Crimson Skies is an open source MUD starting from ROM 2.4b6. Useful features from other open source code bases (like Smaug) will be included as well as what will be a lot of custom code. The first version release is nearing completion. Classes, groups, skills and spells are loading from files and all have OLC built in so you can maintain all of this from the game (adding skills and spells to classes is far easier than in stock ROM code).

If you would like to contribute areas, code, etc. feel free to contact me and/or issue a pull request when you're contribution is complete. There are now two continents and the Arcanis continent needs filling out (Midgaard is the other continent and I have left it with the familiar areas and geographic linking).

The current development server which is stable and playable and will reflect the latest commits here is at (you can telnet or use a mud client like ZMud, CMud or Mudlet, I still use Zmud 4.62 from like 1996 on Windows 10):

• 66.244.102.112 port 4000

All new changes will be documented in the commit history and I will move all of those into a detailed change lot when I official go to version 1.0 (version 1 will be official when I finish 2 more reclasses so each base class has a reclass and when I finish resets of ocean life in the oceans). The next version on the roadmap will include 4 more reclasses and new continent that will begin to build new areas that aren't from the stock Diku/Merc/Rom. You can check my TODO file for short and long term things I'm going to work on (and the list is way larger, I just haven't added it all, coding on this is a labor of love, I'm glad to be back to it).

Currently Crimson Skies compiles and runs out of the box on:

• Ubuntu 14.04
• Rasbian for use with the RaspberryPi
• Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (compiles with Visual Studio 2015 Community, for your initial compile/run in Visual Studio you may need to follow the instructions in this blog post, they are brief: http://www.blakepell.com/how-to-change-working-directory-in-visual-studio-for-a-cc-app)

CS-Mud will likely also compile on Debian with little if any changes (as Raspbian is a deriative of Debian).

If there are any coders and/or builders (esp builders) who are interested in contributing to an open source mud feel free to send me a message and get on board. I am standing up a building port for this reason. Great muds are a combination of the code and the content. You can't have just one or the other. Although CS-Mud is newish to open source/GitHub it has been under private development since 1998 (as my hobby).

• To provide a code base that continues to evolve without losing the Rom feel and balance (whereas many these days have stopped or don't share their code).
• To provide a ROM code base that includes a world that is setup for pkill or roleplaying (e.g. the things like the smurf village have been changed or removed).
• Server side LUA to suppliment and/or replace standard mob progs (safe, feature rich and little chance of memory leaks, yes, yes and yes).
• To document the old functions with descriptions and hopefully well document new functions.
• Remove unused code (for instance, skill SLOTS and the pgsn pointer weren't being used so I removed them while implementing OLC).
• To provide modern tools and hooks into ROM to allow it to integrate with services not imagined in the early 90's. One feature will be a client based area build that will allow for dragging and dropping over rooms on a map (I had originally completed a program that did this back in 2000 and I will start from that concept).
• I will be using both Nano on the Linux side and Visual Studio on the Windows side to program for this (you can use anything you want if you decide to edit). Visual Studio 2015 allows some pretty cool intellisense which makes coding in C in this project way friendlier than back in the day when I was using solely pico. The solution will compile and is fully debugable with Visual Studio which means you can run it and when it crashes you'll be sitting on the line of code that caused it when everything or you can easily step into, over and out of code (without having to use something like gdb).
• I will likely be working on alternate tools for building areas via a GUI where you can drag and drop rooms to draw maps quickly and then fill in the text info. I may work on a mud client that functions like a traditional but also integrates additional input methods like voice recognition and joystick support (e.g. you would be able to use a standard game controller to move and map commands to the different buttons and they communicate via a head set). Gammon forums has a Windows GUI program to create ROM and Smaug area files. It is located at http://www.gammon.com.au/downloads.htm. When I re-write mine I will be including a drag and drop editor to graphically create the room via a map (which will then make it easier to export map files in different formats).

Unfortunately over the years the best resources have been lost to time. I will try to provide new documentation and archive old documentation as I can find it. The best old resource was the rom mailing list but alas it does not exist at it's old locations which were at:

• http://www.the-infinite.org/lists/romlist
• [email protected]

Here are some related resources that are thanksfully still active.

• Mud Bytes - http://www.mudbytes.net/
• Gammon Forums (Smaug & ROM) - http://www.gammon.com.au/forum/
• The Mud Connector - http://www.mudconnect.com/
• Erwin Andreasen's page (though out dated is important, if only for his sharing of copyover): http://www.andreasen.org/mud.shtml

I have no specific license for my code at this time, but as this is a ROM/Merc/Diku deritivate it must adhear to the licenses set before it from those code bases.

If you wish to contact me you can contact me through my web-site and it will route it to my current preferred email:

• http://www.blakepell.com/Contact.aspx