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46 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
46 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
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This program was conceived and the core written by Roy Trubshaw during
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his final year at Essex University. Acknowledgement is given to the help
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and encouragement of the following illustrious personages:
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Richard Bartle (current maintainer), Nigel Roberts and Brian Mallett (see
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graveyard!). There now follows a short treatise on what MUD accepts as valid
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command and what not!
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MUD's natural language interface is fairly primitive, to keep down
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the code. The sort of sentences it can understand are of the form
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<verb> <object> WITH <instrmnt> and may be separated by AND, THEN, a comma,
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a full stop, or a return. MUD doesn't require that all the fields be present,
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and so long as it has a verb it will accept virtually any old rubbish and
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re-execute the last verb. This is a feature, ie was put in deliberately, so
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don't complain if,for example, SCORE <cr><rubbish><cr> does 2 SCORE's: since
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SCORE needs no object, <rubbish> will do! This can annoy if the last thing
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you did was a move, but as you play you will find the facility becoming more
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and more useful, eg GET AXE, GOAT, TREASURE.
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In its efforts to get a readable sentence, MUD will throw out all
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manner of things, eg it will parse OPEN KITCHEN DOOR as OPEN DOOR as it
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ignores the 2nd word if it knows the other 2. As a result, error messages
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are less frequent, but when they do come they're unhelpful. This will be
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rectified 'one day'. Also, MUD will accept nigh on anything instead of
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WITH, so OPEN DOOR GYROSCOPE KEYS will work. So beware FROM being the same as
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WITH...
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In order to help with long words, MUD keeps a set of pronouns
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maintained. IT is the last object mentioned, HIM is the last male, HER is
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the last female, THEM is the last player, and also the default object and
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instrument, if there are any, are also told (the default is the last anything
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you typed, rather than you typed or was mentioned by MUD).
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There are problems if you carry more than 1 of the same object, as
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MUD takes the first one every time. So DOUSE BRAND will only get the first one
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and you'll have to put it in a container or drop it in another room before
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you can douse the other. To light one brand from another is at least a bit
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more easy, you just drop the one you want to light and hold the other, if
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possible...
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To help speed things up, many common commands can be abbreviated,
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for example G for GET, DR for DROP. Type COMMANDS and the minimum abbreviation
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will be in upper case. Also, WI is short for WITH (in fact virtually anything
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is!).
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MUD will set up an ersatz device for you, MUD:, which will last for the
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rest of the job. It will also create a LETTER.BOX if you haven't already got
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one, so we can send you messages.
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Richard Bartle.
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