I used to play a MUD based on the Smaug Codebase. It was highly customized, but was the same at the core. I have the source code for this MUD, and am interested in writing my own (Just for a fun project). I've got some questions though, mostly about design aspects. Maybe someone can give me a hand?
- What language should I use? Interpreted or compiled? Does it make a difference? SMAUG is written in C. I am comfortable with a lot of languages, and have no problem learning more.
- Is there a particular approach I should follow to not hinder performance? Object Oriented, functional, etc?
- What medium should I use for storing data? Flat files (This is what SMAUG uses), or something like SQLite. What are the performance pros/cons of both?
- Are there any guides that anyone knows of on how to get started on a project like this?
I want it to scale to allow 50 players online at a time with no decrease in performance. If I used Ruby 1.8 (very slow), would it make a difference compared to using Python 3.1 (Faster), or compiled C/C++?
If anyone can lend a hand and give some info or advice, I'd be eternally grateful.