself.
If there are troubles in receiving the password you can peek it by using the "#list players" command, that is only available in the pre-release revisions and for test only! The password itself is in a binary cryptated file so it would be impossible to peek that in official releases!
After the password setup you can use the pre-game menus to create ono or more new characters in order to play.
When you are connected you MUST disconnect before closing the application! Or the application will not close. If you are ingame you must use the QUIT command to exit to the pre-game menus. In the pre-game menus you must follow the instructions (usually, from the main menu, you must select the exit option ("0" zero digit). But it can change if yoi modify the entering_screen.xml file.
If you are desperate use the #disconnect command, but it will not work in the future releases!
Closing the Client window will automatically close the game in this release!