Compiling Hellcore on a CentOS 64-bit System

It is good practice to create a seperate user to run the moo.  You can name it moo, or your own name, or your mother's name.  You should add this user to the wheel group, so it has access to the sudo command.

Move the hellcore.tar.gz to the home directory of your user.  Extract it into a subfolder, called moo or something.  Run this command:  tar -xvzf hellcore1104.tar.gz

This will unzip the hellcore.  Change directory to the src directory.

Now, setup your 64 bit system to actually be able to compile this beast:

sudo yum install bison
sudo yum -y install glibc.i686
sudo yum install libstdc++.i686
sudo yum install screen

In the src directory run these commands:
make clean
make

If you get no "exited with error" message at the end, success, you have won and can now retire.  Make sure gperf and your restart.sh are set to executable!

To start the moo:

screen ./restart hellcore 7777
CTRL+A+D
Now you can return to view the screen with screen -r.  If you need to emergency shutdown the MOO, you can resume the screen and press CTRL+C - this will immediately dump everything to hellcore.db.panic!  Handy!

Travel redesign!

You can now travel directly to planetary co-ordinates.  In addition, using the TRAVEL command with no argument will bring up a handy screen like this, with nearby shops, centers, and points of interest:

New scavenger objective for points of interest on planets

These space born hostile droids factories may occasionally occur at points of interest.  They contain sleeping robots, who are naturally hostile, as well as chances at advanced technology:

Wayfar 1444 Vehicle Design Contest

Wayfar 1444 Vehicle Design Contest

What is is: Wayfar features vehicles, aircraft, and spacecraft. This contest is seeking cool science fiction vehicles and aircraft concepts.

The game:

Server: wayfar1444.com
Port: 7777

Use your favorite client, or the flashclient at http://wayfar1444.com/flashclient

You can see a list of existing vehicles in game on this page here: http://wayfar1444.com/index.php?page...item&item=8864

The Prizes:

Any one that submits a readable design will receive a unique journal reward on Wayfar! The selected winner will have their vehicle implemented in game, AND receive a copy of that vehicle fully loaded with modules, weaponry, and even a custom paint job!

Here is a template of the information that would help us implement your idea:

Name: Pretty obvious

Description: This is the detailed description someone would see when looking at the vehicle. It should be thematic and as far as possible in good english, although we'll be happy to help with that.

Look Place Message: This is the "short description" displayed when seeing the vehicle in a room, hangar, or zipping through the area. It's generally in the format of: "A skyspeeder is idling here.

Layout: Vehicles must have at least one interior room, where the cockpit is. A larger vehicle might have several, and each one may have some purpose or description associated with it. A luxury airbarge might have something like a dining room fully outfitted with tables, chairs, and maybe even robot servitors.

Special functions or abilities: Can this vehicle do tricks? It's a jetbike that can lean sideways at perilous speeds? Describe the abilities, including how the player might activate them and what messages the player and other players present would see. Include interior messages as well - if the pilot of the luxury barge makes a hard turn, the diners in the first class carriage should notice some plates rattling.

Vehicles that are aircraft can also fly, increasing and decreasing altitude (useful for avoiding ground based weapons fire). Vehicles and aircraft can have different speeds and controls for adjust that speed.

Special Messages:

There are many messages a vehicle uses when launching, driving, etc. Provide messages you'd like to see and we can fit them into the game.

Loadout: Vehicles in Wayfar can be equipped with modules, such as locks, weapons, intruder detection systems, etc. Should the vehicle be able to mount a rat-class gatling gun? A medium laser? Several missile racks? Or comfortable sleeping pods? You can refernce existing weapon modules in the game, or describe new ones in as much detail as you see fit.

To submit your creation:

Using the template above, please EMAIL your vehicle idea to admin@wayfar1444.com - you can also submit your idea in game but an email is probably the most effective way to get the information across in a nicely readable format.

You are encouraged to use inspiration from science fiction that doesn't involve any outright copyright violations!

The contest deadline is DECEMBER 12TH! Prizes will be awarded by the first week of January.

Proper use of hashes in Hellcore

Problem: the lambamoo C server keeps allocated memory in process when you allocate it. So if you have a large hash assigned to a variable this big chunk of memory will be stuck in the MOO process until you reboot the MOO.  The server will properly free the memory when the variable is destroyed or out of use, but the process itself will hang onto this memory forever.

 Solution: Do not assign hashes to variables. Do not assign the results of keys() or values() to variables.

 Wrong code:
rkeys = keys($ods.bigkeyhash);
for x in (rkeys)
"something something";
endfor

 Correct code:
for x in (keys($ods.bigkeyhash))
"something something";
endfor

Hash Warnings:

The following are things to avoid when using hashes in hellcore.  Using these codes can crash the entire MOO and even induce data corruption (this is really bad!).

Do not iterate directly through a hash:

Wrong:
for x in (somehash)

Correct:

for x in (keys(somehash))

Do not modify values while iterating through a hash (guaranteed crash):

Wrong:
for x in (somehash)
somehash[x] = newvalue;
endfor

Correct:
for x in (keys(somehash))
somehash[x] = newvalue;
endfor

These are covered in the HELP HASHES programmer help, but are included here for reference.

Introducing a friend to wayfar

I figured I'd show a friend of mine around wayfar - why not hop on a ship and do a little zipping around the universe?

Well first of all we had to get rid of the current captain:

Hey no problem!  Let's head on into civilized space, forgetting that we're driving around a pirate ship:

End result:

Revamped character creation preview (updated 9/29/15)

All players start by setting their identification and receiving a fancy ASCII ID card:

Next, based on your passenger class you enter the ship in a varying area (for instance passengers are in a cabin, unticketed lowlives are in a vent):

To get where you're going, you'll need to avoid danger or solve a problem:

Right before plunging to the planetary surface, you'll get a choice of starting goal and landing spot:

Once you've made a choice of starting background, it's off to the races!  Did I say races?  I meant dropping to the surface in a cramped emergency pod:

A variety of other players, items, vehicles, and potentially hungry wildlife will be happy to welcome you to your new planet.  Thank you for signing both your colonial agreement, and the non disclosure form provided at the beginning of your voyage.

Best regards,
The Central Administrative Complex

The return of bat-wing scanjets

Another Hellmoo/Wayfar crossover promo!  Write a review on any MUD site or blog for Wayfar, negative or positive, and receive neat rewards in both games!

This early item has finally been modernized and updated.

New gadget display:

:)

Wayfar 1444 is seeking player reviews!

Wayfar is seeking reviews, on your favorite MUD site.  The content of your review is up to you -  anyone who submits a review that is approved during the month of September will receive a custom in game reward!  Negative, positive - however you like the game, if you submit a review you can claim your prize by @send Hawgpadre with a link to the  published version.

Details:

Updates 5/4/15

Updates since the last post:
* added new command to Machine Spirit skill
* Added who <person> to see various connection statistics about a single person
* Self-destruct modules can now be configured with the 'configure self-destruct' command
* Sector center guards are a little more intelligent in deciding when to intervene when they witness an attack on a building
* You can now order your crew to drop everything they're carrying which they're not currently wearing or wielding
* Tool and station quality now affects the quality of products
* Several bugs squashed
* New descriptions for 25 items

Picture of a foggy desert: