Monday, February 2, 2009

[SoundMUD] SoundMUD 0.11 experimental release

A. Introduction

A simplified version of SoundMUD 0.9 is available. It contains the action-roleplay game only, and automatically connects to a server. The server won't probably last more than a month. I will probably rewrite the next prototype from scratch, but I wished to have some feedback about this version.

Here are some new features:
- the monsters re-spawn after 1 minute;
- the character's stats and weapons are remembered as long as the server is not restarted.

Warning: the characters will probably be forgotten after some time. It's just an experiment.

B. Installation

For Windows:
1. download the following file:
http://jlpo.free.fr/soundmud/soundmud-0.11-windows.zip
2. Unzip it, for example to the desktop.
3. Double-click on soundmud.exe to start the game.

For another platform:
1. download the following file:
http://jlpo.free.fr/soundmud/soundmud-0.11-multiplatform.zip
2. Unzip it to any folder.
3. install Python 2.4 (or Python 2.5; a "py25" folder with the corresponding compiled files is included; replace the 2.4 compiled default files if you use Python 2.5)
4. install pygame 1.7.1 (or 1.8.1)
5. if you use a Mac, you may have to install PyObjC too
6. run soundmud.pyc to start the game (in Windows, double-click on this file)

C. Short manual

- press F1 for help
- press Tab to select an object
- press and hold Enter to reach and use or attack the selected object
- press the arrow keys to move or turn
- press Control to examine the selected object
- press F5 to repeat
- press Space for a summary (location, hit points, level)
- press Escape to quit
- press Del to drop your weapon
- press backspace to use another weapon
- press Control + F11 to change the point of view (in the "from above" mode, you are always facing north and Tab selects every object, in front of you or not, and the arrow keys make you move in the 4 directions instead of turning).

Note: The player is authenticated using a file called id.txt, automatically created in the game folder at the first connection. Delete or rename this file if you want to play another character.

2 comments:

RLH said...

Jean-luc, how do you attack/defend? I've figured out walking around and such, but constantly running from undead sucks.

Something I'm still looking at is the reset after death. It doesn't seem that monsters reset to their proper locations.

Just from a very brief test, it appears that input is a bit sluggish. Again, this will require more testing.

SoundMUD said...

Thanks for your report.

To attack, select the target with tab, then press and hold Enter until you win or decide to flee. I will try to give more interesting choices to the player later.

The monsters will probably reset to their initial locations in a future version.